I bought this YA SF book (
Milford Spitz and the Very Fast Machine from Fictionwise because it sounded like an interesting premise.
Quote:
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Two pre-teen runaways team up with the school bully, only to learn that he has the coolest way for them to get away--a very fast machine that travels in space, dimensions and time. Their adventures soon become entangled with a diabolical dictator who is obsessed with the power of time travel. Now giants, mysterious shadow creatures, and Professor Albert Einstein are all part of Milford's new middle school education.
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As the book ends, the door is left open for sequels.
I have to give this book a strong B+ for plot and characters and a D for execution. There were numerous grammatical and spelling errors throughout the book. One glaring error is that the author consistently chose to spell
staring with two Rs, resulting in sentences like: "It's creepy having this feeling that someone is always starring at you and listening to every grunt and sneeze you might make."
When will people learn that a spell-checker is
not a substitute for an editor?
In addition to the typographical/grammatical/spelling errors in the book, there were some very awkward passages and continuity errors that an editor could have helped with. I do appreciate that first-time authors can get their books published quite easily these days through the various channels now opening up for self-publishing and independent publishing -- but a conscientious author should choose to submit his drafts to review by a skilled editor. In this case, even a careful read-through by a couple of friends could have helped find (and correct) these errors.
While I did take the opportunity to rate the book at Fictionwise:
1) My rating still doesn't show up on the books page.
2) There's no place to post a longer review.
I will be attempting to contact the author/publisher and offering my comments. This book could be significantly better just by fixing the mechanical errors.