Unfortunately, I did not get gripped into the story. I got lost between Characters and time lines. But I would give the actual book a try as I may get less confused than with the audiobook.

So you Had to Build a Time Machine. Hmmmm. Not great sorry. Lost interest immediately and didn’t like the narration,

I thought I would like this audiobook. The idea of time travel was very attractive to me, but I couldn't get into this one. At moments, it was quite difficult to follow the story. I didn't like the narration, especially male voices.

Confusing; Narration Doesn’t Help

Audiobook Review:
I am still relatively new to audiobooks and am still learning how to best enjoy them. Some books are better than others and can be listened to easily; I’ve even listened to some that made me like a book when I hadn’t when I read it. Unfortunately, this audiobook was not one of the better examples. I got lost at the beginning with all the odd character names and nicknames and bumpy shifts in location. I wasn't quite sure who exactly was who at some points, and unlike a book, you can't flip back easily in an audiobook to refresh yourself about who's who and what they are. I wasn't particularly wild about the narrator, either. The voice sounded strange at points, nearly robotic. I also didn't think she narrated the men's speech well. That often seems to be a problem with audiobooks narrated by a single narrator. As you might be able to tell, I did not enjoy this audiobook.

Sorry, utterly dreadful. Narrator is awful - has she been tweaked with? She sounds often robotic and she absolutely drove me insane, her character voices grated on me and I found myself shouting at her quite a bit. 

The story didn’t flow, I didn’t have a clue what was going on at any point in this book after the first 20 minutes. Awful story, awful narrator.

I’d review this zero if I could.

Just because Skid doesn’t believe in time travel or ghosts, doesn’t mean that guy Dave she punched at the bar didn’t disappear in front of her face. It also doesn’t mean street names start changing, or weird stuff starts happening after her encounter with Dave. This moment will lead her through a wild romp through space, time, and dimensions in search of normalcy. Skid and Dave will have to team up to save all possible realties from being smashed together in the worst kind of ways.

Honestly, I was hooked from the title of this one. Time travel? That’s usually all you need to get me on board. This book was nuts, in the best possible way. It was a fun roller coaster ride through not just time and space, but alternate dimensions. We’re talking zombie clowns!

Narrator Emily O’Brien did an excellent job taking the massive undertaking of telling this story, and I’m really glad I got to listen to it, because it would have taken a lot longer for me to get to it in print. As it stands, I finished in just under 24 hours and it made some of my monotonous tasks at work much more enjoyable as well as pepping up a dull, frustrating commute.

It came out this summer, so definitely check it out when you get the chance if you’re into fun sci-fi!

Calling all readers with a sense of humor. So You Had To Build a Time Machine is one crazy-funny read. Hold on, because we’re going time traveling! Now this is not going to be a technically correct trip into quantum time travel. I could definitely see this story as a movie, as I imagine the visuals would be great.

If you want to enjoy this story, you’ll need to decidedly drop any expectations for a deep and technically thought-out quantum leap story. You’re not going to find that kind of advanced techno-science fodder here. That’s for the more serious-minded consumer of text books related to quantum science. 

If you have a good sense of humor, just sit back and enjoy this crazy, comical, time-tripping tale. In fact, by all means, just clock-out and enjoy the good time!  Oh...you see what I did there? :)

I wanted to listen to something light during the festive season of Diwali, so I selected "So You Had to Build a Time Machine" by Jason Offutt, after checking its blurb. I selected the book based on the title and blurb, as the cover design has only a title with cockroaches (later on, I came to know why cockroaches were portrayed). As per the blurb, the book was a comedy based on time-travel, so I thought of having a different experience this time.

Though the blurb says about time traveling, it doesn't say much about narration style. There are 5 main characters in the story, four of them are on the good side, and one of them on the bad side. Skid, David, and Brick took a major role, their time-traveling scenes were given in different sequences, initially, I found them too random and haphazard but later on, I understood that it was done to keep the interesting quotient intact.

The author has taken the liberty and used the style of a scary movie to make the book a light-hearted comedy. In the scary movie, you find comic scenes based on different movies, here the author has taken plot-based characters from various fantasy books. You will find dinosaurs, golems, mantis, ogres, giant cockroaches, and whatnot. Things will pop out at unexpected corners and make you laugh. 

An enjoyable book. But it could have been better. 

I am giving 3.25 out of 5 to this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Love it! My only complaint is that the audiobooks have an expiration date so I can't listen to it again! Fun little story.

Time travel is tricky. No one nails the logic of it, because of very obvious reasons. That said, this novel doesn’t really need logic. It’s madcap, screwball wackiness. The characters are dimensional, and they need to be since they double and cross paths with themselves throughout the story. If you’re into sci-fi/fantasy on the wavelength of Christopher Moore’s vampire novels, then this book is for you.

If a B movie was a book this would be it. 

Skid is in a bar with an awful guy called Bud Light Dave. After trying to badly hit on her Skid punches him in the face and he vanishes in thin air. What follows is an adventure through different time zones and different worlds as Skid, Carl, Dave and Brick try and stop the evil Carl and his master plan of time travel for the US government. 

It sounds ridiculous and it was, and not in a good way. I listened to this as an audiobook and it was so hard to follow. I found myself drifting off and then wondering what the hell happened. The narrator was a terrible choice, her voice was grating and for a book with the majority of male characters why it was given to a woman with a high pitched voice I’ll never know. She tried to do different voices but they was so bad, it was like amateur dramatics hour. 

I really wanted to like this book, the premise sounds great. Time travel through different worlds with orcs, massive cockroach’s and zombie circuses, but the author seemed to throw everything in the book including the kitchen sink and it just become a confusing mess. 

