Divine Misfortune

By: A. Lee Martinez

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Teri and Phil had never needed their own personal god. But when Phil is passed up for a promotion - again - it's time to take matters into their own hands. And look online.

Choosing a god isn't as simple as you would think. There are too many choices; and they often have very hefty prices for their eternal devotion: blood, money, sacrifices, and vows of chastity. But then they find Luka, raccoon god of prosperity. All he wants is a small cut of their good fortune. Oh - and to crash on their couch for a few days.

Divine Misfortune is a story of gods and mortals - in worship, in love, and at parties.

©2010 A. Lee Martinez (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Wonderful... from start to finish." (sfsignal.com)

Gods Gone Wild

If you listen to the audio clip for Divine Misfortune, you will not only get a good sample of the nice narration work of Fred Berman, but you will be immediately clued in to the zany tone that carries through this whole book. A. Lee Martinez includes a whole pantheon of Norse, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and more gods in this farce and the story is presented strictly for comedy; no deep thoughts or religious commentary here. It won't bring new insights, but it will probably make you laugh out loud. The tone of the book reminded me of the Iron Druid fantasy series with gods behaving in ways that would make atheism very attractive. Great listen for some good laughs.

Loved it!

This is an amusingly clever tale of online deity shopping gone wrong. In an attempt to improve their situation Phil and Teri sign up as the newest followers of Lucky, a minor god of fortune. Lucky fails to tell the young couple about his baggage, mainly a former girlfriend and goddess of misery who is stalking him and the god of wrath and destruction that is trying to poach and eat Lucky’s followers in a misguided game of one-upmanship. It’s original, funny and well written.

Office Space rewritten by Disney

A fun book. An interesting take on religion, benign, not heavy or preachy. Definitely funny, and strangely atheist friendly. There is some extrapolations on humanitarianism, but it stays in the shallow end. A novel approach to the relationships and mythos of deities and their followers.

Divine Misfortune is one of those books that's easy to relate with. A good pick me up listen after your car breaks down, or your boss yells at you. Lucky struck me as kind of douchey Raoul Duke (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,) but perhaps that was intentional.

Worthy fantasy humor. I loved it.

If you like Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, Robert Asprin, Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett, then this is a mug of ale or glass of wine from the same brewery my friend. Some good ol' light-hearted fun.

Mystical fun

The worlds of A. Lee Martinez are filled with a delightful and sometimes nonsensical mystery, and show how thin the border can be between ourselves and everything we can't explain.

Divine Misfortune is a hilarious and oddly believable look at how the world could be if the Gods truly showed themselves, existed all at the same time and adapted themselves to our time.
It was a very enjoyable audiobook, and one I will find myself returning to, often.

A Fun book, good for a laughs!

I'm a big fan of this author and the bizarre tales he tells. It also reminds me of some of the Christopher Moore books in many ways. This one was good, but it took a few chapters to really capture my attention. Once it did it was a good listen. The characters, although truly bizarre began to develop nicely throughout the book and despite being pulled from religions throughout the centuries became very real to me. I would definitely give this book a listen.

AGAIN! Another masterpiece!!

What did you love best about Divine Misfortune?

The concept of the universe in this novel with gods living among mortals and it is a way of life. Didn't like gorgos defeating thor though! Lol!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Divine Misfortune?

LOL!! The god of the wind sucking gorgos into a bag and kicking and stomping him! The god of deaths displeasure and the god of the wind retorting "What?!? It gets the job done!" Then the god of death joining him . .. . awesome.

Have you listened to any of Fred Berman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Fred Berman is only matched by Chris Aiello! I now choose books not only by author but also by reader. these two are my favorites!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed hysterically for about 20 minutes at 1:00 am (ish). My wife woke up and looked at me but I couldn't stop laughing so I went downstairs to finish laughing. I wish there was possibly a drawing of lucky.

Any additional comments?

Keep it coming!!

Simply Divine (I couldn't resist)

This is a hilarious, funny, touching, and all-around wonderful story. I laughed out loud and got angry and sad and happy and all-in-all was completely enthralled. What a great audiobook!

A fortunate stab in the dark

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this book to friends who like a little absurdity, or friends who like trashy science fiction movies.

What did you like best about this story?

This story paced itself just right. It kicked in the absurd early on, and then built on it slowly using loads of humour, cliche and "I saw that coming but still got a surprise" type moments to get to a obvious but still surprising climax.

Any additional comments?

I bought this book based on my previous purchased of his book "Automatic Detective". Initially I was a bit disappointed that this book had a less noir style, but soon I forgot about that and enjoyed this book for it's own merits. It's not good literature, but it's a good story and a fun listen.

Brilliant

I laughed my @ss off. This was great. Led me to buy three other A. Lee Martinez books, but this remains my favorite so far.