The First Ten Focus Group Feedback for Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker
Because Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker was Book of the Day, some of our most trusted members have carefully looked over the cover, the description, and other aspects of this book as a part of purchase-intent focus group. We then asked each participant in the focus group if they planned to buy and read the book, and why they planned to buy and read the book or not. Their answer to that question and reasons are displayed below. We call this awesome feature The First Ten Focus Group.
Keep in mind, the responses from the members are not reviews. This is purchase-intent focus group which means the participants are people who have NOT yet bought or read your book. A purchase-intent focus group is an important and extremely useful marketing tool for any product, not just books. For other products, you might walk on the street and show people an item in a package and poll them about whether they would buy if or $X or not. These kind of focus groups are one of the ways big marketing companies find the ideal price points for products and test the effectiveness of different packaging. The focus group can help you identify your market so you how to target ads of your book, and it can (but may not) provide you new useful info about your "packaging" (e.g. your book cover, your book synopsis on Amazon, etc.). The point of the focus group comments is to give you information from people who have not bought or read your book about why they plan to buy your book which will help you in marketing the book. These are not reviews or critiques of your book because they are not from people have read the book. This is a marketing tool, not reviews. The trick of book marketing and book advertising is that you have to convince people who have not read your book yet that your book is worth buying and reading. For marketing, it doesn't matter much if people love your book after reading it if you cannot convince potential buyers before they read it that they will love it.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable. This is because we only poll about 20 or so readers, and all readers have to say "no" to almost all books. Over a million books are published each year. Even a very active reader cannot come close to even reading 1% of books out there.
This is also why publishing books is such a tough industry.
SPasciuti
I was curious about this book initially as the story sounded quite fascinating. After reading the sample, however, I find that the writing is lacking as it doesn’t engage me in the story at all. The writing feels rather robotic and takes away from the initial emotion of the beginning with Dean’s birth.
I think the book could be immensely improved by developing a stronger connection between the reader and the characters. Also, the formatting needs to be improved to separate paragraphs more clearly.
It’s got potential, but I don’t think I’ll be finishing this one.
First Ten review added on May 10, 2018, at 3:06 am by SPasciuti.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Gravy
I would not have looked at this. Though I do read the genre, the title and cover did not catch my interest.
The Amazon description didn't change that, and the sample also failed to change my mind.
I would not say that this was professionally edited, and it needs to be. There are grammer issues, as well as issues with unrealistic dialogue, plus several missing letters just in the first few pages (graf ti instead of graffiti, dif cult instead of difficult, and those are just a few of the decipherable ones).
I am not sure if there was a review or not, but my opinion would be the same either way. Though I won't be reading this due first to personal preference, the sheer number of issues in just the first few pages would have had me passing on it, no matter what.
First Ten review added on May 10, 2018, at 2:57 am by Gravy.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Scerakor
From the cover, blurb, and description of this book, I wouldn't have read it. Although I generally like sci-fi, this one looks like it had themes which have become repetitive in the genre. After reading the first ten pages I didn't change my mind. Although I really enjoyed Hill's introduction to the characters and the subtle hints to where this book was leading, it isn't for me. It wasn't clear that it would have enough action to keep me interested and the AI versus humanity theme is a bit overdone. I did notice a couple of errors in the first few pages, but the book looked generally well written. I will not be buying and reading this book. The lack of an official review didn't affect my decision at all.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 10:19 pm by Scerakor.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Annelore Trujillo
I would not have sampled this book without this program. I don't read Science-Fiction books, and the Amazon blurb did not change my mind. I also don't read books that don't have an OBC review. After reading the first ten pages, I won't be finishing this book. I did not like the style of writing or the formatting of the paragraphs. Each paragraph had only a couple of sentences in it, and the writing was too simple for my taste. These two things together made the writing sound choppy. I also noticed errors right away. For example, "door" was spelled "oor" and several other words were missing letters. Because of this, I don't think the book was edited. The content also didn't interest me. As soon as Dean's parents started talking about which chip to get, I lost interest. Science-fiction such as the chips in this book just isn't for me. I did like that the first chapter started off with the year so that the reader gets an idea of when the book takes place.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 9:44 pm by Annelore Trujillo.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
MarisaRose
I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi novels, so I wouldn’t purchase “Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker” blindly. After reading the amazon blurb, this book seemed juvenile and like something I’d read before (the woes of technological advancement). The OBC review didn’t sway my opinion in this case; if anything it made me want to read the book even less because I wasn’t interested in the main plot or themes. After sampling the first ten pages I was really put off by the writing. This book seems like it’s written for a very young YA audience. Right from the beginning, the futuristic setting is poorly explained in overly simplistic terms that had me questioning the validity of the setting completely. However, I didn’t notice any grammatical errors in the sample. Based on the overly simplistic narrative and the sci-fi plot, I don’t plan to read any more of this one.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 8:59 pm by MarisaRose.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
CataclysmicKnight
Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, so I was excited about this post-apocalyptic-sounding story at first. I was a little worried when I saw the average OBC rating was in the low 2s, but just assumed maybe most folks aren’t sci-fi fans.