There are lots of good reviews for this book and all of the ones I have read are from physical copies so I recommend if you want to give this book a read don’t listen to the audio version. Maybe if I had taken my own advice I would have enjoyed this book.

I am a  hug we fan of time travel stories.  While this was interesting and somewhat unique, with some funny moments, it was disjointed to me and just never drew me in.

Narrated simply, with no music or extras. The narrator reads well and doesn't over-impose her own personality onto the tale. 
Whilst I found this story confusing around the middle (you really have to listen and not drift away into your own thoughts), the story was a good one. I loved the concept; you can't go wrong with a little bit of time travel. Everything tied in well, which is always a plus. There was nothing that stood out to me as not making sense. Nice little twist at the end too.

Holy Smokes, Batman, the title is a literal description of the audiobook!  This is a fun, well paced story about what happens when an idiot (his name is Carl, I'm so sorry if your name is Carl - you are not likely an idiot) with too much power makes a time machine.  He will eventually get his comeuppance, but the story is about the folks who can remember that time is changing and the events they have to overcome in order to survive the experience.  

I very much liked that each chapter was divided into different character arcs.  This story is just complex enough that I would have had trouble keeping track of each arc without them.  Without spoiling the story, I can tell you that there is a haunted house, a muffin store, a knife wielding former circus kid, a Dungeons and Dragons fan, an angry engineer, a bar, aliens, and a journey to turn off the damn time machine.

You will not regret the time spent listening to this engaging story!

I liked this book, but some of the humor got to me after a while once the jokes started repeating often enough.  I think it's a fun read, but not one that will stick me long after finishing.

When a mad scientists gets his hand on the switch of a supercollider, the world goes crazy with constant waves that shift through time and dimensions. An unlikely little band of characters struggles with monsters, police, and constant physical setbacks to get to the collider in order to turn it off in the hope that they can get safely home. Fun characters and plenty of action, make this little sleeper fast, fun, and humorous, as well as well formatted for audio. The chapters are filled with very short scenes with plenty of viewpoint changes, but as the author has numbered those scenes, the listener easily can keep up. Well narrated by Emily O'Brien with an easy listening voice and good pacing. Perfect for fans of light and humorous scifi.

Thanks to CamCat Publishing and NetGalley for making the audiobook of “So You Had to Build a Time Machine” by Jason Offutt available to me. The book is narrated by Emily O'Brien and has a running time of 11 hours 22 minutes.

Imagine a mashup of Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde with a heavy dose of pop culture references. If that zany type of tale sounds like your cup of tea, then “So You Had to Build a Time Machine” is right up your alley. Unlike so many time traveling books where the time travel is smoothly calculated, the characters of “So You Had…” must instead deal with a variety of unexpected timelines and dimensions. Each one they find themselves thrown into, at first seemingly at random, is a strange new world where anything from monstrous praying mantises to circus zombies may be waiting for them.

Practical Skid is looking for a quiet drink when she visits her favorite bar, but that is not in the plans as she notices things going weird – such as longstanding street names changing at random. Dave, an annoying theoretical physicist she just met disappears. Right in front of her. Skid must team up with an unlikely band of heroes to go on a strange and dangerous quest to fix the timeline before it’s too late.

Like when I dived into Adams’ “The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy” or Fforde’s “Early Riser”, I had to let myself accept the zany premise, allow myself to be a bit confused with the different timelines, knowing things would be reveals along the way. Once I figure that out, I was able to relax and enjoy the wild ride that is “So You Had to Build a Time Machine” by Jason Offutt.

If you absolutely do not want visions of a giant praying mantis eating a man alive, do not read this book. If that and other gore-ridden fantasy sequences are not an impediment, however, you will love this book. Author Jason Offutt has created an astonishing twist of plot and timelines that intersect more times than a New York subway yet somehow come out sensibly in the end. As the title might suggest, this is essentially a book about all the things that could go wrong when one starts messing around with space and time. It's replete with quirky characters and imaginative monsters and a sprinkle of humor to keep things going. The narration on the audiobook version is compelling and has just the right blend of sarcastic realism to keep the story from falling off the edge of unbelievable. 
I typically don't read books with overt adult themes. I'm not a fan of death, sex, and pain in my books. Offutt includes all of these items, but deals with them in a way that feels both understanding and humorous. While most of my students are too young a demographic to appreciate the complex humor of this book, and would also be pretty shocked at the gore, language and violence, I personally found this a very entertaining read with lovely twists and a surprise ending. Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC.

I was really excited about this book; however, I was a bit disappointed. I thought the story was absolutely fascinating, and Offutt is extremely creative. I am the type of person who is hit or miss on how I feel about time traveling novels, so maybe it just wasn't the right fit for me. That said, I feel like this book should have been a series as opposed to one book. In the blurb, it talks about how Skid is an ex circus bouncer, and we don't even learn hardly anything about the circus until maybe two thirds of the way into the book. There were times that I felt like I had no idea the connection to the plot line from the chapter before. I thought the narrator did a fantastic job. They have a great voice, and it was very easy to listen to them read. The voices and accents fit perfectly based on what I would have done with the writing. While others will likely really love this book, I was just a bit confused, and I would have liked a lot more detail.

This review is for the audiobook version of So You Had to Build a Time Machine.

I really, really enjoyed this book! I'm a sucker for time travel and loops, and this combined both. The ensemble cast of Skid, Dave, Brick and Cord was told very interestingly. I liked that we followed two of the characters in their specific dimension, while the dimensions and worlds changed around them. And at the same time, the others (Cord, Dave, etc.) were seen in multiple versions. The plot was fun and satisfying, with a great character reveal at the end as well.

My only quibble was an out-of-nowhere romantic interaction that didn't seem earned (the one at the climax of the story). The other ones were organic and believable.