Solitude

By: Dean M. Cole

Narrated by: R.C. Bray, Julia Whelan

Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

Winner - Listeners Choice Award - Best Science Fiction

A mysterious wave of light wipes humanity from the planet, leaving only one person in its wake. After months of desperate isolation, Earth’s last man discovers he’s not the only one after all. The last woman is stranded alone aboard the International Space Station and barely alive - so begins a race against time. If you like action-packed novels, you'll love the electrifying action in this apocalyptic thriller. 

Army aviator Vaughn Singleton is a highly intelligent, lazy man. After a last-ditch effort to reignite his failing military career ends horribly, Vaughn becomes the only human left on Earth. 

Stranded alone on the ISS, Commander Angela Brown watches a wave of light sweep across the planet. Over the next weeks and months, Angela struggles to contact someone on the surface as she fights to survive aboard a deteriorating space station. 

Then, from orbit above Central Europe, Angela glimpses the dark underpinnings of humanity's demise. It appears something went horribly wrong with a physics experiment at the supercollider in Geneva, Switzerland. As a theoretical physicist, Angela might be able to unravel and maybe even reverse the events that led to the apocalypse...if she could only get there. 

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

"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

Eh...

Until this book, I haven't heard anything by R.C. Bray that I didn't absolutely love. And while Julia Whelan is also a talented narrator, there was really no need for both of them in the way it was put together. Either could have done it alone and the final product would probably have been better for it.

The characters themselves weren't particularly likeable. They weren't necessarily 'unlikeable' , but I found nothing in either of them to engage my interest or make me care about them or what they were going through.

The general plot device presented throughout the entire book was, "This'll be easy. Oh no! Something horrible just went wrong!" ..and while it has been used to great effect by other authors, for some reason it just felt tired and poorly implemented in this story.

Then there's "coincidence." Most stories rely on coincidence to some extent and it's usually easy enough to gloss over. If I actually cared about either character I may have been able to ignore all of the stars that had to align for the story to even be able to take place...but when the characters' good luck (when they actually have some) is every bit convenient and necessary for the story to continue as their bad luck... It's hard to be invested in what the CHARACTERS are doing because it so rarely matters.

There's no intertwined reading between the two narrators. R.C. reads the chapters mostly focusing on the man, Julia reads the chapters about the woman, and while that conceptually makes sense, it kind of breaks down every time both characters actually get to interact. Each narrator reads for both characters and each reads them differently so there's no continuity in how personalities are presented. Some of that could be artistically explained away as each character perceiving the other differently (though I didn't much care for it), and I understand how much work it would be to actually record and edit together all of the respective lines. Overall though, I felt that the way it was done took away from the total experience and made the collaboration feel kind of pointless.

By the time I reached the end, I'd pretty much become so disengaged that I was more just glad that it was over.

208 of 230 people found this review helpful

What's up with all the positive reviews?

What was most disappointing about Dean M. Cole’s story?

There was little to no character development and the action scenes were overdone. I kept waiting for something original and interesting to happen and continued to wait the entire book. I kept felt like I was reading some poor mash up of plot-lines taken from the movies Castaway and Gravity, combined with The Martian.

Any additional comments?

I don’t know why there are so many positive reviews. I read a lot of sci-fi and this was complete garbage. The plot was unoriginal and formulaic. The vocabulary of the author seemed limited with an overreliance of clichés and repetitive descriptors (e.g., pregnant pause, first pump). Every other word seems to be “in spite” – why not use “despite” periodically to change things up? Don’t waste your time on this.

138 of 158 people found this review helpful

best I've read since The Martian

I'm a huge fan of sci-fi that isn't always about Aliens or at least takes a bit for them to show up. I loved the humanity of the characters. they had ups and downs and in betweens. the pacing of the story was wonderful and had me hugging my seat and breathing in relief at the proper moments. the way everything happened you almost hope that humanity isn't gone as there are no bodies to be seen. I can't wait to see where Dean m. Cole goes next with this story.

54 of 62 people found this review helpful

What. A. Story.

I honestly didn't even see the comparison to The Martian and I Am Legend (I try to not read the synopsis of a book that I'm pretty sure I'm going to love) -- but that is a great combination of exactly what this story was.  I hate copying exactly what is written in the description on Amazon, but when it's right, it's right.

Dean M. Cole can write! Every time I thought "okay, this is it, he's got it!" or "she's got it!" he continued to throw everything at the two main characters.  It got to the point where I was pretty sure that both of them were going to give up numerous times.

