Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well, what do you know! They've finally released the real book! I downloaded the sample and compared it to "Enhanced" version. The current Kindle version, "Length: 305 pages (Contains Real Page Numbers)", is no longer the older "Enhanced" hack job. Make sure the page doesn't say "enhanced edition", and make sure it says it contains real page numbers, and you should (at long last) be all set. For your convenience, direct links: Good: Shadows in Flight (The Shadow Series) Yuck: Shadows in Flight, enhanced edition (The Shadow Series) -- Original review of "enhanced edition" -- The "enhanced edition" does have two short vignettes added in (about seven paperback pages of text, total -- 13 paragraphs in chapter three, and 34 paragraphs in chapter nine), and there are a few pictures. What the publisher isn't telling you, however, is that it's been abridged out the wazoo. I took a word count on the full text, and it would be somewhere in the 75 to (generously) 90 page range in a standard paperback. You only get one third of the story when you get the "enhanced edition". Out of morbid curiosity (apparently in a temporary masochistic fugue), I read the "enhanced edition". It is as if they took the story, ground it to a fine texture, centrifuged it, and then killed off anything left living in it with a shot of ammonia. Yes, the "enhanced edition" is the finely textured ground beef of the Enderverse, or to use the popular term, this heavily abridged "enhanced edition" is pink slime. At the time of this review, Amazon consolidates the hardcover and "enhanced edition" reviews, even though they're not remotely the same book. Amazon also states that the print edition is 240 pages, but they say nothing about the extreme abridgement of the "enhanced edition", which is roughly a third the text. The "enhanced edition" is nothing but a blatant money-grab by the publisher. To tout the additional seven pages without mentioning the missing 150 or so pages is too blatant to be simply an innocent omission. I am highly disappointed that Amazon does not include anything to warn their customers about what the publisher is doing to their most avid readers. It's a shame that I almost expect such behavior from a publisher, but as I have had nothing but fair dealings with Amazon, I am surprised they allow this to proceed without comment.