Hunters and Hijinks: A Salvage Title Universe Novel

Salvage Treasure, Book 1

By: Nick Steverson, Melissa Olthoff

Narrated by: Daniel Wisniewski

Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Have you ever wanted to quit your soul-sucking hell of a day job, tell your supervisors exactly what you think of them, set the office on fire, jump in your slightly-used spaceship and scour the galaxy for lost treasures? Of course you have. And Reggie, Maddy, Ed, and Harold are no different.

Joongee aren’t supposed to like adventure. Quite the opposite, in fact. They’re supposed to like safe, quiet office jobs, become engineers, programmers, or whatever keeps them away from a battlefield or anything remotely dangerous. But after one disappointment too many, Reggie decides that maybe, just maybe, there’s something to Harold’s crazy obsession with the mystery of the Lost Weapons of Koroth. There must be more to life than dying by slow inches in a cubicle. Right? He knows he’s got to do something soon, because if he doesn’t get his small clan away from Galactic Solutions, Maddy really will set the office on fire.

But the galaxy is a dangerous, unforgiving place. It’s full of pirates, overly enthusiastic and sparkly Ahkal-Tiki, and savvy business Krugeri whose minds are as sharp as their claws. It takes cunning, heart, and a whole lot of luck to survive.

Can our office workers-turned-adventurers navigate the treacherous galactic currents, follow the clues, and discover the treasure? Or will they find themselves begging to return to the old 9-to-5?

One thing is certain—there are bound to be hijinks along the way.

©2023 Nick Steverson & Melissa Olthoff (P)2023 Nick Steverson & Melissa Olthoff

Critic reviews

"A rollicking good time. Steverson and Olthoff have delivered a comedy adventure series as funny as it is fast-paced." (Christopher Ruocchio, award-winning author of the Sun Eater series)

meh, volume issues.

the volume of the narrator varies from chapter to chapter and I can't keep control of the volume every time I'm either defined or I'm struggling to hear. other than that I like the story.

Escaping Office Space to try and be Indiana Jones

ave you ever come across a series that just keeps you completely engaged from beginning to end? Well, Hunters and Hijinks was one such read for me. It starts off as Office Space in space, and morphs into an intergalactic treasure hunt, with a myriad of twists and turns that keep the reader completely engaged.

This book, and its sequels, is set in Kevin Steverson's Salvage Title universe, but this is a stand alone that doesn't require reading that series, although there are some Easter eggs if you are familiar with it. It's a universe with many different races, of which humanity is just one of many. In this series, humans aren't really a big part of the characters life. The four main characters are a species called Joongee, who basically look like humanoid Hyenas. They look pretty fierce, but in a hilarious twist, tend to be drawn to admin work. Lots of bureaucrats and customer service jobs are filled by Joongee. It's just a funny twist in the universe, and is very well done. The technology is very much advanced space tech, and there heve been some era's of higher and lower tech in the universes history. It's interesting seeing how some of these eras kind of come together in this story.

The characters are probably my favorite part of the book. Reggie, Maddie, Ed and Harold are all Joongee, office workers who would never seem the types to go on an adventure, but looks can be deceiving. The Joongee come in three different types based on size. Ed is the largest type, about 6'6", but is a big teddy bear in personality, which seems to be typical of the larger JoonGee. Reggie and Harold are the middle size, about 5'6", and are the most typical, with a range of personality types. Reggie is much younger than Harold, and has a much more active past than the rest, It's a fun series of revelations as his past is revealed, and the struggles he has to go through to not let that past affect how he reacts in current times. Harold is much more of a dreamer, someone who has been frustrated with how his dreams have been thwarted, but he is the Joongee with the idea to get out of the corporate grind and talks the rest into joining him on this epic quest. That leaves Maddy for last. She is the smaller type of Joongee, about 4'6", with attitude that's about two feet taller than she is. She is sharp witted and even sharper tongued, and she certainly doesn't suffer fools. She is also the one most likely to start a bar fight over an insult. She is such a fun character, and is my favorite character in the book. She reminds me of the small but fierce women in my family, and is just a blast. She and Reggie also have some romantic tension building, and it will be interesting to see where it goes.

The secondary characters are pretty fun as well. They add plenty of spice to the story, and some are fun Easter eggs, such as a mall cop named Blart at the biggest mall in the galaxy. They all have much more life and personality than you would expect, and you can tell the authors really took time and care to flesh them out as much as possible. Even the ship, named HIADA, has a personality, and that name is a hilarious acronym which ties into the story so well. And the Ahkal-Tiki? They may be the most hilarious alien race in the history of sci-fi. Nice horse breed Easter egg in that one, and as a former horse owner, I appreciate a deep cut Easter egg.

The antagonists are an interesting bunch. They range from the groups boss at their former employer, who I kept expecting to ask about cover sheets for a TPS report, to a group of Pirates who are more or less competent, and even have a connection with Reggie. There is also an unexpected antagonist who is a power broker, who is so devious and underhanded that you can see how his actions will drive the story continuing into book 2. He's the kind of villain you love to hate.

