Temporary Monsters

The Temporary Magic Series, Book 1

By: Craig Shaw Gardner

Narrated by: Thomas Machin

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Lenny Hodge is a young man with certain abilities - special talents that even he doesn't understand. It is only when he joins Terrifitemps (the temporary employment agency that secretly controls the world) and meets his new team - a psychic, a vampire, a ghost hunter, and a werevole (yes, a werevole) - that Lenny realizes how much his special talent will put him in jeopardy.

But it's worth it, right? Hasn't Lenny always wanted to save the world?

©2016 Craig Shaw Gardner (P)2017 David N. Wilson

An amazingly funny Urban Fantasy!

Lenny Hodge has had weird stuff happen to him since he was a kid. Mermaids, aliens, you name it, Lenny has probably seen it. Lenny can't seem to hold a job. Weird things just keep happening to him. He eventually ends up at TerrifiTemps, a job placement company. They offer him an immediate job on their staff. What Lenny doesnt know is that TerrifiTemps is a group dedicated to fighting supernatural and superscience Evil. Lenny is put on a team with a Romanian Vampire, a ghost finder, a Werevole (Think a really big Mole), and a psychic. They immediately head out on a mission after Terrifitemps boss is cursed, and they track the villainy to Foo, an evil genius. This begins the race against time to stop Foo's evil machinations for world domination. Can Lenny's erratic powers be trained enough on the job to stop Foo? Only way to find out is to listen to the book.

Characters are a major strength of this book. They're quirky, funny and earnest, and that includes the villain, who looks at world domination as just another corporate merger. Lenny is a likable everyman who just has so much weirdness swirl around him. The TerrifiTemps crew is hilarious, as are Foo's Henchmen and his narcissist of a daughter. This is a worthy successor to his Wuntavor books of the 80's, which are some of my favorite comedic fantasies.

Thomas Machin did an excellent job narrating. He brings each character to distinctive life. His pacing is good, and the narration never lagged or became monotone. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment of this team.

Could not get into this book

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

No, I attempted to listen to this book a few times but couldn't seem to get into it. By the time I stopped I had listened to two hours of it and found I wasn't able to get into it enough to follow the story.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

It seemed to flow slowly and there was nothing that grabbed my attention to make me want to continue. Perhaps I am just too old for this one but I can usually enjoy YA stories as well as anything.

What aspect of Thomas Machin’s performance would you have changed?

I think he did good with the characters but there were a couple who annoyed me. Not that he didn't do them well, I just found them frustrating.

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

No

Any additional comments?

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Fun & Crazy Journey!!!

What a fun story this was to listen to. I am sure I would have enjoyed reading it but I think that Thomas Machin's narration was spot on and truly brought these crazy characters to life better than my imagination could. The off the wall humor in this book had me LOL'ing quite often. The singing Buffalo and Bob are my absolute faves. I hope that the rest of the series will be made into Audiobooks. I will be looking for more from this Author as well as from the narrator. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good

This is an ok story. The narration was good the story was a little discombobulated but it had its moments of humor and it was entertaining.

I received this book for free for an unbiased review

Still funny after all these years.

Any additional comments?

I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Wow, new Craig Shaw Gardner! I fell in love with fantasy books back in grade school and high school, with a special fondness for humor based fantasy, as such some of my favorite authors at that time were Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, and, yes you guessed it , Craig Shaw Gardner. I still have very fond memories of his Ebenezum series, his Wuntvor series, and his Cineverse cycle series. In fact I still have my old paperbacks. I must admit I wasn't even aware he was still writing, but what a wonderful surprise. Temporary Monster is the first book in a new series and I am thrilled to have found it. Not even sure how to describe what the book is about, it's just pure silly fun. I wouldn't say it's as good as either his Ebenezum or Wuntvor series, but then those two series have strong nostalgia for more, so a comparison really wouldn't be fair, but as I said it is pure silly fun. The cast of characters is great and the story is just wacky fun.

This is the first book I've heard by Thomas Machin...and doing a search here on audible I am shocked to see it's his only one!! How is that possible? Is this seriously the first book he has done? If so...WOW. The guy is fantastic. Some narrators can do 'voices' and some can't. (Of course there are some who think they can when they can't and no one has been nice enough to tell them that they can't, but let's not talk about those. Thomas Machin CAN do voice. He totally brings every single character to life. I'm honestly not sure who I liked best...no, that's not true. The Barron (aka the group's vampire) is great as is Karnowski (the groups ghost finder), but hands down my favorite had to be Bob the blue pooka! Not only were his parts funny has heck, the voice Machin uses for him was a riot. I seriously hope to see more from Machin in the future.

Funny and Strange

The narrator made the story really funny. Although it was hard for me to follow at times I gave it a four star because it was well developed. The plot and subplots as well as the characters. I am not a fan of slapstick comedy and that is what this was. There was adventure, magic, strange creatures, paranormal and "normal" whatever that is. The scene near the end where they finally got the director to stop asking for corndogs was just plain weird. The author still managed to end with a somewhat cliffhanger so you know there is another book coming. These types of endings boggle my mind. If you can create a story you can create an ending that will lead you to another book while not ending in a cliffhanger. I got this book via audiobook boom.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Would you consider the audio edition of Temporary Monsters to be better than the print version?

