Journeyman

Matt Miller in the Colonies Series, Book One

De: Mark J. Rose

Narrado por: Mark J. Rose

American scientist Matt Miller is torn from his own century and dropped into Colonial America with nothing except a backpack. His phone, his money, and his identity are all useless and he quickly finds that he is foreign and alone in his own country.

Matt must meet the challenge to survive in a newly forming society where he seemingly has no relevant skills and no one he can count on. He suspects that his 21st century knowledge of science and technology could make him a king in the New World, but he quickly finds that 18th-century America is a dynamic place where nothing is guaranteed.

The challenge to prosper, succeed and especially to win the hand of a beautiful Virginia farm girl is like nothing he has ever faced.

©2016 Mark J. Rose (P)2018 Mark J. Rose

kept my interest

it's an interesting storyline, getting book 2 if available. a professional reader would do it more justice but all in all pretty good.

Loved the story, not the narration

the story itself was great, smart man from the future who uses his future knowledge to help better himself and his community. I just really think the author should invest in a proper narrator. He describes accents and the way people speak many times through out the book. It kind of takes you out of the story because you're expecting some kind of accent or inflection, but its all the same and quite meh.

lovely Series

Great story, purged book one and off to the second! Matt was charming and was a fun mesh of historical fiction and science fiction.

An enjoyable treatment of time travel

This is an entertaining story of a 21st century man hiking in the Appalachians being suddenly and unexpectedly transported to Colonial America when an experimental facility where he is employed has an accident creating a temporary black hole. He is found unconscious by a farm family in the year 1762. His interactions with the family and the society in Colonial Richmond are the focus of this book. There are a number of interesting occurrences as he learns to adapt to what is an alien society. A romance starts to develop, which changes the character's desire to cooperate with efforts to return him to the 21st century. I enjoyed this book so much that I bough the sequel. Hopefully, anyone reading these books will enjoy them as much as I have. I plan to buy future books in this series, if the Author writes them.

Not sure Book 2 is in my future

(A few minor spoilers) The time travel genre always requires a suspension of disbelief, and I was OK with how our protagonist ended up in 1762. The story then interminably drags, morphing into an unrealistic love story. Boy sees pretty girl from unfamiliar culture, instantly falls in love a la James T. Kirk. It was easier to suspend disbelief re: time machine physics than it was to find actions within the love story believable. Thought we might run into some historic colonial figures and raise the specter of a time line change or paradox, but not to be. One dialogue faux pas was bothersome. 21st century character uses the phrase "OK", and 18th century characters who usually call him on his 21st century idioms, are "OK" with it- OK was a 19th century word. Overall, not sure the hook was set deep enough to move on to Book 2.
Regarding the narration- it was not the worst, but having been spoiled with hundreds of audiobooks narrated by talented voice actors, this one was bland. It's nice to have a voice actor do different inflections for all the characters, such that their character is instantly recognizable. Author's voice was not unpleasant, but had a one-size-fits-all characteristic. A voice pro would have had a lot to work with in this story- 21st century Philadelphia boy and 18th century Virginians.

Amazing story - Needs a professional narrator

The story is amazing. I am a sucker for time travel stories, and this is a good one. A really nice "slice of life" style story rather than the empire building and action that you will find in books like Eric Flint's 1632 series.

Those who are looking for swashbuckling action, with the MC meeting famous colonial figures like ben franklin will not find that in this book. It is a slice of life story. I enjoyed it, especially as a change of pace. But others may not be into it.

The dialogue and descriptions of life in the 1760's feel bang on and are really well done.

But god, I wish the author had employed a professional narrator. I went from a book narrated by voice actor Neil Hellegers straight into this one and the difference was so jarring that I almost bailed on the book right away.

I understand that professional narrators are expensive, and for a self-publisher that is a barrier, but man - oh - man this book could use it. There are constant references to the different accents of the characters (German, Irish, etc), and comments on the "strange" accent of the MC but you hear none of it. And acting? the author tries sometimes, but this story would have been better served with a pro.

That's not to say that Mr. Rose can't read. His delivery would be perfectly fine if this book were a non-fiction book instead of historical fiction. He sounds a little like the narrator of PBS's Frontline. The problem is that he can't act, and he can't do accents.

That being said, the story was so good that I stuck with it and am glad I did. In fact, I just bought the second book!!
So a win for Mr. Rose I suppose: I ended up buying both books, and he saved the cost of a real narrator!

But I a real missed opportunity here. This audiobook could have been a real masterpiece with a proper narrator. *sigh*
If there is a book 3, I hope Mr. Rose decides to pony up for a pro.


P.S I notice that there are quite a few 5-star performance votes. Really? It's crazy. Is this the first audiobook that they have listened to? Come on. Let's be real here....

a pretty good story, a pretty meh narrator.

a pretty good story, a pretty meh narrator.



give it a shot, it's worth it.

Great story

Enjoyable story. Once I started I couldn’t stop until it was finished. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

I usually cringe when I see that the author is also the narrator...

But in this case Mark J. Rose did an admirable job. I enjoyed the characters and the story. His narration felt effortless, which is how good narration should be. I just realized there’s a book 2 so I’m getting ready to buy it.
ps: I highly recommend this book!

Time travel

Normally, when looking for books, I don't choose time travel. Can't really say why I chose this particular one but really enjoyed it. Have just bought the 2nd book in the series. Thank you to the author and narrator, Mark J. Rose for a very enjoyable few hours.