BuyMort: 30,000 Leagues: How I Merged to Become Nu-Earth Affiliated

I’ll admit, I went into *BuyMort: 30,000 Leagues* skeptical—another ‘corporations run the apocalypse’ story? But Hanson subverts the trope by making the bureaucracy *the actual villain*, not just window dressing. Tyson’s struggle isn’t just against monsters (though the ‘beasts’ plaguing his land are delightfully weird), but against the soul-crushing inertia of a system that treats armageddon like a quarterly report. The humor lands because it’s rooted in recognizable frustration: anyone who’s ever fought a faceless HR department will *feel* Tyson’s pain when he’s forced to file paperwork mid-zombie attack. Wayne Mitchell’s performance is a masterclass in tonal balance. His Tyson is a perfect everyman—exasperated but not whiny, weary but not defeated—while his supporting cast voices (especially the smug corporate drones) are just cartoonish enough to highlight the satire without tipping into parody. My only critique? The middle act sags slightly under the weight of its own lore. Hanson’s world is rich, but the deep dives into faction politics occasionally stall the momentum. And while Mitchell’s pacing is generally excellent, a few action sequences blur together in the audio format—this is a book that might benefit from a relisten to catch nuances. Still, the payoff (a third-act twist that reframes the entire ‘merger’ premise) is worth the investment. If you love *The Laundry Files*’ bureaucratic horror or *Project Hail Mary*’s snarky problem-solving, but with a corporate dystopia twist, this is a must-listen.