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expired Posted by powerfuldoppler | Staff • Jan 12, 2022
expired Posted by powerfuldoppler | Staff • Jan 12, 2022

Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 [Kindle Edition] Free ~ Amazon

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Amazon [amazon.com] has Colin F. Barnes: Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 [Kindle Edition] for free
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Amazon [amazon.com] has Colin F. Barnes: Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 [Kindle Edition] for free

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Jan 12, 2022
172 Posts
Joined Mar 2012
Jan 12, 2022
spicymchaggis
Jan 12, 2022
172 Posts
Thanks. Hard to pass up free.
Jan 12, 2022
27 Posts
Joined Nov 2013
Jan 12, 2022
MickW
Jan 12, 2022
27 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank MickW

Heh. "You purchased this item in 2016." Maybe someday I'll read all these freebies
1
14
Jan 12, 2022
49 Posts
Joined Apr 2006
Jan 12, 2022
selim
Jan 12, 2022
49 Posts
Quote from MickW :
Heh. "You purchased this item in 2016." Maybe someday I'll read all these freebies
Same here but I think I actually read this series and it was pretty good
Jan 12, 2022
667 Posts
Joined Jun 2011
Jan 12, 2022
demiurg
Jan 12, 2022
667 Posts
This is just another one of those authors that has such a suspicious light trail on the internet.
Only one photo exists and is reused throughout. His personal website looks like one stock photo: http://www.colinfbarnes.com/about/

and the facebook page has one post about him starting to write under a different name
https://www.facebook.com/colinfra...e_internal

The amazon 5 star reviews are all the same style - bought reviews. The 1 star reviews are obviously written by real people

I suspect there is no Colin F Barnes, and this is some as quick and as cheaply as possible produced series by a non-native-English writer or writers, packaged up so it's more attractive to US customers
3
2
Jan 12, 2022
137 Posts
Joined Apr 2012
Jan 12, 2022
sdbuckeye
Jan 12, 2022
137 Posts
Quote from demiurg :
This is just another one of those authors that has such a suspicious light trail on the internet.
Only one photo exists and is reused throughout. His personal website looks like one stock photo: http://www.colinfbarnes.com/about/

and the facebook page has one post about him starting to write under a different name
https://www.facebook.com/colinfra...e_internal

The amazon 5 star reviews are all the same style - bought reviews. The 1 star reviews are obviously written by real people

I suspect there is no Colin F Barnes, and this is some as quick and as cheaply as possible produced series by a non-native-English writer or writers, packaged up so it's more attractive to US customers
To what end and does it matter? If a fictional story is worth reading it's worth reading…
1
Jan 12, 2022
667 Posts
Joined Jun 2011
Jan 12, 2022
demiurg
Jan 12, 2022
667 Posts
Quote from sdbuckeye :
To what end and does it matter? If a fictional story is worth reading it's worth reading…
You're absolutely right. I just find it interesting and like to share about it, and I don't like the deception behind it.

I will say, what mostly matters is the review faking, on goodreads it doesn't have a great reception and that is probably a more fair assessment than on amazon.

After all, our time is limited and precious, and we use reviews to determine where and what to spend that time with.
Jan 12, 2022
14 Posts
Joined Sep 2017
Jan 12, 2022
koryraker
Jan 12, 2022
14 Posts
Quote from selim :
Same here but I think I actually read this series and it was pretty good
Got this back in 2017. I never finished it. Wasn't a bad read, but from what I recall, there were a bunch of grammar and spelling mistakes, to the point where it got annoying and I gave up. It really bothers me, especially in news articles, when things have not been reviewed by an editor. But I get it, editing costs $. This book, free (although I paid $1.20 for it).

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Jan 12, 2022
924 Posts
Joined Mar 2012
Jan 12, 2022
Zantra
Jan 12, 2022
924 Posts
Quote from demiurg :
This is just another one of those authors that has such a suspicious light trail on the internet.
Only one photo exists and is reused throughout. His personal website looks like one stock photo: http://www.colinfbarnes.com/about/

and the facebook page has one post about him starting to write under a different name
https://www.facebook.com/colinfra...e_internal

The amazon 5 star reviews are all the same style - bought reviews. The 1 star reviews are obviously written by real people

