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Solitude  By  cover art

Solitude

By: Dean M. Cole
Narrated by: R.C. Bray,Julia Whelan
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Publisher's summary

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

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    2 out of 5 stars
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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.

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291 people found this helpful

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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.

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187 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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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.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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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.

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61 people found this helpful

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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.

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56 people found this helpful

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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.

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R.C. Bray is the bright spot of this audio book.

The story is not good. Many phrases are used repeatedly. The portrayal of a male voice by the female narrator is poor and very distracting. The parts read by R.C. Bray are great and make the book bearable. Would not recommend.

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36 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars

Forget to turn up the volume...

I rarely write reviews but this is that lame. The poor readers trying to create drama out of the rocket scientist jet pilot heroes forgetting to plug things in, suck in their gut or turn up the volume on a radio is just pathetic. Unreal. I am quitting but I want my life back.

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34 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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~

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Amateur writing. Lazy editing. Cheesy science.

People compare this to The Martian because Cole was clearly ripping it off. If you liked the science and engineering and ingenuity of The Martian, Solitude will simply annoy you.

Where The Martian applies science and thought to solving real, unforced problems, Solitude just makes stuff up. Most of the problems to be solved are caused by the protagonists and even so are so stupid that you cannot suspend disbelief enough not to be interrupted (just falls out of the..., turns off the essential..., just stupid).

I actually don't blame Cole. I blame his editor. I mean, regulate the carbon *monoxide* in a space suit? And that's just a typo. No decent editor would have allowed the number of times we had to hear him just dropping beer bottles, etc.

I didn't finish listening. You shouldn't start.

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