The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus plus the Anam Glyphs: Bonus Edition

By: Peggy A. Wheeler

Narrated by: Kelley Hazen

Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

This Duology contains both the novel The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus and the companion divination tool: The Anam Glyphs.

The mystical green planet of Rendaz is home to devout goddess worshiper and university professor, middle-aged Beautimus Potamus - who also happens to be a hippo plagued by hot flashes and poor self-esteem. Beautimus forms an alliance with Samuel S. Goodwings, a younger womanizing, atheist praying mantis. When these two are together, life morphs from the mundane into the fantastic. Our unlikely duo solve mysteries, bring a murderer to justice, and even help end a war, while experiencing their own trials, triumphs, and tragedies. Often with humor, their situations and adventures parody Earth culture.

During their exploits, the two interact with a host of characters, including a pair of New Age flamingos, an A.D.H.D. afflicted trout, an orangutan detective, and a 310-year-old blue crane High Priestess. All of these creatures are more “human” in surprising ways than the citizens of the blue planet, Earth, we discover was once a Rendazian Colony.

Beautimus Potamus’ tongue-in-cheek story is a magical fable-stew made with the ingredients of satire, drama, social commentary, and comedy, with jests, puns and wordplay sprinkled throughout. For good measure, a generous pinch of romantic flavoring is thrown into the pot.

Beautimus Potamus - a talking hippo on the mythical planet, Rendaz - is a university professor at Dr. Pimbly’s School of Goodly Educated Adults, a writer, and a maker of oracles.

From Rendazian and Earthian archetypical symbols, Beautmus developed her own divination tool, The Anam Glyphs. And, with the assistance of her “Hu Man” co-author on Earth, Peggy A. Wheeler, she has written a book about her oracle.

Part fantastical fiction and part “how to”, The Anam Glyphs is a guide to creating and interpreting universal divination stones so that seekers may better define their life’s path, discover answers to pressing questions, and catch a glimpse of their destiny. There are thirty-two glyphs, each with its own distinct symbol. Beautimus and Peggy provide instruction on how to create the stones, cast them, read them, and interpret their meanings.

Woven throughout the guide are oft-time humorous anecdotes from Beautimus’ life on Rendaz, and brief commentary from Peggy A. Wheeler.

©2019 Peggy A. Wheeler (P)2019 Peggy A. Wheeler, Dragon Moon Press, Kelley Hazen

An Awesome Listen

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the narrator and found it very enjoyable. The main character is a middle aged underachiever, at least in her own opinion, who struggles through her life to change the lives of those around her. Sometimes you laugh, and other times you cry, as you listen to this suspenseful tale. The author's use of animals for the characters and the narrator's interpretation of each character creates a wonderful listening experience. You also get some bonus material in this set.

Great Read

The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus PLUS The Anam Glyphs by Peggy A. Wheeler. This Duology contains both the novel "The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus" and the companion divination tool: "The Anam Glyphs". The Splendid And Extraordinary Life Of Beautimus Potamus was a great read by Peggy A. Wheeler. Rendaz is the mystical green planet that is home to goddess worshiper and university professor, Beautimus Potamus. She happens to be a hippo that is plagued by hot flashes and low self esteem. She forms an alliance with Samuel S. Goodwings, an atheist praying mantis. When they are together their life is fantastic. They solve mysteries, bring a murderer to justice, and help end a war. I really enjoyed reading Beautimus Potamus' story and loved Kelley Hazen's narrations. The Anam Glyphs was a good read by Peggy A. Wheeler. This companion to The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus, can also be used as a standalone piece for those interested in fun oracles and unusual divination tools. Beautimus Potamus is a talking hippo on the mythical planet of Rendaz. She is a university professor at Dr. Pimbly's School of Goodly Educated Adults, a writer and a maker of oracles. She has developed her own divination tool called to Anam Glyphs. She has the assistance of her "Hu Man" co author on Earth, Peggy A. Wheeler. This is a guide to creating and interpreting universal divination stones so seekers can better define their life's path. I enjoyed reading this book. I enjoyed listening to Kelley Hazen's narrations.

The whole picture...

I had previously listened to The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus and absolutely loved it. Now you can all the background and details about the Anam Glyphs, the divination stones that play a big role in Beautimus’ life.

Very well written, Peggy A. Wheeler created a fantastic world and a very descriptive and easy to follow companion.

Kelley Hazen does it again. Simply marvelous.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review.

It's more like 3.5 stars for the story...:)

I listened to "The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus" over a year ago, but I finished "The Anam Glyphs" late last night, so here are my thoughts on both books (the full texts of my reviews for both books can be found on the individual books' Audible sites:)):

"The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus" is one of those books that are really difficult for me to review. On the one hand, I liked many of the books' characters - funny, intriguing, complex, with messed-up pasts; on the other hand, there was so much put in the book that it felt overflowed with themes sometimes: murder, gangs, teenage pregnancies, even war... Also, the pace of the story seemed to me uneven - there were some really fast parts with events almost overlapping and some parts I felt I'd gladly skip.... Having said all that, I have to admit that I really liked the world created by Ms Wheeler - the green planet of Rendaz, whose inhabitants remind human beings to such an extent that you quickly forget they are animals; their behaviour mirrors ours with all our faults and all our good qualities. To tell you the truth, I had to remind myself several times they are not human at all:) Also, as the title suggests, it is a story of the main character's life - no wonder, then, that there aro so many different issues touched upon in the book. And yes, as the blurb says, there is a lot of humour in the book, but there is also romance, there's heartache and hope... there is drama and there is comedy, all in the right proportions.

Now, for "The Anam Glyphs" - not everyone will appreciate this particular book. It's not a novel, it's not fiction, really - it's a spiritual guide to a fictitious set of glyphs (or runic stones). If you're into meditation, I Ching, Feng Shui and broadly speaking the whole range of spiritualism, then you'll find the book very entertaining. And I generally think the idea of Anam Glyphs is a great one. Both the descriptions of the glyphs and their interpretations sound beautiful and useful - you can really make them and use them in real life.
However, as I'm personally not into that world of spiritualism and meditation and Zen at all, I've found the book slightly annoying; but I generally get annoyed with the "self-development" stuff, with its "you're the sunshine of the world" approach (I just don't believe I need runes / horoscopes / Tarot cards / magic - whatever you use - to direct my life and "discover" myself...) That's why I gave the "story" 3 stars - which just means I really liked the book but I probably won't come back to it because it's not my cup of tea...

Narration by Ms Hazen in both books is great. She had a really hard job with Beautimus Potamus stories, one, for the sheer number of characters in the main book and two, to make the descriptions of the glyphs really interesting for someone who generally is not very interested in the book's matter:) So, hats off for Ms Hazen with these books:)

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.