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Steven Lyle Jordan · 10-12-2010, 08:25 PM

I just finished a Jack McDevitt book pub'd by Harper Collins... Deepsix.

Or maybe I should say... it finished me.

This scan-and-OCR'd book was the ABSOLUTE WORST EXAMPLE OF UNEDITED SCAN COPY THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN FOISTED UPON THE PUBLIC!!!

Misspelled words: Too numerous to count, on average, at least one every 1.5 pages.

Inaccurate or altered punctuation (a period where a comma should be, etc): Too numerous to count; one every 2-3 pages.

Text jumping from straight to italics and back: Too numerous to count.

All of it throughout the book, making it next to impossible to concentrate on the story. I might as well have had a dog barking in my ear the entire time I was reading, it was so distracting.

And the kicker:

THE END

OF THE STORY

IS MISSING!!

I kid you not: The last chapter, an "afterthought" by one of the main characters, ends in the middle of a sentence on a single word: "who" with no markings, punctuation, or any other indication that there's an end to the thought somewhere.

Then the book ends with 50 ebook pages of ads for more books.

Harper Collins? ahem...

10-12-2010, 08:25 PM	#12428
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I just finished a Jack McDevitt book pub'd by Harper Collins... Deepsix. Or maybe I should say... it finished me. This scan-and-OCR'd book was the ABSOLUTE WORST EXAMPLE OF UNEDITED SCAN COPY THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN FOISTED UPON THE PUBLIC!!! Misspelled words: Too numerous to count, on average, at least one every 1.5 pages. Inaccurate or altered punctuation (a period where a comma should be, etc): Too numerous to count; one every 2-3 pages. Text jumping from straight to italics and back: Too numerous to count. All of it throughout the book, making it next to impossible to concentrate on the story. I might as well have had a dog barking in my ear the entire time I was reading, it was so distracting. And the kicker: THE END OF THE STORY IS MISSING!! I kid you not: The last chapter, an "afterthought" by one of the main characters, ends in the middle of a sentence on a single word: "who" with no markings, punctuation, or any other indication that there's an end to the thought somewhere. Then the book ends with 50 ebook pages of ads for more books. Harper Collins? ahem...