Top Hat

Hat Trick, Book 3

De: Luke Chmilenko, G. D. Penman

Narrado por: John Lee

Chaos ensues as the greatest wizard in all the land faces his toughest challenge yet—himself—in this gripping conclusion to the hilarious Hat Trick trilogy.

Absalom Scryne isn't himself. On the one hand, he's a well-rounded gentleman of a sentient hat with two beloved apprentices and a tagalong swordsman. On the other, he's a rather furious wizard sitting on the opposite side of a desk, demanding they give back his hat. Needless to say, it's not an ideal situation.

And it's about to get worse. Because the battle between civilization and all the monsters of the Badlands and the underworld is about to begin. With one Absalom Scryne or another in the human corner, wearing the blue hat, and the dark god Nun Mhor Goth in the monster corner, wearing concentrated darkness, it's going to be a clash for the history books.

Facing off against every demonic creature from the previous volumes in the series—plus some extra ones thrown in for fun—our heroes are all too aware the battle could go either way, at the drop of a hat . . .

©2024 Luke Chmilenko and G. D. Penman (P)2024 Podium Audio

A Fine Conclusion!

This last book does well enough to close up just about every plot line established in the previous entries and doesn't overstay its welcome. I'd have preferred the epilogue went over more of the events right after the final chapter, however it still does a very good job of ending the story. Narrator is fun to listen to, and truly brought this story to life.

Such a wonderful story

The author weave a tale of delight and joy and mystery and magic with lots of surprises.
And the author knows how to use the word envious in all the correct places as opposed to some who use the word jealous.

Great quick finished story

This was a great story quick read and a good conclusion, Luke is a great author and John Lee is a great narrator!

loved it

it's a good read it has some problems but all in all just a good read.

More

I would love to see a Discworld-like expansion of this series! Please write more soon.

Better than what came before

interesting concept, great voice. Everything comes together in the conclusion of this trilogy I encourage you to take a listen

Spells and counter spells and counter-counter spells

A fun conclusion to a ridiculous romp of a Lit RPG. Character growth and the strains of interacting as a changed person. The delight of the expectedly unexpected! And the visuals of a being who can reshape reality really getting to cut loose!! And the icing on top is John Lee’s wonderful and engaging reading. Top marks.

DNR:Let down of a final battle to conclude series

The mystery of who killed self proclaimed greatest living mage - Absalom Scryne - is resolved. Ancient evil awakened and set out on path of world domination needs to be stopped. Who better than the crew of misfits sharing a hat backed by the civilized world, spearheaded by Arphanpholigan, to do it. Breaking curses, resolving issues posed by self-doubt and reuniting people 'Top Hat' does it all.

The Absalom Scryne's murderer reveal was foreshadowed. The battle for the invisible academy and the two sides coming together really did put an end to the journey of the fellowship of the hat. Nu Rgath with his big black balls doesn't know when to stop and brings the two worlds, the 'civilized' and the 'uncivilized', to battle. Sryne's battle plans are genius. Step 4 - (paraphrasing) destroy the world, so the world destroyer's ego gets bruised. Nearly laughed my-self senseless.

Starting 2nd half of book 2 'Hat's Entertainment!', c. ch.14 the adventure of Ig felt rushed. 'Hat Trick' had potential to go on for longer. Where do the elves live? What is the old grudge between elves and dwarves? The inclusion of 'uncivilized' peoples into the 'civilized' society etc. Feels like the author got bored of gag economy work and finished the story far too soon.

Conclusion: 3/5. Listened on Audible included in plus catalogue. Narrated by: John Lee. 'Hat Trick' isn't serious, it's humorous. While the first book did question readers position and ask the ambiguous, ethical questions about innate presumptions, after escaping Kanute's Crack questioning has been back burnered and the lessons have been learned all for the sake of culminating battle of 'good' vs 'evil'. I would recommend listening to the narrator, John Lee, and concluding the series upon the hat's fellowship's arrival to the Arphanpholigan. Terrible value for the length of the book - 3.39 $/hour ( 33.90 $ / 10 hrs 00 mins ).

Values:
Terrible: >1.66 $/hour
Bad: 1 - 1.66 $/hour
Good: <1 $/hour
Dream: 0.4 - 0.27 $/hour