Well, it's finally done. I finally finished the new and improved edited version of Zam the Hybrid. All of the new stuff is published, some of the old stuff is gone and hopefully it's good and it's an improvement. At the very least I think it's an improvement, and I'm the one who liked the original so much. You can read the whole thing again if you want or you can just read the new chapters, which I'm gonna highlight in a bit. If you want to read all the new stuff and not feel lost, I recommend reading from either chapter 7 (Tristan's intro and the beginning of the actual book) or chapter 9 (Taylor's intro and the first actual chapter of the book).

I'd really, really appreciate it if everyone could be super critical about the new content. Point out mistakes, correct me in places, tell me what you like and what you don't like etc. I'm definitely going to get the whole book reviewed again just to see how much I've actually improved things but I still want to get a really good feel for the genuine reaction of all the general readers. Which is not many but still, every little helps.

In fact, if you (yes, you!) want to give the book a full review be my guest! Or if you know a good reviewer who you think could tear me a new one, let me know and I can ask them to review the book.

Anyways, let's talk about what's changed. Here's what the book was:

1. The Last Glimmer of Hope

2. Hybridisation

3. Catching Up

4. First Day

5. The Birth of Zam the Hybrid

6. Dodgy Politics

7. The Bloke

8. The Girl with the Badge

9. Taylor's Day Out

10. Trivial, my dear Taylor

11. Gadget Man

12. A Pleasant Sunday Drive

13. The Game Begins

14. The Monetary Policy Committee

15. The Poker Cheat

16. On the Case

17. A Toxic Scheme

18. The Revelation

19. Confessions

20. The Heist

21. Freefall

22. Epilogue

The first 11 chapters are completely unchanged, other than tiny fixes here and there, I don't expect anyone to notice where I added in that comma, or fixed that typo, or changed the currency or altered that description slightly. From Chapter 12 onwards is where we start to see the changes:

12. A Walk in the Park
13. The Bloke and the Badge
14. Mrs Hybrid
15. The Multi Purpose Charity
16. The Only Lead
17. The Monetary Policy Committee
18. The Poker Cheat
19. On the Case
20. A Toxic Scheme
21. The Revelation
22. Confessions
23. The Heist
24. Freefall
25. Epilogue

So yeah, I've added some new chapters and some have been completely replaced. The original chapter 12, A Pleasant Sunday Drive, was complete garbage. It was filler, and not particularly good filler. It also started the whole "all Taylor does is cook and clean" thing even though this was the only time in the whole book that Taylor had cleaned and it was literally a Tristan joke. So yeah, this chapter had to go.

What I did was actually carry out my original plan for the chapter. The goal is still the same. Zam is still trying to catch this white van man, but instead of going it alone, Taylor, Tristan and Emily are all there. I took some real time with some character moments in this, turning it from boring filler into boring character development. This chapter alone took me around 4 months to write but I was really proud of how it ended up.

Chapter 13, The Bloke and the Badge, is an entirely new chapter, showcasing a little party after the events of the previous chapter. It's basically all of the main four characters bouncing off each other, creating some good moments, insinuating a few things here and there and solidifying the relationships between the characters. Hopefully this results in a good, fun, light hearted chapter with some purpose.

Chapter 14, Mrs Hybrid, is another new chapter, featuring Zam's mother meeting Taylor. This was something that was recommended to me, and even though I disagreed with Kat's review that the mother should play a more prominent role, this chapter at least made sense to me and would also lead into a change in the epilogue.

Chapter 15, The Multi Purpose Charity, is another new chapter, revolving around Zam and Emily investigating a case. This, I feel, was something the original book desperately needed. Zam and Emily actually going out and solving crime together. Whilst I implied that this was going on in the original, we never actually saw it happen; a rookie error if ever I've seen one. This chapter changes how the whole MPC plot starts up in a much less lazy way.

Chapter 16, The Only Lead, is partially new. It begins where the last chapter left of as Zam and Emily continue to investigate but ends where the original chapter 13 ends, with Zam running off to get some money in order to pursue the case further. It took a lot more time to get to the same point but overall, I think it's a far improved version of the story.

I changed something in chapter 19, On the Case, but I can't remember what. Probably not important.

Finally, I changed up the epilogue to serve as a better ending to this story and less of a build up to the next one. This, I think, gives the book an overall more complete feel, even if there are still many unanswered questions. The original version felt like the end of act 1 in a 2 act book. This, to me, feels like the end of the book, still with enough room to do what I want with the sequel.

So there's all of the changes that I made. Roughly 5 and a half chapters worth of completely new content. I really hope people like it. I spent a lot of time and effort on all of the new stuff, and some of it was really difficult for me to write at the time, even if it ended up coming out quite well. Maybe by next summer, you'll start to see the new book get rolled out. No promises of course, but at least I can turn my focus to it when I have the time.

Thanks for reading this, make sure you check outZam the Edited Hybrid, or maybe join the PWA discord and read it with us whichis starting on the 21st December, go to the PWA discord for moredetails. If you join in, you'll also get to hear my beautiful voice and talk tome which is like probably a good thing or something. I dunno, how do you end aweird rambling like this? Bye, I guess?