I'm reading a generic thriller. It's Personal by Lee Child, the 10th (?) Jack Reacher novel.

I've read a few of them. They're easy, exciting, and have strange syntax (I'm a weird reader).

This one, however, feels like it was partly written by A.I. Seriously. The story is a standard affair, but some of the phraseology and punctuation feels inhuman.

#LeeChild #JackReacher #Bookstodon

@book
I'm fairly sure I've read that far, and it was fine when I read it.

Wouldn't surprise me if it had been edited by AI recently. I've recently noted that spell check on Microslop products has gotten much worse over the last couple months. It will suggest really weird corrections that don't make any grammatical sense.

I imagine that's what happened here.

@DodoTheDev I hear what you're saying.

When listing things, Child used to use commas, the Oxford comma, and then an 'and' for the final item. Now?

"I checked my pockets and found my toothbrush and new passport and lint and butt scratcher."

It sounds like it was written by a 14-year-old.

And where has the personality gone? Reacher used to be a war-weary, snarky, bitchy, caffeine-fuel knobhead. Now? He has no agency. He just accepts everything and moves on to the next issue.

The story is holding it all together for me.

@book
If this is the one I think it is, it wasn't his best, I'll admit. But he definitely writes better than this.

Odd