Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Astrid Update Update

This Astrid the Viking Vampire thing is turning into a real saga - three posts for one bad book!

I re-downloaded the book, and (other than the title), it was identical to what I previously wrote about. I downloaded the new sample, and it was updated to the new version.

So I contacted some of my Amazon-employed friends and managed to get some information - apparently I don't have access to the new version of the text without either buying it again or contacting customer service.

I read the new sample - it's as bad as ever, but some of the mind-blowing badness is gone.

Like that classic first line: "I was born and raised an eighteen-year-old viking vampire."  It's gone. Replaced with a much less-entertaining first line. All the names have changed (probably to protect the innocent). It otherwise appears to be the same book - which is a shame.

It's like we've moved from Plan Nine from Outer Space to Bad Santa - both films are terrible, but one is a classic due to the sheer pressure of awful.  The other will (hopefully) be forgotten.

Because of this, I'm not going to re-buy the book. And I'm not going to ask Customer Service to update my version to the latest one.

Given a choice between Plan Nine and Bad Santa, I'll choose Plan Nine every day of the week. I'll pay $3 for Plan Nine. I won't pay that same $3 for Bad Santa.

I sampled a few more of Ms. Van Bokkem's books - there is a bit of Plan Nine, but it's mostly Bad Santa.  Purchase at your own risk.

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