I’ve heard about these books for about 6 months to a year, but I thought they’d be silly (they are and I’m here for it) and not for me (flat out wrong). But the hype built up and I was real curious, so I picked up the first book as an audiobook. I have less time to read text than I do to listen (commute), so I went with the audiobook. Plus, I’ve heard nothing but good things about Jeff Hays’ narration.

From the first chapter I’m pretty much committed to finishing the series. They got me. I love a good narrator. I’ve listened to Wil Wheaton (e.g. Ready Player One and Two), LeVar Burton (Aftermath, which is his book — he was the host of Reading Rainbow and he was Geordi LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its four films), Stephen King (The Wind Through the Keyhole was one of his he narrated; there were others), Cherami Leigh (Cyberpunk 2077: No_Coincidence; she also voices the player character in the video game; and the Sword Art Online audiobooks, in which case she voices the female lead), and others… If Jeff Hays isn’t the best of the lot, he’s definitely top five. I’m looking forward to the rest of the first book and the next seven (though, at the rate Dinniman writes, he may have book 9 out by the time I get there — anyone know how long he’s planning on running the series?).

Anyway, if I can tell you where I’m at without spoilers, they just survived the encounter after their second neighbourhood boss (the one they didn’t fight directly and Donut revealed something about the boss room after Carl did what he did). Oh, the app says I am 38% of the way in.

But the best part? I’ve been dangling awesome audiobooks in front of my wife for years now. Over a decade, really. She won’t do it. I figure if we both listen, the value of the book doubles since it’s being enjoyed by two people. But she’s not into reading so much… Used to be. Not so much these days. But I played a few samples and read some excerpts of mob descriptions (we started with Bad Llama, and went into some I haven’t encountered yet in my reading) and now she wants in as well. So when I’m done with the first one, she’ll pick it up while I listen to the second one.