The Bearer of Bad News

Bearer of Bad News Saga, Book 1

By: Paul Payne, Megan Owens

Narrated by: Jake Hunsbusher

Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

"Don't shoot the messenger" is a phrase taken very lightly throughout the World of Tor as the Bureau of Bad News continues to fuel its power by delivering terrible fates from its golden throne in the City of Trig. Anyone who receives such a letter, and is read out loud, will face a terrible demise, and so will the deliverer. These "Messengers" are considered bile as they travel to deliver such misfortunes, so why would James Roger Clemit volunteer for such a job? Be ready to be engaged in a swash-buckling adventure as James finds himself embarking on a journey of self-discovery, including swashbuckling combat, a Hunter with a death wish, trees that fight bears (and win), talking swords, and moose with Pegasus wings. While James cannot fully contemplate why he had been placed in such a world-altering position, a mysterious god notes that everything is going according to plan.

©2019 Megan Payne (P)2019 Megan Payne

Narrator brings the characters to life!

Interesting concept with some predictable outcomes. I do feel that the narrator makes this story more interesting with the different accents he uses for the characters.

There is a lot of world building and you could feel the authors were setting up for a sequel. I'm interested to see how James' story continues....

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book, but the opinion above is entirely my own.

fun story

enjoyed this funny story. had some good laughs. poor miss ronnie though 🤣 lol she is so misunderstood

Imaginative and Mischievous! A fun must read!

The Bearer of bad news is the kind of fanciful story that induces laughs, but that doesn’t make it any less engaging. The characters are overflowing with personality which adds to the stories whimsy and surprise. It’s a stunning, audacious book with a fresh feel on lore and world building. Can’t wait for the next book.

I won’t drink the gasoline... today!

Baskerville Book Reviews

I love the concept of this story. It feels like an acid-trip fever dream at times. The humor of this story is another factor in why I plan to continue with this saga. There are many locations and characters along the way that all feel like they have their own story to tell and I’d love to hear them all.

The biggest issue with this book is how unimaginably slow it is. While I was doing the tedious formatting nonsense on my blog, I skimmed a couple of audible and GoodReads reviews. I noticed people commenting on how slow this story was. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal if I was prepared. While nearly halfway through this story, it felt like it was just getting started. I listen at 2.55x speed and I can’t imagine how unbearably slow this must be to people who listen at 1.0x speed.

The glacial pace that the book moves at kills a lot of the re-readability for me. Going forward, I’m likely going to skip this one. I think the first half of the book would have been better off as a prequel or introduction to the saga. I don’t mind re-reading the setup to a world when I re-read stories. But not when they’re half the book, that’s ridiculous.

I’m going to lazily recycle this bit of my review from All Your Twisted Secrets: The narrator repeatedly says “onvelope” which drives me crazy. Envelope – envelop. If something were to be enveloped in darkness, you wouldn’t say onveloped in darkness. If you think I’m being nitpicky, you’re goddamn right I am! I can’t stand when people who are supposed to be professional narrators mispronounce basic words. Just search my blog for my mentions of “acrosst” and “caramel” to see other examples.

This complaint aside, the narrator does an incredible job with voices. When narrators use the same voice for everybody, my difficulty with remembering names makes it hard for me to tell characters apart. This is one of those rare stories where I was able to tell characters apart just by their voices.

NOTE: This copy was provided to me free of charge as a digital review copy. The opinions stated in this review are mine and mine alone, I was not paid or requested to give this book a certain rating, suggestion, or approval.

Awesome

Was a very interesting story backed up by an excellent voice actor. Will be buying volume 2.

A Bit of a Slow Burner

Over all I enjoyed this one, it's different from what my library would say is my typical listen, but I'm glad I got the chance with this one.

The story is a bit...flat? I didn't come away feeling as though the pay off at the end was as big as it could've been. Throughout the story there are highs and lows but they don't necessarily deviate from the flat line too much. I felt that the first quarter to half of the book was quite fun whereas the rest didn't really catch up to the good start.

Considering this is part of a series, it's not a bad thing at all and I look forward to the next part; there are questions that need answers! I hope to also learn a little more about our protagonist as well, I feel that he could do with some more depth.

I enjoyed Jakes narration here, he does speak well, easy to listen to and he gives that little extra to apply accents and personality to the characters he's working with. My only gripe would be that the audio quality sounded a little tinny? Flat perhaps. But it doesn't affect the listen at all, it's probably more striking to me after coming off some of the bigger produced titles on Audible.

Side note on the narration - I loved the character of Frank! I got big time George W Bush vibes listening to him and it really brought the story and his personality to life!

Looking forward to book 2!