Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Approximate word count: 25-30,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
“Jonathan
Williams has worked in Information Technology for over twenty years. He has
spent most of his career working in the Financial and Pharmaceutical Biotech
sectors. He specializes in Database Management Systems.”
Description:
“Silicon
Valley is home to several large Technology and Pharmaceutical Biotech
corporations. Chris moved to this area in early 2000. He has been handling data
for prestigious companies for well over ten years. His work ethic and morals
have kept him employed.
During his
tenure at a Fortune 100 company, he is offered a position at a small Biotech.
It is not too long after taking this new position that he is promoted to
Management. The IT Directory who Chris reports to gives him the choice of
playing the corporate game or getting fired. Chris must either choose being
ethical and getting fired or keeping his job by being unethical. After much
thought, he realizes that honesty and integrity have kept him from achieving
the American dream. Tired of living paycheck to paycheck he decides to play the
corporate game. This decision will not only affect his professional life but
his personal life as well.”
Appraisal:
Exploring
an ethical conundrum such as the one setup in this book is an interesting
premise. It’s an excellent way to put the reader in a situation where he or she
can explore their own thoughts and feelings without suffering any real world
consequences. The premise of My Turn
is one with lots of possibilities.
However,
the execution fell far short of the promise. There were problems with typos and
bad grammar. (In fact, at the time I wrote this review even the book
description used an incorrect word.) I found many of the typical problems with
technique common to beginning writers. These included an overabundance of
telling rather than showing (which included what is often called an “info dump”
near the beginning to establish back story), head hopping from character to
character without a proper transition, and a tendency to be repetitive.
One bright
spot is that in places where the story involved technical areas (some might
think it did this too often), there were explanations that simplified these
subjects for the layperson and did so very well. Unfortunately this wasn’t
enough to offset the other flaws.
Format/Typo Issues:
Several
issues with typos, grammar errors, or using the wrong word. The most prevalent
was using the words stake, staking, or “estaking” instead of the equivalent
form of stalking. (Estalking is the term used by the author for electronic
stalking meaning to stalk someone on the internet or other computer networks.)
Rating: ** Two Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment