I came upon this audio book via Audibles as they had suggested I might be interested in it because I purchased and enjoyed “A Dirty Job” by Christopher Moore. So I read the RAVE reviews and listened to a sample of this audio book and thought “Okay, it sounds like a fun book” so I went a head and purchased it.
Did I enjoy the book? Yes, I did. Was it a raving good book as other readers reviewed it to be? No, sadly it wasn’t what I expected after reading all those high praised reviews. Did I have some chuckles? Yes, but not as much as I would have liked to and not as much as when I listened to “A Dirty Job”. Would I purchase the next book in the series? Yes, I would but I’m not in a mad rush to read them at the moment.
The story was well written, entertaining, creative, and a very new way of telling a Superhero/Villain story with lots of tongue in cheek humor. The narrator Jeffrey Kafer did a good job but it could have been better. Mr. Kafer did a pretty good job of differentiating his voice from character to character with the exception of when voicing The Cloak and Gary. Many times Mr. Kafer would voice both The Cloak and Gary almost exactly the same that it made it hard to know who was speaking what dialogue, and since Cloak can talk ONLY to Gary the back and forth from them got confusing. I had to rewind the story many times to try to make sense of who just said what. At those times I wish I had bought the digital book with the audio so I could have followed along a lot better.
I know this review sounds like I have nothing but complaints and I didn’t enjoy the book but that is not the case. I did enjoy the humorous way of telling the flip side of a Superhero/Villain story and a lot of the subtle references to many of the superhero storylines and characters I grew up reading in comic books or watching on my Saturday morning TV show (basically TV Tropes); e.g. Super Friends, Batman, or Spiderman stories but with a sort of Bizzaro World flip. But all are done with a bit of a tongue in cheek and wink wink to all our childhood superhero stories we’ve read or seen. Even Merciless’s henchman Diabloman and henchperson Cindy Wakowski a.k.a Red Riding Hood are a bit of a nod to the likes of BANE and Harley Quinn. Just as Ultragod and Ultragoddess are a nod to Superman and Supergirl.
Many times we read a stories from the Superhero’s POV but this time we get the Villain’s side… or at least the POV from the want-to-be Villain; as Gary Karkofsky a.k.a. Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy is more of a dorkable anti-villain.
This book kept my attention and kept me interested in seeing what would happen next to Gary and how he would evolve to Merciless since he was still learning the ropes of Villainy. The book also had me smirking from time to time and occasionally laughing out loud in my car as I listened on my commute home. And admittedly at times I became nostalgic for when I was a kid reading comics or watching superhero cartoons on a Saturday morning or after school. It brought a smile to my face.