Cthulhu Neal

Motorola 3310 complete with snake!

Revisado: 06-21-24

this is one of the most amazing dnd let's play cast, setting, and characters. the psychic damage from dad jokes is such an amazing idea. the "yes and" is so smooth and well done it's really just the best example of really good friends being very comfortable together improving stories. I absolutely love the wave of professional comedian/actor dnd casts. true gems are appearing

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takes a while to get going

Revisado: 12-31-22

overall, the story was pretty good (see headline), but the real shining star is the narrator. I first started with White Plume Mountain and honestly enjoy Paul(i) Kidd's writing a bit more. However, this isn't too much different. Fun read and walk through the ADND campaign. I am definitely going to check out the others.

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Tufo Strikes Again

Revisado: 05-03-22

There isn't much anyone can say that hasnt already been said by another fan of Mark Tufo's work. Devil's Desk isn't the usual fair of horror variety, nevertheless it is easily devoured and leaves you wanting more. A lot of this book seems to also be a heavy unpacking for him as a veteran with the stories told throughout. I for one enjoyed those closely cropped visions of realism more than anything else in this book. This man has (if some of these stories are anywhere near actual truth) been through some inrecibly terrorising and emotional wrecking times, it is a wonder he is alive. I for one am very thankful he is. Here's to you Mr. Tufo, may you continue to grace your readers with wonderful stories for years to come.

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The Curse of Hurlig Ridge

Revisado: 04-25-19

The Curse of Hurlig Ridge: World Tree Online Book One

M.A. Carlson- author

Anneliese Rennie- narrator

The world of fantasy fiction and LITRPG is one full of cliches and a single-minded determination to become the most powerful being in the cosmos. A being who stands seven feet tall. Who shoots fireballs from his eyes and lightning bolts from his arse! Funny enough, The Curse of Hurlig Ridge gives its readers this overpowering trope in a whole new light.

Studying as a warrior-priest 'secret class' our Hero Bye-Bye delivers justice to the wanton PKers and otherwise dastardly online entities in a swift fashion. This is thanks to his divinely-given traits passed on by an otherwise aloof albeit scrupulous diety. Brandishing his mighty spear and shield combo, our intrepid hero quickly becomes a skilled novice in the ways of combat and survival.

Along the way Bye-Bye is joined with a full cast of characters: from a berserk-raged tank and fairy healer sister team, a thief whose true ambitions lay in a direction geared more for entertainment, and the two most lovable pair of miners you will have the pleasure of being introduced to.

This cast of characters and impactful story is all told by the new, yet highly respected Annelise Rennie. An enormous amount of talent lays just beneath the surface of this story in our narrator. As like any other new narrator to a new series there are some stumbles in voice acting. Honestly, for having such a variety of characters to play I think Annelise has done a rather good job. The heartfelt emotions relayed by Ms. Rennie during some of the key moments to the story really brought the message home for me.

As someone who has spent countless hours and paychecks on this particular hobby, I for one can tell you this book is a diamond in the rough. An amazing tale told by two varied and equally talented voices. This one, is worth the credit.


*This review is completely unbiased and is given freely by the critic*

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listened to it a dozen times

Revisado: 03-10-19

My headline is no lie. The combination of Rummel and Thorn is simply amazing. This book ended up being my "couple hours before bed" book. As such I would often miss large chunks and need to rewind. Over the course of a week I was able to finish the book, happily especially since there is the second in the series out on audible now.

I've listened to quite a few litrpg books now. Something about this is just magical. you will appreciate the money spent for it.

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I'll be honest

Revisado: 01-11-19

I really can not explain how much I love this book, and subsequently Matt Dinniman and Andrea Parsneau. this book even hits my "once a month relisten" list. if you haven't read the first book, you need to start there (especially with the new sweet cover!!) Dinniman's style is very unique and quirky. He touches very subtly on a lot of controversial topics, then smashes you in the face with others. They all have one thing in common; moving the story forward. The banter between the characters is some of the best I've had the opportunity of enjoying. I can not wait for the third book to come out!

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Zombie Lake-review by Literallylovesliterature

Revisado: 06-23-18

Ok so as usual...

[I have been given a free copy of this audio book in return for an unbiased review finished in a set time. I am in no way affiliated with the author/narrator/publisher]

Now, that is out of the way..