After reading ten pages I can already see why it would get low reviews. In 10 pages I found nearly 40 errors, most of which were words missing the first two letters. I also never found myself drawn into the story, although a big part of that may have been the frequent errors. I did like that the robots were intelligent and strategic, but that’s about the only praise I have.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 6:40 pm by CataclysmicKnight.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Yoli García
I would not have sampled this book without this program. I like science fiction but I do not like the title and the cover of this book. I did not see an OBC review. After I read the sample pages, I thought the book definitely needs an editorial review. So many grammatical errors makes the story hard to follow. I will not read this book because it needs to be professionally edited.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 5:09 pm by Yoli García.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Alice Heritage
I might have sampled this if I'd been looking for dystopian science fiction, which I'm sometimes interested in, though I have a long reading list at the moment. While the first two pages or so attracted my interest, I will not buy and read the rest of the book because there was too much showing and not enough telling. Unfortunately, there was an error in the Kindle sample I was looking at so that there were a lot of letters missing, such as "fl" and "fi". This made reading frustrating. I liked the dystopian world best as it was very intriguing. I think the way it is revealed could be improved with more showing, however. I didn't see an OnlineBookClub review; this didn't affect my decision.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 3:39 pm by Alice Heritage.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Sarah_Khan
I like the cover of this book but I would not have picked it up because I am not a fan of science-fiction. I would have liked to have seen an OBC review to get more information about the plot. While I did find the first ten pages interesting with the concept of implanting chips and the dangers of robots, I found multiple editing errors. I did not like the writing style. The sentences were too short, which made me not want to read the rest.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 2:20 pm by Sarah_Khan.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
RebeccasReading
This is not a book I would have normally read. I'm not a fan of science fiction. After reading the sample, my opinion is the same. I will not be finishing this book. I did enjoy the creativity the author used to create the futuristic setting. However, there is a high number of typos and errors that needs to be improved. This book was not professionally edited, and really needs to be. I would think most potential readers would not purchase a book after seeing so many errors in the sample.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 2:05 pm by RebeccasReading.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Bianka Walter
This book has not been professionally edited. The spelling and grammar are not up to par. An example would be using the word pouring instead of poring when referring to someone poring over a catalogue. The most distracting problem, however, is that words seem like they have been badly translated into digital format. By this, I mean that there are letters missing in the middle of words, words broken up into two, and even words that have been split up and corrected into different words. Examples would be, "...spend hours ri ing through..." and "arti cial intelligence".
This is a book that I would usually enjoy reading. The premise of robots taking over the world is one that has a lot of potential. The first ten pages of this book, unfortunately, made me change my mind. The lack of editing detracts from the story, and it makes the pace of the book stunted. I thought the title of the book was a little long-winded, and the cover a little bland. The Amazon blurb gave far too much of the story away, and I would consider shortening it. After a good round of editing, I would like to have another go at this book. But for now, I won't be buying it.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 9:37 am by Bianka Walter.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
ritah
Based on the cover and title, I would have sampled the book because it appealed to me and captured my attention. I didn't see an official review for Chip's World. I liked the book is set hundreds of years from now and the chaotic existence of man and machine/ artificial intelligence. There were instances where I felt the author told the story instead of showing i.e in the very first page 'Dean was born in a future delivery room that had pipes running across the ceiling and over the oor.' Instead of telling us he was born in a 'future delivery room' I believe the author could have adequately described it and gave his impression of a 'future delivery room'. I also found a few errors/ missing letters in certain words just like in the example sentence above; Location 18, 'They spent hours ri ing through glossy catalogs in the hospital waiting room.' this seemed to be a recurring issue. I'll hold-off reading the rest of the book hoping that the issues will be fixed.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 8:11 am by ritah.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Mercelle
Based on the cover alone, I wasn't too curious about sampling this book and the absence of an official online book club review dampened my spirits even further. Although the Amazon review was encouraging, the sample was disappointing thanks to the multiple errors it contains, with the most noticeable being letters missing from words. These made reading the pages a painful experience, and for this reason, I won't read the rest of the book. It's difficult for me to point out any positives about the book but all I can say is that I liked the simple language used. Given a chance to change anything, It will be reconciling the errors. This course of action will propel the book to greater heights.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 7:29 am by Mercelle.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