A story about what could potentially be the last two people in the world and one of them is stuck on the International Space Station is already a story that I would read in a heartbeat.  Then you throw in that R.C. Bray and Julia Whelan are going to dual narrate it? Okay, now I'm salivating. Oh, and it's funny and heartbreaking at the same time like The Martian? Jesus, okay, I bought the book, let's go!

We're almost at the half-way point of the year and I believe that I may have found my audiobook of the year already.  Ironically it follows a similar type story as last years -- but this one has even fewer people in it.

There was a part of the book where I was a little worried around R.C. Bray narrating it -- not because of him or his narration at all (he's seriously one of the best in the world and is the sole reason you're reading this blog today).  It was because there was a character named Mark.  And I couldn't get "Whatney" out of my head every time he would say his name.  I was seriously concerned, but my concern didn't last as long as I'd expected.  There was even a line that made me pause the audiobook:  "...duck tape... Oh right, you're Mark Whatney and this is The Martian".

I honestly don't even have to go into Bray and Whelan's narration of this because it was spot on and perfect.  One of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to.  Definitely up there with The Martian as Bray's best performance.

Overall, Solitude is easily one of the best books I've read in 2017 and will be in my memory for years to come.  I will gladly be recommending this to all of my friends and family -- especially those who loved The Martian (or enjoyed I Am Legend).  Dean M. Cole has shot himself up to the top of my 'to-read' list and I will be eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.

I was given a free copy of this which has not affected my review at all.

If you enjoyed my review, please vote for it! If you'd like to see more like this you can check out BriansBookBlog DOT com.

76 of 90 people found this review helpful

Desperately need to waste eight hours?

Then look no further -- buy this book. Last person left on Earth trying to save last person floating aboard the International Space Station. Sounds like the plot for some good fun, right? Alas,The Martian this ain't. The writing is unbearable. Over and over again the author appears to have picked some "big" adjectives or "big" phrases randomly from a dictionary to create what he probably thinks sounds like great prose -- but would get you expelled from any English college course. Even in what should be the most exciting moments he is chronically unable to create any true suspense. The dialogs? Don't get me started. Not even the last man.woman on Earth would utter such inane language. I admit, I listened through the whole book mostly curious as why this is Book 1 of a series called Dimension Space as the plot offered no hint as to how he would stretch the meager premise of the book into a series. You have to wait for the last five minutes when he begins to pull a cliffhanger out of thin air. It's then clear that this whole book is pretty much standalone and the whole "how do I save someone stranded on the ISS" action (which by the way requires some sci-fi technology) is nothing but pagefillers and the only element carried forward is "something bad has happened at CERN and maybe aliens are involved". Save yourself the money/credit and buy a good book instead.

46 of 56 people found this review helpful

just buy the book...

Don't bother reading the cover flap just give Amazon and Audible your money. you must buy both.
Dean Cole has woven a story with emotion anguish, love, laughter, and suspense. R.C. Bray and Julia Whelan brings this story to life like no others. They just owned this story.
I haven't been this emotionally involved in a story since Andy Weirs" The Martian" or Ryk Browns "Frontiers Saga"

Oh and Dean... write faster dammit, write faster.

23 of 28 people found this review helpful

What can 'Brown' do for you?! : - )

I wish this book was longer! The characters had some good banter, which is something I enjoy in a book. The story was interesting and different enough from some loosely similar books that it felt fresh enough.

The narration by both narrators was superb. The male voice, R.C. Bray, is the best and does science fiction especially well. The female voice, Julie Whelan, is also one of my favorites. They were a great team.

I am anxiously waiting the next installment in this series. ~JTC~

30 of 38 people found this review helpful

I Really Wanted to Like This One

The concept for this story is great. No zombies, no rampaging biker gangs, just mysterious emptiness and two characters trying to survive. It should be a fun read that leaves you wanting more. But it's just... exhausting.

First, Mr. Cole is badly in need of a good editor. He reuses phrases far too much. One repetition that is particularly annoying in audio format is his tendency to replace "his" and "her" with "the man's" and "the woman's" every other sentence. This doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but by the end of the book, it's infuriating. It is also confusing in places.

The author tried to combine the movie "Passengers" and the book "The Martian" and... failed to execute. After the ninth should-have-been-deadly mishap, I almost turned the audiobook off. It's quickly obvious that if something can go wrong in this book, it will, and that makes the tense moments tedious, not tense. You know the characters will survive in some improbable way.

