I'm the author of Python Crash Course, the best selling introductory Python book for some time now. Years ago, someone put out a book listing two authors: Mark Matthes and Eric Lutz. That's just a simple juxtaposition of my name and Mark Lutz, the author of O'Reilly's Learning Python. The subtitle is obviously taken from my book's subtitle as well. I assume the text is an ML-generated mess, but I haven't bought a copy to verify that.
I used to comment on reviews for books like these explaining what was happening, but Amazon turned off the ability to comment on reviews a long time ago.
I've spoken with other tech authors, and almost all of us get emails from people new to programming who have bought these kinds of books. If you're an experienced programmer, you probably know how to recognize a legitimate technical book. But people who are just starting to learn their first language don't always know what to look for. This is squarely on Amazon; they have blocked most or all of the channels for people to directly call out bad products, and they have allowed fake reviews to flourish and drown out authentic reviews.
I used to comment on reviews for books like these explaining what was happening, but Amazon turned off the ability to comment on reviews a long time ago.
I've spoken with other tech authors, and almost all of us get emails from people new to programming who have bought these kinds of books. If you're an experienced programmer, you probably know how to recognize a legitimate technical book. But people who are just starting to learn their first language don't always know what to look for. This is squarely on Amazon; they have blocked most or all of the channels for people to directly call out bad products, and they have allowed fake reviews to flourish and drown out authentic reviews.