Multitude

Publisher's Summary

Sequel to Solitude, the ABR Listeners Choice: Best Sci-Fi of 2018 

Following the incredible events of Solitude, Vaughn and Angela must probe the depths of space and time to unravel and perhaps even reverse the enigma of humanity's disappearance. But first, they must get past themselves. 

If you enjoyed Solitude, you'll love the action and plot twists in this apocalyptic epic. 

Vaughn had visions of plying the seven seas with Angela at his side. Then she and fate crapped all over his plans. Bent on discovering the truth about what happened to humanity and the rest of the world's life, Angela drags a less-than-willing Vaughn across the Mediterranean and into central Europe. However, even the overhead presence of a line of levitating steel structures and ships couldn't prepare them for what lied ahead. The size and scale of what they find in Geneva rocks them to their cores. 

Angela and Vaughn fall into the center of a world-consuming machine. While struggling to survive, they wander through a looping chain of utterly alien lands. When they finally deduce the true nature of their situation, Angela discovers a potential way out, not just for her and Vaughn but all of Earth's life. 

Angela can bring back the whole of the human race! 

But only if she and Vaughn can survive the journey home.

©2018 Dean M. Cole (P)2019 Dean M. Cole

Cole Does It Again

Multitude was a book I didn’t even realize that I needed. It was the perfect book that hit me just at the right time. I went into it completely blind (no synopsis reading) and only had a memory of really enjoying the first book. I could barely remember what happened – other than I remember them potentially being 2 of the last people on Earth.

As I said in the review of Solitude – Cole can right. And I think he got even better with Multitude. There were scenes where if another author had written it – I think I would have been lost. But Cole was able to write it in a way that both made me feel confused but also understand at the same time. The purposeful confusion is really hard to pull off but can work extremely well in a book like this where even the main characters are confused.

I loved that even through all of the peril and issues that they were going through – they were still able to make me laugh. There was a scene where Angela is too loud and scares Vaughn and his reaction had me in stitches. And numerous other times the way that he reacted to her was just the right amount of comedic reprieve.

This was one of those books that has you on the edge of your seat for seemingly the entire book. Cole wrote Vaughn and Angela into crazy situations and after a while, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to them. Right as they started to feel like giving up I remember thinking to myself I couldn’t do it anymore and even I as a reader needed a break. Of course, they pushed on and Cole didn’t give me much time to take a breath, but it was for the better because it made me stay up to finish that next chapter.

I remember writing that it wasn’t even the halfway point when reading Solitude and I thought I’d found my book of the year – I feel that way 4 months into 2019. I’m sure there will be other books that’ll come out later this year to challenge this but the combination of Cole’s absolute blitzkrieg writing and Whelan and Bray’s dual narration – it’s going to be a hard one to beat.

I didn’t think the narration of this series could get any better (Whelan and Bray combo) but Cole listened and they know narrator their lines instead of just bouncing between chapters. It absolutely makes this book fly by since you’re completely entrenched in what is going on with the characters.

Overall, just a fantastic book that I can’t even get into why I liked since it would spoil not only the first book but definitely this book. I absolutely flew through it and will probably pick book one back up again since I enjoyed it so much.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Great followup to the first book

Another great listen, wish the book kept going but I guess I'll just have to wait for the next one. The narrators really bring the story to life.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

More Julia Whelan please

I would have liked a swap between the chapters for the main narration. I did enjoy the narrators doing the voices for the characters.. but swapping each chapter would be great.

Also the expeditionary force easter egg was good :)

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Somewhat tiresome

If I had to hear either character say Oh Shit it What the fuck one more time I was going to scream. I get it. Your surprised. But it just got old. The whole story could have been told in 5 chapters. The other 32 were just repetitious.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A story that excels in every possible multiverse

I have been waiting for this sequel for nearly two years. To say that it was worth the wait is an understatement.

I listened to the audiobook version of this story and it was performed so well. Bob and Julia both did a fantastic job. I loved the new duet narration style used in the sequel compared to the dual style used in Solitude.

I can't go into as much detail with my review as I would like without giving out spoilers. So, let me just sum it up with Dean is a great researcher and tackled a concept that has always fascinated me in the physics realm. I have always been drawn to stories about CERN and the LHC, and Mr. Cole's work definitely piqued my interest.

On a side note, I have never related more to a character than I did with Angela and her experiences with modern cinema in relation to her educational goals. That hit me right in the feels.

This cliffhanger has me really anxious to get to Amplitude. I am hoping that it comes to fruition quickly as I want to dive right in at the soonest possible opportunity.

Another easy 5/5 from Mr. Cole.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

And I thought the first book was intense!

Dean Cole really ramped up the intensity in this second book! It's almost like he decided there wasn't enough tension and action and excitement in the first book so he tripled his efforts here! This was probably the fastest I've gone through an audiobook. I think the book came out like 5 days ago. That's fast for me because I usually only listen in the car. My commute and life didn't have me in the car enough to listen to this. It's funny because when I had other people in the car I was annoyed because I couldn't listen. I just had to find out what was happening.

The intrigue, tension, mystery, emotion was greater this go round. If Mr Cole is indeed increasing his game with each book, I can't wait until the next one! If R.C. Bray & Julia Whelan weren't such amazing narrators, I'd get the e-book and read it just so I can continue. Alas, I cannot do that because I owe it to them to listen to their performances. Besides, it's almost like I have a personal relationship with them now since we've journeyed so long together. We've come this far so we're going to stay the course and get through the homestretch. I can't wait for the next one. *heads over to author website to stalk his social media*

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great story

Great continuation of the original story but yet giving us something completely different. Looking forward to what's next.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

this book is fracking fantastic!!!!!

