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The Federation Reborn #3
Retribution
The Xeno War devastated the Milky Way galaxy over 7 centuries ago. Worlds and entire star systems were gutted in this galactic war. A dark age descended upon the remaining hold out worlds.But civilization is slowly returning to the Rho sector of the galaxy, and with it a renewal of hope and prosperity once more. Fleet Admiral John Henry Irons has done his best to sow the seeds of civilization, now he is busy as acting President tending to those seedlings as they sprout and begin to grow. With him is a dedicated group of individuals, some from his time before the Xeno War. Rear Admiral Subert has taken his place in Pyrax to oversee things there while Rear Admiral White wields their offensive fleet in the hopes of pushing back the barbarians. Admiral White has had a few successes and a few setbacks, but his small force has not only held its own, it has grown with each reinforcement into a powerful weapon.Indignant and enraged by their setbacks and losses, the Horathian pirate Empire has finally marshaled its forces. As the Federation clings to life and renewed purpose, a pirate juggernaut is bearing down on it to crush it under its boot once and for all, and with it, any hope of civilization's renewal.One way or another, Retribution awaits!
887 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 14, 2016
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June 2, 2016So here's the thing.
As a reader who cares about the uses and abuses of language almost as much as he does about the story itself - and in some cases cares even more about such issues than about the story itself, this book is the final epic disaster in a long long trail of increasingly badly proofed and edited stories.
This volume is just about as crammed full of linguistic infelicities, malapropisms, poor grammar and bad uses of language as it is possible to get. Tenses get mixed within the same sentence, personal pronouns are switched around without a care, infinitives are split with gay and frequent abandon; homonyms are deployed with a terrible frequency and a wide variety of adjectives prepositions and adverbs are redundantly repeated in the same sentence - before during and after subordinate clauses. All alongside a gay lack of care about the meaning of various common metaphors which are casually strewn through the text without a care for what they really mean.
This text bears all the bad hallmarks of incautious and inappropriate uses of automated spell-checking and grammar checking as well as a sad lack of attention to detail. Mr Hechtl is so concerned to finish and get his text out of the door that he no longer cares about elegance and quality of language or anything else which might make the reading experience good for the reader.
All of these and other flaws combine to destroy the narrative flow of the book. There is only so much linguistic vandalism a person can cope with when reading an allegedly English language text.
In this regard each succeeding book in the series has been worse than the one before it. We have now reached very close to the nadir.
If it were possible then this story is made worse by constant repetition of story threads and points already made far too many times in previous volumes, as if the author himself has forgotten just what he's already told us and needs to make sure we really did get the point. Yes Mr Hechtl; we heard you the first time: and the second and the third and the twenty third. We really do not need to hear yet again who the characters are, or what their traits and natures are, or how they came to be where they are; or what their motivations are; let alone what they are now doing.
Good writers have confidence that their readers have actually managed to pay enough attention to comprehend the thrust of the story and remember its details, even over many many volumes. Bad writers and bad editors ensure constant and distracting repetitions.
The terms on which we, your loyal readers, suspended our disbelief in order to read the series were agreed from the start. Just as they are with any "contract" between author and reader. Hitting us over the head with every one of your salient points whenever it strikes your fancy is really bad form!
So, speaking purely personally, having been along for the ride since the very first volume, I think this is about as far as I'm willing to go. My sense of the beauty and integrity of language will not allow me to suffer any more: I'm not that much of a masochist and this book in its currently published form is not fit for purpose.
When Mr Hechtl gets himself a proper editor and proofreader and puts as much effort into turning out a professionally crafted story as he puts into inventing the main themes of his story then I might reconsider.
Thanks for all the fish. And goodbye!
As a reader who cares about the uses and abuses of language almost as much as he does about the story itself - and in some cases cares even more about such issues than about the story itself, this book is the final epic disaster in a long long trail of increasingly badly proofed and edited stories.
This volume is just about as crammed full of linguistic infelicities, malapropisms, poor grammar and bad uses of language as it is possible to get. Tenses get mixed within the same sentence, personal pronouns are switched around without a care, infinitives are split with gay and frequent abandon; homonyms are deployed with a terrible frequency and a wide variety of adjectives prepositions and adverbs are redundantly repeated in the same sentence - before during and after subordinate clauses. All alongside a gay lack of care about the meaning of various common metaphors which are casually strewn through the text without a care for what they really mean.
This text bears all the bad hallmarks of incautious and inappropriate uses of automated spell-checking and grammar checking as well as a sad lack of attention to detail. Mr Hechtl is so concerned to finish and get his text out of the door that he no longer cares about elegance and quality of language or anything else which might make the reading experience good for the reader.
All of these and other flaws combine to destroy the narrative flow of the book. There is only so much linguistic vandalism a person can cope with when reading an allegedly English language text.
In this regard each succeeding book in the series has been worse than the one before it. We have now reached very close to the nadir.
If it were possible then this story is made worse by constant repetition of story threads and points already made far too many times in previous volumes, as if the author himself has forgotten just what he's already told us and needs to make sure we really did get the point. Yes Mr Hechtl; we heard you the first time: and the second and the third and the twenty third. We really do not need to hear yet again who the characters are, or what their traits and natures are, or how they came to be where they are; or what their motivations are; let alone what they are now doing.
Good writers have confidence that their readers have actually managed to pay enough attention to comprehend the thrust of the story and remember its details, even over many many volumes. Bad writers and bad editors ensure constant and distracting repetitions.
The terms on which we, your loyal readers, suspended our disbelief in order to read the series were agreed from the start. Just as they are with any "contract" between author and reader. Hitting us over the head with every one of your salient points whenever it strikes your fancy is really bad form!
So, speaking purely personally, having been along for the ride since the very first volume, I think this is about as far as I'm willing to go. My sense of the beauty and integrity of language will not allow me to suffer any more: I'm not that much of a masochist and this book in its currently published form is not fit for purpose.
When Mr Hechtl gets himself a proper editor and proofreader and puts as much effort into turning out a professionally crafted story as he puts into inventing the main themes of his story then I might reconsider.
Thanks for all the fish. And goodbye!
September 14, 2016
Please check use of word "ordinance", which means a law rathet than ordnance which is to do with things that go bang and/or explode as on Ordnance Survey maps
Good trades apart from minor quibble & I am looking fort the latest with Horatio Logan, amvcd indeed Admiral Irons
Good trades apart from minor quibble & I am looking fort the latest with Horatio Logan, amvcd indeed Admiral Irons
June 15, 2016
Wow! What that was a seriously long read. Answered several questions and opened several more. Thanks for that list of characters in the back. I would have been completely lost if not for it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews