His Robot Wife, disappointing…

His Robot Wife had the capability of being a decent story. It has some good components and given some external editing and feedback, it seems like it could have really gone someplace. Instead, readers are left with a barely evolved rendition of the first book.

I held off on a review of this for a month, thinking my thoughts were a bit harsh. After a month, I still felt the same way, so my apologies to the author, but here is my unfiltered perspective.

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Last year, I read the first novella in this series, His Robot Girlfriend. It was enjoyable and didn’t take much effort to go through. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that barring some inconsistencies and a far too gentle plot arc, I recommended it to other readers. I STILL recommend it to readers.

In ‘Girlfriend’, there is some foreshadowing that leads you to think major shit-storms are on their way. After a very disappointing 2-3 page climax, you are left with a book that primarily describes what food the robot makes for its owner, and how much time it spends changing clothes and buying new clothes. This is not inherently bad. I love a good character sketch, and if it is read with this type of perspective it was pretty damn decent. Not for a full novel, but as a novella, this is just right.

The sequel, ‘His Robot Wife’ gets the exact opposite suggestion. Do not waste your time on this novella.
Unfortunately, where the initial novella gets slack for being an interesting premise, the second fails out right.

What is confusing here is that complaints against the first book were common and consistent, with readers stating they enjoyed the story but felt that the plot was missing “PUNCH” or ended on a low note. Why Mr. Allison would not take this into account before publishing the sequel, I can’t say. It needed to go someplace, instead, we got another 2-3 pages of build up, and then the main character was escorted to his car in a parking lot and I scratched my head thinking “That’s it? Where the heck is the rest of it?”…

We were not interested in another Character sketch, it needed a climax. I don’t mind if it is short and sweet, quickies are nice provided everyone is left satisfied. I want to be kept engaged. When you blow your metaphoric load, I want my share of enjoyment out of it, not just the knowledge that someone mounted me, wiggled around for two minutes, and now need some tissues for my lower back.

This book proves one of the negative aspects to the self publishing industry. There are not enough people involved in making sure the author is releasing the book at the right time with the right amount of editing, changes, and enhancements. This book could have gone a lot further if someone had simply said, “Hey Wesley, nothing happened in this story.. what’s up with that?”. The author could then reevaluate if chapters 5-6 needed to be revamped, if it would be better leave a cliff hanger, etc. Instead, this feels like a released 2nd draft, where the book is only in skeletal form.

My thoughts: Keep writing Mr. Allison, but perhaps invest some time in finding outside feedback before going to market.

For scope, I actually follow Allison’s blog. I find him to be an interesting fellow and I enjoy his work. Unfortunately, this makes the flop that much more impacting.
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