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  • The Beast of Tsunam

  • Rev Smalley: Galactic P.I., Book 1
  • By: Scott A. Combs
  • Narrated by: Rand Doerning
  • Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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The Beast of Tsunam

By: Scott A. Combs
Narrated by: Rand Doerning
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Summary

Rev Smalley, Galactic P.I., a disgruntled retired EIA - Earth Intelligence Agency - agent is down on his luck without clients, money, or a current lover. Rev’s luck is about to change - just not necessarily for the better.

Rev finds that his former boss, Magnus Blackheart, has sent his ex-lover, Cassie Townes, and her current EIA partner, Braz, to the utopian planet, Tsunam, on a diplomatic request to investigate a mauled body. The two agents disappear soon after arriving, and Magnus forces Rev back into service to find his missing agents.

©2016 Scott Combs (P)2017 Scott Combs
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

We are becoming diverse, cell by cell.

Rev Smalley is anything but small. He is large in stature, said to be so also in intellect, one of only two surviving men who participated in a genetics program decades before which also extended his longevity (he and his erstwhile friend Magnus Blackheart are currently 129 years old and only look 40, or 38, according to an indignant Rev) and he is enormous when it comes to self opinionated belief. Now existing on a meager pension and scraps of private investigation work, he agrees to undertake a mission for his old agency in return for large financial reward and because two other agents, his ex-girlfriend and ex-partner, went missing when they were sent.
His task is to find the missing agents and solve a murder. The victim is a woman, ripped apart and left in a park on a planet where almost no crime exists. the last murder had been almost 10,000 years ago. An apparently utopian planet but obviously something is very wrong ...

There are some great ideas in the story but, although amusing, it can be annoying, too. The writing is very visual and studiously simplistic, like reading a comic book without the pictures. And despite some interesting beasts, and curious twists and turns, these latter are predictible, almost requiring the response "It's behind you", as in a pantomime participation.

The narrator does a good job, his rich voice well cadenced and the characters given their own distinctive speech. At first both book and reading seemed to be an excellent pairing but after some eight hours, this reader felt the need to inject something extra to maintain interest, so the speed was increased to 1.25, which helped a little.
Lots of potential here, but for me the book was too flat with two dimensional protagonists, none of whom could hold my interest or affection. Curiously, the character most endowed with human personality was the little automatron named Flint who is partnered with Rev on Tsunam..
Not for me. However, with the right casting, this could easily translate into a fun film (or three.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun Sci-fi buddy cop book

Both the author and narrator were new ones to me, but the setup for this book seemed like it would be fun and thankfully that proved to be the case as the author builds an interesting scifi world and uses it well as the setting for a detective novel featuring Rev Smalley as the star of a varied cast.

Besides the aforementioned Rev, the most notable character in the book is probably not one of the humans, but is instead an automaton he names Flint and who becomes his new partner and friend over the course of the book.

Rev is a former EIA agent and one of the two remaining products of a eugenics project that resulted in a person having greater strength, longevity etc. He is brought back to the action by his former boss, Magnus, who wants him to investigate the disappearance of his ex-lover Cassie and her current EIA partner, Braz who had been investigating an unusual murder on the planet Tsunam.

The narrator did a very good job with bringing these characters to life and nicely enhanced the story in the process.

Overall, this was a very good combination of story and narration that resulted in a fun book that has me interested in seeing how the series progresses.

[Note - I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.]

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A rip roaring Sci-Fi adventure

Rev Smalley is hard talking, hard drinking and hard as nails.

When the mutilated body of a woman turns up on planet Tsunam it's up to one of the last two eugenics experiments on earth, Rev, to investigate. He quickly gets drawn into a political conspiracy that will take a lot of thinking and a lot of action to get out of.

The whole story is delivered excellently by Rand Doering who performs a cast of eclectic characters.

This audiobook was given to me free of charge in exchange for an impartial review.

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