Godsquad

Clovenhoof, Book 3

By: Heide Goody, Iain Grant

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

The team: Joan of Arc, the armor-plated teen saint of Orleans. Francis of Assisi, friend to all the animals whether they like it or not. St Christopher, the patron saint of travel who by papal decree has never existed - no matter how much he argues otherwise.

The mission: An impossible prayer has been received by heaven, and it’s a prayer that only Mary, mother of God, can answer. Unfortunately, Mary hasn’t been seen in decades and is off wandering the Earth somewhere. This elite team of heavenly saints are sent down to Earth to find Mary before Armageddon is unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

©2014 Heide Goody, Iain Grant (P)2019 Heide Goody, Iain Grant

Disappointing

This was a disappointment. Sadly, none of the characters from the first two books appear in this book. Much of what happens is predictable and was not funny. Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, and St Christopher are sent to Amsterdam to find the holy mother Mary. Of course nothing is straight forward and they do a lot of traveling, getting lost, and making friends and enemies. They participate in a gay pride parade, save animals and have a host of other adventures. There are a few funny parts but nothing like the first two books.

Just Brilliant!

Was disappointed when I realised we we’rent going to hear more about Clovenhoof / Michael etc but quickly became irrelevant. Laugh out loud funny, touching in places and just a fantastic listen from start to end. The inclusion of some characters from Pigeonwings was utter genius!

Good God

OK, not quite as good as the previous two books but has its moments. I'm sure the narrator was channelling Chris Packham with his Saint Francis.

A lot of fun

This book has a different feel to the first two in the Clovenhoof series but is a lot of fun and completely ridiculous.

Magnificently blasphemous

This certainly isn't a book for people who easily get offended when Christianity is mocked. The previous two books in the series do a pretty good hatchet-job on mainstream Christian traditions, but this one goes to a whole new level. The Virgin Mary, for example, is a coarse, Woodbine-smoking, sex-crazed terrorist. I get a real sense that, by this stage in the series, the authors are really off their meds. In terms of plot -- well, it hardly matters; the plot is too daft to spend much time on. What does matter is the satire, which is first-rate. To be fair, this isn't as funny a book as Pigeonwings, perhaps because it tries to have a plot. Clovenhoof and Pigeonwings are both, really, sit-coms involving supernatural characters trying to integrate on Earth. God Squad is more of a narrative but, as I said, the plot doesn't stand up to any serious scrutiny. It's funny, though, because it's so outrageous. Incidentally, this isn't a sequel to Pigeonwings. Some characters from the earlier stories do make cameo appearances, but this book stands on its own.

most enjoyable thing I've listened to this year

this book was just alot of fun and the strands of several stories beautifully woven together

Very very funny audio book

I’ve read all the books and now enjoying the audio versions, this ones very different from the first two but still hugely enjoyable. I’m enjoying this one much more as an audiobook as the voices are excellent, it really adds to the humour. The three main characters are a great comedy trio. I struggled with the narration of the first two books due to Clovenhoofs voice being wildly different in my head to the audio version, but I soon adjusted as they’re so well written..and the other voices were spot on though and in this one they’re fabulous.