The Harvest

By: Alec Sand

Narrated by: Alec Sand

Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

The Harvest is a short novel of future history. No, it’s a bit more than just that - Alec Sand has created a detailed future in which his characters move. It is a future in which a substance called iridium - a substance from which power is derived - has changed things significantly. The Harvest is hard science fiction in which the ideas and concepts generously flow.

In this future, in which Gideon and his sister, Dara, reside, Dara has a disease that Gideon is convinced has a cure somewhere “out there”. He takes her with him on a mining expedition to a new planet.

A unique aspect of this audiobook is its soundtrack. There are several songs that play at various times throughout the audiobook, usually as bridges between chapters or sections. A band called Silk84 provided the music, and the songs are included in full.

©2011 trout lake media (P)2011 Trout Lake Media

Writers shouldn't read their own work.

This was a good story but the narration and and production were painful. At times it seemed like he was bored with his story. At odd times music would come in that didn't seem to have anything to do with the story,

great fun!

good hard fast sci fi. a great listen! some neat ideas and great fun. i liked it alot!

not good, I am sorry to say

I really feel guilty giving a bad review to this, because it has that desperate, aspiring author who longs to fulfill his dream feel to it, and seems a very grass roots effort and self published. It is also dirt cheap in comparison to most audible books, which is understandale and, I think , justified. I hate to rain on the parade, but listeners should be warned.

First, the narration is really bad. The author reads the story, and without going into all the gory details of why that doesnt work, will just say that he didnt pull it off at all and needed to get either a profesional, or a friend with a knack for it, if possible, or even someone who is trying to break into the voice acting/narration industry.

Second, like the book itself, it is an attempt to also launch an unknown band. The music at best adds nothing and is at the very best very average, and at worst is a true irritation, really not good stuff at all, interfering with the story and seeming disconnected and pointless.

Third, the writer really should have engaged an editor, as there are all sort of grammatical and word usage errors, not to mention the story could have been refined, the language refined, and the overall quality improved very much by some editing. No one is perfect, and I am not at all nit picky about such things, so the fact that I even noticed it, on numerous occassions, indicates a problem.

Finally, the story is really nothing special. It has some really cliched elements and I think I have encountered this story, in various permutations and combinations, in many other works. There is a bit of interesting character development, but only a bit, and as I said, the narration really hurts even that one small good point.

Anyway, best of luck to the author, and perhaps others will like it, and since it is reasonably priced, it is worth a try as maybe you will find something appealing in it that I did not, but I would reduce my expectations going into it.