• The Sumage Solution

  • San Andreas Shifters, Book 1
  • By: G. L. Carriger
  • Narrated by: Kirt Graves
  • Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (692 ratings)

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The Sumage Solution  By  cover art

The Sumage Solution

By: G. L. Carriger
Narrated by: Kirt Graves
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Publisher's summary

Can a gentle werewolf heal the heart of a smart-mouthed mage?

New York Times best-seller Gail Carriger, writing as GL Carriger, presents an offbeat gay romance in which a sexy werewolf with a white knight complex meets a bad-boy mage with an attitude problem. Sparks (and other things) fly.

Max fails everything - magic, relationships, life. So he works for DURPS (the DMV for supernatural creatures) as a sumage, cleaning up other mages' messes. The job sucks and he is in no mood to cope with redneck biker werewolves. Unfortunately, there is something oddly appealing about the huge, muscled Beta visiting his office for processing.

Bryan AKA Biff (yeah, he knows) is gay but he is not out. There is a good chance Max might be reason enough to leave the closet, if he can only get the man to go on a date. Everyone knows werewolves hate mages, but Bryan is determined to prove everyone wrong, even the mage in question.

©2017 Gail Carriger LLC (P)2017 Gail Carriger LLC

What listeners say about The Sumage Solution

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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

a joy to listen to

I read the book when it was released, then listened to it two weeks later because I loved the story that much.

Biff is a big, wonderful sweetie-pie of a werewolf. Max is TROUBLE, a failed mage with a huge attitude problem.

This book is great. There is a big cast of well-drawn characters, an interesting plot, snappy dialogue, hot sex, and love. Lots of love.

Also, if the author happens to see this review, there better be sequels! I want Colin's story. And Lovejoy's, too.

The narrator did a great job. The character voices are nicely distinct and pleasant to listen to. I hope he gets to narrate the next one (fingers crossed).

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Missing some world building...

Any additional comments?

Dual POV from sumage Max and werewolf Bryan, this is a paranormal romance with a lot of humor, banter, and sex.

Even though this is marketed as a standalone I felt the world building really lacked focus and explanation. I felt dropped inside a paranormal world with little to no explanation of how or why things worked. There are a lot of different types of shifters, magicians and humans, and a thing called quintessence that magical folk can manipulate, but I have to be honest that after ten hours listening I'm still not really sure what it actually is.

I honestly expected to find a far more complex story, but instead got one quite a bit lighter in tone.

I'm not going to lie...this took a few hours to get into and if I hadn't been reviewing it I might have put it down. Kirt Graves kept me going on this one.

Graves is good at providing clear character voices for all of the characters (and there are A LOT), and I was able to easily follow along with who was speaking. The narration is steadily paced and without a lot of over the top emotional inflection or performance.

I really liked that Graves put some extra touches into the audio like the vibration of a cell phone or text alert, which made it feel a little more interactive without being intrusive about it.

It did take me a bit of time to get used to the different audio sound Graves uses to denote the internal dialogue of the characters. There is a lot of internal dialogue. A lot. Which on one hand was good considering Bryan is the strong and silent type so we get a lot of his character development through his internal musings, but on the other hand, was also a lot.

Speaking of character development...the story lacks quite a bit in this area, in my opinion. I kept waiting for more, but it never came, which was really disappointing.

If you're okay with more of a True Mates sexy times kind of story with a lot of humor rather than one that has more complex world building and character development you should definitely check this out.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

The romance was sweet, but the story was a bit slow. It was too slow getting started. I got kind of bored. There was to much repetition. By the end, I was curious about where things were going to go in the series, but it took too long to get there. The narration was okay, but could have better defined voices.

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4 people found this helpful

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

All porn and no plot

I have loved all of Carriger's books so far, and I understand that this was a break from their normal work, but this book really let me down. Carriger had created an amazing sci fi/fantasy world in previous book, but in this book it seemed like an after thought. The entire first half of the book was all sex scenes and almost no plot or story line other than the budding romance of the main characters. There was a change to the world that had been made so far, but there was so little explanation or examples of it that it just got swept under the rug so there could be more sex.

Not that I'm saying this was a horrible book. If you are looking for hard core man on man sex stories then this book is for you. Carriger is an amazing author, and while these scenes aren't exactly my thing, they were well written.

If you are looking for another good story based on the world that Carriger has built so far though, this book is just lacking. It pretty much doesn't even get any attention until the last 2 hours of the book . It was an extremely slow start to get going, and the first few hours were just repetitive. The book easily could have been half the length and nothing would have gone missing. Disappointing.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved it!

I'm a huge audiobook listener but I'd never listened to Kirt Graves before. His narration is fantastic! Every character had a distinct voice and there are many lovable characters in this story. But not so many active ones that you'll get confused or distracted from the story.
There's not a huge amount of character development in the main characters, but you can definitely get a feel for both of them and what their lives were like as youngsters.
I will look forward to reading more in this series.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

I expected more and that’s my fault

I really had high hopes when I started listening to this story. I listened to GL Carriger’s The 5th Gender and that set some standards and expectations for me so I guess my disappointment is my own doing.

My listening experience felt like a roller coaster of predictable and frustrating emotions. The story started out slow, in a way it’s due to world building and setting up the meet cute of Max and Biff. But it just felt dragging.

Once the characters got together, then it felt they’re moving too fast only to be pulled back again by miscommunication and culture differences.

There’s a lot of unpack from the undertones written between the lines and I respect that.

However, I ended up disliking Max’s character even when I’m compassionate to his plight. It’s said and stated that he is a mess, broken and has issues. Yes, he has trauma from his past which isn’t to be taken lightly. But I wholeheartedly disagree with the premise that it’s okay to him to hurt Biff and reject him because of that said trauma. Our past and our scars isn’t a license for us to hurt people we claim to love. It happens but it’s not okay. Biff, being beta and a saint, accepted this whole circumstance. Their resolution worked for them.

Kirt Graves’ narration carried me through finishing the story.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Boring and pointless

This book was missing a little something, namely a PLOT. It could have been condensed into 4 chapters and nothing at all would have been missed. Boring, plotless, and pointless unless you enjoy wasting your time on mediocre writing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beyond Brilliant

Two days later, after having finished my first read/listen of this book and I'm still suffering book-hangover.... You know, that feeling where you really want to stay in the story; yes, that one. I'm actually kicking myself for waiting till it dropped on Audible, and then only because I needed a new listen, as, while I loved the early Parasol Protectorate novels the final one did a "Tolkien" on me with effectively the feeling that the magic went away.
So, I admit I was a bit wary starting a new Carriger series... but OMG... Next, please, now.

Kirt Graves, as a narrator, hit this one so far out the park that it's landed in the next country. The voices, the tone, the whole feel, was perfect. Though that may also have been in part because of the production values in the actual recording. Trick like making thoughts sound "hollowish" in comparison to things voiced aloud worked.

Just the right amount of angst. A pefect balance point of a Happy Ever After with a springboard to the next book (Yes, Gail, I am looking at you and hoping you are writing it as I type because I want more Max and Biff). Fantastic narration.... Yes, this wins my vote for best I've listened to this year and I've listed to some amazing stories.

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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

love it as much as I did the parasol series.

love it as much as I did the parasol series. please do more of this

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1 person found this helpful

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

I loved it

would love to hear more from the san andreas pack, who doesn't love gay werewolves er shifters

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