Stuff and Nonsense
Series: Threadbare, Volume 1
By: Andrew Seiple / Narrated By: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
Loved, loved, loved it!
I had to look up LitRPG in Wikipedia to figure out what I’d just listened to after finishing Stuff and Nonsense. I mean, Threadbare and his pals are all working to up their skills and levels, and Threadbare winds up with jobs such as Model (Where he has to Work It, Baby). I mean, huh?
At first, Threadbare is part of a failed experiment, a barely sentient teddy bear who, unbeknownst to his creator, starts getting knowledge and a few slight skills through awareness and experience. It’s with some very creative writing that we’re in the little toy bear’s head as he struggles to free himself of the ties that keep him stuck on the toy shelf and as he, once freed, struggles to free a toy skunk.
With TRAGIC results.
And I mentioned experience? Well, it turns out you get a LOT of experience when the family cat spies movement and pounces, attempting to rend and kill. And once saved from that, you get even more experience when the family cat finds you again, and the two of you tumble into the cellar to be attacked by sapient rats who just want to eat both you and the cat. Suddenly the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend.
Stuff and Nonsense starts slowly, almost too slowly, showing the “nothing” baseline of the bear, but it soon picks up speed, and like I said: You write a true-to-life cat with all its petty foibles, with all its instincts which cannot be denied, and you throw in an adorable little bear golem? I am SO there! Add the bear’s love for his little girl, and what’s not to love?
I first saw this when I was scrolling through the week’s New Releases on Audible. Seriously! Look at the cover art, see how Tim Gerard Reynolds (Tim Gerard Reynolds!!!) is the narrator, and you’ll see why I couldn’t spend a credit fast enough.
Certainly TGR is no let down as a narrator. He’s simply one of the best out there as he always shows complete familiarity with the text, and he flows through age, species, gender with considerable skill and utter ease. You aren’t listening to an audiobook, you’re experiencing a topnotch performance! And after this? Well, he’s given Simon Vance a run for his money as my <favorite> narrator. This is like getting to-your-door service for a bedtime story.
With profanity. And violence. Lots of violence. (And while I’m rather a sailor when it comes to profanity, I must say that it was rather jarring the way the cursing was just sorta stuck in there; it seemed out of character at times). Still, do indeed expect our hero Threadbare to get his fluffy little paws bloody; and do indeed expect him to get torn in two SEVeral times (He has to be Mended quite a lot). Still, I like a good bloodbath every now and then, and author Andrew Seiple keeps things humorous with monsters and nightmares which are… cat themed!
I laughed a lot, and I thought Threadbare and his companions, especially the family cat, Pulsivar, were adorable. So much so that I dashed off to get the second in the series!
I mean, just LOOK at the cover art! Tooooo cute for words!
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