Read Time: 2 Minutes
I went on a bit of an audiobook-buying bender where I dropped credit after credit on all the books in Eric Ugland’s “Bad Guys” series. Why? Because after the first book, I had to listen to the rest – no question. Since I listened to them one after another, and to prevent some major repetition on the front page of this site, I thought I’d review the whole series as a blog entry instead.
At the time of writing this, there are eight audiobooks released in the series.
- Scamps & Scoundrels
- Second Story Man
- Skull and Thrones
- War of the Posers
- Seas the Day
- High Gloom
- Back to One
- Trick of the Night
One of the first things of note is the length of each book. Unlike most other series I’ve got into, the length of each book is roughly the same length. One thing that annoys me a little (depending on the series), is when authors feel the need to make each subsequent book longer than the last. Ultimately, a lot of what you end up with feels like padding.
Ugland’s approach, where each is around the same length, makes for a refreshing change. A tight telling of the story, progression of the overall characters and larger arcs, but little that feels like padding.
The series begins with our hero in the world as we know it. Some stuff happens, and he finds himself about to die but is offered a second chance at life in what he thinks is a game. Pulled into this new world filled with mythical races and monsters aplenty, our hero, Clyde Hatchett, gets down to making his way in his new life.
I’m not going to dive deep into the plots here; check out my review of the first book if you want more on that.
This is more about the series as a whole and if I’d recommend it or not. Let’s face it, you already know the answer since I bought the eight available books in a row. This is certainly worth a listen if you’re a fan of fantasy, litRPG, and light humour. No “harems” or anything like that, just a fun adventure in a new world.
The narration by Neil Hellegers is excellent, and no major quality issues of note. Over the course of the series, I did notice the occasional background noise, but nothing to pull me out of the immersion. Hellegers delivers distinct voices and great timing, all working together to make it easy to listen to.
So, long story short – get into this series! If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy the heck out of it!