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Interesting Times, Vol. 1 Paperback – February 21, 2013

by Matthew Storm (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,772 ratings
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Oliver Jones used to live an ordinary life, until one night a stray cat began speaking to him and things began to go very wrong. Now he is on the run, hunted by an inhuman assassin who will stop at nothing to kill him. His only hope for survival rests with a trio of unlikely new allies: A werewolf with a fondness for Hawaiian shirts, a strange little girl who just might be immortal, and a gunfighter with an anger management problem. For better or for worse, Oliver lives in interesting times...
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  1. Book 1 of 4
    Interesting Times
  2. Print length
    226 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    February 21, 2013
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.51 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0615771513
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0615771519
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Somewhere in the space between Doctor Who and The X-Files lies Interesting Times. It's the story of an ordinary man who is thrust into an extraordinary world. A man who finds he has been living alongside vampires, werewolves, magicians, and aliens for his entire life, but never had any idea until now. And maybe this ordinary man is not really so ordinary, himself. They say that "may you live in interesting times" was supposed to be a curse, and maybe it is. But maybe...just maybe...it's an invitation.

About the Author

Matthew Storm lives above a bar in Tokyo, where he is occasionally visited by a stray cat who may or may not speak.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cranberry Lane Press (February 21, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0615771513
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0615771519
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.51 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,772 ratings

About the author

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Matthew Storm

Matthew Storm

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Matthew (M.J.) Storm lives in Anchorage, Alaska. He previously worked in banking and technology before deciding telling stories was more fun.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
1,772 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Solid writing, lots of fun
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2015
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed "Interesting Times" much, much more than I expected. I suppose the story could be classified as a fantasy, but I think 'supernatural fiction' would be a better description. The story could have easily devolved into a romp of fantastical superlatives, which would have turned it into an anime-like adventure, but the author choose to softshoe it with careful restraint, bending the story around a guy who simply can't believe he's a somebody, and when he's forced to acknowledge it, he doesn't know how to act the part.

For fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is an Arthur Dent-esque feel to the central character, Oliver, a nobody who ends up having much more to offer than anybody would have guessed. Along the way, he finds a cat that talks, a man who smells like a dog, a woman who is uncomfortable without violence, and a demi-goddess in the form of a young girl.

For all its fun, I see this as a thinking person's kind of story. What would you do if awakened to a power within yourself of arbitrary scope? What would you change, what would you be tempted to indulge in? To what extent would you contort your character to access that power on demand? To follow rules and laws that begin to seem less significant? The idea that power corrupts is an old one, and I think it's a classic theme that will never be worn out.

I like how Oliver is set up as a study in corruption. He has no ego, no expectation that the world owes him anything. His struggle to cope with the transformative influence of power is at square one. I can imagine a team of psychologists talking about this scenario late into the night. These developments will have to take place in the sequel(s), which I look forward to reading..

"Interesting Times" is first rate thinking given voice by quite decent writing, generously earning five stars in my book.
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Kenya Starflight
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and entertaining fantasy/sci-fi romp
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2021
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I picked this book up not expecting much. It looked like it had the potential to be funny and entertaining, but given that it was a Kindle freebie I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm pleased to say that, despite a somewhat slow opening, "Interesting Times" ended up living up to its title, and is a hilarious, enjoyable romp with plenty of humor, weirdness, and adventure to keep it fascinating.

Oliver is a stock analyst who lives a life that even he will admit is boring. He's thinking of ways to liven it up when the stray cat he regularly feeds starts talking to him... and that's only the start of the weirdness. Soon an assassin targets him at work, and he finds himself being hunted by a secret society that considers him the most dangerous man in the world. And as Oliver finds himself on the run alongside a laid-back werewolf, a trigger-happy mercenary, and that dang talking cat, he realizes that he's gotten far more than he wished for...

This book starts off on a rather dull note, and I admit to almost dropping it right away -- there are more natural ways to open your story than with a simple biography/character description of your main character, writers. But things pick up several pages in, and I find myself willing to forgive the dull opening. The writing flows nicely, feeling like it progresses naturally from scene to scene instead of jumping from one "episode" to another, and the story has a nice balance of humor and intrigue that I enjoyed.

The characters are delightful as well. Oliver is admittedly dull, but he fits well as an everyman trying to figure out just what's going on and how to survive some admittedly insane situations. His allies, especially Tyler the werewolf, are fun, and their personalities play nicely off of each other. Even the villains don't feel like stock villains, but have a believable motivation for what they do and can even be affable despite having it in for the main character and his friends.

