Geekomancy

By: Michael R. Underwood

Narrated by: Julia Farhat

Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Clerks meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this original urban fantasy book about Geekomancers - humans that derive supernatural powers from pop culture.

Ree Reyes’s life was easier when all she had to worry about was scraping together tips from her gig as a barista and comic shop slave to pursue her ambitions as a screenwriter.

When a scruffy-looking guy storms into the shop looking for a comic like his life depends on it, Ree writes it off as just another day in the land of the geeks. Until a gigantic “BOOM!” echoes from the alley a minute later, and Ree follows the rabbit hole down into her town’s magical flip-side. Here, astral cowboy hackers fight trolls, rubber-suited werewolves, and elegant Gothic Lolita witches while wielding nostalgia-powered props.

Ree joins Eastwood (aka Scruffy Guy), investigating a mysterious string of teen suicides as she tries to recover from her own drag-your-heart-through-jagged-glass breakup. But as she digs deeper, Ree discovers Eastwood may not be the knight-in-cardboard armor she thought. Will Ree be able to stop the suicides, save Eastwood from himself, and somehow keep her job?

©2012 Michael R. Underwood (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Solid story ruined by bad narration

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would not recommend this audiobook to a friend, but the e-book is still worth getting.

What other book might you compare Geekomancy to and why?

This book reminds me of Diana Wynne Jones' Deep Secrets, for its cheery blend of urban fantasy and geek culture.

What didn’t you like about Julia Farhat’s performance?

Where to even begin! The story and main character have potential, if a tad heavy handed with the pop culture, but the narration is truly abysmal. Julia Farhat reads mechanically with hints of false cheer accentuating the ends of random words, transforming a character that should be likable and believable into an insincere Valley girl. She rarely displays any emotion that's consistent with what's taking place in the story, and on the occasions she does, it comes across forced and uninspired.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

So long as they got someone else for the main character.

Any additional comments?

The story has potential, so I'm going to finish this book up via e-book, and buy the second one, Celebromancy, on audiobook since they got a new narrator who I am already familiar with.

Fun premise, nasal narrator

While the narrator is able to modify her voice & give feeling to the various characters, her voice is a bit off-putting; it sounds like she's pinching her nose while speaking and it gets irritating at times. I enjoy the story (though there is definite pandering to geek guys with making the protagonist a martial artist, geek queen, & attractively ethnic). She is at least a relatable character to geek girls on some levels.
The premise is a lot of fun & an enjoyable listen once you get used to the narrator.

Poor quality audio and poor voice acting

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. There was waaaay too much back story that wasn't important to anything. The person reading it was horrible, and the audio quality sounds like someone recorded it on their phone in their room. The person reading also couldn't stay in one place, causing the audio to sound like the volume went to near nothing as they walked away from the mic.

How could the performance have been better?

Oh yes. This person reading shouldn't be dealing with books. She is horrible at portraying characters, can't stand still, and occasionally reads like she has no interest.

Any additional comments?

Poor voice acting, poor quality audio, very slow story

Girl-geeks are not kawaii

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The book needs a decent narrator. Farhat's cutesy, whiny, valley-girl affectation made it impossible to enjoy the story. I've ordered the print book, and I'm sure I'll like it.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I couldn't get past the first chapter; the narration is that terrible.

What didn’t you like about Julia Farhat’s performance?

She read the book as if she were voicing an adorable but dim anime character. I kept getting the mental image of a cute little girl, wearing a confused expression, blinking her wide eyes while searched for the "any key". Not only was nauseating, it was completely incongruous with the narrative.

Any additional comments?

After some manipulation and a fair amount of geekery, I found that bending the pitch down to 89% of normal and setting playback speed to 129% made it almost bearable. Almost.

Audio quality terrible

I never managed to finish this, as the audio recording quality was atrocious. Worse than recording this podcast on my laptop in a white noise factory.

It sounds like this was recorded from overused tapes and I would just get the book from a library and read it.

Like Pulling Teeth

In order to finish this book, I had to stop listening to this audiobook and switch to my Kindle for the written version. The performance is awful. The narrator has an annoying high pitched voice and her readings are stilted and unnatural. I literally couldn't get through the first chapter.

Possibly a good book. The recording is unbearable

What would have made Geekomancy better?

The style and writing was intriguing and I was looking forward to the recording getting better, but it didn't. I actually liked the narrator's voice quality and style, but it FAdEs IN aND oUt aND tuRNS AN othERwISe PLEasant VOicE into a completely insufferable mess. I'm not sure if it's Ms. Farhat's natural volume control, crappy microphones or horrible engineering, but unless you have audio equipment with some sort of dynamic range control, I wouldn't recommend even attempting this audio book.

Would you ever listen to anything by Michael R. Underwood again?

Not at this point. I'm going to get a paper copy of the book and see how it stands up. I might consider something with another narrator, but if it's an issue with the studio that produced it, I'll stick with paper.

How could the performance have been better?

More consistent levels on the recording. The volume swings are intolerable.

What character would you cut from Geekomancy?

Don't know. I didn't get far enough into it to know any of the characters

Any additional comments?

I should have read the reviews first. A lot of people have had similar complaints.

I hated this book so much I got the audio version

I first got this book because of a promo, the concept sounded interesting to me. The idea behind it was like a siren's call and so I bought it... and then spent over a year trying to finish it. I got almost half way through in much the same way people might get half way through sewing their own stitches. When I found I could get the book from Audible I bought it just so that I could get someone else to read it to me. Even then I would only listen when waiting for a new credit to show up in my account. When I finally finished it, it felt like a great weight was off my shoulders. I had finally, after two years, finished the book like finally getting that surgery to correct my sleep apnea. That was the best part - knowing I'd finally finished the book JUST so I could say, with an educated opinion, that it sucks! The writing is juvenile, the powers are cool but only used in very lame ways and most of the "geek references" are actually wrong. It's as if the Author learned everything about being a Geek/Gamer from watching the Big Bang Theory. A lot of the assumptions are wrong. A lot of the jokes are made at the expense of the fandom, and this thing reads like wish fulfillment from someone who wasn't even in the A/V club in high school. The main female protagonist actually has D&D stats that make no sense, and comes across more as someone I created in a fantasy world and less like many of the awesome and attractive Geeker Girls I actually know.

Boring alert

Would you try another book from Michael R. Underwood and/or Julia Farhat?

This book was just ok. I had to speed up the narrator because she spoke soo slooowly. If there was a rating, I would set it to, meh and shrug.

fantastic

I loved this book so much. I could listen to it forever and always.