THIS IS NOT YOUR USUAL ZOMBIE/APOC...For me the narration of S.W. Salzman brings a range of voices for the characters in a way that you can tell them apart, but, it's not done in a way to seem "forced"; the female characters do not have a tonal inflection change, but you can hear the difference between "Hammer" and "Smokes" talking without being lost in translation. He does seem to add a slight over punctuation in breaks in a sentence for grammar, however that seems to be the same for most narrators reading a for a new author.

The zombies, or "peeves" as this book describes them, are a blue tinged cannibalistic humanoid, who are weary of light for a current unknown reason. This makes it easier for Javan Bonds to move the story forward by allowing characters "free roam" of the city during daylight hours. At first glance there would seem to be some "plot holes" to the story, i.e. zombies who do not like sunlight, but, upon further reading, you understand his use of this as a way to give himself time to write in a better "zombie antagonist" in his plague victims so it can be explained to the reader as the story continues. Kind of like, making it up as he goes along, which I enjoy immensely, since it really keeps us ZOMPOC veterans guessing what's coming next.

My favorite of Javan Bond's particular writing style is to cast an "all knowing prophetic character" in the guise of an IMMENSELY fat, dope peddling black man who sounds like Chris Tucker. I loved this idea, and his use of the character to explain "how zombie stories usually play out" for the inexperienced ZOMPOC reader. With that being said, this book is also RIDDLED with obscure references to well known, and simultaneously, not very well known media culture. In the first 10 chapters, you get references to: Dawn of the dead (original and reboot), Monkey Shines, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Magic the Gathering TCG, the song "Red Solo Cups", even a very well known news anchor.

The protagonist is played out by the author writing journal entries ala Mike Talbot (if you know who that is perfect, if not, you are SORELY missing out). This gives the author a chance to really put himself into the book by going off on diatribes about situations at hand and explaining them off in the most hilarious and sarcastic ways. So far, every entrance scene for a character has been as remarkably remembered as much as "Some asshole is licking my peephole!" Again, if you know to what I am referring, you will love this book.

Ok, with all of that being said...my only real CONs to this book are in the eyes of an inexperienced reader. On the surface this book can be taken for "racist, crass, uneducated, and weird" however, as a long time fan of both zombies and APOC series'; I have to say that this story is still refreshingly unique and honestly modern. The other CON is for me personally, it took me several times of re-listening to the same couple beginning chapters to get into S.W. Salzman's reading style and cadence. At first is is a bit choppy, it sounds a little like stumbling over the sentence structure. In retrospect, that problem is not a big one as I have heard this begin, and disappear in the same book; at most it lasts for the first book or 2. If you give yourself the time to relisten to the beginning once or twice, you will thoroughly enjoy the rest of the book.

Honestly, I have a hard time giving a book anything over 4 stars unless it is really amazing, or, it has made me realize something about myself I never thought of before. Without doing the latter, this book exceeds my expectations to the former.

Story: 5/5
Writing style: 5/5
Narration: 5/5

If you like:

Zombies, post apocalypse, gender reverse roles, sarcasm, whitty humor, fat dope dealing prophets, trained (possibly in some lethal ninja combat art) helper monkies, gratuitous racial and homosexual slurs, seriously in depth character building, one eyed survivalist pirates, and a unique take on the end of the world. You NEED... to pick up this book!

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The Happy Man: A Tale of Terror - review N Smead

Revisado: 04-21-18

First things first..

[I have been given a free copy of this audio book in return for an unbiased review finished in a set time. I am in no way affiliated with the author/narrator/publisher]

Now that we are done with the legalese...

I requested this book solely on the fact that, the book's cover consists of nothing but a fork speared eyeball. Really, what more do you need to know?

So you can imagine my surprise when I hear the melodic tones of Matt Godfrey speaking through my headset. This book (like his others so far) does not disappoint in keeping the listener entertained both in the creative writing of Eric C. Higgs as well as through the narration of Matt Godfrey.

From the very beginning, you are brought into the macabre world of Ruskin Marsh via Charles Ripley. Ripley is an average mild mannered suburbanite. Good job, good home, good neighbor, good marriage. Then comes Ruskin Marsh.

Akin to other anti-heros such as Dexter (Dexter) and Patrick Bateman(American psycho). Marsh invades the normalcy and every day life of Charles Ripley very slowly, and deliberately. Right away you find that the aesthetics of the Marsh marriage are just that; for appearances only.

By the fourth chapter the true dark nature laying within Marsh is revealed. However, it is written in such a way that instead of casting shadows on these acts, Higgs gives us his amazing insight in his interpretation of: ambivalence, raw passion, disgust, and pure bliss all at once; Godfrey does his damndest to make all of these feelings come to life during his narration.

