Soyuz

The Final Flight

By: Harry A. Milman

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

When a disgruntled astronaut decides to get revenge, all hell breaks loose! By the time the final flight of the Russian space capsule, Soyuz, docks at the international space station, Derek Johnson - the oldest astronaut to fly in space - is sick with a severe case of food poisoning that does not respond to antibiotics, and he soon dies. Recruited to assist NASA’s medical team, Dr. Bob Kramer, a forensic toxicologist and expert witness, concludes that the cause of Johnson’s death is a mutated form of bacteria that is not normally found in nature.

In Soyuz: The Final Flight - a captivating, pause-resisting, science fiction thriller - space exploration, mental illness, and forensic toxicology collide at the intersection of good and evil as Kramer unravels the source of a mysterious incident and suspicious deaths aboard the space station.

The book is a finalist for best science fiction novel in the 2018 Book Talk Radio Club Awards and for best second novel in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

©2017 Harry A. Milman (P)2019 Harry A. Milman

What a change or pace!

This book was a pleasant surprise. This is a thriller that is set in the present time that I really enjoyed. Loved the the last few chapters made you sit on the edge or your seat. Would highly recommend this to everybody!

RC Bray kept it alive

warning! Slight spoiler alert!

First off, I love listening to RC Bray and his innate ability to differentiate between each and every character he personifies. You can tell just by hearing his vocal range and accent when reading, just who it is he’s dialoguing. Amazing job yet again.
The story however of this book just seemed tiring and uninteresting a good majority of the time. People dying and the plot to find out who is doing all the killing is ok but the end just sunk it for me. Personally I think more dialogue from the culprit and somehow a manner in which to throw it off of them is better than just not including him/her in most of the story. Also, the end labeling them as a psychological title rather than just a clever and maniacal extremist would have, to me, made a much better story

Remind me to never go to space

First and foremost I got this book for 1 reason R.C. Bray. If R.C. narrates a book it has to be good....and this one did not disappoint. R.C. does a fantastic job bringing the characters to alive for the listeners. Soyuz was very well written and had me guessing what would happen next. I will definitely look for other books by Harry A. Milman. If they are narrated by R.C. then they could already be in my library!!

Original setup unique

I really liked the idea of the story. Unfortunately it could've used some more polishing to make the story as intriguing as setup. Too many frills that could've been ditched. Those definitely made the listening a struggle from time to time. R.C. Bray saves a lot in this one.

Short, sweet, too the point and features RCB!

As the title of this review indicates, RCBray is yet again the hero ( but not the only one ) of this contemporary scifi drama. Sharply written, with some fascinating plot diversions/surprises, it is clearly well researched and delivered as only RC Bray can do.

Some of the plot devices do meander and are a bit of a stretch, but on balance with is a very solid ( if not short and compressed ) offering that I highly recommend.

A fun mystery/adventure aboard the Soyuz/ISS

- Josh here

As an avid space enthusiast, I was drawn to this novel. The fact that it is narrated by my favorite narrator, R.C. Bray, is how I stumbled across it.

This was a fun listen and I thoroughly enjoyed the science behind the different scenarios and situations. The only complaint I have is that the ending felt a bit rushed even though it fit in with the rest of the storyline.

It was also great to meet this author at Fort Meade a few weeks back when I recognized his book cover.

A solid 4/5

Excellent must read

I originally met the author Harry A. Milman at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore, where he was promoting this book. During our conversation about the contents of this book, I stated that I no longer purchase hardback copies and only prefer audiobooks. We then discussed that he was in the process of getting that process started. He took my name down along with my fiancée and said he would inform us when it was released. After a year or so I received an email personally from Mr Milman and purchased the audiobook immediately after reading the email! Great character development and an all around amazing story. I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone! I also look forward to reading his previous A Death at Camp David book and future stories as well. Thank you Audible and a big thank you to Harry A. Milman for presenting this book and having it read by R.C. Bray.

Anticlimactic and Short with an Amazing narrator

RC Bray can narrate any story and make it amazing. While thrilling, the ending of this story was anti climactic and seemed short.

Idea has potential, but author gets in the way.

The central plot idea is workable, and R.C.B.'s voicework is good as usual, but the writing itself needs some work. The author unfortunately decided to engage in excessive self-insert fantasizing and his story suffers from it. The sporadicly forced romance with a younger, hotter, woman inexplicably attracted to a short, middle-aged paunchy nerd is essentially gamma wish-fulfillment, and detracts from the story. Too much time is spent in excruciating detail on completely pointless sidetrips in the protagonist/author's stand-in, such as a trip to the dentist that has nothing to do with the threat to the ISS. The protagonist is treated as so much smarter than all the NASA doctors that he's literally lecturing them on food poisoning with a powerpoint presentation. Yes, the book takes time away from the action to describe a freaking powerpoint presentation.

It's said that the first 100,000 pages an author writes are going to be crap, which may or may not be true in general, but is sadly true in this book in particular. However, if the author can learn to get over himself, and focus on the story, he has the potential to write some interesting books in the future. I would love to read or listen to a thriller tale of treachery aboard the ISS; this just isn't that thriller.

Makes Absolutely No Sense

When RC Bray can't save your book there is a definite problem.

Space station crisis. Doctor's can't handle food poisoning so they call a specialist. They think someone is sabotaging the space station so NASA lets the food poisoning specialist make a referral of a good detective (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc were busy). NASA let's the food poisoning specialist run the investigation. NASA while doing the most intensive vetting of any job in the world forgets to ask the astronaut what his degree was in. They also skipped all the psychological testing. I wanted it to be good it just wasn't.