Any reader will probably be influenced by them. It's a way of finding new books that might interest you. They're (in a twisted sense) the reason I read TCTC, a review of a computer game compared it to 'Tolkien and Donaldson at their best'.
But I've just been let down badly! One of my fave Irish authors is Colin Bateman, and on the most recent one I've read, a few reviewers compared him to Carl Hiaasen. Never heard of CH, but in my local 2nd hand bookstore I spotted a couple of his books and thought I'd give them a go. Spent the last 2 weeks wading through 'Skinny Dip'.
What a disappointment! The blurbs on skinny dip should read along the lines of 'colin bateman without the sharpness, the wit, the character development, the plot , nor the unputdownableness, but set in america so it must be good!'
Anyone else had good or bad experiences?
