Things are looking great for this year’s book challenge. So far I nearly at the half way point to my goal I find it interesting statistically I’ve actually read as much content wise as last year if you break it down statistically by pages read. Part of this is due to making an effort this year to read through collections of books or sets with entire series included. I have to admit some of the collections are better than others, but still enjoyable nonetheless.

One set that has been on to reading list for a while now is The Alien Sphere Deluxe Edition by V. Bertolaccini. To date I have just started the third book in this collection and admittedly I have to say these books are probably not my most favorite set of space sci-fi novels, but that isn’t due to the storyline. The idea and plot of the series are solid, however not all that original when you look at them from genre standpoint. I think if he upped the horror aspect a bit more the stories might stand out more. For an indie author standing out of the pack is everything. There is a market for sci-fi space horror out there that he could probably capitalize on better.

The thing I believe that holds this series back is less about the story and has more to do with the lack of editing. Over the first two books there are some noticeable areas where it seems a word is missing or not quite the right one making some sentences a little clumsy. Bertolaccini also seems to have a thing for using exclamation points and I mean often. Some of them make sense and some, well, are just not needed. I can to certain extent look past some of these considering one particular detail and that is I got this set for free. Unfortunately at this time this particular set doesn’t seem to be available anymore. Usually with books with errors like these I find them distracting enough to justify putting back the shelf so to speak. In this case one problem, the exclamation points, is easily remedied by the text-to-speech feature that has no inflection. Thus I’m less focused on some of the editing or rather lack of it in this case.

Despite the issues this set of books has simply because I am entertained by them and the storylines are mostly solid I will make an effort to finish this one off. The only downside here is that there is a lack of care with the editing I think it may take a bit longer to read through. I can only take so much before it’s time to switch a different book.