N_R
This book sounded really interesting, despite the fact that I do not normally read science-fiction. Reading the sample, I think that I am going to buy and read the full novel. This is because I found it very engaging and it left me wanting more. What I liked the most about the novel was the setting of the scene r.e health monitors, and the fact that this is set in a time which is clearly more technological than we are now. What I did not like was that the book did not appear to be well formatted and I also found spelling errors. The review for this novel was pretty positive and the comments on BOTD were all very positive for the most part.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 5:40 am by N_R.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Cristina Chifane
I would not have known about this novel if it had not been for the first ten program. I love sci-fi books and Thomas Hill's novel seems like a good illustration of this genre. The cover is eye-catching and futuristic. The title is perhaps too long and explicit, but it does thoroughly reflect the storyline described in the Amazon blurb. The novel lacks editorial reviews. The number of customer reviews is also limited although they are positive. I like the fact that we know from the start that the action is going to take place in the future. The motif of the underground city where people find shelter has been previously used, yet this does not mean it cannot still be successfully employed. The author raised my curiosity with the idea of people willing to implant chips inside themselves for various reasons from monitoring their health to keeping track of their children. In terms of editing, I have already spotted two mistakes in the very first pages. I started having doubts about the credibility of the storyline when the narrator noted Dean's parents checked every mall for the best chip. Do they live a carefree life or are they forced to live in the underground? The underground city is being shelled and bombed and they are so relaxed as to go shopping for a chip. It sounds unrealistic to me. Moreover, if the defender robots originally designed to protect people had gone rogue, then why do Dean's parents still trust technology? Likewise, I have noticed many unnecessary repetitions and an abundance of typos which becomes quite distracting. I could not properly get engaged in the battle scenes between the robots and the cyber-warriors because of the numerous mistakes. All the cage birds die, but people are too busy to even notice. Amidst all the bombing, Dean's parents eat macarroni and cheese and drink hot cocoa. Too many implausible elements for me. I am sorry to say I could not continue reading the sample. I wish there were an OnlineBookClub review to check another reviewer's opinion of the book. All in all, the sample did not convince me to buy or read this novel.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 2:36 am by Cristina Chifane.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Dolor
I would choose to buy and to read the Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker by Thomas Hill because the book generally hook me up from the magnificent cover, the thought-provoking title, and the genre which is my forte. It is a sci-fi book that chronicles the High Council's conspiracy in the Chip's World against Dean and the outlawed sprinters. Baby Dean Haggerty was born in the year 2341. He has sleep apnea - low BP and blood sugar, and trouble breathing while sleeping.
Year 2341 - an era where computer chips were extremely cheap and available. People implanting computer chips inside themselves for all sorts of reason like monitoring their health, regulating heartbeat, tracking the location of their children and so on.
The defender robots interpreted all humans as threat when the Defender Robot Master Mainframe's command was changed.
People are living in a rocking and swaying underground city with escape hatches and escape tunnels to climb to the surface for fresh air in case of air contamination. Here are the errors I found in the first ten pages:
arti cial - should have been "artificial"
did cult - should have been "difficult"
Unnecessary letters - "nd"
Unknown letters - "ght"
Unknown word - "ghting"
ew - should have been "flew"
A thorough editing is a must. An official OBC review could have highlighted the book's promising high qualities. Despite the errors and the lack of official OBC review, my decision will not waiver. It's a YES!
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 1:55 am by Dolor.
Do you plan to read the whole book? Yes!
Vickie Noel
I wasn't attracted to the cover or title of this book so I wouldn't have picked it up outside the program. Reading the sample couldn't change my mind mainly because of it's manner presentation. I couldn't discern a clear cut transition from one scene to the next. Everything just seemed jumbled up. Also, the book doesn't seem to be professionally edited because I spotted several errors and incomplete words right from the first page. Words like 'oor' instead of 'door', 'poured' as against 'pored' and 'ri ing' which I have no idea about. This gives plenty of room for improvement. There wasn't an OBC review on it at the time but the lack of it didn't affect my decision. However, I will not be completing this book.
First Ten review added on May 9, 2018, at 1:25 am by Vickie Noel.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kat Berg
I would have picked up this book to sample from the cover alone, which is great. The title is a bit weird and VERY long, so without a good cover, it is unlikely I would have gotten past reading the title, as it is overly complex. I am not going to read this book. The primary reason being there are too many errors, right from page one. This example is from the very first paragraph: "Dean was born in a future delivery room that had many metal pipes running across the ceiling and over the oor." Notice the missing "d" on the word that should be "door". The book is riddled with these kinds of errors, which at best would make for an annoying read, but renders many sentences nonsensical.