The Marquis de Sade even makes an appearance in the form of a rare leather bound tome offered to Ripley from Marsh as a form of "bait" to start luring this naive engineer down a dark rabbit hole. Cudoes to Mr. Higgs for that particular name drop.

All in all I will give this a 3/5

I enjoyed the story, but it just seems like this kind of story is everywhere right now, and it is just lost in the middle of the pack somewhere. Matt Godfrey does a rather good job in keeping the listener entertained, and as always brings a solid performance. I would recommend this to anyone who loves: gore, brutality, introspection of a psychotic psychi, dark horror/mental manipulation themes. It is worth the credit to listen, but for me there isn't much replay value.

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Video Night - Review by Neal Smead

Revisado: 04-21-18

Ok so as usual...

[I have been given a free copy of this audio book in return for an unbiased review finished in a set time. I am in no way affiliated with the author/narrator/publisher]

Now, that is out of the way..

This one really sounds like a treat right off the bat. A group of "kids" (I'm just going to use that from now on) repels an alien invasion a la Night of the Creeps. there is also a heavy dose of Monster Squad mixed in (2 favorite occult movies of mine). This book is literally...Aliens invade small town USA, teens save the day. Oldie but goodie story.

I think some of the movie theater vibe is automatically coming off of Matt Godfrey. I greatly enjoyed his work for Blackwater, and was looking forward to hearing how his performance would stand up in comparison. Right away I am already starting to see the choice in using his style for the narration. After 60 seconds of world setting I found myself getting very comfortable, ready to dig into the book and veg into the couch.

For my money however, this book really shines in Adam Cesare's amazing job giving voice to the self deprecation and angst of a teenager's brain. The best example of this is the internal dialogue of Rachel, explaining her relationship with Darci (sp) and how she really feels as the "best friend". Very subtle character building here. It would seem, he (Cesare) certainly has a firm grasp of parts of the human psychi.

There really was no "build up" in this story as you'll find in most; contrary to the nature of most horror books. His usage of common phrasing and smaller multisyllabic words makes the read go by very smoothly. There are the occasional SAT words in there, but anyone can really LISTEN to and ENJOY this book.

I only needed 2 hours here to know I am going to really enjoy the rest of this book. The characters are created and then brought to life with seemingly endless ease between the author and narrator. I had to laugh to myself at some of Matt Godfrey's nonchalantness. The monster chapters are great, when he's reading the descriptions of bloody carnage in this bubbly teenage girl voice... you are going to laugh. I am really impressed with the vocal range applied in the hours of this book.

I'm giving this a 5/5


All in all, I am really happy with this novel and would recommend it to anyone looking for a .... slightly .... hokey (in a great way!) Horror novel with great narration, you should check this out. Lots and lots of replayability.

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matrix + LITRPG?! YES!

Revisado: 03-04-18

Trapped mind project

[I have been given a free copy of this audio book in return for an unbiased review finished in a set time. I am in no way affiliated with the author/narrator/publisher]

Man! I was so excited to get the chance to review this book, simply based on the summary. I mean, LITRPG+The Matrix?! Um... YES?!?!


At first listen the narrator kiiind of came off sounding like Maurice LaMarche, aka The Brain of the "Pinky and the Brain" fame. However as soon as the prologue began rolling out came the comfortability and swing of character voice changes. Tristan Morris does a great job bringing several different voices to each character's own distinctive feel. Honestly it reminds me a lot of Nick Podehl or Luke Daniels. I am really looking forward to experiencing all that is.... The Trapped Mind Project!!!

More to come soon!

Love the idea of enchanted sheaths for blades

The pausing between the chapters throws you off until you get used to it. The husky, wisened old man voice for "Bob" is great

The story is interesting taking a twist in making the main character just a profession Hunter pretty much who ends up running into "trouble" as it were, in this case a shapeshifting god who takes in the delightful moniker of "Bob". This type of plot driven story has been seen and used time and again BECAUSE IT WORKS. I obviously am an avid fan of taking a good foundation and reworking the aesthetics and finishings to fit a particular author's voice; this book has done that very well. Like most LITRPG there are pages and pages of item descriptions and powers and abilities, all of which I enjoy. It seems like the Michael Chatfield wants to subliminally put forth the importance of knowledge and communication, by making willpower an extremely important stat. Great twist


Ok So I am about half way again and this is where I am going to leave the review because I'm hooked. Without giving away too much let's just say it is the matrix, with dwarves...and profession grinding, I'm hooked and I love it. You need to spend your money on this book. I can't wait to read the rest

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