Hell's Super

Series: Circles in Hell, Book 1

By: Mark Cain / Narrated By: Michael Gilboe

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Whazzis? Did I read the Publisher’s Summary? And did I get the first FOUR books in the series? Did I TOTALLY shoot m’self in the foot…?!

Why, I do believe I did. You see, I’m always on the lookout for Halloween Listens, as it’s one o’ my favorite occasions, aside from Christmas. But you see, even tho’ I love Christmas? Well, a lot of dreck comes out for that holiday. And yeh yeh yeh, some crummy stuff is chucked out for Halloween, but usually it’s all in good fun. I go by the Publisher’s Summaries… a lot…

And so I did just that with Hell’s Super, wherein our hero Steve Minion is anything but competent, and surely his failings and flailings (Yeh I just made up that word…) amongst Hell’s Damned would be hiLARious. It got a lot of high ratings; people looooved it, you know, stuff of that ilk that made this story come highly-rated.

The first inkling that this might not be super-duperly (Yeh I just made up another word…) well-written? Go to its Amazon page and check out the rave review/blurbs. They do NOT come from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly. Nooo, they come from ordinary types with “Verified Buyer” attached to their high marks.

Never a good sign.

But anyhoo, what we have here is Steve and his subordinate Orson Welles trying to keep up with the many many Work Orders that come in, like, constantly. Steve is rather feckless, and author Mark Cain provides little info to let us know WHY Steve is down there in Hell. As a matter of fact, Cain provides extreeeemely little for every one of his characters. Rather, his aim, ‘twould appear, would be to throw in a vast variety of famous individuals and just see what chipper and desperately funny hijinks they’d get up to.

Boooo! This started to become less and less funny as the time went by… sloooowly… with s’posedly drop dead funnies coming from paper-thin characters.

Also something that grates on the nerves and induces eye-rolls like crazy? The oh sooo MANY “hell” themed comments our darling Hero spouts (“Cold day in Hell”, “Bat Outta Hell” stuff of that ilk… >yawn<).

Narrator Michael Gilboe is a new narrator to me… and I shan’t be running over to any of the audiobook sites to find what-all else he’s narrated. Steve comes off as snide and I’m Smarter Than Anyone, and the others are quite simply relayed with lots o’ vocal juggling. I applaud Gilboe’s efforts, but the end result was NOT a happy one where I’d be able to offer: At least the performance was really good. Nah, everyone just came across as waaay too much. Further, the addition of Flo (Florence Nightingale, who apparently has exceedingly low standards as she throws herself into bed with Steve… seriously…) brought out the caricature-voice, not pleasing at all.

Who will like this/appreciate this?

Well, people with a verrrrry low bar when it comes to being able to chuckle at silly writing, silly characters, tinny and over-enthusiastic narration.

Everybody else? IGNORE the Publisher’s Summary, like, SERIOUSLY.

9-hours felt like an Eternity… in Hell…

Jeez, was that Cain’s aim…?

Amazon