Maelstrom

By: Peter Cawdron

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Andrew Eiden, Amy Landon

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Tunguska, Roswell, the Bermuda Triangle, the Mary Celeste... For hundreds of years, the danger posed by colliding worlds has been ignored as a crackpot theory, until now, and now it's too late.

Maelstrom contains three novellas set in the Colliding Worlds universe (Collision, Impact and the conclusion, Maelstrom). Collision was commissioned by Vanquish Motion Pictures for possible development in film or on television.

©2017 Peter Cawdron (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Great Read

great storyline, interesting facts believable idea many worlds could intersect. narators could use some changes.

New Take on Parallel Worlds

Very much enjoyed this book. It's a new approach to the multiverse story. Great character development and interesting challenges met in realistic and surprising ways.

edge of my seat

this was the 2nd time I listened to this book and enjoyed it so much more.

Great science fiction adventure tale.

Very enjoyable and cleverly constructed tale of parallel universes and time loops - what could be more fun than that - with some wonderful heroic characters!

A Story of Time Travel and Embracing Humanity

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.

There is something about time travel that is just so fascinating. While there are typically strong conceptual similarities between stories, the stories themselves are unique. In thins novel, Peter Cawdron has crafted three tales that focus on two groups. The first part is set in China and involves an American ex-patriot and a "unique" man. The second is set in New York City, describing the struggles of a NYPD officer, a female EMT, and a family of French tourists trying to survive a completely unexpected calamity that strikes the heart of Manhattan. The three aforementioned Americans, the bizarre man, and a new pair of "foreigners" meet up in the final act, as they attempt to save the world and fix time itself.

The first story initially has the feel of a zombie outbreak scene, which creates an air of tension. this tension remains for a time even after those initial fears of the characters are allayed, and morphs into deep curiosity. Emily Woo Zeller was wonderful as the narrator.

The second story is a bit formulaic, with a traumatic event that breeds confusion, followed by survival instincts. What is most relevant is the element of morality, as the two native New Yorkers have their humanity challenged on several occasions. Andrew Eiden's performance was quite good, sounding similar to Macleod Andrews, and delivered a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience.

At several times during the final story I wanted to strangle one of the characters. She committed every sin of horror film bumpkins. Worse yet, she was cognizant of her every flawed decision, repeatedly saying, "Well I'm not going to do THAT," followed by her doing exactly THAT! Honestly, it was a frustrating listen. The ending was a bit disappointing too, doing little to quell earlier qualms. Unfortunately, Amy Landon did not do enough to salvage the experience. She sounds almost exactly like Siri, which understandably cannot be easily altered. Her voice is her voice. However, her performance had several intonation issues and was fraught with inappropriate pauses. "I think it's time you told us the truth,"...……….she said. While not an exact quote, it is similar to something that was read and the space fairly accurately portrayed. Such unnecessarily long pauses robbed the story of its natural flow.

The first 80% of the story made for an enjoyable listen. The final 20% was interspersed with frustration, verbose ethereal exploration, and dramatic action. There was enough fulfillment to warrant the 4 stars, though more accurately it would be 3 1/2. Overall it was pretty good, though not something I am likely to listen to again.

Great premise and performance

The story behind this story is very intellectually intriguing, and it is performed, from multiple perspectives to develop the characters, very well. There are however a few stumbling blocks in the continuity which made me have to go back a couple of times to figure out if I had missed something or the plot had taken a sudden and unexpected sidestep - kind of like space-time can...

Fun, but short, sci-fi

This was a fun listen. It has alternate worlds, aliens, dinosaurs ... what's not to like? There is also plenty of action, and the story moves along nicely. I thought it would be too short, but really it was nice not to have all the excess that most books have. The story is in three parts and each part is from a different point of view, and each part has a different narrator. Not sure I liked them all, but in they end they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.

Great Book

This was a thought provoking storyline. The idea of parallel universes was explored in a very different and entertaining way.

An Interesting Take on Alternate Realities

Maelstrom is a collection of three short stories that all weave into one larger story.

The first story – Collide was, as with all Cawdron books, well thought out and shocking when it comes to the finale. It was short (definitely the lead in/hook you early) story. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with the first few chapters but not too long after I thought that Cawdron had me hooked.

In Collide we learn a little about the set up of the entire book, what’s causing the change, and what could possibly come from the issue that’s created (notice my vagueness – I know if I get much deeper it’ll give it all away).

The second book – Impact is where the real meat and potatoes live. We find out that things aren’t what they seem. Animals from others times and places are now all of a sudden in the middle of the city and attacking people. I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this one but I was already hooked. I had a hard time getting into the “this animal is here” belief – though after a while (and meeting the old man) I started to really come to. The introduction of the paramedic and police officer (and their continued proximity) was well thought out and written.

The final story – Maelstrom – is where we start to find out what is going on, how they think they’re going to fix it, and if they actually do. This was fascinating. There were parts of this that I couldn’t wrap my head around (time travel/alternate reality books get confusing if there is more than one version of a person or reality existing at the same time). But it was enjoyable none-the-less.

Overall, I thought that Maelstrom was an interesting look at different paradoxes and realities. I enjoyed the way it was written and the character development. I found myself scratching my head at a few parts but I think Cawdron did some of that on purpose.

Slight spoiler: there was a scene late in the book where someone keeps seeing different versions of themselves – all I could think of was the “Hello John” scene from Jurassic Park when they cloned him and made numerous versions for the intro video about Dino DNA.

Glad I got this on a buy 1 get 1 deal.

Book 1 almost made me quit listening, but books 2 and 3 were amazing. I'm glad I stuck with it. The story was fun and action packed. My biggest complaint was the fact that the narrator of book 3 didn't know how to pronounce the word neanderthal, which was an often used word. She for some reason left the "h" out and pronounced it neandertall. I probably wouldn't recommend paying full price, but if you can get it as part of a BOGO deal go for it.