LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 055 - Raze, Swing Shift, Irrelevant Jack
LitRPG Audiobook Podcast 055 - Raze, Swing Shift, Irrelevant Jack
“Hello everyone. Welcome to the LitRPG Audiobook Podcast. I’m Ray. I’ll be reviewing some recent and classic LitRPG Audiobooks for you. I’ll begin with: ”
Raze: The Completionist Chronicles Series Book 4 (00:44)
Score: 8.5 out of 10
Swing Shift (11:54)
Score: 8.3 out of 10
Soundbooth Spotlight
Irrelevant Jack (27:10)
Score: 8.3 out of 10
----------------------
Raze: The Completionist Chronicles Series Book 4
By: Dakota Krout
Narrated by: Luke Daniels
Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
Pause
I have to give credit to where credit is due. Dakota Krout played this right smartly. Knowing that he had an issue with his narrator he took steps to crush the issue with an iron boot. Magical Synesthesia. Yup, those two words completely eradicated all of the issue that VA’s departure caused. So let me start there.
Luke Daniels really steps up and sinks his teeth into the story, and now that he is unfettered by accents, vocal tones, and pronunciations by the characters in the world he forgers ahead and takes this story home. I enjoyed listening to him, and somehow just the knowledge of magical synesthesia being a thing kept me from lamenting what could have been. It also was used pretty slyly in other places in the story so that it wasn’t a one trick pony. Daniels hits the jokes and doesn’t flinch in the violence. So good on him. I was happy that he was able to do this series in spite of all that came before. My real issue is that some of the names are not pronounced the same, and that is something that could have been easily fixed prior to recording.
The story is pretty funny, and deals with Joe struggling to be treated fairly by his guild, and taking care of a problem that the Royal family has, all the while struggling to come up with a way to feed his guildmates as a horde of newbies rush in from the outside world following some apocalyptic type stuff happening out on the real world. I really thought the manner in which Rexus and Raze were tied together was neatly done. Joe even has an opportunity to earn a coffee elemental! Man, I’d hate to get a half caf Frappe in the nuts from one of them.
The biggest issue that Joe has, other than dealing with his team, is trying to figure out a way to satisfy the royal family’s “request”, getting his god out of deity jail, and keeping his guild from committing treason. Suffice it to say that Joe doesn’t quite succeed in all ways, but he does manage to earn new followers for the hidden god, and convert many shrines and temples to his cause. It was also good to see a seed that was planted a way back finally come into fruition in this book with the green flame. That was both nice, and funny, and I think we’ll see more of the resolution to the green flame return in the future.
So, here is a recommendation followed by the final score. If you start a new series, and it is going to be in the same vein as DD and CC then consider Johnathan McClain of the Noobtown series. The dude is brilliant and can do funny like nobody’s business. My final score is 8.5, this was a great novel and had a nice wrap up ending that stuck it to a few people.
-------------------------
Swing Shift
By: William D. Arand
Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau
Series: Swing Shift, Book 1
Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
Pause
I have been a fan of Arand’s for a mighty long time, and as much as I love his stuff there was just something about Swing Shift that just punched the right buttons for me. I don’t know if it is because it is such a departure from his normal stuff, or if it because I love gritty noir and urban fantasy, but this book just knocked my socks off. I enjoyed the whole premise and loved the Boogeyman main character. This booked worked so well that Arand had to let it file a tax return.
The premise is pretty simple. The Modern world has paranormals and normals living side by side. Naturally, the paras are kept secret from the normies via MIB style mind wipe most of the time. Unfortunately they end up in conflict from time to time and the MC, Gus is the guy that works the graveyard shift, which for the paranormal community is during the day. The story begins with a simple berserk troll, but things quickly spiral out of control and Gus picks up a couple of new partners to help him figure things out.
I really liked how Arand came into the modern era for this series, and the mix of the mystical with the mundane was well balanced. I think that fans of Urban Fantasy will love this series as much as the ones in LITRPG. The world is grounded in some solid rules and has some interesting character types, such as the contractors, that have never really held a place before. Think of Faust operating with multiple deals with all types of entities. Pretty cool stuff.
