• The Sheriff of Yrnameer

  • A Novel
  • By: Michael Rubens
  • Narrated by: William Dufris
  • Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (246 ratings)

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The Sheriff of Yrnameer  By  cover art

The Sheriff of Yrnameer

By: Michael Rubens
Narrated by: William Dufris
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Publisher's summary

Meet Cole: hapless space rogue, part-time smuggler, on a path to being full-time dead. His sidekick just stole his girlfriend. The galaxy's most hideous and feared bounty hunter wants to lay eggs in his brain. And the luxury space yacht Cole just hijacked turns out of be filled with interstellar do-gooders, one especially loathsome stowaway, and a cargo of freeze-dried orphans.

Reluctantly compelled to deliver these defenseless, fluidless children to safety, Cole gathers a misfit crew for a desperate journey to the far reaches of the galaxy. Their destination: the mysterious world of Yrnameer, the very last of the your-name-heres---planets without corporate sponsors. But little does Cole know that this legendary utopia is home to a murderous band of outlaws bent on destroying the planet's tiny, peaceful community.

Follow Cole's adventures through a delightfully absurd science-fiction universe, where the artificial intelligence is stupid, dust motes carry branding messages, and middle-management zombies have overrun a corporate training satellite.

In the spirit of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, The Sheriff of Yrnameer is sci-fi comedy at its best---mordant, raucously funny, and a thrilling must-listen.

©2009 Michael Rubens (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A science fiction book your grandmother will love - if she's a lustful, violent lady." (Stephen Colbert)

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What listeners say about The Sheriff of Yrnameer

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    94
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
    34
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    67
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    29
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun, Light-hearted SF

This is a fun, well-read book that is refreshing for its silly yet endearing tone. The style of writing is reminiscent of early Douglas Adams books, but it doesn't wind up feeling derivative. The story moves at a good pace, the characters are goofy but lovable, and while this probably won't take home a pulitzer, I would highly recommend this novel to anyone looking for a reprieve from the grim, gritty SF that seems to dominate these days.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

The reader makes this great

Put aside the inevitable comparisons to Douglas Adams. Though this is a comic novel, Michael Rubens has a different sensibility, and presents more of an emphasis on the adventure, and most jokes are on the hero, rather than the rest of the universe. Along the way, he also pokes fun at commercialism, heroics, and business meetings as part of his broad adventure comedy. Little made me laugh out loud, but I was consistently amused.

Transcending the novel, however, is the production. Man, this is what audio books were made for - William Dufris acts every part, with some subtle sound effects for backing. Along with Gaiman's Anansi Boys, this is the best read out of some 200 audio books I have listened to. So, though the novel is 3.5 stars, the 5+ star production makes it an easy purchase.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • S
  • 04-28-12

William Dufris is awesome

I have no idea who this voice actor is, but I'm going to listen to any book he narrates. The writing is very sharp, and the story is a ton of fun (think Blazing Saddles meets Discworld), but the voice actor threw a lot of energy into his performance and made it a joy to listen to. I hope Rubens has written some more novels set in this universe, it is a blast.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A bit hard to follow...

It was a little hard to get into this book, but after I did it was really enjoyable. I love nothing more than a reluctant hero! I would definitely recommend this book to any science fiction fan.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Best part of the story was the narration

I read other reviews after I had already bought this - I suspect if I had known it was so much like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'd have saved my money. Not that it's bad - it's not - it's just silly and pointless like HGG is. Oh, perhaps there's supposed to be some hidden meaning or commentary on the state of the world in it, but all I really got were the over the top references to commercialism and the silliness of "hero" worship.

I got those bits 'cause they were hammered into me over and over and over again.

This isn't to say that I didn't laugh, 'cause I did, several times. But... it was a bit too much of the same thing, and went on a bit too long. After 2/3 of the way in, it was only the very excellent narration that made the book bearable to finish. Of course, the plot is so weak that you won't miss anything if you just stop listening at any given point after they land on Yrnameer.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Silly, moronic distraction

Got two-thirds through and gave up when the "hero" becomes sheriff in this silly attempt at space-age western. Couldn't take it any more, and I REALLY tried. It's not funny ... just dumb.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great space sitcom-like book

The comparisons are inevitable to Douglas Adams, but let's face it, I can compare almost every fantasy series to J.R.R. Tolkien so it's a moot point to me. Just enjoy the ride.

This is definitely a book you're going to want to listen closely. The production is top notch with multi-voiced in-book jingles for space adverts, modulated voices for intercoms and radios and various vocal tweaks to really give you the sense of a world were every planet is named for a sponsor and the world is filled with non-stop marketing.

The jokes are never so over the top that it feels like the author is trying too hard although they come often.

If you like shows or movies like Spaced, The IT Crowd, Galaxy Quest, Monty Python and the Holy Grail or the Daily Show, you'll most likely love this one.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Finally finished - Yuck

I like SciFi, however, this is poorly done SciFi. Maybe it's just me, however, after owning this book for quite sometime, I finally finished it; It wasn't worth the time to listen to, one of the main reasons it took so long.

While Rubens tries to be funny, there really wasn't anything I thought was funny. The story jumped around and did a very poor job trying to cover the holes; how does a 20+ year gap happen and you don't even TRY to explain it?

The naming of one of the main races in the story, into a name that couldn't be pronounced, and then using bells to "speak" the name, was irritating. When I'm listening to a book, I don't want to hear bells every time a race is mentioned.

Dufris was ok in his performance, however, I'd think twice about hearing him again.

All-in-all, this book gets a fail.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good book and entertaining performance

Fun book brought to life in the reading. Laugh out loud moments were awkward when I was in public...lol.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love it!

Hilarious! This is one of my top 10 funniest reads and I've been hoping for more in this (possible?) series!! It's a great space opera along the lines of Space Team, Sir Giles Mysteries and the Great Rex Nihilo. Well read and hugely entertaining, I've returned to this story 3x and still not tired of it. Again, my only complaint is there aren't more adventures with this cast of characters!

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1 person found this helpful