I suspect there is no Colin F Barnes, and this is some as quick and as cheaply as possible produced series by a non-native-English writer or writers, packaged up so it's more attractive to US customers
I mean. If they were charging money for this, I might get mad that it's written by 1,000 monkeys with typewriters, but since it's free, it doesn't really matter who wrote it, as long as it's good.
1
Jan 12, 2022
10,641 Posts
Joined Jul 2006
Jan 12, 2022
BladeD
Jan 12, 2022
10,641 Posts
You purchased this item on April 11, 2016.
Jan 12, 2022
667 Posts
Joined Jun 2011
Jan 12, 2022
demiurg
Jan 12, 2022
667 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank demiurg

Quote from Zantra :
I mean. If they were charging money for this, I might get mad that it's written by 1,000 monkeys with typewriters, but since it's free, it doesn't really matter who wrote it, as long as it's good.
This is speculation on my end, but I've been wondering why there are so many books of dubious quality bouncing in and out of being free. I suspect that by doing this, the sellers make the book more legitimate in the eyes of amazon algorithms when it comes to search results.

So by us downloading it for free right now, I suspect the book might end up being ranked higher in the future (when the book is no longer free), when some poor soul is searching for a cool sci-fi series and finds a book that is artificially higher ranked because of our downloads and artificially higher rated (because of fake reviews) than it should be.

Either way, some people, somewhere are sitting on a stack of crappy books and they are working all sorts of angles to deceive the consumer, that part is pretty clear.
2
Jan 12, 2022
924 Posts
Joined Mar 2012
Jan 12, 2022
Zantra
Jan 12, 2022
924 Posts
Quote from demiurg :
This is speculation on my end, but I've been wondering why there are so many books of dubious quality bouncing in and out of being free. I suspect that by doing this, the sellers make the book more legitimate in the eyes of amazon algorithms when it comes to search results.

So by us downloading it for free right now, I suspect the book might end up being ranked higher in the future (when the book is no longer free), when some poor soul is searching for a cool sci-fi series and finds a book that is artificially higher ranked because of our downloads and artificially higher rated (because of fake reviews) than it should be.

Either way, some people, somewhere are sitting on a stack of crappy books and they are working all sorts of angles to deceive the consumer, that part is pretty clear.
Apparently I've had it since 2016, so I don't think having it since 2016 will do anything for their book.
Jan 12, 2022
38 Posts
Joined Dec 2019
Jan 12, 2022
CL1M4X
Jan 12, 2022
38 Posts
Quote from MickW :
Heh. "You purchased this item in 2016." Maybe someday I'll read all these freebies
Around April 2016? Lol
Jan 13, 2022
4,716 Posts
Joined Mar 2010
Jan 13, 2022
twostepopper
Jan 13, 2022
4,716 Posts
Quote from demiurg :
This is just another one of those authors that has such a suspicious light trail on the internet.
Only one photo exists and is reused throughout. His personal website looks like one stock photo: http://www.colinfbarnes.com/about/

and the facebook page has one post about him starting to write under a different name
https://www.facebook.com/colinfra...e_internal

The amazon 5 star reviews are all the same style - bought reviews. The 1 star reviews are obviously written by real people

I suspect there is no Colin F Barnes, and this is some as quick and as cheaply as possible produced series by a non-native-English writer or writers, packaged up so it's more attractive to US customers
Your assumption seems right as even a post a few below yours says there were a lot of grammatical mistakes in the books.

Seems fishy.
Jan 13, 2022
3,053 Posts
Joined Aug 2009
Jan 13, 2022
Teaser38
Jan 13, 2022
3,053 Posts
Free is free, you get what you pay for.

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Jan 13, 2022
29 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
Jan 13, 2022
wildman7
Jan 13, 2022
29 Posts
I bought this set in 2016, and tried my best to finish it. I did not succeed in doing that and left a review. I just hope nobody else will waste another minute on this. This is free (I am reluctant to call it "books"), but your times are not.

My review follows:

I am seriously shocked to see so many 5 stars/4 stars rating for this very immaturely written assembly of middle-school kids "essays" I am rating this to 1 star because there is no negative stars that I can give. Yes, this is that bad.

The book reads so immature that there is literally no personality development, no relationship development, no reasonable background introduction, no nothing that a good novel shall possess. Some reviewers mentioned this is an action packed novel, and applauded for that. Seriously? Even an action packed game will give you some background introduction and stories behind it. This set of book? None of that.

I finished the first book (mind you, there are at the very least 30+ times that I considered to just drop it and delete it from my Kindle, but I kept reading in a hope that there might be some salvation in the end, how disappointed I was), and have to try really hard to start the second one, but find my patience quickly running out. No, I won't waste another second on this, should I say, real garbage?

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