Journey

Sunfall, Book 1

By: D. Gideon

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce, Becket Royce

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Ripley's a tomboy at heart who has never met a stranger. Her plans were to finish her veterinary studies and take her family to the country, where life wouldn't be such a struggle. She thought the worst she'd have to deal with at the University of Maryland were the unwelcome advances and attitudes of affluent students, and the occasional East Coast hurricane.

She never expected the sun to fall down.

An immense coronal mass ejection, the likes of which the modern world has never seen, blankets the Earth and destroys the power grid worldwide.

Ripley has no communication with her family at home and - thanks to the University's zero-tolerance policy - no weapons to protect herself. Society is becoming increasingly panicked and desperate, and the government seems slow to respond.

The world, as she knew it, has ended. A new world of lawlessness, betrayal, and scarcity is beginning.

Can she become the woman she needs to be so that she and her friends can make it home?

With the thin veneer of a civilized society collapsing, can she even survive?

©2016 D. Gideon (P)2017 D. Gideon

The Start of Something Interesting

Sunfall: Journey was refreshing for a post-apocalyptic book. Sure, it still takes place in a bigger city and involves people trying to bug out to a safer location, but it follows a group of teenagers in college for some of the story. I haven’t read too many books with a college-aged protagonist who was also familiar with the prepper mindset (or at least enough to have some things on hand if things ever went south). Some of the college-aged kids were prepared and others were not.

It also follows Ripley’s grandmother at her home and the struggles that she faces trying to save herself (and wait for her family to make it home). It was just a nice change of pace, especially following the college students. I liked hearing what would happen and how most people would shrug it off as just a few-day issue and not a big problem. That felt incredibly realistic to me. Most people are stuck with a normalcy bias and don’t realize that things are going south quickly.

The interaction between the Ripley and her friends is easily the most memorable part of this story. It happened exactly as I pictured it would. There were “end of the world” parties thrown by fraternities on frat row, people completely and utterly unprepared, and some kids think that they ‘deserved’ more than they were being offered.

Unfortunately, there were a few parts to the story that took me out of the moment. Both of them came near the end of the book. One of them was where Ripley just couldn’t get herself into the mindset (even though she seems to have been mostly in the mindset since before the CME hit). I just had a hard time with back and forth characters like that. She was definitely a mini-prepper before this happened having made up plans, routes, and a go bag. But she also couldn’t believe what was going on around her or do things that would be harmful or take from others (that she would never see). It wasn’t enough for me to stop reading by any means, but it did pull me out of the story a little.

Overall, Sunfall: Journey was an enjoyable change for the post-apocalyptic genre without being too different. There are definite parts that I’ve read in every other book, but they were sprinkled into new or fresh stories. I took a full star away from my review because the book doesn’t’ really have an ending. I am 100% fine with a series of books, but you have to give me some sort of story arc. This one felt like it was split up on purpose to make two (plus) books out of one.

The narration for Sunfall: Journey was done by both Kevin Pierce and Becket Royce. You’ll recognize Pierce’s voice (and presence on this blog). He is one of the “go-to” voices in post-apocalyptic fiction, so I completely understand why Gideon chose him to be one of the two narrators. The other narrator is Becket Royce, who I have never listened to before this book. She does a really nice job voicing the “motherly” character in this book and I would definitely listen to more books narrated by her.

I received a free copy of this book. It has not affected my review of my opinion.

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I liked it

it was well written and kept my attention. narrator spoke well and did a good job.

This audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.”

Great start!!

I love the combo narration. A very good start to a story that could turn into a good long series!!!

More reasonable

Seems more reasonable aftermath. Behavior. Situation. And preparedness level of most. Some neat tips that are so obvious that they're usually an oversight. Good book all in all.

Good characters but overly didactic

Some interesting characters but heavy handed much of the time. Feels like the author is talking down to us as readers who wouldn't know how to survive an event like this, rather than spinning a real tale.

Good but not kid friendly

On a family vacation this year, my family and I listened to this audio book and book 2 Both are fun and the story is very entertaining. A story about some friends trying to make it home from school after SHTF could be a great story and teaching tool. If you listen to the first book, you really should listen to the second, as well. The first book is them preparing to get on the road, the second is their adventures on the road, and the third is their adventures after they have arrived at home.

The third book is not on audible, so you will have to purchase it in physical format if you want to finish the series.

I really wish the author didn't have so much cussing in the books. The story telling is good and the story would be just as good, if not better, without the bad language. All the language does is keep parents with younger kids from reading/listening as a family. If I knew the language was bad (especially in the second book), I would have skipped this series for our vacation.

Interesting idea, characters all over the place

I liked the idea of following a world where a CME happened, and the spiral of life as we know it. I felt it was interesting to see the differences in people prepared versus ones that weren't, though college students being that prepared was a bit far fetched. Both narrators did a really good job, with Kevin narrating the action in the little town and Becket narrating the college students side. They did a great job bringing the characters to life and giving just enough of a difference to really differentiate between the characters in each of their sections. The characters are a bit maddening at times. They contradict their own logic within minutes and seem to switch their stance without much of an explanation. It makes it hard for me to get invested in the characters.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

👍🏻

Interesting original story. Great character development. Great post apocalyptic read.

I enjoyed the narration and performance.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Outstanding, realistic prepper fiction

Ms. Gideon has done an excellent job crafting a realistic, well thought out, and completely readable work of prepper/TEOTWAWKI fiction. You won't learn the muzzle velocity of a 5.56 round from an AR-15 SBR, but you will learn some more useful stuff and be entertained along the way.

On the audio side, Kevin Pierce's performance is awesome as usual. This is my first time listening to Becket Royce, but she holds her own with old man Pierce. Well done, all the way around!

Promising start to a new series.

Any additional comments?

I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Sunfall is the first volume in a new post-apocalyptic series and I must say it's off to a great start. I know I am not the only one who loves apocalyptic stories (what does that say about us? lol) and I thoroughly enjoyed Sunfall. Mr. Gideon takes a different approach than many other books of the genre that I've read lately in that the books focuses on the very early days following an event, which in this case is a solar event that hits the planet and plunges the world into darkness. We don't jump right to people going crazy and society being total chaos, instead we see the slow slide, real issues that people are faced with when the power goes out for an extended period of time. The cast of characters is varied and entertaining, we get a good mix, those with a prepper mentality (though even these characters didn't see, prepared for this kind of event) and those for who such an event seems unthinkable. The book jumps back and forth between two groups of people, a bunch of college kids and a grandmother and town they are trying to get home to, both storylines are highly entertaining and I was sorry when the book ended. Thankfully the second book in the series is already out, and I've already purchased it, though unfortunately it is not available in audio format.

Speaking of audio format, as I noted earlier the book follows two different stories and each of these is told by a different narrator. Kevin Pierce, who I've heard before, narrates the grandmother's story and Becket Royce, this is my first time hearing her work, narrates the college kids story. Both of them do an excellent job and I will definitely be checking out some of their other work, and I hope they record the sequel.