Tom Stranger

Tom Stranger is a direct to audio book comedy series by Larry Correia, narrated by Adam Baldwin. The first work The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent debuted in 2016, though the character and concept originated in a 2010 short story on the author's blog. A sequel, A Murder of Manatees would release in 2017 and a compilation of the two with new content titled #1 in Customer Service: The Complete Adventures of Tom Stranger would be released in 2019. Text versions of some stories would later appear in the author's short story collections.

Main character Tom Stranger is an average man, of average height with average build and average facial features with the seemingly average job of Insurance Agent. Not so mundane is Tom's specialization in "Interdimensional" Insurance, which covers damages caused by instances where two or more worlds in the Multiverse crossover. Given the nature of such crossovers, the damage tends to be rather catastrophic. Luckily for anyone with a policy from Stranger & Stranger, Tom Stranger is very committed to being #1 in Customer Service and works to quickly resolve any issues his clients suffer and, despite his mundane appearance, he is more than Badass enough to deal with the problems his clients find themselves in.


 * Acceptable Targets: After by reminding him the inhabitants were all telemarketers, and thus deserved it for having committed such a horrible crime.
 * Acrofatic: While very round, Jeff Conundrum still has the genetic and cybernetic augmentation of an Interdimensional Insurance Agent and is entirely able to compete with Tom Stranger in battle.
 * The Ace: Tom Stranger is a three hearted genetically enhanced cyborg. Most difficulty he suffers come from problems created by Jimmy, or exceptionally fearsome threats.
 * As Himself: Adam Baldwin is the narrator and voices everyone so, naturally, Earth #345-B-98081's President Adam Baldwin is played by Adam Baldwin. Notably, Baldwin as president of that Earth dates back to the original blogpost and predates his selection as narrator.
 * A Worldwide Punomenon/Pungeon Master: Tom Stranger's nemesis Jeff Conundrum enjoys taunting the hero by using every possible phrase or title with "Strange", "Stranger" or "Strangers" instead of the man's surname.
 * Brick Joke: Everywhere! Examples from the first book alone include
 * Brown Note: Bill Nye's My Sex Junk.
 * Butt Monkey: Jimmy the Intern is a stoned out college student drowning in debt from a useless gender studies degree (It didn't even get him laid, as his female classmates were all bossy misandrists!) who is entirely unsuited for the perils of being an Interdimensional Insurance Agent.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: Jeff Conundrum's method of torturing Tom Stranger is to burn his favorite bow tie in front of him. It was a nice bow tie, and can't be replaced because it was found in a thrift store.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: The eyepatch wearing secretary of defense of Earth #345-B-98081, heavily implied to be (and confirmed as such in the sequel) R. Lee Ermey.
 * Enemy Mine: agree to very briefly work together to escape  before continuing their fight.
 * Fantastic Slur: Jimmy bumbles into this a lot, calling a manatee a "walrus" and using insulting language toward Terminators when he thinks cyborg Tom is like one.
 * For the Evulz: Jeff Conundrum operates his insurance company like this, doing dubiously profitable things like deliberately having his enslaved telemarketers call people at the most annoying time just to make people's lives worse. He's flattered when Tom Stranger calls him "evil".
 * The Load: Jimmy the Intern.
 * Mundane Made Awesome: Likely the most action packed story about the work of an insurance agent in existence.
 * Multiversal Conqueror: One of the things Interdimensional Insurance covers, and the first problem shown.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Tom Stranger and most other Interdimensional Insurance Agents are genetically enhanced and cyberneticly enhanced, seemingly for Rule of Funny.
 * The Nondescript: Tom Stranger.
 * Nuke'Em: Tried against the aliens that invade Earth #345-B-98081. Unfortunately this doesn't work on them and they instead use the resulting Nuclear Winter to go ice skating.
 * "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: The owner of Kentucky Fried Velociraptor leans on the fourth wall to be very clear that Bill Nye's My Sex Junk is a real thing and the claims of how awful it is aren't exaggerated for comedy.
 * Self-Deprecation: The Larry Correia of an Earth nearly identical to our own didn't really pay attention in college physics and is mechanically incompetent.
 * Serious Business: Insurance and customer satisfaction surveys.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: Tom's ability to speak Manatee may or may not count, since they're of at least human intelligence in this series, despite communicating in normal manatee noises (hoon!), all voiced out by Adam Baldwin.
 * Starfish Aliens: The aliens that invade Earth #345-B-98081 are purple, tentacled, blobs immune to radiation with airpower provided by "giant purple pterodactyls, with scramjets for buttholes [that] fart themselves to mach 4 and sexually assault F-22s".
 * Take That: As a comedy series that often ventures into political satire, this is to be expected.
 * Volcano Lair: The dimension of a volcano surrounded by tornadoes and lightning turns out to be.
 * The Watson: Jimmy the Intern is from an Earth very much like our own and has no understanding of the multiverse, thus requiring Tom Stranger patiently explain it to him.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: The president and cabinet of Earth #345-B-98081, which has been half destroyed by an alien invasion, are horrified to learn there are alternate Earths where Firefly was canceled after only a handful of episodes instead of running for five seasons and making Adam Baldwin popular enough to obtain the presidency.