The Science of Supervillainy

The Supervillainy Saga, Book 4

By: C. T. Phipps

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Gary Karkofsky a.k.a Merciless: The Supervillain Without Mercy (TM) returns in the fourth volume of the popular Supervillainy Saga. Having discovered the world's greatest superhero slain by his doppelganger from another reality, Merciful: The Supervillain with Mercy (TM), and the arrogant President Omega, Gary dedicates himself to overthrowing both. Unfortunately, this is harder than it looks since Merciful has all of Gary's genre savviness while President Omega has the entire brainwashed United States military behind him. In the end, though, there can be only one ruler of the world and two of these three feuding villains will have to go.

©2017 Charles Phipps (P)2017 Charles Phipps

As enjoyable as the first three. Great conclusion!

I really enjoyed all 4 books in this series by C.T. Phipps. I think if you made it through the first 3 books you must finish the series with book 4. We get a nice conclusion that neatly ties things up but also leaves a definite path for more books (not sure if the author is planning more in this series, but he should!). The story didn't take the path I was expecting from book 1 but I felt it was still an extremely entertaining listen! I look forward to listening to or reading more works by C.T. Phipps.

Narration by Jeffrey Kafer was solid throughout this series and I would not hesitate to check out other works with his narration. Great variation in characters and superb delivery/performance throughout.

Good story progression, problematic storytelling

The dose makes the poison. While the world and story are adequately crafted, this book on particular seems to rely a little too heavily on pop culture references and current events. While the story is self-aware, that only makes up for so much. Past books utilized the occasional reference, but this title constrains toxic concentrations. They date the story and diminish its value and frankly it does not really make sense that the characters would have been able to make some of them considering how fresh they are temporally and the state of the world in the story.

All rants aside, the story, humor, and characters remain otherwise consistent with the rest of the author's work. If you enjoyed their previous titles you will enjoy this one. However​, I would not hold up this title as representative of the rest of the author's works.

The Science of Supervillainy

The Science of Supervillainy
This is a review for book 1 to 6 of the Supervillainy Saga (no spoilers)

I enjoyed the humor in this series very much.
The love for fiction/ entertainment (mostly comics, movies and TV series) oozes from this series, and that’s something I really appreciate and take pleasure in.
Beneath all the humor and craziness, there was still a beating heart and room to connect to the characters, and that’s something I really need to keep me engaged in the story and invested in the characters.

What prevents this series from being a full 5 stars for me is the level of ‘madness and chaos’.
Every time I embraced it, it would get turned up a notch. And eventually (somewhere in book 2) it was too much for me, I just couldn't keep up. This caused me to lose some engagement.
But the humor, great cast of characters, excellent writing style and wonderful narration still made this a very fun listen for me.

I got this Audio Book for free (thanks!). I'm voluntarily leaving this review.
Opinions and ratings are my own and not influenced by how I got the Audio Book.

Some of the best quips

The banter was awesome, the story felt rushed, but satisfying. Good closure for many loop holes, and even though it feels like full closure, I hope the characters will make a return.

Funny, Witty and Entertaining

C. T. Phipps does a fantastic job at making an entertaining satire on the superhero genre. This next installment of the series keep the pace with great plot twists, relate-able pop culture references, but none at the expense of an entertaining story. Definitely a must buy. This was an audio book that was hard to put down/stop listening to. I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes action/humor/superheros/satire/or just straight up fantastic writing!

Another good one from an entertaining series

Mercileaa is hilarious. keep liking his character (and his cohorts) more and more. looking forward to the next book!

action heroes and villains, fun and zaniness

Gary, aka Merciless, the Supervillain Without Mercy™ wakes up and finds himself in a community of brainwashed people.  With the help of Nightgirl he escapes.  Other Gary, aka Merciful from another now destroyed dimension is using brainwashing techniques to make everyone happy and delighted with his dictatorship and his harnessing all the power for his evilness.  Merciless and his hench-people must save their world yet one more time.  Merciless is due for a change – in himself – but is he ready for it?  Are the people around him ready for it?  Regardless, Other Gary is not going down without a fight and there are a lot of surprises for both!

C.T. Phipps once again brings life to the supervillain and superhero worlds.  In his sardonic wit, he connects his readers through his characters, their traits albeit some are really skewed a tad bit … or a lot.  They are relatable and fun; even traits the Other Gary exhibit are ones we can relate to in a fundamental way.  Throw in the pop culture references of Star Wars, Star Trek and more, one’s trip throughout the world of Supervillainy is fun, engaging and downright entertaining.

The dialog is awesome and flows even though at any minute you expect someone to slap Merciless silly with all his pop culture references and seemingly half-witted references that only the characters do not get but the readers do. But that is what makes the book fun!

Phipps writing style is fun, full of energy and intriguing.  I enjoyed Gizmo (a reference to Gremlins I am sure!) and her abilities and her new relationship with her father.  I thought the way Other Gary learned his lessons were poignant and reflective.  Phipps uses characters and their flaws to show us our own flaws.  Very well done!  Plus, it helps that he is a wonderful story-teller.

Jeffrey Kafer is a wonderful narrator.  His commanding voice and ability to roll the sardonic witty comments from his tongue were amazingly delivered.  Between the Phipps and Kafer, one cannot help but enjoy the books!

If you enjoy comic books, action heroes and villains, fun and downright zaniness, these this book is for you.  If you are a curmudgeon, who thinks fun is evil and has no life read it anyway - it's fun!

There were no issues with the audio production or quality of this book.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

HEY! Rate 5 Stars...

...so he'll keep writing these. Maybe even spin-offs. I wouldn't mind a Diabloman One-Shot from before he had his mask.

WOW!

one of the best second part of a 2 parter ive read in a long time. once again being brought to a spectrum of emotions throughout. a great listen and a great read. cant wait for the next installment.

Good Entertainment

These books are a guilty pleasure. As anything other can cotton candy they such, but I enjoy the brief escape they offer. I feel like the author could give us a bit more in the way of plot and structure. The motivations of some of the characters are shallow at best. Still, over all I would recommend this as a good chill out series. This book is a continuation of that fun ride.