Is it really that hard to read it over?

If anyone could tell me who edited Wheel of Time, that would be great. Because I might just call them up and give them a piece of my mind.

Yes, it is hundreds of thousands of words long- and not just that, there are fourteen of them, and the author had the nerve to die in the middle. All of which might excuse some sloppy writing, because you can't catch it all.

But there are entire paragraphs, entire chapters, which don't seem to have have been glanced at before publication. Missing words, his own character and place names mispelled, too many typos to count... how was none of this caught? My usual theory when I can't understand how something was published is "they won"- whether or not I think their story is a tragic waste of trees, obviously enough people disagreed with me that my opinion on that point doesn't matter. But things like this are just inexcusable. I'm on book six now, and it's getting worse, not better. Just because a book is long shouldn't mean that it's full of typos. If I'm reading the thing all the way through and noticing if not all then at least more than the editor apparently did, then someone- or several someones- should have done the same before it was published.

I can forgive the sloppy writing, because the truth is I'm actually very much enjoying the books, and the man does have his moments of brilliance, as rare as they are. Glancing at the page I'm on... yeah, I probably wouldn't accept any of this from a different author. Oh, well, never claimed I was fair. This is how he writes, and I've accepted that because in this situation it works.

But the typos, missing words, and just plain mispellings are unforgivable. I still haven't forgotten about the people giving their "mite" to the Great Lord. And that's in the prologue. Admittedly it's a fifty page prologue, but surely at some point someone glanced through and suggested that perhaps the Great Lord of the Dark was not being greatly helped by being given small parasites? Except that apparently they didn't. Which I find ridiculous.

And yes, I could have been editing my story all through writing that long rant. Procrastination is part of writing. Everyone does it.

Thanks for reading.

-HH