The formatting also makes it difficult to read the book. The paragraphs seem to be indented at the end, rather than the beginning. Which is very odd and makes it harder for the eye to skim the page. It seems like a creative storyline, but the book definitely needs better editing to make it readable. There was not a review for this book, but that didn't impact my decision to not read it.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 11:53 pm by Kat Berg.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Tbunde5
I was confused by the way the title was printed. I enjoy science fiction though so I may have previewed it on my own. There was no OBC review to give me a summary. I could barely get through the first ten pages. There were so many errors (for example, “ght” instead of fight) that it was painful to read. The prose was juvenile and unimaginative. I will not be buying or reading this book.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 11:08 pm by Tbunde5.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
bookowlie
I am not a fan of the sci-fi genre so I probably wouldn't have sampled this book without First Ten. It also didn't help that one of the Amazon reviews mentioned the story contained unnecessary details and a large cast of characters (there was no OBC review). Although the Amazon blurb is edited well, the explanation of the plot is busy and overly detailed. I found it a bit confusing to follow due to the long,jam-packed summary. I noticed typos/errors in the summary - arti cial instead of artificial; dif cult instead of difficult; nd instead of, I assume, find; and ght instead of, I assume, fight. There were more errors than I listed; in some instances, I couldn't even figure out what the word was supposed to be. Seeing several errors in the first few pages made me think there would be many more throughout the book. The writing style is a bit choppy with short paragraphs. This gave a somewhat awkward flow to the writing and I found it hard to become absorbed in the story. It was interesting that people had computer chips implanted in their body to monitor their health, among other reasons. Still, I didn't care for the subject matter overall, such as the mention of attacks by robots. Due to the writing style, errors, and my reading preferences, I am not interested in reading further.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 10:42 pm by bookowlie.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
lbhatters
The cover of this book is attractive and mysterious. I might pick it up because it indicates a computer or internet mystery. I would read the back cover and a few pages.
I might or might not get the book had I not read the first ten pages. The description is attractive, but the first ten pages have spelling problems which are not understood to be intentional by the author. Still the story is very exciting! Robots and wars and confusion right off.
If the author meant for letters to be missing in words, it is not apparent. So it only looks as if the book has not been professionally proofread. Blocks, where letters would go, could clarify this intent.
I like where the story is going, but there aren't enough clues as to why there are place where words are incomplete.
I probably would not buy the book because of that reason, and the genre is not typical of my interests. That does not mean that it us not good writing. On the contrary. To the right audience this is excellent work.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 10:31 pm by lbhatters.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
rs1977
I would not have picked the book based on the title or the cover. I didn't find any editorial review for the book. I found a customer review in Amazon, that gave this book a 3 out of 5 stars. I didn't find any blurb on the book. So, I would not have picked the book for sampling, if not for the First Ten program. As I sampled through the book, I found the story to be dealing with computer chips and how they control or monitor human beings. This is something that I don't like, and so I am not going to read this book in full. The book's formatting looks okay, but I found several mechanical errors like spelling mistakes - "over the door" is spelled as "over the oor" in the first paragraph itself. I somewhat liked the futuristic bend of the story, but I think the book can be improved in several aspects like writing style, proofreading, etc. I didn't find an OBC review for the book. It's my sampling that made me decide not to read this book in full.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 10:24 pm by rs1977.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
va2016
The title and the cover are not inviting enough for me to read, so I would have skipped sampling the book, if not for the First Ten program. While I sampled the book, I found the narration to be too ordinary and not exciting enough to make me excited to read further. There are also several words that has letters missing, for example, "artificial" is written as "arti cial". This book does not elicit any interest in me, so I am not going to read this in full. The book has not been professionally edited, as I found word errors that I already pointed out. There is nothing exciting about the book that I liked very much. To make this book more interesting, the first few chapters have to be made interesting and exciting to the reader. I didn't find any OBC review for the book, but my decision to not to read the book in full is based on my own sampling.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 10:04 pm by va2016.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Chelsy Scherba
I’m not really interested in post-apocalyptic type stories, but as far as the genre goes, the book seems well done. I did notice some missing letters in words quite frequently. For instance “oor”, “dif icult” etc. Otherwise I thought the grammar and story was pretty good. There was no review, but the Facebook description makes it pretty clear what the book is about. Some people were bothered by the editing mistakes, so I would fix that to encourage more readership. I’m probably not going to continue reading because I’m not big on sci-fi, but I don’t think this is a bad book. It has a lot of potential if the author can just clean it up a bit more.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 7:24 pm by Chelsy Scherba.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Seraphia Bunny Sparks
