Fluke and the Faithless Father

The Fantastic Fluke, Book 2

By: Sam Burns

Narrated by: Zachary Johnson

After escaping a murderer and resurrecting his boyfriend, Sage figures he deserves a little time to recover.

Unfortunately, life is rarely fair.

So instead of a break, he gets to deal with a magical law enforcement rookie asking uncomfortable questions about his brush with death. The quaesitor is acting downright suspicious. Or is it suspiciously?

Things go from awkward to dangerous when the man who murdered Sage’s mother is released from prison, and soon after, there's a break-in at the bookstore. The situation escalates so fast that Sage is afraid he's going to end up with whiplash. Or worse, end up dead. He wanted a break, but not a permanent one.

Fluke and the Faithless Father is a direct sequel to The Fantastic Fluke, and should not be listened to first. It is an ~85k word novel that follows the continuing adventures of Sage, Fluke, Gideon, and their whole family, found and otherwise.

©2021 Sam Burns (P)2021 Sam Burns

Fascinating!

While it took a bit to get used to a different narrator, the story had me captivated.

Everything is slowly unraveling and while Alan/Allen was a monster for what he did, I liked that everything wasn’t black and white and that he somehow found redemption.

The story is getting richer, the plot thicker and I can’t wait for more!

Great Story & Narration

I loved this second book in the series. Sage's past impacts the present and we get to see Sage start to find his confidence and grow into his own. We get to see much more of the baddies and it really amps up the suspense. And there were several wells crafted emotional scenes to add depth to the story.

This is a new-to-me narrator and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I really hope people will give this a listen, as it was an extremely well-crafted performance. The character voices were distinct and his pacing and tone enhanced the story. I think the author made a great choice in narrators to pick up the series and I hope the next book is out on audio soon. Well worth a credit!

Great story, mediocre narration.

This is a very good and well crafted story. The author, Sam Burns, has continued Sage’s (MC) development; a proper protagonist who’s growth as a person is a direct result of the story’s events. In the first book, The Fantastic Fluke, Sage is someone who doesn’t believe he has a right to exist, to the extreme that he almost allows himself to die. During this book, Fluke and the Faithless Father, Sage has people that he cares about and not only believes that he has a right to exist, but demands his place in the world. This is clear in the writing and Sage’s words and actions. The problem, and the reason for the low score, is the narrator Zachary Johnson.

Johnson does add some emotion to Sage’s voice, but it’s not consistent and it’s the wrong emotion. Johnson’s tone makes Sage sound despondent throughout the story. Gone is Sage’s sarcasm and wit; those are still present in Burn’s writing, but Johnson’s narration doesn’t reflect that. Johnson’s narration lacks everything that made the storytelling of the first book, read by Joel Leslie, so wonderful (I especially miss Gideon’s voice).

Beyond the despondent tone almost all of Johnson’s characters sound the same. Sage, his grandmother Iris, and Jordan are identical; Gideon, the driver, the accountant, and nearly all the bad guys have the same voice. This makes it difficult to know who is talking, which pulls my attention away from the story and back to the individual words.

After my first listen I was going to give the performance 2 stars, after the second listen I’m giving one star. It isn’t that Johnson is without talent, it’s that he wasn’t a good fit for this story. This is a great story that is lessened because of the narration.

I hope the author will re-record and re-release this audiobook with Joel Leslie as the narrator.

Awesome!

I love this audio, I loved reading the ebook but listening to it was much better. Zachary did an awesome job bringing the characters to life.

Just fun and emotional!

Yeah it has some very cliche moments but it’s just good. I love the characters, world building, and the narration was fantastic. It’s a great magical fantasy story that happens to be a romance, not a romantic fantasy.