In the Balance (Worldwar, Book One)

The story is really great, but however they translated it to digital was a mistake. There’s a LOT of bizarre punctuation errors, but once you can get used to them, it’s fine.

This book is one of the best I’ve ever read, but the way Apple uploaded it to the book store has left dozens, maybe even hundreds, of grammatical and punctuation errors that do not appear in the original printing, appearing on almost every page. I would recommend buying a physical copy of this book rather than this insult towards the author.

The book itself is phenomenal, but shame on apple for the poor conversion. There are several grammatical errors that do not appear in the physical version of the book and can slightly confuse the reader. Still worth buying, just wish apple did a better job.

Yet another fantastic tale on behalf of H. Turtledove. Being a fan of his other series, and of alternate history itself, I dove into this novel with great expectations. Indeed, they were met- but only by the story itself. I must preface this review with my one gripe: VERY poor editing. I believe this to be the Apple Book Store's fault, because all of the physical copies of H.T.'s novels I own contain very few, if any, errors. Normally I can overlook a few editing follies, but this digital copy is simply appalling. On almost every page, or every other at the least, there are multiple grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. Again, I must stress that I believe that whatever method is used for transferring the original script into this digital copy is the culprit. Having said that, the tale that H.T. Has crafted here far and away outweighs these errors. Any fan of alternate history/speculative fiction will enjoy H.T.'s journey into the extra terrestrial realm. Written from multiple points of views, the novel is engaging, fresh, and exciting. Turtledove's military technical expertise blended with a powerful story telling technique lent themselves to a fictional experience I haven't enjoyed since G.R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series. If you are a fan of historical fiction, alternate/speculative history, and/or sci-fi, please do yourself a favor and purchase this first novel of Turtledove's "Worldwar" series. Not quite reaching the length of a fantasy "epic", "ItB" will steal away a day or two of reading time. This length, coupled with it's relatively fast paced story, lends itself nicely to making a long plane or car ride melt away. A flurry of explosions, aliens, military and political intrigue, and a fresh look at Earth's place in this universe, makes this must read! -Mark