Geekomancy

By: Michael R. Underwood

Narrated by: Julia Farhat

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this original urban fantasy book about Geekomancers - humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture.

Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comic shop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.

When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic “BOOM!” echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.

Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

©2012 Michael R. Underwood (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Fun premise, nasal narrator

While the narrator is able to modify her voice & give feeling to the various characters, her voice is a bit off-putting; it sounds like she's pinching her nose while speaking and it gets irritating at times. I enjoy the story (though there is definite pandering to geek guys with making the protagonist a martial artist, geek queen, & attractively ethnic). She is at least a relatable character to geek girls on some levels.
The premise is a lot of fun & an enjoyable listen once you get used to the narrator.

Poor quality audio and poor voice acting

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. There was waaaay too much back story that wasn't important to anything. The person reading it was horrible, and the audio quality sounds like someone recorded it on their phone in their room. The person reading also couldn't stay in one place, causing the audio to sound like the volume went to near nothing as they walked away from the mic.

How could the performance have been better?

Oh yes. This person reading shouldn't be dealing with books. She is horrible at portraying characters, can't stand still, and occasionally reads like she has no interest.

Any additional comments?

Poor voice acting, poor quality audio, very slow story

Audio quality terrible

I never managed to finish this, as the audio recording quality was atrocious. Worse than recording this podcast on my laptop in a white noise factory.

It sounds like this was recorded from overused tapes and I would just get the book from a library and read it.

Girl-geeks are not kawaii

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The book needs a decent narrator. Farhat's cutesy, whiny, valley-girl affectation made it impossible to enjoy the story. I've ordered the print book, and I'm sure I'll like it.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I couldn't get past the first chapter; the narration is that terrible.

What didn’t you like about Julia Farhat’s performance?

She read the book as if she were voicing an adorable but dim anime character. I kept getting the mental image of a cute little girl, wearing a confused expression, blinking her wide eyes while searched for the "any key". Not only was nauseating, it was completely incongruous with the narrative.

Any additional comments?

After some manipulation and a fair amount of geekery, I found that bending the pitch down to 89% of normal and setting playback speed to 129% made it almost bearable. Almost.

I hated this book so much I got the audio version

I first got this book because of a promo, the concept sounded interesting to me. The idea behind it was like a siren's call and so I bought it... and then spent over a year trying to finish it. I got almost half way through in much the same way people might get half way through sewing their own stitches. When I found I could get the book from Audible I bought it just so that I could get someone else to read it to me. Even then I would only listen when waiting for a new credit to show up in my account. When I finally finished it, it felt like a great weight was off my shoulders. I had finally, after two years, finished the book like finally getting that surgery to correct my sleep apnea. That was the best part - knowing I'd finally finished the book JUST so I could say, with an educated opinion, that it sucks! The writing is juvenile, the powers are cool but only used in very lame ways and most of the "geek references" are actually wrong. It's as if the Author learned everything about being a Geek/Gamer from watching the Big Bang Theory. A lot of the assumptions are wrong. A lot of the jokes are made at the expense of the fandom, and this thing reads like wish fulfillment from someone who wasn't even in the A/V club in high school. The main female protagonist actually has D&D stats that make no sense, and comes across more as someone I created in a fantasy world and less like many of the awesome and attractive Geeker Girls I actually know.

Like Pulling Teeth

In order to finish this book, I had to stop listening to this audiobook and switch to my Kindle for the written version. The performance is awful. The narrator has an annoying high pitched voice and her readings are stilted and unnatural. I literally couldn't get through the first chapter.

Possibly a good book. The recording is unbearable

What would have made Geekomancy better?

The style and writing was intriguing and I was looking forward to the recording getting better, but it didn't. I actually liked the narrator's voice quality and style, but it FAdEs IN aND oUt aND tuRNS AN othERwISe PLEasant VOicE into a completely insufferable mess. I'm not sure if it's Ms. Farhat's natural volume control, crappy microphones or horrible engineering, but unless you have audio equipment with some sort of dynamic range control, I wouldn't recommend even attempting this audio book.

Would you ever listen to anything by Michael R. Underwood again?

Not at this point. I'm going to get a paper copy of the book and see how it stands up. I might consider something with another narrator, but if it's an issue with the studio that produced it, I'll stick with paper.

How could the performance have been better?

More consistent levels on the recording. The volume swings are intolerable.

What character would you cut from Geekomancy?

Don't know. I didn't get far enough into it to know any of the characters

Any additional comments?

I should have read the reviews first. A lot of people have had similar complaints.

Boring alert

Would you try another book from Michael R. Underwood and/or Julia Farhat?

This book was just ok. I had to speed up the narrator because she spoke soo slooowly. If there was a rating, I would set it to, meh and shrug.

fantastic

I loved this book so much. I could listen to it forever and always.

Geek-o-rama

I am such a geek, I picked up on about 95% of all the references made in this delightful story. From comics to television to movies, Star Wars, BSG, DC Comics, and Magic the Gathering collector cards. What a witty fast paced ride. Weather you are a geek of the highest Jedi Order or a relative newbie you will be hugging yourself with a warm fuzzy feelings as Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("Once More with Feeling" anyone?), Star Wars laser discs, or BBC's Sherlock references are made.
What pulpy geeky fun this is. I hope this author produces more of series. Great female protagonist, Ree may have her problems but overall a kick@ss character. A great cast of characters, the steampunk adventurer, the burnt out Eastwood, the Thrice retconned Duke of Hell all fabulously hilarious.
Julia Farhat wouderfully and gleefully brings these characters to life.