Review – BuyMort: Bull Market Mayhem (Shopocalypse Saga, Book 5) by Damien Hanson, Joseph Phelps, Narrated by Wayne Mitchell (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 19 hours and 8 minutes
Publisher: Podium Audio
Release Date: April 09, 2024
ASIN: ‎B0CXF6T8H3
Stand Alone or Series: 5th book in the Shopocalypse Saga
Source: Bought Audiobook from Audible
Rating: 3/5 stars

“When the universe defaults on its existential loans, who better to foreclose the apocalypse than the Windowpuncher, Tyson Dawes?

Dearth Conglomerate is plummeting in market value, and Kraken is no more. But not all threats have been extinguished. Thanks to the rising threat of the Sleem, the whole multiverse is in danger. Desperate for a cosmic bailout, the Church calls for a financial crusade. Meanwhile, Molls and her family fall into a whole mess of market shock and face futures unknown.

With Storage under threat of hostile foreclosure, the universe faced with Sleem saturation, and Silken Sands spread thinly over too many areas of opportunity, has BuyMort found its final market victor?

From the elastic supply of the Church’s Inquisition auditing Silken Sands to a climactic battle with ROI (that’s Return on Incineration, by the way) so low it crashes all markets, this is one fiscal year you won’t want to miss.

Get ready for a hostile takeover of epic proportions. In BuyMort: Bull Market Mayhem, the end isn’t nigh—it’s been leveraged, securitized, and is ready to liquidate. Say your prayers and check your credit score because when the celestial ledger closes, you’ll want to make sure your cosmic assets are diversified.”

Series Info/Source: This is the fifth book in the BuyMort series. I got this on audiobook from Audible.

Thoughts: I listened to this on audiobook and it was fine. The narration is really well done. The story jumps around a lot with us, at times, being immersed in a detailed battle and then getting quick summaries of months of events that happen in rapid succession. It got a bit hard to follow. It also seemed pretty repetitive.

Tyson and crew are taking on the rising threat of the Sleem and are also taking on Dearth once and for all. Meanwhile, Molls and her family end up relocating to New Earth.

I felt like a lot of the character development has fallen to the background here. The story is mostly Tyson being shuttled from battle to battle to expand his hold across the multiverse and combat both Dearth and the Sleem. He does get another suit upgrade, which was intriguing, and I thought the way his increased mental abilities were dealt with was well done. There is just so much going on here it feels scattered and we never get to spend time with any of the characters in a meaningful way.

At this point, I keep reading these because I just want to know how it all ends, and the audiobooks are well done. Unfortunately, these have lost a lot of the humor of the first books and a lot of the wonder as well. The whole world is still intriguing but the story doesn’t pull me in like the first 3 books did.

A lot of my favorite characters from the series just make brief cameos, like Dufus and Phyllis. I wish we spent more time with them since they both seem more intriguing than Tyson at this point.

Everyone in here feels world-weary. There isn’t that over the top dark humor that the first few books had. Additionally, what is up with Molls? She kind of just stays in the background until Tyson needs comforting or causes trouble with her family. I really don’t like what’s happened with her character. She’s like a stay-at-home warlord girlfriend and nothing more.

At this point, I am on the fence about continuing the series. It’s lost a lot of what I enjoyed about it, but I do still want to know if Tyson makes it to his end goal.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. The pace of the story is all over the place, with lots of time spent on detailed battles and then months pasting quickly which just general summaries of what happened. This has lost a lot of the dark humor that I loved in the first book, and our characters seem stagnant. I miss some of my favorite characters from earlier books. I do still find the world intriguing and I enjoy the latest suit upgrade that Tyson got. However, I am uncertain as to whether or not I will finish the last two books in the series at this time.