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The Punch Escrow

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The Punch Escrow

By: Tal M. Klein
Narrated by: Matthew Mercer
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About this listen

It's the year 2147. Advancements in nanotechnology have enabled us to control aging. We've genetically engineered mosquitoes to feast on carbon fumes instead of blood, ending air pollution. And teleportation has become the ideal mode of transportation, offered exclusively by International Transport - a secretive firm headquartered in New York City. Their slogan: Departure...Arrival...Delight!

Joel Byram, our smartass protagonist, is an everyday 22nd century guy. He spends his days training artificial-intelligence engines to act more human, jamming out to 1980s new wave - an extremely obscure genre - and trying to salvage his deteriorating marriage. Joel is pretty much an everyday guy with everyday problems - until he's accidentally duplicated while teleporting. Now Joel must outsmart the shadowy organization that controls teleportation, outrun the religious sect out to destroy it, and find a way to get back to the woman he loves in a world that now has two of him.

©2017 Tal M. Klein (P)2017 Audible, Inc. Adventure Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense

Critic Reviews

"Narrator Matthew Mercer is perfectly cast as smart-ass Joel Byram. One can almost see Joel's facial expressions as he navigates a world in which he's been duplicated in a teleportation accident. This futuristic story is made Monty Python-like by Mercer's outstanding voicings. His version of the synthesized voice of the 171-year-old founder of a religious cult is beautifully mechanical. His rendering of the two Levantine spies' accents is marvelous. And his depiction of the transformation of a hardworking science guy into full-fledged mad scientist is spot-on. Many characters, many voices - one terrific performance." (AudioFile)
All stars
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The story is amazing, and Matthew Mercer's performance brought the story alive in a way that transported the listener right into the story.

I love it!

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Enjoyable book with a nice voice for the narrator. Interesting story if you're looking for a fresh sci-fi

Wonderful narrator

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What did you like best about The Punch Escrow? What did you like least?

I don't quite know what happened here. About a third of the way through I was enjoying this - nice idea for a story, plenty to explore and then it just stopped being intriguing. I started to find the protagonist annoying. The book mentions Choose Your Own Adventure, if this was one, I would have made many different choices.

Has The Punch Escrow put you off other books in this genre?

No, in fact I have thoroughly enjoyed other books exploring this theme

Was The Punch Escrow worth the listening time?

Worth it? That's hard. I did speed it up to 1.5x to get it finished...

Plot got teleported

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I originally bought this book just because it was read by Matt Mercer and he did not disappoint. However once I listened to the first hour I realised just how awesome the world in this book is. There is so much in the short 8 hours

Everything is amazing

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Everything stereotypically wrong with science fiction is used to assemble this trash. It is just exposition briefly interrupted by plot. The characters, in their infinitesimal moments of characterization, are banal ciphers existing only so some cunt can world build in an incredibly infantile manner. It's the future and A.I's are children so you can just lie to them to achieve your ends... Thrilling. All three monotheisms united to form their own theocratic state? No; that's never going to happen. The only reason it gets a one is because I can't give it a zero.
And just to reiterate because it's important and would have informed my purchase, it is just unnatural exposition dumps provided by cardboard.

Just awful

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