After reading a few pages of, Chip's World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker by Thomas Hill, I have decided that I will not be purchasing this book. When I first saw the cover of this book it made me think science fiction. My interest was immediately piqued. I was excited to start reading more about this book. As I read the blurb, this sounded like a book that I would enjoy. If I had not read a sample of this book, I would have picked it up. As I read a few pages, my interest was piqued. The storyline hooked me into the book. The way the author starts the story off is engaging. In this futuristic story, humanity is in danger from technology. Robots have turned on humans and are attacking them. I like the idea the author has written out for this book. Based on what I have read this book has not been professionally edited. From the beginning, there are words with missing letters. A prime example is the first sentence in this story. The author writes, "Dean was born in a future delivery room that had many metal pipes running across the ceiling and over the oor." The word, "door," is misspelled. This book does not have an official OnlineBookClub review. My opinion of this book is not negatively impacted based on this. The editorial issues are a problem for me. I am still going to put this book on my to-be-read shelf. The storyline intrigues me, and I look forward to reading it one day.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 6:50 pm by Seraphia Bunny Sparks.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
CrescentMoon
Based on the blurb, I would pick this book up because I like science fiction and I like the premise of the book. I've always found stories on how dangerous artificial intelligence can be really interesting and relevant. However, after reading the first ten pages, I don't think I will continue to read this book. I found numerous grammar and spelling errors. Words such as door, end, etc. were missing letters and the errors were quite distracting. In addition, I feel like the way the story is written is more like a friend telling me about certain events rather than me reading a novel. There was too much telling and not enough showing. I like the premise, but so far, I think the book needs some more editing.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 6:50 pm by CrescentMoon.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
micoleon13
This is certainly an interesting cover page which got my attention, however, I was put off a little by the complicated title. Unfortunately, there was no OnlineBookClub review to sway me either way. The pages which I read were difficult to get through as there were multiple errors and the writing was stilted and confusing. "oor" instead of "floor", "of the hospital swayed" to name a couple on the first page. While set in the future the structure of the writing, nor the descriptions came across as a futuristic world. I will not be continuing with this book and I would recommend another go through with the editor.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 6:41 pm by micoleon13.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kathryn Price
Usually, I love to read futuristic, AI-technology stories. However, the sample convinced me that this is not one I want to read. The author's writing style - clipped, simplistic, and rushed - made me feel like the story was poorly thought-out, as well as moving too fast. Additionally, the book reads like it wasn't edited at all. The biggest issue was in the missing letters. Every time there was supposed to be a "fi" or "fl" in a word, it would be missing. This was extremely distracting, and I was glad when I finished the sample. I think if the author deepened his writing style and found a good editor, this might be a good story, but until then I think I'll pass.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 6:03 pm by Kathryn Price.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
jwalker73
This is not a book I would choose as I have little interest in sci-fi and futuristic novels. I also lack interest in technology so the blurb let me know this was not for me. This said, I found the cover eye-catching due to the distant glow, however, I found the title somewhat long. The sample failed to draw me in. All the talk of chips soon saw my interest dwindle. I did, however, find it interesting that, even in the year 2341 with all the high-tech advances, they still reverted to the same way of detecting poisonous fumes underground as they did in the 1900's in the mines - a bird in a cage. I found the sample full of errors, predominantly missed letters from words e.g. ght for fight and nished for finished. I eventually noticed that all the missing letters were consistently 'fi', so I was unsure if this was a transfer to kindle issue rather than editing issue. I still do not intend to read the book as it failed to gain my interest.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 4:42 pm by jwalker73.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Snowflake
The title is ok and the cover graphics are good. I don’t like the double use of the c in chip and complex. It just feels like complex is missing it’s c. The Amazon blurb was too long and gave too much away. The style was good but I feel it should be much more concise. I read this genre from time to time and so I may have sampled this book without the first ten pages program. The sample had a lot of formatting errors, especially with the fl and fi combos missing out of the text. It took a bit to figure out the issue and understand what was being written. Also, at the beginning, it was mentioned that it was in the future and then the phrase “back then” was used. That was very confusing. Perhaps due to the formatting issues, the book felt unorganized. The actual story and writing seemed quite good. This book needs some serious, professional editing though. It looks like this will be a great novel for those that enjoy futuristic sci-fi. Although, I do sometimes read this genre, the combo of having several other books on the go and the poor formatting has helped me decide that I do not plan to read the rest of this book.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 4:29 pm by Snowflake.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
ladycraic
I would have chosen to sample Chip's World apart from First Ten due to the cool cover and my curiosity as to why the title is what it is. The blurb caught my interest even though it was a bit lengthy. I got the sense that a lot of action would be occuring in Chip's World and I enjoy books that leave me on the edge of my seat. I noticed a lot of grammatical errors in the sample and that detracted from my reading experience. Usually, I can take mistakes but when those mistakes interfere with my comprehension of the material, I have to let the author know. An example of a misspelled word can be seen in this sentence: "They spent hours ri ing through glossy catalogs." I will not finish this novel due to my lack of interest in the sample, not the mistakes. I like to give all authors a chance, good editing or not! In this case, an OBC review would have been helpful so I could know whether the action to come is worthwhile.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 4:26 pm by ladycraic.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Haute_Coffee
