Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: This is a helpful book on writing fiction. I'm a published fiction writer, and I picked up a few tips from it.
Rating: 
Summary: Excelent book, but sometimes it goes very metaphysical
Review: This is an excelent book, full of pretty good exercises that show you that after all you could be a real writer. I did not gave it the full five stars only because from time to time the author chose a philosophical approach to writing that had little to do with solid tips or exercises. This book is not intended to be a strict manual, but a good and uplifting piece of literature.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent guide
Review: This is an excellent book that covers a wide range of issues in fictional writing, in fact, I would venture that it covers most everything that an aspiring writer needs to consider. Gardner's fundamental principle is to view all fiction as a 'fictional dream', and this leads to a lot of very useful advice and criticism. He goes on to discuss various more philosophical as well as practical, technical issues in a superbly informative and entertaining manner, with lots of excellent examples from very good literature. But beware that Gardner expects his student (reader) to think for himself! Above all Gardner tries to teach the reader to think like a writer, and I believe that he succeeds.
Rating: 
Summary: Sensitivity, not simplification
Review: This is no easy read (especially for a non-native speaker like me), but it's worth the troubles. As some other reviewer mentioned the language doesn't really flow, but this in part due to the deepness of thought contained in each paragraph. You can't just scan this book in some hours (like other books on creative writing I've skimmed through); only by reading carefully and slowly (as I was obliged to by my lack of English fluency...) you will enjoy Gardner's artistic sensitivity. All right, he is a literary snob as someone wrote - but there are too many others who make art look like something that can easily be described with some simple recipes. Gardner's true love for literature shows in every sentence and it's probably exactly his meaning of literary "truth" that makes him difficult to read sometimes. Other books I've read on the topic left me with a feeling of oversimplification, of missing the point by showing just the surface of the literary process. "The art of fiction" provides what its title promisses: an inspiring introduction to the ART of WRITING. And this means that this is neither another book on the theory of literature nor some Reader's-Digest-like "How to write a novel in ten steps" but a book on the THEORY of WRITING. I do not know of any other book that shows the literary process in such a sensitive way. If you're offended by the word theory, know that the exercices at the end of the book are extremely helpful and intelligent. They shed light on practical AND conceptual problems (and possibilities!) you maybe wouldn't have thought of without doing them. Great book.
Rating:
Summary: finely crafted advice to writers
Review: This is one of the best books about writing I know, and not just fiction writing. Gardner had thought so deeply about what he does, and shares it cleanly and brilliantly.
Other fine books about writing include Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Ursula K. Le Guin's Steering the Craft.
Rating:
Summary: Goes Beyond Technique
Review: This writer goes beyond mere technique and talks about what fiction really is and how it works its magic. Any writer wants to use fiction should have this understanding of the fiction tool. Get it. It might be slow going at first because you have been dumbed down. Stay with it and something will happen deep in your brain. It will be good.
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