I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.
This is somewhere between a short story and a full novel. At 5-6 hours it doesn't have a lot of world building or character development. It is, however, fun, quick, and enjoyable.
First I want to point to that this is not a hard sci fi. If you want realistic and believable science and theory, this is not your story. The science here is very much to stick the story elements together and not to be taken seriously.
The setting for this book is present day earth. There is nothing new. There is a point where the main character goes somewhere fantastic, but it still just boils down to they're on an earth like place, and there's really nothing too extraordinary about it, visually.
The main character is a bit dull and to be honest, a bit dim. He is supposed to be teaching physics at a university, however, he's slow to pick up new information and has little imagination. He's a lite frustrating as a main character, as he is playing a plain straight-man to the universes absurdity. He doesn't really develop as a character throughout the story and while he is likeable enough he could have been so much more.
The secondary characters range from loveable, to background scenery. Some really steal the show while others are there for explosion and plot reasons only. Still no development or growth.
The plot is fairly straightforward and simple. The twists and turns serve mostly to extend the length of the story, rather than for any real complexity.
So, why 4 stars? Well, it's simple. This was a fun and funny book. It was basically like an episode of a sitcom. No one is going to change, no real progress is going to be permanent, but wasn't it fun getting from point a to b? This is a quickly paced book that doesn't waste time expanding on itself. It was a fun pickup and I have no regrets about listening to it, it was great fun.
The voice Narration, by Jennifer Pratt, was fairly well done. She does passable male voices and the use of the digital effects for the unicorn was a nice touch. She has a range and accidents and while it was weird to have a female narrator as there was no females in the book, it worked out fine.
All in all, this was a fun story that was easy to listen to. It lacks character development and world building, but that's not unexpected in a story under 6 hours. Voice narration and the humor really made this story a pleasure.
I may check out more from this author.