I like the cover art here, but I think the title is a little long and clunky. It was hard to get a feel for the subject based on the title. The premise is interesting but the beginning of the book is written in a sort of detached way. I prefer the story unfold naturally and it is shown rather than the author telling everything that is happening. Also it is badly in need of editing. For some reason there are tons of missing letters which is very disruptive to the reading experience. I do not want to pause constantly to decipher what word SHOULD be there.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 4:23 pm by Haute_Coffee.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
melissy370
The Amazon blurb sounded too complex for my taste. Plus, robots are usually not something I am interested in, so I would not read this book. The sample was confusing and did not change my mind. There was a detached way the action was described that made it hard for me to get into it. I would have liked more dialogue between characters. The errors were too many to count. So many words missing letters made it hard sometimes figuring out what was going on. I will not finish reading this one because of these issues.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 3:21 pm by melissy370.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Libs_Books
I don't often read sci-fi so, despite an attractive cover, vaguely reminiscent of 'The Matrix', I would probably not have sampled the book if it hadn't been for the offer. The opening extract was quite difficult to read. One reason for this is that a number of words had missing characters, usually “fi” or “fl”, which might indicate a problem with an Optical Character Recognition system. However, the main thing that made it difficult to read was the quality of the narrative. Events seemed to be summarised rather than described, there was no drama or tension – possibly because the reader hasn't had time to develop any interest in this world. There was no real sense of character development, either, and explanations were clumsily intrusive and not always satisfactory. Clearly some people have very different tastes, as I note the book has been favourably reviewed on Amazon, but there is nothing any reviewer could say to persuade me to read any further.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 2:30 pm by Libs_Books.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
IsabelMay
I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but I sampled the book because of this program. The main problems I had with the story are formatting, which completely ruined the reading experience, and the writing style. Usually, books that aren't well-formatted aren't edited either, and this book confirmed that. I'm not sure if it's due to the formatting or editing, but there are a lot of missing letters. Here are just a couple of examples: rst (first), battleeld (battlefield), eld (field) etc. It's horrible that in almost every paragraph, three or four words are missing a letter or several letters. Therefore, I definitely won't be recommending the book to anyone or reading it myself. It was a rather disappointing experience.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 1:42 pm by IsabelMay.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Kendra M Parker
Looking at the summary and cover, I find that this sounds pretty interesting. I would certainly consider reading this outside of this program, since it is sci-fi and I typically enjoy that. Unfortunately, I find that I am not very interested now that I have read the first ten pages. There are too many errors in the sample for me to feel that this was well edited. In the first paragraph, the word “door” is missing a d. After that, it seems that the “fi” combination in words such as “difficult” or “fight” gets left out. I kept trying to puzzle out whether this was intentional, but it seems that this is a series of repetitive typos. If it was intended, it needs to be made clear from the first paragraph that we are dealing with some kind of new language. I liked that there seemed to be a good bit of world building that went into this, but much of what I read about the baby's parents in the sample seemed rather repetitive. I did not see an official review, which might be able to entice me to give this another chance, but as it stands now, I am not interested in reading the rest of this book.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 1:32 pm by Kendra M Parker.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
KRay93
The cover has an appropriate design for a sci-fi book with techno-thriller elements (or at least that is the impression that the summary gave me), although the stylization of the title could have used some extra work. The first few pages put the reader in context around the futuristic world in which the story takes place, as well as it informs about the origins of the protagonist. The prose is acceptable and a bit technical, something to be expected in these novels, but it seems to throw too much data without a specific context for the reader to start processing. I did not find typos or grammatical errors, but I did notice a couple of missing commas. I found the premise attractive, but the beginning of the book did not convince me. Had there been an official review, I might have considered reading the rest of this story. Unfortunately, will not be the case.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 1:03 pm by KRay93.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
cpru68
I absolutely think the cover will draw readers right in. The color and the artwork make it look mysterious and inviting. I think the title is along the same line for piquing reader's interest.
As for the content of the book, I found when I read the sample pages that there were parts of words missing. For example, in the first few sentences of the opening of the book, the word door is spelled 'oor'. This goes on many times throughout so there is some sort of formatting issue at hand. Looking is 'ing'. Field is 'eld'. There are many more, and this detracted from my ability to focus on the storyline because my eyes were trying to correct the text and fill in the blanks as I was reading. If these are in the sample pages so much, this may dissuade potential buyers from downloading the book.
Also, I noticed a fair amount of word repetition. When the nurse and Dean's father were having a conversation, the author kept repeating the name Mr. Haggerty. In a dialogue between two characters, it is assumed that the two are still speaking unless another person interjects. This is one instance where the author could tighten up the writing a bit so that the reader is involved in the actual storyline. The repetition of words lends way to feeling interrupted and takes away from the impact of the action.
