Book: In Hero Years... I'm Dead
The story itself is engaging and likable. It's worth a solid 4 stars, 4.5 if Amazon let us do 1/2 stars. I'm particularly fond of the way that Vixen's daddy issues are handled, because so very many absentee-parent stories ignore the confusing mix of emotions in favor of a black-and-white option.
But it's also full of obvious copyediting errors. In addition to at least a dozen little words missing ("the", "he", etc), at one point I was taken completely out of the story in the middle of the climactic battle by saying "Wait, who is Jimmy?" Further confused reading finally indicated he was the brother of an earlier character, which is fine and dandy except that when the brother is introduced, his name is Andrew. But that's nothing compared to the confusion of Mr. Chase and Mr. Haste, both of whom are important characters in the narrative, which makes it extra confusing when Mr. Haste is referred to as "Mr. Chase".
The errors are enough to break the flow of the story, and are the sort of thing one expects to see from a first-time self-publishing author who thinks they can go it alone, not from a seasoned veteran like Stackpole who should understand the value of editors.
But it's also full of obvious copyediting errors. In addition to at least a dozen little words missing ("the", "he", etc), at one point I was taken completely out of the story in the middle of the climactic battle by saying "Wait, who is Jimmy?" Further confused reading finally indicated he was the brother of an earlier character, which is fine and dandy except that when the brother is introduced, his name is Andrew. But that's nothing compared to the confusion of Mr. Chase and Mr. Haste, both of whom are important characters in the narrative, which makes it extra confusing when Mr. Haste is referred to as "Mr. Chase".
The errors are enough to break the flow of the story, and are the sort of thing one expects to see from a first-time self-publishing author who thinks they can go it alone, not from a seasoned veteran like Stackpole who should understand the value of editors.