Review: Absolutely Brilliant - but hire a proof reader!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 27, 2013
The story is so good despite all the awful mistakes. My 5 star rating is despite their ubiquity.A tense, suspenseful story with so much to recommend it! It has a great plot and superb characters and is very believable (except in how characters move so easily between high and low gravities, but I guess we have to accept that as poetic licence)I love how Mr Chandler extrapolates current events and trends to arrive at a very possible and rather scary near future.Almost every time I read the news now, I am reminded of an extrapolation by Mr Chandler.Just a few examples are excessive hygiene, formerly normal behaviour that becomes regarded as child abuse, the over-regulation of daily activities...Here's a beaut - "Frank thought he would not be surprised if he got a ticket from a Homeland Defender, if he so much as parked crooked in his garage, much less invented anything in it outside of zoned use."And - "isn't a paper or a TV news service left in North America, that will push for a hot story anymore. They know they'll go to prison if they run a story they were warned to kill. Everything is labeled a National Security issue"The April stories highlight the increasing paranoia of the USA and how it is becoming a police state that disrespects the rights of its own citizens and of other nations.But oh, dear, all the mistakes - they are just so frequent and so bad.The punctuation is terrible, and here are just a few of many mistakes:- They can analysis the traffic- real estate, and seized under Emanate Domain- it was bobby‑trapped- We know there is a phenomena- drool humorHe also frequently mixes up the names of his characters.I've so far gone on to read the next 3 stories and am waiting for Book 5 (though I didn't think much of his treatment of POWs in Book 4). Mr Chandler writes damn good stories, and this is one, but it really troubles me that his protagonists have a very selective moral compass - they are Right and everyone else is Wrong, and they are totally "justified" to terminate any opposition with extreme prejudice to individuals and entire nations.Please, Mr Chandler, hire a proof reader!But do also keep writing - your books are wonderful, even though I worry about the ethics of your characyters.