The battle scene going above ground lacked intensity, and I believe this could be made into something so much better. Maybe if there was dialogue inserted in that part, the reader would have more of an edge of her seat experience. It felt rather dry and the emotionalism of the moment was just not there for me.
This book has great potential if the author would consider fixing the content errors and possibly look at where words can be eliminated to give the work more of a faster pace. For now, I am passing on this one because the errors were too glaring to overlook to keep me reading.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 12:54 pm by cpru68.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Jackie Holycross
I like sci-fi, so I probably would have picked up this book and looked at it. The cover is intriguing and the premise of technology turning on the creators is a good one. However, as I read the sample, I soon lost interest. There is too much battle and not enough character plot for me. Also, there is a flood of typos. It seems like the author had a glitch on their keyboard around the letters f and l. I noticed words like 'oor', 'ri ing', graf ti, and art cial'. This is extremely distracting. Because of this and the plot issue, I do not plan to finish the book. I recommend the book go to a professional editor.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 12:40 pm by Jackie Holycross.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
ccrews0408
Based on the title, had I not read the first 10 pages, I would not have read this book. I didn't particularly care too much for the lengthy title, especially since it didn't describe more about the book. I've also come to rely on the OnlineBookClub review, which this book did not have one. Now that I have read the first 10 pages, I definitely don't plan on reading this book. The writing was elementary, the spacing was off and there were way too many typos within the first few pages. It seemed as if the author had a faulty "F" on his computer because he kept skipping it in words. For example,he stated "dif cult" and "arti cial."
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 12:33 pm by ccrews0408.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Poppy Drear
From the blurb of this book, I wouldn't choose to sample it. The blurb suffers from overuse of simple sentence structures, a hallmark of beginner writing, and some concepts aren't explained satisfactorily, including "the conspiracy" and “zero pop." These flaws were mirrored in the first pages of the book itself, as well as some extremely basic grammatical errors in just the first few pages. These include using "oor" rather than "door" (or perhaps "floor"), "ri ing," and several others of a similar caliber. I couldn't find an official review of this book, and the lack thereof doesn't affect my decision at all, due to the fact that it didn't seem to be professionally edited. I liked the detailed descriptions of the various killer robots when they were comprehensible, and the overall concepts described in the blurb seemed promising. However, this book needs a lot more explanation and a much more sophisticated writing style, to say nothing of decent editing, for me to consider reading the rest of this book.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 11:37 am by Poppy Drear.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
kfwilson6
I was not particularly interested in the storyline about the artificial intelligence of this futuristic world turning against humanity. It's just not my kind of sci-fi. The lack of an onlinebookclub review made it even less likely I would want to read this book. The few Amazon reviews weren't enough to capture my interest. The same can be said of the title and cover art. The sample solidified my decision not to read this book, but that has nothing to do with the storyline. I don't know if it is just the sample version, but there were so many letters missing, I couldn't even guess at what each of the incomplete words was supposed to be. The paragraphs aren't indented which makes the flow very difficult. This book (or at least the sample) could not have possibly been professionally edited. The only positive I can provide is that I am always interested in how authors build futuristic worlds and the way the story begins definitely peaked my interest as to how this particular author has it written out.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 11:05 am by kfwilson6.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
MsTri
Even though the title's a little wordy, I was attracted to the cover and therefore curious. Upon reading the synopsis, however, my interest left; just like the title, the summary was way too wordy, and I found myself getting bored. With no official OBC review to assist my decision-making, I figured that I do not want to read this after all. Then I got to the sample, and all bets were off. There are so many errors that I would mark this book a "2" if I were to review it. In fact, I couldn't even finish the sample, it was so bad. In addition to the text going from indented to not indented and back, there were a great deal of words missing letters, thereby making it difficult to make heads or tails of what I was supposed to be reading. Because of the numerous errors, I will list a few here as examples. This first one is from the very FIRST line of the book! "Dean was born in a future delivery room that had many metal pipes running across the ceiling and over the oor." (There's no 'd' in "door".) Another example is "They spent hours ri ling through glossy catalogs in the hospital waiting room." (There's no 'f' in "rifling".) The last example I'll list is "Then, Dean's parents walked up and down the city corridors which were then covered in graf ti, logos and video screens overloaded with images." ("Graffiti" is missing TWO letters.) These example were all before I got to the second page. Due to these errors, I can't say what part I liked best because they made it too difficult to comprehend anything. I think it's obvious that my suggestion is that this book go through another round of intense editing.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 10:45 am by MsTri.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
lavellan
