Travis Tea Atlanta Nights

To truly appreciate this book, you need to A. understand its origins and B. have a cast-iron stomach for horrible fiction. This is a book that should be given to students in Writing 101 classes around the world if for no other reason that it is a fine example of everything you should NOT do as a writer. Really, it is the ultimate "DO NOT DO THIS, AND THIS IS WHY" source book on writing you will ever find.

First, the back story. Once upon a time, a collection of some very talented science fiction writers took it upon themselves to expose Publish America for the scam it is. For those of you who have never heard of Publish America, they are a vanity press that pretends to be a "traditional" publisher. Previously, Publish America (PA) had made some derogatory comments regarding sci-fi and fantasy writers in general. PA also insists that it has high standards for what it will accept for publication.

So these writers decided to put PA to the test. The deliberately crafted the most horrendous book they could imagine. Instead of recreating the wheel with the full details, you can just visit the following link, which includes information on the entire background, and a copy of the acceptance letter and contract Publish America offered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Nights

So what was the story about? Absolutely nothing. Really. There is no real plot here. There are missing and duplicate chapters. Character's change gender, die, come back, etc. Once chapter was written using a computer-generated program specifically designed to create nonsense. Each writer was assigned a chapter, and given only a tiny bit of information as to what the chapter should be about. Each chapter seems worse than the previous, as if the writers were trying to one-up each other on who could produce the worse piece of garbage.

The end result is a train wreck. You don't WANT to keep reading, but you can't help yourself. There is some perverse pleasure in watching the literary disaster that is this book unfold before your eyes. With every deliberate grammar error, every lapse of logic, every break in continuity, every incoherent paragraph, your brain struggles to find some sense in the whole thing. It is almost physically painful to read, it's that bad.

Which is, perversely, what makes it so hard to put down. There were times I actually REREAD sections, unable to grasp that something could be that poorly written.

So while I rating this book a one, a rating it genuinely deserves and worked hard to obtain, the lessons it teaches regarding all that can be bad about a book make it worthwhile from a purely academic standpoint. Also, proceeds from the book go to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Emergency Medical Fund.

So yes, it is an atrociously written book and yes, I do recommend it.