dont put too much faith in amazon reviews

[Bilge_Rat]

a bit old, but priceless, a best selling history author was found to be posting anonymous reviews on Amazon praising his books and trashing those of his competitors:

Historian Orlando Figes agrees to pay damages for fake reviews

Orlando Figes posted reviews on Amazon praising his own work and rubbishing that of his rivals

One of Britain's leading historians, Orlando Figes, is to pay damages and costs to two rivals who launched a libel case after a row erupted over fake reviews posted on the Amazon website.

The award-winning Figes, professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London, admitted in April to posting critical reviews of books by a number of authors, including fellow historians Rachel Polonsky and Robert Service, praising his own work and rubbishing that of his rivals.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010...amazon-reviews

The current scandal seems to have its roots in a critical 2002 review of Figes’s book Natasha’s Dance written by Rachel Polonsky, a Cambridge-based Russianist, who pointed out factual errors in the work and accused Figes of being “cavalier” with his sources. This year it was Polonsky’s turn to suffer when her book, Molotov’s Magic Lantern, received a brutal notice, posted on Amazon by someone calling themselves “Historian”.

“This is the sort of book that makes you wonder why it was ever published,” the review began, adding that Polonsky’s writing was “dense and pretentious”.

Going into detective mode, Polonsky discovered that Historian had previously dished the dirt on other Russianists including Robert Service, the biographer of Stalin (“disappointing”) and Leon Trotsky (“a dull read”). The mystery reviewer also criticised the award of the £30,000 Samuel Johnson prize in 2008 — for which Figes was shortlisted — to Kate Summerscale’s book The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. “Oh dear, what on earth were the judges thinking,” Historian lamented.

The vitriol turned to syrup when praising Figes’s rival work, The Whisperers — “beautiful and necessary”, “enormous compassion”, “superb storytelling skills”. Historian’s gush concluded: “I hope he writes for ever.”

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle7107147.ece