I probably would have not read the sample of Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker if it had not been a part of The First Ten program. There wasn't a Book of the Day review for it so I was confused as to what the story was about. The book did not seem like it was professionally edited and contained numerous errors. Examples including the misspelling of artificial and flew. I thought that the premise of a war between humans and robots was interesting. However, the narration and story flow were choppy. As a result, I will not be reading the rest of the book.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 10:15 am by lavellan.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
DancingLady
The title and description of this book did not interest me and since there was no review today there is nothing to persuade me otherwise. The first 10 pages made it clear that this book would only feed my anxiety, so I definitely will not buy it. This is the worst edited book I have ever seen. It seriously looks like it was written on such an ancient computer that there wasn’t even a spell check on it. So many words had missing letters anyone trying to read it will feel like they are going at a snail’s pace for tripping over typos and trying to figure out what that word was supposed to be.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 9:47 am by DancingLady.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
desantismt_17
This book’s title caught my eye, and the description looked interesting. I enjoy a good science fiction book. Before sampling, I was considering reading. After sampling, I won’t finish this one. The concept is the best part. The writing feels choppy, and the book does not appear professionally edited or formatted. I noticed many missing commas, misspelled words, and missing letters. I didn’t see an OnlineBookClub.org review, but this probably wouldn’t have changed my decision.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 9:11 am by desantismt_17.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Heidi M Simone
Without this program, I would not have sampled this read. The cover is an interesting one, but the subtitle is somewhat confusing. I found the blurb to be fairly long, and Science Fiction is not a genre I typically enjoy. It would have been nice to see an OBC review, while the customer reviews do not sway my opinion of the book. Based on what I read, the book is very poorly edited. In the first line, the word, "oor" should be "door". Also, the word, "arti cial" should be "artificial" in the line, "According to their arti cial intelligence...". There are several more errors throughout the sample, which is off-putting. I think the idea of robots versus humans can be an interesting one to explore. However, the writing doesn't really portray the severity under the Cyber Wars. There is talk about people living underground, footage of robots attacking, Dean's father having to join the fight, etc., but due to the stiff writing it's difficult to feel any urgency while reading. Due to this and the amount of errors, I do not plan on finishing this read.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 9:02 am by Heidi M Simone.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Christina O Phillips
The title felt very full but the cover caught my eye. The summary also felt very busy, like there is too much going on in the story. Without this program, I would have skipped this book. In the first sentence, it mentions pipes running "across the ceiling and over the oor," which made it very hard for me to focus on the rest of the reading. Did they mean door? Was this an unknown to me acronym? Was this part of the future world? It threw me for the rest of the sample. There were also sentences with missing commas. Besides those errors, the beginning was full of a lot of telling which is understandable when setting up a futuristic world, but the information could have been presented differently. There was another sentence that said "They spent hours ri ing..." Again, this error threw off my reading. Because of these things, I just could not get into this sample. Maybe if it goes through another round of editing, I could try it again later.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 8:52 am by Christina O Phillips.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Elizabeth Pass
The cover looked interesting, but the synopsis made the book sound complicated. I don't think I would choose to read this book on my own. After reading the first few pages, I'm definitely not interested. The writing is very dry. Even though it starts with a birth during a war, I was bored. I think a lot of it has to do with re-using the same words rather than synonyms. There were also a lot of missing letters, such as, "ghting" instead of "fighting." I like the basic idea of the story but I think the manuscript needs a bit more polishing.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 8:25 am by Elizabeth Pass.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
gali
I would have sampled the book on my own, as I love the genre. The cover is fine. The blurb gives a good sense of the plot, but it is far too detailed and contains spoilers. While the premise of men pitted against robots isn't new, the concept of an artificial intelligence giving the shots sure is. The sample opened with an excitement, a birth in the middle of chaos, and I liked that. However, I found it hard to become absorbed in the story due to the stiff writing and lack of editing. The book could use another round of editing. There were several formatting issues (missing letters and spaces between letters), lack of commas, and grammatical errors right from the start. Ex: "oors" instead of "doors", "There's so many diseases" instead of "there're". I won't read the book as I didn't care for the writing. The lack of an official review didn't affect my decision.
First Ten review added on May 8, 2018, at 7:39 am by gali.
Do you plan to read the whole book? No
Total ~ 4%
Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker earned a score of 4%.
In other words, out of the top-level reviewers who read at least the first 10 pages of this book, 4% plan to read the whole book.
IMPORTANT: Any score over 10% is considered very good. And any score above 0% is acceptable.
Over a million books are published each year. Any given person could not even read .0001% of the books out there. This means readers have to be very selective. Even taking the time to look over reviews and blurbs, let alone read samples, is more time than most readers can afford for most books. The First Ten is a powerful focus group that addresses those issues. It creates a helpful tool for authors, publishers, and other readers.
Go to main Bookshelves page for Chip’s World: Complex #31 and The Caretaker