"Interesting Times" is a fun fantasy/sci-fi romp, and if you enjoy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" you'll probably also enjoy this story. And while this story ends on a decent enough note, I'm intrigued enough to check out the sequel...
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DLM
5.0 out of 5 stars Great, Interesting, Different!
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2013
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I really, really liked this story. It was different and I was totally involved the whole time. The author does an excellent job of drawing you in and keeping you just on the edge of almost figuring things out - maybe - until the end, when you finally get it. I read the whole thing in four hours. I couldn't stop. I loved the characters - all of them. The description doesn't do the story justice. I downloaded a sample of the book - which seemed just a little slow to start because the author is building background on the main character, Oliver, and he starts out as a really, really, dull character. But,when I got to the end of the sample I was interested enough - due to the good reviews the book already had - to go ahead and buy the book. And I am so glad I did. The story immediately picked up and boom! you're into it.

Oliver starts out as a dull guy, leading a dull, boring life, faced with a dull, uninteresting future - then a cat talks to him - Then he keeps running into a guy in a flashy Hawaiian shirt - then he has a creepy assasin after him - then he gets kidnapped by the guy in the Hawaiian shirt and a really, really angry woman and then he wakes up in a house which it turns out doesn't really exist in the here and now - and THEN things get interesting.... Oh, and the talking cat comes back into the story - and I think I like the cat the best.

Really, just read the book. There is way too much that happens to even hint at. I hope the author writes more about this group of characters - I am all over it if he does.
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Amazing Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2023
Verified Purchase
Quite novel in its concept with genuinely interesting characters and a plot which just got better and better.
If you buy it,and I hope you do, stick with it and enjoy it.
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martin h.
5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining freak show
Reviewed in Canada on July 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
Thoroughly enjoyed this quirky book with its wierd cast of strange characters. Not at all the sort of book I would normally read, I was engrossed by it. Well written with an ample splash of humour and dry wit, I was entertained and amused. I shall move onto book 2 in the series immediately. Looking forward to it already.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A +
Reviewed in Australia on May 16, 2017
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A fabulous dry tale of eccentric paranormals. Recommended for a rather different take on the boring doofus who never suspects his abilities that lie beneath the surface.
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🐭 Miki101.Micha
4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining adult fairy-tale for those who...
Reviewed in Italy on October 26, 2015
Verified Purchase
... like the protagonists created by Neil Gayman, for example. Or are familiar with super-natural phenomena :-) ...
Oliver Jones is a very simple-minded financial analyst, working with some small hedge-fund in San Francisco. His life is dull and without any surprises, it seems to him - and to the reader, too. Until one evening he talkes with the stray-cat he is as usual feeding Thai food on his windowsill - and the cat talks back! Both are very very surprised by this event! Then suddenly the life of Oliver takes always more a turn to the interesting side, when a tax-inspector tries to kill him in his office. Saved in the last second, he has to leave his dull life behind and is recruited by Artemis - who seems to be a little girl of about 10 years - to join her group. Which - in top-secret style - is saving ever since the planet plus inhabitants from strange dangers like cyborgs, now extinct...
Sally, some kinda out-of-her-mind gunslinger and Tyler, who likes wearing - and tearing - Hawaii shirts, are his new co-workers in the San Francisco branch of a world-wide organisation, which no-one obviously knows about. Oliver's life is in great danger because a "Matriarch" of a strange unhuman "Underground culture" has forseen him as the "Destroyer of Worlds" - but before all of her own race. And Oliver has one very important power, he is not able to control : He can change realities under certain circumstances...
This first book of the Interesting-Times series is the often hilarious story of a dull man without a life, who is hiding much more than the eye can see. My favourite protagonist is without any doubt Jeffrey, the talking cat. But all the others too have so many things and facts to hide and discover, that the reader may find a surprise on every new page. Who likes Star Trek, Doctor Who, (mostly) friendly vampires, and loathes evil man-eating creatures - AND can imagine his or her cat ordering Thai shrimps or Chow Mein for dinner - here You are right!
I like this first of a new series by Matthew Storm - the author of the Nevada-James crime stories "Broken" and "Scars" too - very much. He writes very good, has freshly new ideas and his books never lack original twists and turns. I have now bought the second exit "Interesting Places", too and the story is very promising and always in line with the ideas the author introduced in this "fairy-tale for adults". Who likes his or her books a bit "out of the normal" will surely not be disappointed here. That's my opinion - for what it's worth :-) ...
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Alix
4.0 out of 5 stars UNA SORPRESA
Reviewed in Spain on October 14, 2015
Verified Purchase
Lo descargué porque era gratuito y no era un clásico, pero poco a poco, al leerlo me fue interesando la historia y los personajes. Bastante cinematográfico. Argumento sencillo para seguirlo bien en inglés. Lenguaje actual. Interesante. Merece la pena leerlo, sobre todo para el que quiera practicar inglés y no aburrirse.
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