"I Hate Your Time Machine"

A Fiction-Fueled Guide to Some of the Worst Tropes of Fantasy & Science Fiction

By: Jeff Mach

Narrated by: Christopher Harbour

Take a space-pirate, inspired by a long-ago Dark Lord. Take a long period of quarantine within the tiny confines of a stolen starship.

Now, take 42 busted, broken, or overbearing tropes of fantasy and science fiction. One by one, the Dark Lord twists each into a strange shape and uses it to tell a new story - many of them disgracefully funny, some rather dark, and none of them suitable for vulnerable minds such as yours. So you should stay away from this book - far, far away - lest the words break the confines of their bibliographic prison and come forth to vent their endless rage and their even more endless snark.

Jeff Mach, author of the best-selling There and Never, Ever Back Again, brings tight, interesting, usually satirical, often quite twisted stories, to light a fire in your belly like whiskey, and light a whiskey on fire, like an idiot who brought the wrong tools to a pub brawl.

©2020 Jeff Mach (P)2021 Jeff Mach, Dark Lord

Unique and different

Great narration by Christopher Harbour .
Many stories intertwine and come together in a unique and entertaining way.

Unique

A bunch of short stories, some connected, some not - that makes one think. I highly recommend this for someone who is tired of the same types of stories where one knows how it's going to end.

I was given this audiobook by the narrator for free and have voluntarily left this review.

An Irreverent Look at Fantastic Realms & Rules

Dragons and Dark Lords, Gods and Mythical Beings, Mages and Monsters - there's not much that doesn't catch Jeff Mach's attention or invoke his commentary in this irreverent, sardonic and often laugh out loud funny look at the world and denizens of the worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy. As a long time fan, I loved this book. There were times when I could hear Mach giggling (maniacally) as he tapped away at his keyboard, creating short vignettes to illustrate the points in his discussions of the character and plot types so common in modern SF&F.
Kudos to narrator Christopher Harbour who managed to capture that light-hearted, playful tone while maintaining a serious and professional narration style. I'm sure there must have been a few retakes when a snort or a chuckle snuck out unbidden, but the narration perfectly matched the subject matter and made a well written and thoroughly enjoyable book an even better audio experience.

A whimsical mix of fantasy an science fiction

I enjoyed most of the stories, especially the development of the chosen one. It was however, the lists between the stories that made me chuckle the most. If you like Monty Python, you should give this a go too.