Great stories badly let down by a lack of proof reading.
557236
I wanted so much to love these books.  The story is good, the premise is good, the characters are mostly believable and relatable.  The story is quick-paced, and most of the details are accurate enough to pass muster.

But the typos and grammatical errors are painful, and really detract from the books.  "Allude" instead of "Elude".  "Due" instead of "Do".  Apostrophes where they're not wanted, and no apostrophes where they're needed.  These were some of the most egregious errors.  Honestly, they're so glaring that they jerk me out of the story.  It's almost painful, and it is immensely frustrating.  I don't know if the author reads these reviews, but if so:

Mike Ryan: I implore you - please, please retain the services of a competent proof reader.  Your books are good, but they could so easily be great.
3888858
This series is different. In 1st book you wonder here it is going. It is rich in character development and the setting the introduction and relationships of characters. Each book builds story and both introduces new characters and kills off several. The stories speed along and keep you turning the pages. The downside is the dismal proof reading. I'm not sure I've read a series that was so lacking in proof reading. Sentences are jumbled, words are misplaced or repeated. It's a shame since the stories are good. I am looking forward to he next book but I don't want to retread sentences to figure out what it is supposed to say.
3747394
Excellent story, particularly the focus on female "magical persons" in contrast to the Harry Potter universe.  So 5 stars to the author, but only one to the publishers, since this edition is desperately in need of proofreading.  (And the same was true of the first book in the series, "Bethany."). Just running the text through spellcheck really doesn't cut it. Really frustrating to keep tripping over things like "too" when "to" is obviously what was meant.  And many other errors.  Really a shame to spoil a very entertaining story.  I very much hope a better job is done with the remaining books in the series.
478757
Gibran was a visionary and this work is a comprehensive collection would be five stars but it's just rotten with typos.
1274125
Five stars for suspense. Five for humor. Five for Western flavor. Five for historical accuracy. Five for grabbing the reader's attention. Five for holding it. Five for three really good stories. Five for truly stupid, evil villains. Five for fallible, loveable heroes and heroines. But each story could be improved with more thorough proofreading, a weakness in all the Kindle editions I've read, not just these books.
1586067
I really enjoyed the story line and the bit of Irish history.  There were, however, so many spelling and grammatical errors.  I wish there was a way I could get paid for proof reading these types of stories.
29303
Superb story, great characters, well developed progression... but the editing, grammar, tense, and simple English structure errors keep it from being a 5+.  Please get an editor and republish.
3256483
The stories are great and my daughter likes to read them, but there are many grammar errors that make it very hard to teach someone proper sentence structure - especially when a book is supposed to be accurate. Spend a little more time fixing errors and it would be great!
179190
The writer is very creative and I have been enjoying the series.  Unfortunately, he really needs a (new) editor.  The books and stories have all been filled with horrible typos and errors that could easily be caught and fixed with a simple spell/grammar check.  I really want to give a higher rating, but sometimes the errors are so bad that I have to reread things two or three times before I either understand what was meant or I just give up.  With proper editing, this could easily be a five star series that any fairy tale fan would enjoy.  Even with all the mistakes, I will continue to buy the new additions to this series because the storyline is that enjoyable.
3822826
Great read.  Really enjoyed the stories and look forward to the next volume.  I took a star off for the poor editing. Way too may misspelled words. Author really needs to have someone proofread the whole book before it's submitted. Other than that it was great.  If you like HPL you'll enjoy the book.
306728
I purchased all four of the Radio Times books because I am very fond of Deric Longden's work (I own copies of all his other books, as well as  videos of "Lost for Words" and "Wide Eyed and Legless."  The stories in these collections are amusing, typical of Longden, and well worth reading. Longden can make me laugh and cry in the same breath.

However, I was disappointed by the quality of the digital editions--there were so many typos and grammatical errors, which bothered me. I think what happened must have been that the articles were just thrown together as found with little or no editing process to weed out the errors. If these were the typescripts of Longden's radio talks, it would have been easy for him to correct the errors such as words twice (a double "the" and similar errors) as he was speaking. Too bad an editor or even a proof reader didn't correct these before the books were released.
1284390
The stories were great. However, I was disappointed that half way through I was missing pages. It made it somewhat difficult to follow the last fre story lines.
3976304
These are fantastic books. I am one month and 4800 pages in. All of the credit belongs to the Author as Norton has done him a dis-service. I think that they must have simply OCR'ed the manuscript and used that to set the type with minimal editing. The most frequent error seems to be "e" replaced with "c". The word "lamb" is almost universally replaced with "Iamb" making it seem that every person for whom Steven has any affection is nicknamed after some poetic element. Also, if you could trust the dust jackets, my set came with 2 copies of the 3rd volume in the series and was lacking the 4th. Fortunately, the second copy of the 3rd volume is only skin deep and the actual book is the 4th volume, still, since the books together make up a naval painting, my copy is much less attractive than it should be. Very sloppy on the part of Norton.

All told, this set is a fantastic way to read the series partly because of the savings in space and money and partly because the continuously numbered pages really help you to feel that you are reading one long book, which is how this should be read. I give this product 4 stars because the writing is so brilliant that it would take a lot more than sloppy, careless, and unprofessional printing to diminish it in any significant way.
277054
Good storytelling and strong characters but the author is let down by poor editing, probably in scanning the original text for Kindle.  Eg the name Ali appears as Ah.
3388304
An excellent story thread that is both informative and entertaining. However, this is the most poorly edited book I have ever purchased. Words were omitted or placed incorrectly in a sentence. Pronouns were not in agreement. When characters were speaking in what was supposed to be language of a certain area or level of education there was no consistency. A good proof reader could have made this a five star book.
2850047
Writing and storyline are great, but definitely in need of a better proof reader &/or editor. I loved the who-done-it, the time period, and the characters,  but got rather difficult to follow with the spelling errors and the mixing up of the characters' names in the various scenes.  I didn't notice that many errors in the first book, but from #2 on, it's bad. Like I said, I  really like the stories so I am persevering  (on #5), but still cussing!
1686598
Again another set let down by poor grammar, bad editing and bad spelling (theses instead of these and I think it was the last series that had "exited" instead of excited!) I get that many of these authors are new and don't even lay the blame there - it's their editors that should be shot! Great stories and imagination but frustrating seeing all the errors for a book you've paid for! Some sentences even have an extra "the" or something similar thrown in there that just doesn't flow. I hope it improves!