Review: No More!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 27, 2012
I have been a Manny Williams fan since the beginning.  Unfortunately, I have to say adios to Manny, Josh, Sophie, and the rest of the gang.  I've read my last Rick Murcer book.  There are a number of reasons for this, so I will start with the least important first; the grammar.  When I see obvious errors I am distracted from the story.  Call me anal if you wish, but I believe a writer should be able to write correctly in the language he has chosen as his medium of expression.  Either that or said author should hire a competent editor or proofreaders.  Murcer is not the only self published author to fall into this trap, but he happens to be the one I am reviewing at present.  My chief complaint with this book is his use of wrong case pronouns.  Put simply, the requirement for an objective case pronoun does not change even if there are a multitude of other "objects" besides that one pronoun.  Example; you can make "me" (objective case pronoun) do something.  You can make "Chloe" (and 5763 others) do the same thing. You can include all 5765 of us in the same sentence and that still doesn't change the objective case "me" to the subjective case "I."  You can make Chloe and ME (and all 5763 others) do it.Ok' there were only two instances of that I noticed and that alone wouldn't have been enough to turn me off on his writings.  The second thing to turn me off was all the gore.  Now, I know that many comic book readers revel in the gore and apparently that sells books.  But not to me.  I kinda like more of a story.  And one that is different from the last three. Does the word formulaic ring a bell? (Actually, I no longer read James Patterson for much the same reason.  Maybe that puts Murcer in good company?)The final straw (or third strike?) was the ending.  While I like series characters, I simply DO NOT BUY installment stories!  A book is like a meal.  When you are done you should feel satisfied.  You may like the food and may want the same chef to prepare similar foods again; maybe even the same exact meal (I like re-reading good books).  But I don't like leaving the dinner table and being told I will have to wait days. weeks, or months to finish the meal.  I know the ploy might very well have some folks lining up for the next installment.  But to me that's a cheap ploy.  There are simply more authors and more books available than I can ever read.  I don't have to be manipulated.