The Drop of a Hat Audiobook By Luke Chmilenko, G. D. Penman cover art

The Drop of a Hat

Hat Trick, Book 1

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The Drop of a Hat

By: Luke Chmilenko, G. D. Penman
Narrated by: John Lee
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A powerful wizard and a lowly kobold experience a magical meeting of the minds in the first book of this comedic fantasy-adventure series.

Absalom Scryne, the greatest wizard of his generation, has been murdered. There's no other explanation for why his consciousness now resides in his well-worn but perfectly pointed hat.

Well, he isn't going to take that lying down . . . or hanging from a branch, as the case may be. Instead, he'll hop on the head of the first foul-smelling kobold that comes along and convince it that it's in everyone's best interests for them to undertake the epic journey through the Badlands—past horny necromancers, rustic werewolves, and rampaging ogres—back to the shining city of magic at the heart of civilization, where he will promptly kick the backside of whoever it was that finally managed to stab him in the back.

Assuming, that is, he can teach a kobold how to use magic, survive all the roaming adventurers who consider a kobold to be a very minor payday, and prevent anyone else from claiming the wealth of arcane knowledge that is now bound within the rather handsome piece of haberdashery that he has become.

©2023 Luke Chmilenko and G. D. Penman (P)2023 Podium Audio Action & Adventure Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy Humorous Magic Fiction Mythology Magic Users Funny Witty Feel-Good Adventure Wizardry Comedy
Humorous Fantasy • Creative Premise • Excellent Narration • Fun Adventure • Satirical Elements • Beautiful Voice
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It’s pretty much in the title. Overall I wish it would have gotten somewhat more resolved at the end, but eh I get it, that’s what a sequel is for. It was still fun. I hope Ig gets a sequel to himself tbh.

The Performance is excellent the book is fun.

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I love this story and can't wait for more! It has everything. IG is awesome.

Excellent

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couldn't finish. . . great narrator. . . won't get the next book in the series. . .

couldn't finish

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The book had some funny moments, but there's only so much endearing incompetence one can take.

It also has elements of a Hollywood car chase... exciting and entertaining, but if it runs on too long, it becomes boring. This was a very long car chase, led by an idiot.

John Lee, as always, was amazing.

Funny and somewhat entertaining, but...

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The greatest mage in the world ... is suddenly a hat.
Worse, he's found by a kobold, the lowest of all possible semi-sentient creatures. Also, he's been strip of almost all power.
Goal: Get home, find out what happened and get restored.

Ig the kobold has the new hat and encounters many dangerous adventures. Since just about anything could kill the kobold or destroy the hat, there is a good sense of danger. Also, the wizard has been in his tower for a bit too long, so his vast bank of knowledge mostly isn't useful.

There are a series of great set-ups for vignettes, including ogres, werewolves and a profit-based dungeon.

Highly recommended.

A fantastic foray into fantasy

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Yes it seems like the authors like the sound of their own voices in the first 3 hours. Stick it out. There is a good listen in this purchase.

This is a good read

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So cute funny and unexpected! But so we'll written and narrated. Time to start book 2!

What a turn of events

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Fantasy world of sword and magic. Self proclaimed strongest arch-mage, Absalom Scryne, find him-self... as a hat? What happened? How did it happen? Why is he a hat? To survive and return back to his handsome human self one arch-mage does what one must, makes friends with the equivalent of opossum in this world, a kobold, Ig and heads out on a journey to his home town. Possibly, being the first member of his species to have used his brain as a consequence of mana infusion from Absalom, Ig is confused whether this counts as food or danger in his dual understanding of the world.

'The Drop of a Hat' is strange. Author farcically plays with the contemporary common fantasy tropes, excluding all the numerous double and triple sexual entendre, focusing on the perspective of the trope's character. One moment humorously describing systematical oppression of peoples, the next dramatically reminiscing about monotonous manual labor. Straight faced. Shifting perspectives from different characters, the Ig's journey is equivalent to 'Dumb and Dumber' story, mostly being confused about what's happening, Absalom's attempt at survival, in a natural way. The author managed to include both unexpected banana deep throating, and raise and fall of a civilization in one book.

Fast paced action and sudden expiry of characters juxtaposes protagonist's, Ig's, mental comprehension and development. The world of 'Hat Trick' is wild and survival is a constant struggle.

Conclusion: 3/5. Listened on Audible included in plus catalogue. Narrated by: John Lee. Humorous writing about sword and magic fantasy world. Openly discussing serious ethical topics from a middle ground pov. 'The drop of hat' made me cry, both fun crying about the absurdity of it and serious crying about mortality of men. It was easy to listen to and at the time trivial. Upon reflection - the story introduced what makes a person, the meaning of life, mutual connection and other topics the typical, not depressed, person doesn't think about daily. Terrible value for the length of the book - 2.72 $/hour ( 33.90 $ / 12 hrs 29 mins ).

Values:
Terrible: >1.66 $/hour
Bad: 1 - 1.66 $/hour
Good: <1 $/hour
Dream: 0.4 - 0.27 $/hour

DR:Absurd, humorous fantasy that can make u sad

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it's truly a great book that I think everyone interested in the genre listen to unique with humor and a fun cast of characters.

Fantastic funny fantasy world

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I stayed up late listening to it. had to force myself to sleep. one of the funniest satires I've ever heard. the hat does most of the narrative because the kobold only has 2 brain cells knocking together. fortunately that is one brain cell more than everyone encountered. reminds me of an old movie by Don Knotts called the ghost and Mr chicken.

go kobold wizard, you rock

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