Dean creates a wicked smart universe (or should I say universe's) with his dimension space series. book one "Solitude" leaves the reader wondering where he is going with the story, but not in a bad way, with mystery shrouding what happens in book two. Multitude begins puzzling the pieces together, and in an intelligent fashion., while still managing to keep the reader thinking "WTF". Lord Bray as always does a fantastic narration, bringing the characters to life, and keeping the listener engaged in the story. Multitude brings the dimension to the space, turning on the switch in the listeners mind as to the science of the story, but does so in a way that still leaves many unanswered questions as to who is behind the curtain turning the knobs and flicking the switches. overall this is shaping up to be an award winning series, with book one already an award winner in it's own right. my advice is to pull the trigger on this series, well worth the credit, and I will be following Dean's works with great interest.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Great book.

rc really brings the book to life. the nod to expeditionary force made me chuckle as well.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Well worth the wait

Top 5 favorite books of all time. Waiting for the release of this audio book has been hard but it didn't disappoint. I can't wait for Amplitude. Also, I really like the back and forth narration format rather than have each narrator read a chapter and perform both voices. Hurry up and finish Amplitude I'm addicted. lol

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Groundhogs and Aliens!

Any book like Solitude that leaves you with just two human beings alive on the planet watching a stream of buildings, vehicles and tanks flying over their heads is unlikely to have a follow-up that's all plain sailing! And so it proves here! Solitude had a unique perspective of two characters separated by space itself working together, it was a great premise and worked extremely well. Now that Angela and Vaughn are together it's a different chemistry and feel to the book. They set off determined to work out what went wrong for humanity and there are no surprises that they got a lot more than they bargained for.

If you thought that they were lucky and succeeded more by blind luck and ignorance in the first one then as they loop through inter-dimensional space you'll wonder at it once again as the plot and action veer off into a cartoon or video-game like space from fairly early on. But this isn't intended to be gritty, hard sci-fi by any stretch and if you park your reality scooter for your listening sessions and go with it you'll have a ball with this. If you're after something like Adrian Tchaikovsky or Arthur C Clarke then look elsewhere.

Part of the reason this works so well is the narration of course. It goes without saying that RC Bray gives a great performance and he is more than ably joined by Julie Whelan who's no slouch behind the microphone. In the first one they worked brilliantly in the first part of the book alternating with the characters separated but it wasn't so good when the two eventually came together. In this one they found a great formula with RC Bray doing the narrative and Vaughn's voice with his usual excellent high-tension delivery and Whelan doing Andrea's voice and some sundry other parts. Probably harder to put together but extremely effective so bravo whoever made that decision.

Eventually, this one brings it's own story to a conclusion and gives us a spoiler excerpt from the third book, Amplitude. For reasons I won't elaborate on that one looks set to once again shake things up in terms of the chemistry but I suspect we can expect more crazy action, pseudoscience and Laura Croft-like antics from the characters. And why not?

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Pretty poor compared to 1st book

I liked first book was a fun story even though I didn’t really like Julia whelans narration. This book is just awful, pretty poor story with dreadful dialogue. It made me not like the characters, Bray was solid as ever but book was a letdown.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

liked it... a lot

story was excellent, can't way to see what happens next, narration was excellent as always, RCBray and Julia Whelan knocked it out of the atmosphere let alone the park. can't wait for the next installment

Multitude of possibilities!

Really enjoyed this
I think the two narrators were great.
Though the atmosphere was lacking a bit there some how.
It needed a bit more direction to improve the many moments explained usually by ‘Angela’s eyes widened and stood bolt upright’ - far too many times
RC Bray is consummate - I can’t help feel these two narrated their parts without being together.
Looking forward to Amplitude, as I like the story and the couple in this episode

This is getting silly

Difficult to review a book like this when it is part of a series. And that the first problem. These books really are the same story cut into 3. They are not just 3 stories connected by events or a common theme. They are 3 chapters of the same book.

Book 1, Solitude, was reasonably enjoyable, to I carried on into book 2 - this one. However, I sort of regret this. The author seem to take great pleasure in describing every little thing down to the Nth degree, every moment of jeopardy, every event, every movement is described in far too many words. This is fine the first couple of times, but we are still getting it well into book 2.

It slows down the plot to a point that I found myself screaming 'Get on with it!' a number of times. To be honest it feels a single book has been deliberately over-written so that it stretches into three, at three times the price So far I think books 1 & 2 could have been compressed into a 45 minutes TV Pilot script and not lose any detail. Perhaps the author needs to take a lesson from Philip Pullman - the master of getting on with it in books.. Sorry Mr Cole..

Frankly it's only the performance of the two narrators that prevented this book from being returned for a refund.

And the plot is getting very silly, and the two main characters seem to be getting dumber as the story goes on..

Frustrating

I loved the first book, so when this was released I jumped at it. What a let down, the characters are flat, the storyline plodding, and has the most frustratingly obvious conclusion the characters seem oblivious to, for most of the book, just made me mad! It was literally on the tip of their tongue, yet we meander to more frustrating waiting.

R.C. Bray's performance is outstanding as usual, but can't save a bad story.

No No No YES !!!!!

I can’t believe it,
When this audiobook came out a couple of days ago I when and got it right away.
Then in two days I listened to both audiobooks sure that it’s the complete series.
How wrong ! Now I got to wait who knows how long for the next audiobook to get released. I’m pissed of but I can’t say that this is a joy of a series so it’s going to be worth waiting !

Both audiobooks are great, easy to understand it all and full of enjoyment.

Perfect narration by R.C. Bray and Julia Whelan .
And for the author Dean M. Cole, keep it on with the same brain and imagination.

Fully recommend this audiobook to all !!!!
I’m WAITING.

Fabulous

Really enjoying this series. Looking forward to book 3

Great performance by both narrators

A great addition to anyone’s collection