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The Punch Escrow cover art

The Punch Escrow

By: Tal M. Klein
Narrated by: Matthew Mercer
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Summary

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.

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)

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What listeners say about The Punch Escrow

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Matthew Mercer makes this book.

Matthew Mercer is quite simply incredible in both voice acting and story telling. You will not be disappointed!

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2 people found this helpful

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New and improved

What a fantastic story.

Suspense and thrills abound and fantastically performed by one of my favourite voice artists.
Thanks Tam and Matt for making this come to life.
Great stuff

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Great premise but poor plot

I really wanted to like this book, but I could barely stay the course. There is little more than a rescue short story, in the context of what could have been an excellent narrative. The whole thing, despite Klein’s reddit response is the reveal and the notion of teleportation as murder and copying, but this seems to be just ignored, maybe the wrong word, but not used! He has reveals where there hasnt been any setup other than a passing mention of someone, so that when they appear you are like, oh that guy he mentioned 2 chapters ago! There is no world building and the characters have no soul, maybe that was on purpose, like a foil to the plot of the book? And I am not the first to say it but the whole, lazy, but intelligent under achiever, with hot more intelligent wife hero thing is over. Just cos I like Sci fi doesnt mean I need to wallow in fantasy.
Anyway, what a shame, also nearly forgot, the 80s references were so pointless, this book reads like a screenplay rather than a novel, unimaginatively rehashing traits from other better books in order to formulaically create a story that tricks enough people to buy it, oh god and the ending.... or is it?
Seriously what a load of c rap.
The narrator was excellent, and got me to the end, so good in fact that he managed to make this unpalatable thoughtless book get through-able.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Would definitely listen to it again

Matthew Mercer really brought this book to life. I'm looking forward to the 2nd part.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing book with an amazing vocal artist!

Fun book to listen to with an amazing voice artist bring it to life! .

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    5 out of 5 stars
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outstanding!

enthralling story from start to finish, matthew mercers narration really brings it to life

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

The narration made this better than it should have been.

The book itself unfortunately feels like an author's self-insert fantasy rather than anything particularly well-fleshed and gripping. As other reviews have stated, the constant 80s references are distracting and in many cases irrelevant to the story (main character interrupts high stakes scenario for a bizarre break-the-4th-wall moment of 'you kids of the future won't understand this obscure reference but let me tell you all about new wave music'), and there is confusion concerning who the story is being told to - us, the reader, or other characters who randomly interject and disrupt the flow of the narrative. At no point does it feel like you're fully lost in the story - it's jarring that the protagonist tries often to mansplain very obvious cultural references and current events that the reader is well-familiar with. Like when the inciting incident is interrupted so that the protagonist can start singing Karma Chameleon. It removes all sense of immersion. The protagonist is written as the typical lazy-but-too-clever-for-his-own-good type, yet does there isn't much reason to root for the character other than because the plot dictates so.

While the story itself is disappointing, Matt's narration makes the experience much more enjoyable and it's nice to hear him narrating a whole book rather than lending his voiceover to occasional parts in other audiobooks.

Would I recommend buying the book to read? If you value your time then no. Listening to the audiobook was ok.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting enough but with some tedious jokes

Some of this is clever - the primary concept, the explanations, the framing and some of the humour. I found myself getting annoyed with some of the wise-cracking though and the tedious 80s references. Our main characters seems to joke their way through some pretty traumatic events, which made the whole book feel cartoonish and a bit silly.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating from start to finish

I finished this in two days. The story is amazing and well worth checking out. Matthew Mercer's narration is excellent and his voices really fit each character. My only criticism is it isn't longer.  An instant buy for fans of science fiction.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, Amazing performance!

This was a great listen. Story was pretty good, full of compelling concepts and characters. Amazing performance by Matthew Mercer, brought every character believably to life.

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