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David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!
Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by C. O. Thompson   » Sun Nov 27, 2016 1:16 pm

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ollave wrote:I have read and enjoyed this latest episode in the Safehold saga. Downloading the maps helped me track what was going on.

What was disappointing were the number of errors from punctuation on up. I heard something about the book being delivered late and of course it's big but I wasn't looking for errors, merely falling over them. Did the publisher have anyone do any proof reading? Do publishers still proof read before publishing? (Grumble.)

I think that proofreading has gone the way of the Dodo birds... cost cutting for the healthy quarterly report...They rely on proof readers in the word processors :(

I have volunteered to proof read David's work for a few years now (FREE OF CHARGE ;) ) and, while my OCD lets many things jump out at me the only big issue I saw was when Duke Black Horse was reading the latest dispatches "after midnight" and his valet shows in a surprise visitor who said "good afternoon"

But HEY! 738 pages and tying up all those loose ends I might loose track of if I was coming or going.

The only plus was that at least this time it was available (at least on Amazon) in both the USA and the "rest of the world" concurrently, which is a kinda big deal to those of us in the English speaking "rest of world".

Again, David, thanks for the book and the series. Interesting and absorbing good fun.
Just my 2 ₡ worth
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by Eve   » Sun Nov 27, 2016 2:38 pm

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:( :?


LOVE the books, but this one (probably because it was late) was truly rife with errors, and not just punctuation. There were missing words, wrong words (homonyms), incomplete sentences where there was no reason for them... I have, alas, found that to be true of much of the e-book world, but this was extreme. And it is an insult to a mega work such as the Safehold series and to an author with the obvious skills of Mr. Weber.

I, too, will be happy to provide my services for free. A book is a book; it is literature; it should be meant to last.
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by Bruce of Newcastle   » Fri Dec 02, 2016 5:12 am

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Enjoying ATSOT, especially since I read Shelby Foote's volumes earlier this year. Last night was the Battle of Rhaigair Bay. Wonderful! I was with Adm Farragut's ironclads bombarding Battery St. Charlz all the way to Mobile!

I'm serious, it is awesome to see history used in fiction and what better source that that? Damn the sea-bombs full speed ahead!
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by chrisd   » Fri Dec 09, 2016 10:54 am

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Well, AT LAST!

I am home and can finally open the parcel and READ this book.

(OK, I "kindled" it but that's not the same by a long chalk and I object to paying twice . . . . .)
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by fury161   » Sun Dec 11, 2016 6:36 pm

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chrisd wrote:Well, AT LAST!

I am home and can finally open the parcel and READ this book.

(OK, I "kindled" it but that's not the same by a long chalk and I object to paying twice . . . . .)


You should have gotten the CD's I have 2 copies of disc 2. What I want to know is am I missing something?
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by MrZero   » Thu Dec 15, 2016 3:28 am

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Eve wrote::( :?
I have, alas, found that to be true of much of the e-book world, but this was extreme. And it is an insult to a mega work such as the Safehold series and to an author with the obvious skills of Mr. Weber.

As someone who tried reading ebooks in the early days, the spelling errors of Sound are few. Back then words were badly misspelled, letters were split, d becoming cl, etc. And as for ebooks, I tried comparing the e and the book manually and (as far as I could tell) the errors are in both. (Weber wasn't being too flippant in the author's closing remarks about readers muscular structure, 700 pages hardcover is a good-sized book! I was only temped after-the-fact to see if it could be used as bludgeon thick enough to beat one of those pansy Game of Thrones book. Paving stone vs paving stone, conkers style.) (I don't know why the book is more satisfying to hold but it is.) Still, someone could have tried running the digital through a spellcheck (but then for all we know someone did), surely an editor could have taken an hour and tried to do so. This might have been the best that could have been done around the Safeholder's medieval names without choking the spellcheck program to terminal crash.
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by Weird Harold   » Thu Dec 15, 2016 4:24 am

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MrZero wrote:...Still, someone could have tried running the digital through a spellcheck (but then for all we know someone did), ...


A Snell chucker probably was used -- both by RFC and the publisher. the misused worts and missing wireds weren't detected because Smell checkers don't find that kind of error.
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Answers! I got lots of answers!

(Now if I could just find the right questions.)
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by Keith_w   » Thu Dec 15, 2016 7:26 am

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Weird Harold wrote:
MrZero wrote:...Still, someone could have tried running the digital through a spellcheck (but then for all we know someone did), ...


A Snell chucker probably was used -- both by RFC and the publisher. the misused worts and missing wireds weren't detected because Smell checkers don't find that kind of error.


They should have run it through a Granma checker.
--
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by MrZero   » Sat Dec 17, 2016 3:56 am

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I wonder what the fine print of the Punishment says about puns?

Still, thinking about what I've written , perhaps I'm not being "thanks for the book(s)" enough. (yes, spoilers, we're far enough along that casual book-9 readers wouldn't be looking through the forum on David Weber's own webpage while trying to avoid spoilers)
More than a few bits from the Old Crown conspiracy (Old Lords? did they even have a group name?) were fun. The getaway boat was properly explained, booked, and used. Still, pirates, I wonder how much money there would be to make just sailing along, following Charish warfleets, picking up survivors? How much is a signature worth? The death of Rodriguez (Slash Lizard) had a great speech. I expect a memorial statue with the usual bombs has been planned?
I liked how the war fleshed out the one-off characters. They didn't last very long, but it was a good look at some of the common SH'rs swept up in the war. And how, despite what the (I think it was the army of Shiloe?) suffered previously, Earl of golden hills ended up just the same as everyone else in his army, all at once instead of a long slow travel. Because they had nowhere else to go. And while the war was a little too "rush them!" after a point, even then it was because they'd created a weak spot by getting the COGA front lines to move around, so there's that wonderful perfidious Charision trickery. While that there was a war at all wasn't to everyone's liking "Why don't they just go around the north and go down the river straight to Zion?" they did need a solid finish to it. If you've got what looks like a war of seijns and gun trickery and such, then someone's going to get everyone to believe that the Charishers were too weak a people and an armed force to win the war, which means they couldn't fight back afterwards. Without a solid, provable "We beat you fair and square and kicked you up one side of the street and down the other doing so" then the Charisians couldn't hold the empire together. (which sejin gets to toss around SH versions of pro-Inquisition neo-nazis? What would the tattoos look like?) Anyway, "Arrest him." became a punchline for awhile. If there were movies, that'd end up in the SH-version of Keystone Kops. The completely unexpected "what happened at the prison?" cover-up. I wonder if that would be the SH version of Roswell? "We don't know what happened either, but no-one will believe us." And as for the Group of three plot twist, can something like that still count as a plot twist after being so telegraphed a punch? Despite it being nice to read, I mean. I'll end this because the good parts in a 700 page book could go on for some time.
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"Why do I feel so small and insignificant, Sir?"
"Well you're standing next to me, for one reason." (not the actual line)
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Re: David Weber, thanks for the book! Publisher, shame!
Post by Keith_w   » Sat Dec 17, 2016 5:37 pm

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MrZero wrote:I wonder what the fine print of the Punishment says about puns?


Be careful, lest you be further pun-ished.
--
A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
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