Solitude

Dimension Space, Book One

De: Dean M. Cole

Narrado por: R.C. Bray, Julia Whelan

Winner Listeners Choice Award - Best Science Fiction

The Martian meets Gravity when Army Pilot Vaughn Singleton, Earth’s last man, rushes to Area 51 in search of a spaceplane after he discovers the last woman is stranded on the International Space Station and barely alive - thus beginning a race against time. The event that wiped life from the planet started at the supercollider. It created a rift in space-time. The astronaut stranded aboard the space station, Commander Angela Brown, is a theoretical physicist who used to work at the collider. She may be able to reverse the event, restoring the timeline and returning all life to the planet...if only she could get there. If you like action-packed audiobooks that leave you sitting in your car long after reaching your destination, you'll love the electrifying action in this trilogy of award-winning thrillers.

Can Vaughn find a path to space and back? Can Angela - the only person capable of reversing humanity's disappearance - survive until he does?

Find out now. Get Solitude today and start a series you won’t want to stop!

"Like The Martian on (and above) Earth. An epic survival story with very human characters, clever problem-solving and a gripping mystery. The end left me with no idea where Dean was going with the story, I couldn’t wait for the next book.” (Craig Alanson, NYT best-selling author of Expeditionary Force)

"R.C. Bray and Julia Whelan are individually stellar. Having them co-voice Dean M. Cole's superb Dimension Space Series is a stroke of genius. Rich with elements of every genre, Solitude is an outstanding listen.” (Nicholas Sansbury Smith, USA Today best-selling author of Hell Divers)

©2017 Dean M. Cole (P)2017 Dean M. Cole

Solitude

Would you consider the audio edition of Solitude to be better than the print version?

I use the audio versions because of vision issues. I do love the feel of a book in my hand, but with the right reader stories really come to life. With this book I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Solitude?

"What the hell is in your hair?"

What does R.C. Bray and Julia Whelan bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

They give a voice and personality to characters that I may not have thought of.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Will to survive tested daily!

Its about the journey

“Solitude” is the first book in the Dimension Space series, authored by Dean M. Cole and the Audible narration is performed by two narrators, R.C. Bray and Julia Whelan. If you blend The Martian, Castaway, and an apocalyptic disaster theme into a single book and you get something resembling “Solitude”. It is an emotional rollercoaster ride ultimately focused on survival with enough suspense thrown in to keep you on your toes. If you like detailed stories having space, high action, strong relationships, believable science, human survival, and even a touch of romance; this book is for you. I know it is only the first book in a series, however when I was finished, I simply wanted more. I believe this is a sign of a good book. Is it perfect? No book can claim that title, but it comes close when you place it beside many of the current independent publishers. If the author’s other books (Sector 64) are anything like this one, I will most certainly be listening to them as well. I highly recommend this book to anyone irrespective of their preferred genre, it is a solid and well-defined story that keeps giving.

I had the pleasure of listening to the entire book while on a long road trip and I do not regret it. The only thing I was unhappy about was when it ended; it seemed too short. If you are the type of person who does not like waiting for the next book in a series to be released, you may want to hold off until a few more in the series have been released prior to picking up this one. I will say the book took me a little time to warm up to what was going on. However, once that was accomplished I could immerse myself fully and enjoyed the ride. If you find this to be the case, just give the book some time, you will not regret your decision. I think for me, the difficulty I needed to overcome was the book’s two narrators; one female and one male. At first it seemed to jar me in and out of the story as the narration switched from one to the other; often when a new chapter began. It quickly becomes more natural or expected just like with a Disney movie when you forget the characters are talking toy cars and just enjoy it for the story.

Without going into too much detail as not to provide any spoilers, I enjoyed how the author took the reader between what was happening on the International Space Station (ISS) and the events happening here on earth without losing focus on the other’s issues. The author appears to have researched his subject matter quite well as there were many new terms and words that I looked up for clarification. He explains things well enough that one is not required to have a book on astrophysics present to understand the book, but if you do have one it may help you to appreciate it more. It was written at a high enough level for nearly anyone to enjoy, but had some deep technical and science nuances that just added the icing on top of the cake.

The book can be rather complicated due to the many events happening simultaneously and at times the I struggled to keep up with all the action. This happened infrequently, but I think it speaks to ones need to listen and pay attention to the book; unlike some books letting you multitask while listening. This one you want to take it all in anyways, so I would recommend you allow yourself time to enjoy it. Another issue I had with the book was the male character. He often had what seemed like super human powers and could tackle nearly anything to accomplish his current goal; generate power, fly planes, helicopters, etc. Meanwhile, the female character appeared to be the brains of the operation. More the typical stereotype of brains vs. brawn, but again this was not something that overpowered the story itself. At times, the action sequences also appeared more rushed than I would have liked, but this is more a preference issue. I like to know the actions, events, and way a problem is solved instead of going from point ‘A’ to point ‘G’ without providing all the meat in between. Again, this is more a personal preference and it was my desire to at times to have a deeper story line than was given.

For the younger reader or parent, this book does contain some vulgar language which is often used as a way to express stress or frustration by the characters. In some ways, this usage of language cheapened both of the main characters for me as I would have assumed each would have had a larger vocabulary to draw from then to resort to standard swear words. There are some discussions having sexual overtones, nothing graphic, that may be inappropriate for younger readers. A few points of intense action, but nothing over the top.

