Pilot Mountain by Robert Wall

I'm disgusted and I feel cheated!

This novel is the fictional story of Robert Wall's great grandfather.  Louis Wall was a member of the Confederate army during the war.  This story takes us from the time he left for war until several years after he was released.

Over all, the book was a great success.  Let me rephrase that.  The story was a great success.  The storytelling portion of the book was great.  I felt like I was sitting and watching a series of moving pictures that were being narrated by a deep, graceful voice.  It was easy to become engrossed in Louis' story.  Throughout the book there are sprinklings of first account writings of actual soldiers in the war as well as factual statistics.  I found these the most entertaining in the entire book.  At the end there is a synopsis of the life of the real Louis Wall.

So, why am I so angry?  I'm angry because I hate blasting a book!  Robert Wall has previously published works.  He holds doctorates of learning from reputable colleges.  He spent long hours researching his family geneology as well as the war so that he could write this book.  At first glance, this is a learned man.  That's what I was expecting.  The first chapter alone was gruesome to read and I had to force myself to continue on.  We find fragmented sentences, run-on sentences, grammatical errors, misspellingss, and worst of all...misspelled, mis-capitalized words in the middle of fragmented sentences!  Now, I'll admit that some poetic license is allowable in writing.  I'll admit that most books I read haven't been properly edited and I let that slide.  This, however, is not a matter of a few minor errors throughout the book.  This is literally painful to read!  Many times I found myself rereading paragraph after paragraph because I couldn't figure out what on earth was being said.  The story is clear, but the errors in writing make it difficult to comprehend.  I just don't understand what causes a person to go to the trouble of researching and writing a book and going through the rigors of publication without paying the nominal fee for an editor.  If you don't want to pay the exhorbitant fees of some companies then don't!  There are thousands of freelance editors available on the internet that would edit your book for a pittance of what some companies charge and they're just as reliable!  In the case that you really can't come up with even the pittance for the freelancer, then at least invest in a writing program that offers spellcheck! 

Alright, end of rant for now.  Honestly, if you can get past the lack of writing ability in this book, the actual story is worth a look.  If the book had been edited, this would have been a four or five star review for me.  It's just too painful to read with all of the mistakes.  My suggestions to the author:  Take this book and have it edited and then rerelease it!  The story is good enough to be picked up by a major publication company but you're severely holding yourself back.