DNF Audiobook Review – Mercury Falls (Mercury, Book 1) by Robert Kroese, Narrated by Kevin Stillwell (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 11 hours and 2 minutes (350 pages)
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Release Date: December 4, 2012
ASIN: B00AHYGD4Q
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Mercury series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Christine Temetri is at her wits’ end. For years she’s covered the increasingly bizarre activities of End Times cults for the Banner, a religious news magazine. Yet Christine, who once dreamed of being a “real” writer, has nothing to show for the gig other than a regular paycheck and serious doubt that Armageddon will occur in time for her next deadline. But after a mysterious man entrusts her with a locked briefcase and orders to “take it to Mercury”, Christine finds herself face-to-face with a ping-pong-playing angel by the name of Galileo Mercury.
It seems Mercury was sent from heaven to make preparations for Armageddon, yet became sidetracked by the earthly delights he discovered: Rice Krispy treats, table tennis, and beer, to name just a few. Mercury’s concern for the fate of mankind is middling at best, but he is happy to educate Christine on the details of the elaborate, if poorly organized, calamity to come. When Christine inadvertently saves the Antichrist – an obnoxious, thirtysomething gamer who still lives with his mother – from celestial assassination, she begins an ambitious battle to stop the Apocalypse and save the world. But the heavenly host is nothing if not persistent, and Christine, aided only by an apathetic angel and a reluctant Antichrist, has her work cut out for her.”
This is the first book in the Mercury series; right now there are five books in this series. I got this book for Kindle right when I first got my Kindle e-reader, then I bought the audiobook for cheap. I ended up listening to the first 70% of this on audiobook and then stopped. This reminded me of a many other apocalyptic books that aim at being snarky and humorous about the corporate-like reign of angels and demons.
I actually kind of enjoyed this book at first; it was snarky and darkly humorous. As the book continued it just sounded like so many other books I have read like this and it started to irritate me more than it entertained me.
Think of this as a knock off of things like the movie Dogma or “Good Omens” by Gaiman and Pratchett. This is another one of those books in that “oh look the world is going to end because of mismanagement by God”. However, this book seemed to try a bit too hard and I found it to be silly and annoying. The characters were just over characterized and ended up being more irritating than entertaining.
Overall this just wasn’t my thing. It was a like a poor imitation of books like “Good Omens” or the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. It’s written in that same over-the-top snarky way, but I just didn’t think it was as well done.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Goodreads Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
