You Only Live Once

A James Flynn Escapade, Book 1

By: Haris Orkin

Narrated by: Chris Ciulla

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

From zero to hero....

James Flynn is an expert shot, a black belt in karate, fluent in four languages, and irresistible to women. He’s also a heavily medicated patient in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital. Flynn believes his locked ward is the headquarters of Her Majesty’s Secret Service and that he is a secret agent with a license to kill. 

When the hospital is acquired by a new HMO, Flynn is convinced that the Secret Service has been infiltrated by the enemy. He escapes to save the day, and in the process, Flynn kidnaps a young Hispanic orderly named Sancho. 

This crazy day trip turns into a very real adventure when Flynn is mistaken for an actual secret agent. Paranoid delusions have suddenly become reality, and now it’s up to a mental patient and a terrified orderly to bring down an insecure, evil genius bent on world domination. 

Includes a special bonus note from the author.

©2020 Haris Orkin (P)2020 Podium Publishing

The Name's Quixote...James Quixote.

An escaped mental patient who images himself a double O with a license to kill is funny. Add an unwilling sidekick named Sancho, a lady love named Dulce, and a beat-up ’92 Ford Mustang that’s a mechanical equivalent of Rocinante, and you have a comic tour de force.

Of course, I’m not the first reviewer to notice this. And literary parodies are nothing new. But this is the first I’ve read that uses the premise of one book to sharpen the parody of another author’s work. And while there’s dark stuff here too, it all provides ample scope for James Flynn’s epic windmill-tilting.

I can’t agree with the negative reviews of Chris Ciulla. Besides a fine comic performance, his British secret service drawl seems to amalgamate the voices of every screen Bond, from Connery to Craig.

Interesting listen

I enjoyed this delightfully woven story which was performed superbly. I heard a/an (unintended?) message: follow your dreams of who you want to become and be at peace with the results. Tho we All, happily, will not be James Bond (or Flynn) we will have an amazing journey.

Enjoyable!

I typically listen to a lot of Military Scfi. This was a great change of pace. I was entertained the whole way. I recommend this story

where's the next book?

Not bad, kinda funny.
Would listen to the next one if Audible had it.
word word

Absolutely Entertaining

I could not put this down. The opening grabbed your attention. Story line is suspenseful from start to finish.

Greatness

Very entertaining story. Can’t wait to listen to the next one. I wasted the whole day listening to it.

Was pleasantly surprised

At first I thought I made a mistake getting this book. But it turned out to be a really good book. Narrator was really good too

Delightful!

The writing of this book was fantastic. It’s somehow managed to take the James Bond mythos and turn it into something entirely its own. It could’ve strayed too far towards being a ridiculous parody or slapstick like Johnny English but it didn’t. It had just enough humor to be warm and give you a chuckle but a serious side as well - it was a great balance.

The voice actor did a fantastic job bringing the story to life with his inflections, mannerisms giving each character their own personality.

I will absolutely be getting the next in the series!

Interesting and funny

Excellent except the "graphic" reading of the beginning, which almost turned me away. Glad that I didn't.

That was Awesome!

One of the best Audible Plus audiobooks out there. Smart, funny and action packed. Highly recommended!

love it!!!

Very funny and entertaining Can't wait for the next adventure. Really recommend. If you like Stephanie plum novels you'll love this. Great narrator, easy to listen to.

Perfect escapism, huge amount of fun.

I didn’t have much hope for this one after reading negative reviews….
But I absolutely loved it, it’s so much fun, very well done and I laughed out loud a few times.
It’s perfect escapism.
I listened to it all in one day and bought the next one.
I’m a few chapters into book two and I’ve just bought the third.


### I’ve now listened to all four, each one is an absolute joy, very highly recommended.

Don Quixote meets The man who knew too little

Passed the time well, tongue firmly in cheek well read not to long quite Enjoyable.

brilliant 👏

Well worth listening too. Its very well done and funny. You need to get it.

Tried but didn't enjoy this

I listened to a fair bit of this (first 9 chapters I think) but in the end I had to give up.

The story is ok but I found it more unsympathetic to the main character's condition than I was hoping. On the subject of characters I found the to be a bit one dimensional and stereotypicsl to be honest. The story moved at a good pace and the writing is pretty good but the story telling wasn't something I engaged with.

The main character has a delusional personality where he thinks, speaks and acts like he's James Bond from the 60s and 70s movies, complete with the misogyny and arrogance. So when the main character is acting it makes sense to hear those attitudes. The problem for me was that thise attitudes continued through the rest of the story, when the author is say describing a scene before the main character arrives. It didn't help me that I had just completed one of Anthony Horowitz's Bond novels as well
In fact this was recommended to me after that. The contrast is enormous even if this was offered for free.

I was prepared to persevere as the story felt like it was still setting the scene a little bit in the end what really swung it for me was the performance. As said, the main character speaks in a British accent appropriate for 1960/70s Bond movies. The problem again for me was the performer's take on this. His British accent was grating, annoying and possibly poorly researched. An example (not the only one) is when the main character said "plastic". I am English, have lived here over 50 years. Only once have I heard a British person pronounce that word as "Plarstic" and I live in the South when we say "Glarss" instead of the "Glass" they say up north.

As said, I just struggled to engage with this story and the performance only made it worse. Sorry but not one for me.

unexpected treat

picked up this book for my A to z challenge as my choice for Y. very unlike my normal choice of book and a bit of a whim pick.

found it genuinely amusing, non derivative satire. performance was very good and overall a nice easy listen. Story was fun and light and the nods to typical bond style fiction felt appropriate.

James Flynn proof that you can fake it till you make it!

I loved this quirky, hilarious story of a traumatised kid who reinvented himself to become the man he knew he was all along inside. The crazy adventure and the people he saves along the way, physically and psychologically was fantastic, I enjoyed every minute.

The narration was great just right for the type of book & story.

I’ll be getting the next in the series right away.

Story spoilt for me by the narrator

They story has promise but I ultimately had to stop because of the narrator's unlikeable range of voices. The attempt at the refined English accent was passable, if clichéd, but the other principal character, Sancho, was utterly grating for the 8 chapters I managed to tolerate hoping that the annoying tone of slow, strained exasperation the narrator chose to use for all his dialogue would change or at least differ in range. Females didn't fair much better either as the narrated barely took the edge off his naturally masculine enunciation. The narration itself was pleasant enough but I was unable to continue with the story though I promise I did try because I liked the content. An honest shame.

Excellent

Very well written, novel idea and extremely funny with a brilliant narration by Chris Ciulla

Hilarious and fantastically narrated

What an amazing listen! I cannot count the number of times I laughed out loud. Edge of your seat stuff and amazingly funny.
Get it now!!