The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg

Series: The Quantum Curators, Book 1

By: Eva St. John / Narrated By: Lucy Rayner, Alex Wyndham

Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins

Dude! but of COURSE this isn’t Jodi Taylor… but it IS Fun! …and then there’s Alex Wyndham…

Dunno where to start, the writing? I’ve loved everything by Jodi Taylor, and her “St. Mary’s” and “Time Police” serials are to die for… But The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg ain’t those. But hey! it’s not TRYING to be. It’s just plain fun!

-Or- the narration? Lucy Rayner does very well despite some imperious tones for some of the characters and some choppy gunfire back and forth narration. On the whole: Totally a-okay and jim fine dandy neat-o!

…and then there’s Alex Wyndham… Oh where’s the Heavy-Sigh-Emoji when you need it? Cuz see, I got this by checking out the kindle unlimited ebook and purchasing the audiobook for cheap. Cuz I loved the Publisher’s Summary (I KNOW! I READ the danged thing… and liked it!), and Lucy Rayner? Yessss. But lord how I rolled my eyes and kinda sorta sucked in my breath when I saw Alex Wyndham was going to be our Hero, Julius, and… Every. Single. Other character in the story, quite a few of them women.

Booooo! for poor choice. I mean, my gosh, man! Can the man NOT have the weeeeirdest singsong lilt at the end of each sentence? Can the man NOT do all women as tho’ they’re all whispery and hoarse?! Ya know, I just had to ride the waves of his totally not BLOWING the entirety of his performance with decent enough narration for the main narrative, and I had to disregard, well, the entire rest. Because we have some AWEsome women heroines in here, and… well, you know: Alex Wyndham.

So there’s that.

Now onto the perfectly lovely story whereby Alpha Earth (The PERFECT Society wherein the hotbed of intellectual pursuits and cultural appreciation takes place in Egypt) has Quantum Curators who travel in Time throughout the Ages over in the parallel Beta Earth (Uhm… kinda, like, OUR Earth with its violence, mayhem, but gosh-awfully magNIFicent artistic creations… whoulda thunk it?). Our main kick-butt heroine is told from the perspective of Neith who is sent as leader of a small band of QCs to retrieve a hitherto unknown Fabergé Egg.

Then back to Beta Earth where Hero Cambridge professor, Julius, is just living his staid and, rather, solitary existence (He hasn’t a clue what to do with his good looks, esPECially when drop dead gorgeous women will say, Yeh I’ll put up with your weird preoccupied and unutterably BORING personality…). He has a terrifically exciting chum who gets into all sorts of fascinating scrapes whilst obtaining priceless antiquities, and Julius finds himself drawn into chum Charlie’s latest escapade. When this quest for a Fabergé Egg leaves Charlie as a violently-murdered corpse, Neith and Team step in and seek Julius out for any and all information regarding Charlie’s search. He knew Charlie best; could he possibly help guide them so they might get that Egg and tiptoe out, all Hush Hush and B-Bye?

Things are TOTALLY not as they seem as things start going violently awry all left-and-right-ish. Julius is a fish outta water, but danged if he ain’t a SMART fish outta water, or what? And did I mention that Neith kicks-butt? Wha? I have? Well, allow me to mention it again: If ever ANYone wielded a weapon well, that individual would be Neith. That she has to worry about a traitor in their midst, or even a rogue QC Team? She’s ON It! She’ll Take Them Down! Uhm, if she can just get over the various knocks and bruises and concussions cuz, did I mention that Beta Earth is proving to be just as gosh-almightily ROUGH as it’s known to be?

Murder Most Foul!

And tho’ this starts off just a triiiiifle slowly, it does indeed pick up speed and turn into an action-packed slugfest. And tho’ this is lacking the Uber hiLARious hijinks of, say, anything Jodi Taylor writes? It does have some humor in it which I enjoyed.

And dude! there are all the History Nudge-Nudge Wink-Wink(s) that are a riot if you happen to be a History Buff (I’m getting there; I’m soooo close to being Knowledgeable!). Now, I don’t swear I’m super duper well-educated, but I’ve enjoyed enough History audiobooks to be able to tell you that those little quips studded throughout this little gem of a story are worth the weeee bit o’ lagging at the beginning.

Well-developed characters, with the room to grow in further installments of the series are a Plus. Clever twists and turns, and a bit of a Cliffhanger Ending which only opened the story to evolution but not so bad as to win The Michael J. Sullivan Boooo! Award round this all out to be a series that?

Oh I’m soooo ready to hit kindle unlimited for the next one!

-But?-

…then there’s Alex Wyndham… so it miiiiight just be a while…