Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

By: David Wong, Jason Pargin

Narrated by: Christy Romano

Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

In a prosperous yet gruesomely violent near future, superhero vigilantes battle thugs whose heads are full of supervillain fantasies. The peace is kept by a team of smooth, well-dressed negotiators called The Men in Fancy Suits. Meanwhile a young girl is caught in the middle and thinks the whole thing is ridiculous.

Zoey, a recent college graduate with a worthless degree, makes a reluctant trip into the city after hearing that her estranged con artist father died in a mysterious yet spectacular way. There she finds that her scumbag dad had actually, in the final years of his life, put his amazing talent for hustling to good use: He was one of the founding members of the Fancy Suits and died in the course of his duties. Zoey is quickly entangled in the city's surreal mob war when she is taken hostage by a particularly crazy villain who imagines himself to be a Dr. Doom-level mastermind. The villain is demanding information about Zoe's father when she is rescued by The Fancy Suits. She reluctantly joins their cause and helps finish what her old man started, tapping in to her innate talent for bullshit that she inherited from her hated father. And along the way, she might just have to learn how to trust people again.

©2015 David Wong, Jason Pargin (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Not as good as I was expecting

I love the John Dies at the End books, so I had high expectations for this book. Unfortunately, I did not find this book to be as funny or interesting. I think I might have enjoyed it a little more if it had been shorter.

Absolutely loved this book

Read his first two, expected the same. Got a hundred times better. Absolutely loved it.

Enjoyed the book overall, plot was thin in places.

Enjoyed it overall. Plot had some pretty big holes that were left open. Places where characters didn't do things you know they really would have.

Great story, annoying reader

What did you love best about Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits?

I loved the plot, the twists, and the humor. The near-future sci-fi look at social media and energy weapons was fantastic, and the characters were great. It's wacky, funny, violent, and fast-moving.

What other book might you compare Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits to and why?

Hmmm...it's hard to compare this to other work.

Did Christy Romano do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Mostly, the voices were good. But the large cast of characters may have exhausted her repertoire. Molech (Moleck?) and the leader of the League of Badass seemed to have the same voices and speech mannerisms, and her take on the "young asshole" voice was way more annoying than it should have been. Other than that, the voices were done very well, particularly those of Zoe and the Suits.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

She's the One, unfortunately.

Any additional comments?

Almost every aspect of Ms. Romano's voice work deserves high praise. However, she has an annoying habit of pausing between the two words in a phrasal verb ("He picked...up the truck" instead of "He picked up...the truck") and in the middle of other phrases. This hinders comprehension and takes the listener out of the book for a moment to re-sort the phrasing so that it makes sense.

Great book

If you like other stuff by Wong you’ll enjoy this. Same feel just minus the horror and with a focus on near future scifi action.

Only knock against the production is that I keep hearing Romano saying ‘bystandards’ instead of ‘bystanders’ in a couple spots. But that could just me and not an actual critique.

Not David Wong's best work

Excellent narrator, but lacks the unique blend of social insight and dick humor that made his other books great.

Absolutely outstanding

Great writing and perfect narrator. One of my new favorites. Clever funny and enjoyable - highly recommended!

Strong Performance, Story could be more developed.

I found some elements of the plot to be not in line with the vibe I was getting from the characters, but overall I would recommend this book as a lazy day off listen.

big audible listener

pretty funny and not to far off from the future or maybe just entertaining to think so

Clockwork Orange for the 21st Century

This is a really good book that is well-narrated. The story is tight and focused, the narrative never goes where one would expect, and all the characters are well-drawn and interesting. All that having been said, the title is not misleading; it contains a lot of violence that is integral to the plot, but is still realistic as violence actually is outside of comic books and standard action stories. The narrator does a very good job making each character distinct. I listen to lots of Audible books, and this is top tier.