Review a Science Fiction Book

The Oxygen Leaks book review rubric grades each book on 5 separate elements: Originality, Characters, Plot, Science Fiction, and Writing Mechanics.

Each of the elements above are given a score of 1 to 10, meaning each book has a possible score from each reviewer of 5-50.

Book Reviews can be written about any science fiction book and can be published with as little or as much detail as desired. Each reviewer must be logged-in and can only submit one review for a given book.

Remember when writing a book review to review the story and not make assumptions about the author or impugn their character.

Most book reviews are published, with our editors mainly checking for abusive or inappropriate language.

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The Oxygen Leaks Hard Science Fiction Rubric

Each story is scored on the following items in a scale of 1 to 10:

Originality

Excellent (9-10) - The story demonstrates exceptional originality and creativity. The tropes in the story are used in creative and surprising ways. The writing style and word choice is interesting and evocative.
Good (6-8) - The story is creative and original, though occasionally tropes are used instead of developing character or plot. The writing style and word choice does not distract from the story.
Fair (3-5) - The story is derivative and relies a lot on common tropes and cliches to tell the story. The writing style is unimpressive and occasionally distracting.
Poor (1-2) - The story shows little creativity or originality. Heavy use of cliche and common genre tropes to tell the story. The writing style is distracting from the story and often causes the reader to be taken out of the story.

Characters

Excellent (9-10) - The characters are fully developed and believable. They each have their own independent motivations and voice.
Good (6-8) - The characters are well developed and mostly believable. The motivations for most characters are clear.
Fair (3-5) - The characters are mostly underdeveloped, with only one or two having clear motivations. The voices of the characters often blend together.
Poor (1-2) - the characters are not developed and not believable. Their motivations are unclear and their voices blend together.

Plot

Excellent (9-10) - The opening is immediately engaging and the story's pacing, action, climax, and resolution are all coherent and satisfying. All major plot points are wrapped up by the end of the story in a satisfying manner (except those needed to continue the next book in a series.)
Good (6-8) - The opening is adequate, and the pacing, action, climax, and resolution are mostly satisfying with some minor issues. Some plot points are not resolved in a satisfying manner.
Fair (3-5) - The opening fails to hook the reader. The pacing of the story is cumbersome at times. The action, climax, and resolution seem unsatisfying and there may be several plot holes that are never sufficiently explained.
Poor (1-2) - The opening is unsatisfactory and gives little incentive to continue reading. The pacing of the story is inappropriate. There are many plot holes in the action, climax, and resolution, and many aspects of the plot seem nonsensical or inconsistent.

Science Fiction

Excellent (9-10) - The science fiction aspects of the story are believable and well-developed. There is logical consistency with all fictional technologies, and no technologies violate current scientific understanding.
Good (6-8) - The science fiction aspects of the story are mostly believable and are satisfactorily explained. Some fictional technologies seem implausible and not fully explained, though still possible.
Fair (3-5) - The science fiction aspects of the story require suspension of disbelief, or hang on the discovery of fantastic materials or principles (unobtanium, faster-than-light travel, etc...). But these fantastic elements are still treated consistently and are internally consistent within the story.
Poor (1-2) - The science fiction aspects of the story are mostly fantasy. The use of these fantastic elements in the story are inconsistent and are conveniently capable of doing whatever the plot requires of them.

Writing Mechanics

Excellent (9-10) - There are almost no grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors.
Good (6-8) - There are some minor grammar, punctuation, or spelling errors that momentarily distracted from the story.
Fair (3-5) - Many grammatical errors had to be deliberately ignored, and common grammar issues were repeated throughout the story.
Poor (1-2) - The grammar issues were distracting to the point that the story was difficult to read because of them.