Andrea Parsenau rocks this like she’s on a boat (don’t rock the boat, baby) and gives Gus I kind of perfect everyday schlub kind of voice that fits him to a tee. Gus is pretty steady and on an even keel most of the time, it takes a lot to get him upset or excited. Andrea really plays Gus well, which is not to say that she doesn’t nail the other characters too, but the MC sets the tone, and just like she nails Brawly in Power Mage she completely captures the essence of Gus with her voice. Also, she’s taken to reading her books as if it were the MC telling the whole story and I give her kudos. It can’t be easy speaking in a voice that is not your own for 95% of the book, but she does it and it helps maintain the tone of the story. For me it had the feel of listening to an OTR Johnny Dollar story by her doing that. Total fun. Andrea’s the best!
Final score 8.3 stars. A great first novel, with some cool characters. My only hang up was sending the contractor away. I would have loved to have seen her in more action, but hopefully we’ll get that in book 2.
------------------
Soundbooth Spotlight
Irrelevant Jack
By: Prax Venter
Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Andrea Parsneau
Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
Pause
Wow, Prax Venter took a break from doing harem and stepped into some hardcore LITRPG that features both town building and tower climbing as the main components of the tale. I am very pleasantly surprised, and maybe a little shocked that he opted to go for the more family friendly version, but while sex sells Disney owns everything. So I get it.
Here the MC is a bit of nonconformist who hates to follow the rules. He has an aversion towards authority figures and doesn’t like being told what to do. As a result, oh and I so understand this guy to his core, he ends up doing something stupid and getting himself stuck in a spaceship that has been trapped underground for countless thousands of years. He then has to fight off an organism that mimics other creatures and can only be killed by fire. Sorry, that’s the Thing. Damn, I love that movie. Anyway, the MC does stumble into a space vessel and finds himself inserted into a VR world. He soon discovers that the world he is in is under attack by a corruption from the real world, and that he is the only hope that the real world and the virtual world have of defeating this dimensional eating stuff.
The story is well paced and has some intriguing characters, it also does one hell of a job world building and setting up future books. One thing I liked is how the MC doesn’t flip from being a self centered jerk to doing the right thing quickly, and it is something that he later acknowledges in the book, that if he’d had things his way he would have died right off from his arrogance and lack of listening skills. Venter treats this every well, and it is some solid character growth; which was nice to see develop.
I also like the companion that the MC gets, not the girl, but the A.I. He was funny and a good source of info that gets parsed out as he grew in power and could access more systems. It sure beat one large info dump. The girl of his dreams also was played out well, as in she didn’t fall for him right off the bat, and had trust issues through most of the book. Issues that were completely understandable. The townspeople all have vibrant personalities and stood out. My only complaint was that I couldn’t tell if the village only had a handful of people left or if the book only spotlighted a handful of them for expediency’s sake. It could go either way, and if the former is true then where will the people come from to build up the town as it grows? I guess We’ll see.
The narration is amazing, complete with some SFX, but not enough to be overwhelming. I love the smooth vocal tones of Justin Thomas James’ narration, and thought that Hay’s voicing of Jack perfect. Hays just seems to do incredulous so well. Plus, he’s fulla snark in real life. The surprise is that Andrea Parsenau comes on board to help do the female voices and naturally, this is a three way I am most happy to have experienced, it’s like three of my favorite narrators came together to make an audiobook just for me. And it is just for me, but I’m not stingy, so Imma share it with y’all. So, I don’t know if you get the hints I’m droppin, but this is some hella good narration. I rather like the SBT team up.
Final Score, 8.3 stars. Good story, good characters, and good narration combine to bring us an incredible tale of one man’s struggle to save everything he knows.
--------------------------
Thanks oh so very much for watching everyone, I do appreciate you taking the time to watch or listen to the show. If you want to support us, you can like the LitRPG Podcast facebook page or the YouTube Page, or just share and like the video. I’m going to ask for more suggestions for the Is it LIT segment, I’ve got a good one for next time, but will always need ideas. Please leave comments or suggestions in the comments below, and feel free to tell me whatever you like. I enjoy the feedback.
For LitRPG Audiobook Podcast, I’m Ray. Keep listening!!!
This podcast is sponsored by Soundbooth Theater, makers of great audiobooks.
http://www.soundbooththeater.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SoundBoothTheater/
You can follow us on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/litrpgpodcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LitRPGPodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3-eBvpm-g7IkjfVktObGAA
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/geekbytespodcast
Our Webpage: www.litrpgpodcast.com
Some other LitRPG facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheFantasyNation/
If you enjoy the podcast and want to support us you can also find all the other ways to support the podcast at www.litrpgpodcast.com/support