The narration was professionally done and somewhat unique having both a male and female narrator for the different roles. The book is not dramatized, just leverages the two narrators for the parts in the book. Often one narrator reads an entire chapter based on where the events take place, but at times they would be communicating with one another so you have both in the same chapter. I will say that I preferred the female narrator’s voice over the male, if I had to choose to have the book narrated by only a single person. That is not to say the male voice was unpleasant, not at all. R.C. Bray has nearly two-hundred and fifty books narrated under his belt and a number of them I own and have enjoyed. The same can be said for Julia Whelan who has nearly two-hundred and forty books narrated. The recording was exceptional and I would expect nothing less from this pair. I did not notice any issues with volume or other audio artifacts while listening to this book. Narration was solid.

In summary, if you are wondering if I would recommend this book to others, let me just say that I’m looking forward to the second in the series! There are many directions this story can go and different avenues the author can take. I also hope the same narrators are able to complete the series as this would just make the series that much better. If you have not already listened to this book, I recommend you do. With the success of “Sector 64” and now “Solitude”, this is an author to keep your eyes on!

Farfetched and Repetitive

I did enjoy a lot of this book yet some plot turns were just too fantastical to suspend disbelief, like one non-astronaut accomplishing what the greatest would likely not be able to do. It was offensive that the author frequently included references to the male character hiding, grabbing, or clenching his private parts. Also the author’s constant use of “the woman” or “the man” or “the astronaut” rather than the characters’ names— jumping back and forth from first-person to third-person—became distracting and annoying.

Brilliant!!!

This sees two separate stories being told, one by a woman who is stuck on a space station and one by the last man on earth, when the apocalypse happened!

Army Aviator Vaughn Singleton is testing a new invention and is disconnected from the planet with his friend, when they lose all communications with everyone. They have no clue what is happening and are stuck in the machine till they can manually open it, but air is running out quickly!! They eventually get out but Vaughn's friend is killed and he goes into a spiral of loneliness. During the lonely months, something niggles at Vaughn and he keeps thinking of the slogan "what can Brown do for you". He keeps thinking it's something important when suddenly he remembers something that the last person he talked to said. It clicks with him then and he remembers reading something about Commander Brown who is on the Space Station. He immediately tries to contact her to see if she is still alive.

Then we have Commander Angela Brown who is on the International Space Station when she sees some sort of light moving across the globe. She is contacted by someone who tells her that anyone inside the ring of light seems to have disappeared. They can't contact anyone, and the ring of light is expanding. She is told to abandon the Space station with her co-workers and come back to earth in case it's an electronic failure, but things don't go her way and she is stranded up there by herself. Stuck in a space station that is slowly degrading and with dwindling supplies, Angela sends out a recording twice a day, every day. After months of nothing, she is resigned to her faith when she is contacted by someone named Vaughn. How will the last two people on earth reunite?

So this book was brilliant!! I absolutely flew through this and didn't want it to end. My heart was in my mouth the whole way through because I couldn't see how things could work out!! This author has such an amazing imagination!! You are brought into the apocalypse pretty much straight away and your attention is solely focused on the two characters and their journeys. I loved this because you easily become invested in both their stories and find yourself echoing each of their sentiments. My heart broke for both!!

Plot wise, it's intriguing and scary too. Scary because of the epicenter of the light, that place freaks me out because of what it can do!!! The authors descriptive writing just made the whole story pop. The science behind it was easy to understand and believe and just made the story real. His characters development was amazing, considering both of them are alone for most of the time. I was blown away by his writing and this story. I'm thinking there will be more in this series because of the ending, and I seriously can't wait!!! This is definitely one of the best I've read so far this year. Brilliant.

R.C Bray and Julia Whelan are two of the best in the business. R.C Bray is just amazing and really knows how to perform any book he reads. He never fails to deliver and always makes a book so much more enjoyable. As for Julia Whelan, she is equally amazing. She is easy to listen to and has an impressive array of tones and cadences. Both of them brought this book alive and I couldn't think of a better pair to narrate it.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

Great narration OK story

I'm not a huge fan of duel narration but RC Bray and Julia Whelan were great together. Story was just OK. I felt like the author could have gone into detail about some things to make more sense. Ending was kind of stupid.

Too stupid to live!!!

They are both too stupid to live These too have so much bad luck its ridiculous instead of concentrating on getting Angela down it mostly concentrates on all the bad luck they have. Its hard to believe one has a PHD and the other is a pilot captain in the Army. No wonder why this country is failing if this is indicative of dumb people in charge.

Good story, fantastic narration

The only 'complaint' I have with the story is that the highly educated and trained main characters are such impetuous morons. Knowing about massive pileups they careen here and there...why not pay a bit of attention and not 'mash the acccelerator'....knowing better, one flies into a blinding snowstorm....flies... and a tornado... sometimes the 'insurmountable' obstacles to be overcome are just...too much.. overall I liked the story and the concept. Maybe less impulsive idiocy and a little more planning by the characters would make them more realistic... looking forward to Book 2.

When is the next in the series out...

Would you listen to Solitude again? Why?

I have it stored away and will most likely come back to it again. If nothing else, as a refresher for when the next portion of the series is released.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Solitude?

Too many to list.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I usually listen to books while driving...back and forth to the office, running errands. In this case, I found myself just sitting in the car sometimes listening.

Any additional comments?

As the headline said. When is the next in the series due out? And the one after...

Loved It!

Great book! It sucked me right in; I walked around with my head phones on for two days... The narration by Julia and R. C. was exceptional! I am definitely looking forward to the second book.

Interesting and fast paced.

story never slowed down. also liked having seperate narrators for both characters. great book! Can't wait for the next.