We Are The Ulutating Tzatziki.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for giving me this book in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Nigel Spleen's life changes when he gets a copy of the game Quincy Moonbeams and the Ululating Tzatziki for his birthday. The next morning he wakes up to yet another day in his disastrous life, but things change when his old friend Duncan turns up, lures him into a VTOL-capable pub and gives him a glass of Bébeme. When Nigel wakes up, they are in the outer thermosphere. Here, Duncan tells Nigel about their mission: a Very Big Thingy is about to crash into the Earth, and the tzatziki overmind has commanded him to team up with Nigel in an attempt to stop it. Nigel is thus forced to address the above question, along with other, more profound, questions that such a situation would naturally give rise to.

As a Sci Fi fan, I really wanted to love this book and to some extent I enjoyed some of the humour but overall I was lost throughout the whole of this book, It’s very disjointed, the world building (or lack of) could have been amazing and I feel there was just too much going on to the point the humour and silly words were too jam packed which took away from the actual story line. A very difficult read although I did enjoy the Greek references.

This was an odd read. It definetly had the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy vibes, and certainly gave many nods to the series. I liked that the story was similar and followed many of the lines of Hitchkiker's while still being divergent enough. I enjoyed that the Earth wasn't outright destroyed, but there was a chance to save it.

If you enjoyed Hitchkikers Guide to the Galaxy, like quicky totally odd books, or like weird science this would be the book for you.

My favorite genre is scifi comedy, and this book was clearly in that catagory from it's title and cover art, both of which made me hesitate. Not the best title, not the best cover. But you know what they say about judging and book covers, so in I dived. And what a fun read this was! A space adventure with unwitting humans thrown repeatedly into strange situations with aliens, witty word play clearly influenced by Douglas Adams, enough Britishness that I could imagine this book as a 1980's British TV show with all the cheap alien costumes and physical comedy, and a main character you are rooting for as he bumbles his way along as the unlikely hero. This book is a win for all your scifi comedy fiends out there.

How to describe the plot: Earth guy is tricked into flying into space where he tries to stop an alien from destroying Earth. With help from his best friend, girlfriend, and other humans on a space station orbiting Earth, he must fix an unreasonable series of screw-ups that he is primarily responsible for. All that in part guided to some degree by the ability of tzatziki sauce (yes, the condiment) to transmit radio signals and interspace communications to other dairy-based condiments (did I mention yet the level of ridiculousness in some of the plot pieces). The story also features a serial shoplifter who dresses up in different costumes, talking geese, a protection force made of sentient cheese, and aliens living Amish-style. Tossed in are lots of linguistic quirkiness, puns, and other cultural/literary references (I am sure I missed a lot, but I caught a lot too) which made the reading lots of fun.

Verdict: Scifi comedy. Fast-moving and intricate interwoven plot, interesting characters, the witty weirdness common to the genre, obvious British humor. If you like scifi comedy of the somewhat silly kind, this book is for you. So glad I picked this one up. What a refreshing break from reality!

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for this arc to review. This review is also posted on storygraph.

This was such a funny book. Very Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I loved all of the unique food references. Just a heads up to non British readers, there are a lot of British references and slang which is not a bad thing just a tad confusing at times. Just be prepared to either Google several terms or go with flow and get the gist of things as you go.

Overall I really enjoyed this book though the story did have certain points that dragged especially in the first half. I will say once they make it to space it starts to pick up the pace and the last half felt much quicker than the first half. I loved the British humor and the overall zaniness. I do feel you'll have a better time if you don't think too much about certain plot points. They are completely illogical for awhile and then it all starts to come together. I was analyzing too much when I should have just been enjoying the ride. Almost everything comes together as the book goes on.

The only real complaints I had were that it was a tad long and at the end I was still a bit lost as to how they resolved the major conflict. I might have missed some of the answers so I'll have to do a reread one day.

The word play in this is great. There are amazing puns, fantastically humourous names, and some wild antics. My favorite characters were actually the two side astronauts, Croqrotte and Throng. They were delightful side characters. There is a lot of dairy references in this novel which is an odd but hilariously goofy choice. Overall if you are looking for a fun sci-fi satire that doesn't take itself too seriously this is for you

When reading the blurb for this book, I thought it would be very similar to the much beloved Hitchhiker's Guide. It does have some funny moments, but overall the humor didn't connect with me fully (maybe too British for my tastes?). The book was pretty slow paced and slightly too long for me to be fully entranced.

