Differently Morphous (Unabridged‪)‬

I’m already a biased Yahtzee fan, but I really enjoyed this book. Great characters. Great story. Made me laugh. And he does a great job with the reading/voice acting.

I’m a fan of this man’s work, happily shilling out $10-30 at a time for his books which l have, in the past, felt were very good. However, l cannot extend such to this book.

While the world building is top notch, the characters that populate said world are equal parts annoying and frustrating. I feel as if l want to ask if I can hear this story from the prospective of someone else... perhaps someone a bit less useless. The main character is so passive, l feel as if they are a rock in a river, with events flowing around them. This is not to say she impedes the story, just that she might as well not be there at all.

An issue I have discovered with most of these author’s books is that I find l cannot remember most of the supporting character’s names after finishing the story. I just got done spending ten hours with these people yet all l can remember are their annoying character traits! They don’t feel like real people. They don’t feel humanistic. That is to say, they are difficult to connect with.

A question l find myself asking when thinking about listening to one of his books again is: “Are the parts l like worth spending time in the company of poorly written characters who’s traits were tolerable simply because the story was interesting?” The answer is no. I did not finish this book and it might have put me off buying anything else he writes in the future. As for the story, it’s a creative take on urban fantasy with interesting (if a bit convoluted) lore. If the premise interests you, go for it. Give it a read. Just try to stomach the terrible characters that pile drive the pacing to a near halt and jokes that quickly wear thin. It feels as if it is far too long for the story it’s trying to tell. The tone wavers from serious to funny and simply fails to engage where it needs too. I found myself forcing myself to continue listening, if only to feel like l didn’t waste thirty dollars and ten hours l will never get back.

Chances are if you’re downloading this you’ve already read/listened to one of Yahtzee’a books before so all I’ll say is that it’s just as good as the rest of his books. If you like his previous three then you’ll like this. I don’t want to give away too much but unlike his other books this one is written with a sequel in mind so the pacing and character development/arcs might feel a little different compared to his perilous novels. That being said, I can’t wait to see this story be continued.