The narration is performed by Daniel Wisniewski, and he is the perfect voice for this story. He is one of the best in the business at breathing life into characters, investing so much emotion and depth to each character's portrayal. and he does such a wonderful job creating distinct voices for each character, no matter how minor. It's easily some of his best work. He's easily one of my top three favorite narrators, and I am excited to see what he does in the rest of the series.

This is a book that I think should have broad appeal for fans of sci-fi. It's got comedic elements, space opera elements and action/adventure elements, all which weave a great story that will keep the reader/listener engaged the entire time. I am very excited to see where the story goes from here. I give this my highest recommendation!

Awesome

Cute and hilarious story. Fits well with the humor I’ve come to expect from salvage series.

Light, Humerus, and Loving

Not only was the performance by the voice actor phenomenal, but the story was a beautiful mixture of fun, humor, and action.

I will re-listen to this over and over again in total jubilation.

Good listen

Fun story, nicely performed. Well paced with solid characters. Only complaint might be the volume change when characters yell a few times . Overall worth the credit.

Hilarious Action/Adv an absolute must Listen!!

This is a really fun adventure Sci-Fi story that follows our four intrepid heroes.
WE start the story finding our four in what can only be described as cubicle hell, three of them performing call centre jobs for a company called Global Solutions, in which they are required to solve various issues for this parent company. The fourth, Ed, is a cleaner at the company.
Our Main Characters are Joongee a type of Canine-Like species, that walk on their hind legs, use their ears a lot for non-verbal communication, along with their tails (although, they can control their ears if they think about it, allowing them to send signals, or maybe hide an emotion, whereas their tails are much harder to disguise).
The older Joongee in the group, Harold, approaches the group one day with a crazy idea. The group is over things, and thinking of how to make some money and leave their jobs, when Harold suggests an adventure, but one with the aim of finding the ‘Lost Weapons of Koroth’! These weapons were used to destroy the planet of Koroth long ago, leaving the planet a desolated mess. Their creator, Dr Bergan Monschtackle took his creations and hid them, and then created an elaborate puzzle, with multiple different parts that must be solved before the weapons can be found.
Harold has deciphered the first clue, after 10yrs of research, and this leads the group to decide to throw in their jobs, buy a starship and go in search of the long lost weapon stash of Koroth.
The group is made up of Reggie, a large Joongee, who has something very mysterious about his past, possibly military. Reggie becomes their unofficial leader. Next is the only female in the group, at the start of the book, Maddy is what one could call aggressive, with a very bitter, angry streak. It may stem from her complete and utter addiction to coffee, and when I say addiction, there may be a little bit of blood left in her coffee stream.
Harold is an older Joongee, having been around with the company for a lot of years. But he has always had a fascination for this puzzle and Dr Monschtackle. Harold is kind hearted, but is easily taken advantage of.
Ed is the finale member of the group, the cleaner for the company, he is a very kind and gentle being. Ed comes across as being a bit slow, but he is full of all surprises and hidden talents that no one seems to know realise.
The group decide to go after Harolds long lost treasure, and so they pool all their resources, buy a ship, quit their jobs, and head off into the sunset!! Of course, it doesn’t all go quite to plan – but I won’t give away spoilers here….
From the outset, the group seems to be plagued by various issues, or mistakes, (some of them made by just ineptitude on the part of their crew being so totally gullible, and completely taken advantage of, there is a sucker born every minute right? Harold should not be sent out on his own to do things…
But it is not just poor Harold, this eclectic little clan of Joongee seem to be plagued by one issue after another. It leads to a hilarious series of events as the four of them seem to bounce from issue, situation or just disaster to another on their adventure.
This is a really well-crafted story, set in the Salvage Title Universe, which is only getting better with every book. The universe building (world-building), is masterful in this story, with some absolutely epic worlds, creatures, species, aliens.
It is really great having main characters that aren’t human, but then see that species used so well in the telling of the story.
If you love a great action/adventure story with brilliant characters that develop and grow as the story evolves, with outstanding worldbuilding, then this book is for you.
Daniel Wisniewski is easily one of the best Narrators out there today. With his easy to listen to voice that creates such a stunning array of both male and female voices, each so distinctive that every character, both male and female (or alien), gets their own voice, it makes for an outstanding performance.
But it is not just the voices that makes Daniel’s Narration so special, it is his ability to tell the story, and bring his characters to life with so much emotion, making you really believe everything that happens to everyone in the story. You feel their happy moments, their angry, sad, or excited moments. As he tells this story, you experience it with them, fully immersing you into the book so you get to be a part of the story.
This is one of those books that the Audiobook is an absolute must, because Daniel Wisniewski’s narration is second to none, and is so much better than just reading the book!!

This is one Spitfire of a book.

I really enjoyed this book. It has a great mix of humor, action, and mystery. I lost count of the surprise twists. All the characters are given full arcs. I'll be listening to it again soon.

Very good book, looking forward to more!

This was the first time in a long while I bought a title I hadn't read before, and I'm glad I did! The storyline was entertaining and gripping enough to keep me anticipating the next chapter, the characters are great, and you find yourself becoming vested in them, rooting for them, and hoping for them. The end of the first book is a little disappointing until I found this is the first of a series with these characters, so this really isn't "the end" it's a "Wait and see what's next". I'm definitely getting the other two books in the Salvage Treasure series and will sample the other Salvage Title books as well.