I do think I would recommend this book for people who like the Hitchhiker's Guide anyway, but with a slight warning that it is slower and long.

I've actually given this 3.75/5 but have rounded up because I feel like it.

I received an advanced copy from Netgalley and the author in exchange for an honest review!

I saw the title of this first and was exceedingly curious, then I saw the description on Netgalley and was immediately pulled in, and THEN when I actually started reading it and was slapped with the same narrative voice style as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy I was SOLD.

This was so off the wall and extremely British in its humor that I was actually laughing while I was reading this. I really do love when a book (especially science fiction) has footnotes, and oh baby does this have FOOTNOTES. I honestly found the footnotes to add to the comedy of certain lines, without pulling you out of the book as a reader since they're still written narratively like they're from the characters. I even found myself early on putting my head in my hands to laugh at a certain characters name because of how I had read it.

When the ship finally takes off I felt myself seeing it like the treehouse episode of Drake & Josh with Nigel being Josh and asking where the hole for the door is and Duncan being Drake and running into the wall to grab the saw that's outside. And that's what firmly cemented it as my "fun read" in between the heavier/denser fantasy and horror novels I have lined up. I did assume that the pace would be faster than it actually is since usually satirical sci-fi tends to move fairly quick but also they're usually shorter, I did feel this somewhat drag and it certainly does feel its entire 500-page length even though the chapters themselves are fairly short. There are a few moments where the POV changes and it raises the question within the reader of "Why are we seeing this right now" because they don't feel entirely connected to the overall plot.

All in all this is an absolute treat to read, the characters aren't really loveable in my opinion but it is quite a lot of fun to watch all of the events unfold and to have a laugh at their expense. Is the payoff worth it when you consider things like the length and pacing? I think that depends on the individual reader, I DID enjoy it quite a bit (and have recommended it to a few other sci-fi fans in my friend group) but I did feel it dragging in terms of pace. So I think this is best if you want something fun, that will make you laugh or at least giggle, and don't mind a very slow moving story.

This was a journey. I usually love a good space comedy and british humor. However I felt like this book wanted to do too much. There was so much going on that it felt like it would never end. About half way through I really felt like it would be more enjoyable if the book was a bit shorter.

Overal I still enjoyed parts of the book, some of the humor was fun, but in the end I just wanted it to end.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of those off the wall books that you read for pure entertainment, especially in a slump, so don't take it too seriously! However, I felt this book would've done much better if it were a novella rather than full length novel. I just felt there was too much there. In any case, if you love Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you'll love this one!

2.75🌟 rounded up

I hate that I didn't like this more. I had high hopes but was ultimately let down a bit.


Let's start with:

The Good—Obviously, by the title, you'll know this book doesn't take itself too seriously. It's pretty funny, and I even had several laugh-out-loud moments while reading, especially with the footnotes. It's pretty zany and off-the-wall. You really have no idea what will happen next. This book is highly quotable and full of dry British humor. Kudos to the author for making me look up the definition and pronunciation of several words, including ululating and taramasalata.


But then here comes:

The Bad—It was just entirely too long. This book needed to be about 100-150 pages shorter, and it would have held my attention the whole time. Unfortunately, I didn't find Nigel particularly likable enough to want to read over 500 pages of this. So, by the end, it felt like a slog to get through. That is just my opinion, though. I know plenty of readers love this kind of novel.

Recommended for fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Thank you to NetGalley & Matthew Lee for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGally and the author/publisher for an eArc of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I read the blurb for this book and immediately requested. I really enjoyed this and certainly filled the void that books like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy left behind. I’m sure funny space romps are tired of being compared to that book, but that just highlights how little we see in that genre of humorous/space opera/found family vibes of which this book certainly delivers.

There is one warning I would give for this book in that it has classic dry British humor (which really works for me) but might put off some. Like this book is so dry you could cure your wet phone in it like a bowl of rice haha.

A few things didn’t work for me, giving it a 4 star instead of 5 in that the book was just too long in my opinion. Great story, great writing, I just feel like some of the beginning part could have cleaned up a little and tried to love the story along a little faster.

This book gave me the same feeling I had when reading Gideon the Ninth. Do I know I’m having a good time? Hell yes I am. Could I tell you exactly what just happened? Not always

Highly recommend