I have mixed feelings about the audio edition being better than the printed version because I believe we all have those voices in our head to match the characters. Then, when we actually hear them done by a person, we are either surprised on how close it matches our image or we are excited because the voice of the characters are totally different and pleasing. Of course, there's that third alternative that nothing matches what we expected.

That said, any extra media that is not disruptive to the book itself is a good thing! For me, is the print better than the audio or the opposite, I would have to say that they compliment each other.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I'd have to say for the print version, my favorite character was Lenore. She mixes humor with mystery, but never quite finishes the mystery. For the audio version, the Troll. He was just a quick, pop-in character that was the epitome of the ambiance of the book. Second to that was Bob the Horse, a Pooka of excellent conversation!

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene in the book was when Bob the Horse scared the wits out of the Dimm supervisor. The audio version is only slightly different in that it still is about Bob. Bob is wanting to help so badly, but the others won't listen to him because he's a Pooka.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, but life kept interfering.

Any additional comments?

"What do Pooka's do?" - Foo

Hotel Transylvania as a spy agency

TEMPORARY MONSTERS is a sketch-comedy based story about a temporary employment agency employing monsters like vampires, werevoles (okay, that's different), vampires, psychics, a Boris Karloff look-a-like, and even a talking horse/pooka. One day, while looking for a job, perpetual loser Lenny discovers that not only has he been hired by the organization but they are the only force in the world standing against some of the stupidest villains in the world. This includes FOO, which seems a non-Orientalist parody of Fu Manchu's organization, and the Dim who are a take on the modern mythology of Shadowmen.

I really enjoyed this story but I should mention Temporary Monsters will probably prove to be an acquired taste. It's very much like the old Hannah Barbara monster parodies and the Scooby Gang wouldn't be that inappropriate to drop in among this group. There's a herd of singing buffalo, rhyming rat hordes, bad vampire jokes, and an arcade which is ruled by a sentient game of Pong. It's very much in the vein of Discworld or the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but avoids anything resembling a serious plot or drama. The closest thing to drama is when Lenny is about to be dumped into a snake pit by his evil ex-girlfriend but gets rescued by the aforementioned singing buffalo.

This is a fun story that doesn't try to take itself too seriously and I enjoyed listening to it from beginning to end. I purchased the physical copy of the book as well as the audiobook but if I had to recommend one or the other, I definitely recommend picking up the audiobook version. Thomas Machin does an incredible job of giving all of the characters goofy exaggerated voices that puts you in the weird off-beat universe. He basically works as a one man cartoon show and that's impressive. Lenny sounds like a pleasant easy-going geek, the Baron like Count Chocula, Karnowsky like Karloff, and Bob the Pooka like a goofy Mister Ed.

I'm trying to think of other things to say but it's really just six hours of silliness and that's something I often pick up audiobooks to enjoy. If you're in the mood for some over-the-top supervillain lairs to be invaded by harmless monsters ala Hotel Transylvania crossed with Johnny Quest then this is definitely a work which will appeal to you. It has all the makings of a cult classic like the Beetlejuice cartoon from the 90s. At least in my opinion.

9/10

a misfit group saving the world

This was another pickup from AudiobookBoom.  That means I got the book for free, to give a review.  The price has no bearing on my review.  If you like audiobooks and write reviews, and really enjoy free I suggest checking out audiobookBoom.

This is the first book of the of the Temporary Magic series.  We meet Lenny Hodge, Lenny is looking for work.  He has a tough time holding down jobs.  He gets an interview at Terrifitemps .  They seem very eager to have him on board.  But his first day with the agency things seem to be falling apart... again.  This time his workmates let him onto a secret.  The weird things that always seem to happen to him, are part of his special abilities.  His teammates are made up of a psychic, a vampire, and a  ghost hunter.  

Seems like a normal group to work with right.  If that wasn't strange enough his ex-girlfriends father is an evil villain looking to take over the world.  But in order for his master plan to succeed, he must kill Lenny.  With the team assemble in an epic battle of good vs evil the Terrifitemps look to save the world.  

Fun characters, story is a little confusing

I found this story to be a fun sci fi comedy romp. If you like Robert Asprin's Myth series you will really enjoy this book. On the flip side, if you like this book, check out the Myth series.

The main character is an everyman who goes through life moving from one strange happening to another and seems not to even notice how weird the things that happen to him are. All he wants is to hold down a job and futz with his stamp collection. Not exactly an exciting start... or so you think until he lands a very unusual job with a very unusual set of co-workers.

One of the things I really liked about the narrator was that the voices were very distinct and you knew who was speaking just based on the voice used. Truly sounded like 20 different and unique people reading a radio play. Kudos on that! Would definitely listen to other audiobooks he narrates!

The plot got a little confusing in the middle as we jumped through astral projections, but on the whole, I'm planning on getting book 2 to see where this motley crew ends up.

This book was given to me at my for free at my request in exchange for an honest review.

wonderful if you like white noise

I can't believe that I actually enjoyed Craig Shaw Gardener's books at some point. This was terrible.

WOW A NEW CRAIG SHAW GARDNER

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

I've been a fan of Craig's fiction for many years and it is a joy to find any of his titles on audio - what a treasure!

This book is very entertaining and full of fun scenes and Thomas Machin brings the characters to life.

What about Thomas Machin’s performance did you like?

All the characters are voiced well

Any additional comments?

Please bring more Craig Shaw Gardner to audio!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review