I'm a well read grad student who's bluntly honest about all things, although I try to be most honest about myself.
Sadly, this really needed at least one more edit. There are just some weird bits that could be fixed easily. Like this:
"He gazed down the line of misery. Sniffling and coughing it wound its way down the edge of the building and into the garden."
This says that the line itself was sniffling and coughing. Nope.
He gazed down the line of misery that wound its way down the edge of the building and into the garden, the men and women behind and in front of him sniffling and coughing.
That fixes things. Just some odd turns of phrases, but that could really easily be fixed.
Am going to work my way through this anyway. The author and I had a really nice conversation about the Insecticons in Prime, and he was interested in seeing how it was done, before he sold this to me. Or right after? Anyway, he said this book included a hive mind, and he wrote 'enjoy the hive mind' as his inscription in the book. Not sure why, but I just wanted a hive mind read right now.