The less we say about the really bad romantic interactions, the better.

While I have numerous problems with the book, I have none with the narration. R.C. Bray's and Julia Whelan's narration is great, and I will absolutely enjoy other books narrated by them.

24 of 31 people found this review helpful

Wow!

It's been a long time since I've read a book with a cliffhanger! This is a fun story. I'll definitely keep listening.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Kinda of the same thing over and over

I found the story overall pretty enjoyable but the story is kind of the same type of scenario over and over:
1. Person has an oversight or does something stupid.
2. That oversight becomes a very big problem.
3. Person works frantically to overcome said problem.
4. Repeat.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

A continuous series of unfortunate events

RC Bray great as usual. Storyline a continuous sequence of disasters which eventually became predictable and irritating.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Going to be left hanging.

An awesome book narrated by the very best.
Shame Audible haven't made it clear this is book 1 of a series that's yet to be completed. It'll be a long wait to conclude this gripping story.

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

So badly written I couldn't listen to it

Either Dean M. Cole doesn't have a copy editor or the one he does have needs to be fired. Here's a free tip: pick a way to refer to a character and stick to it. In a scene with two characters, I shouldn't be bombarded with "Vaughn", "Singleton", "the Army Captain", and "Mark", "Watney", "the Astronaut" and whatever other designations Cole can't decide between. Even when Vaughn is alone in a scene, the multitude of ways of referring to him persist. It's distracting and unnecessary and I honestly don't know how it made it into print, let alone audio. Maybe it isn't as distracting in print; I'll never know because I will never again listen to or read anything by this author.

R. C. Bray and Julia Whelan are as good as ever.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Don't Leave Solitude Alone!

In Solitude Dean Cole delivers a fast-paced episode of apocalyptic fiction. Two characters left completely alone and isolated must cross the planet and even space itself to save each other. It's a genuine roller-coaster ride and the action just keeps coming as our rather accident-prone pair crash and bump their way across the planet and the space near it. At times I wasn't sure I'd give odds on either of them managing to navigate their way across an empty room while at others they achieved amazing things. Although at times there is plenty of scientific and technical detail in here expect your credulity to get a severe workout as things progress. There are definitely parallels with books like The Martian but I doubt anyone will want to make a case for this being built on solid scientific ground. The author does however do very well in terms of explaining why these two, and only these two survive.

The narration, well RC Bray is of course a maestro and gives his usual masterful performance. Here though he shares the stage with Julia Whelan. It works brilliantly at first emphasising the separation between the characters and their very different situations. Maybe it's less effective later on but not wanting to do spoilers I won't say why. I'll settle for saying that both narrators do fine jobs with their parts.

Although the book does complete the advertised part of the story there is clearly more to come and you won't get all the answers you might want about why things happened. There are lots of thrills and spills though and the tension continues right up until the ending which sets up the next book's opening intrigue.

14 of 18 people found this review helpful

Frustratingly formulaic...

An intriguing idea of a plot spoiled by an amateurish approach. Somebody must once have told the author that drama is the winning formula for holding audience attention. And boy did he play that card. Any and every opportunity to create a dramatic moment is stuffed into this tale - no matter how unbelievable or superfluous to the plot. The result is a slow moving story written, it seems, with the aim of dragging things out for that sequel after money-making sequel. The only saving grace is the great narration, particularly R C Bray. Overall - this is one to miss.

7 of 9 people found this review helpful

looking forward to the next in the series .

loved it . quality book very well read . felt like I was the characters involved . great stuff

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great story interested to listen to next book

Both readers were great and I liked the dialogue switching between the two although I thought they might talk together rather then mimicking each others voices. looking forward to the next book.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

No great I'm afraid.

I found the story to be pretty cheesy. The author seemed compelled to inject jeopardy into as many situations as possible in order to build the tension, to the point where it was just daft. No trained airforce pilot can be that hapless surely. Anyway, It's hard to warm to such an idiot and for that among other reasons I didn't like the book.

Surprising

Had bought it then had heard a negative review so just left it unread, finally tried it and loved it, I love that Vaughn isnt perfect and makes mistakes, made him more relatable, great book and im not letting the sequel gather dust

Bray,yay. Whelan,not feelin.

Story is great,characters are interesting and appealing. Sadly I found myself only really enjoying it when Bray was narrating tho. Absolutely nothing against the lady,but I just didn't like listening to her,especially when she was doing Vaughn's voice.