Review: Editor needed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 2, 2011
Normally I would finish a book (including e-books) before writing a review.  Lately, however, a lot of what I've been reading has been badly edited (what is the problem with homonyms and possessives anyhow?) or badly set (editor comments left in the text or non-alphanumeric characters in the middle of the document).  This one was the metaphorical straw that caused the camel back pain.  To wit (location 528-31): "...enemy if this was a trap.  Then they spotted her, gripping on to [sic] a Ferr-loin tree; is it Ferr-loin or Ferr-loin? [again, sic--yes it was spelled the same way twice] You have spelled it both ways, her shoulder length..."  That definitely takes one out of the story.  Reading and re-reading a passage to figure out what it means, then realizing it was an editor comment and puzzling about why Ferr-loin was spelled the same way twice if the author spelled it both ways.  The word both DOES imply more than oneThe premise is great.  The idea of a plain Jane (by Earth standards) prized by members of a race with few women and faced with extinction catches my attention.  I'd like to see whether it lives up to my hopes.  I simply can't wade through editing decisions (or lack of decisions) that disrupt my reading experience.  Yes, it annoys me to see Kells (plural) spelled Kell's (possessive) and to see someone going too somewhere rather than to somewhere.  We all have typos and things that we seem to be unable to remember the rule about (English being such a weird language).  But I can get past that.  It's the out-of-nowhere what-the-heck comments that blow it for me.I'd give this one star simply because I'm so ticked off, but shoddy editing may or may not be the writer's fault.  But shame on the publisher for letting this one get released in its alpha (not even beta) format.  Luckily other reviewers either read it in another format or hadn't made the reading choices I had and therefore didn't have a buildup of shoddy editing-based wrath to build upon.