Journey

Sunfall, Book 1

De: D. Gideon

Narrado por: Kevin Pierce, Becket Royce

Ripley's a tomboy at heart who has never met a stranger. Her plans were to finish her veterinary studies and take her family to the country, where life wouldn't be such a struggle. She thought the worst she'd have to deal with at the University of Maryland were the unwelcome advances and attitudes of affluent students, and the occasional East Coast hurricane.

She never expected the sun to fall down.

An immense coronal mass ejection, the likes of which the modern world has never seen, blankets the Earth and destroys the power grid worldwide.

Ripley has no communication with her family at home and - thanks to the University's zero-tolerance policy - no weapons to protect herself. Society is becoming increasingly panicked and desperate, and the government seems slow to respond.

The world, as she knew it, has ended. A new world of lawlessness, betrayal, and scarcity is beginning.

Can she become the woman she needs to be so that she and her friends can make it home?

With the thin veneer of a civilized society collapsing, can she even survive?

©2016 D. Gideon (P)2017 D. Gideon

Interesting idea, characters all over the place

I liked the idea of following a world where a CME happened, and the spiral of life as we know it. I felt it was interesting to see the differences in people prepared versus ones that weren't, though college students being that prepared was a bit far fetched. Both narrators did a really good job, with Kevin narrating the action in the little town and Becket narrating the college students side. They did a great job bringing the characters to life and giving just enough of a difference to really differentiate between the characters in each of their sections. The characters are a bit maddening at times. They contradict their own logic within minutes and seem to switch their stance without much of an explanation. It makes it hard for me to get invested in the characters.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

👍🏻

Interesting original story. Great character development. Great post apocalyptic read.

I enjoyed the narration and performance.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Outstanding, realistic prepper fiction

Ms. Gideon has done an excellent job crafting a realistic, well thought out, and completely readable work of prepper/TEOTWAWKI fiction. You won't learn the muzzle velocity of a 5.56 round from an AR-15 SBR, but you will learn some more useful stuff and be entertained along the way.

On the audio side, Kevin Pierce's performance is awesome as usual. This is my first time listening to Becket Royce, but she holds her own with old man Pierce. Well done, all the way around!

Promising start to a new series.

Any additional comments?

I received a copy of this audio title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Sunfall is the first volume in a new post-apocalyptic series and I must say it's off to a great start. I know I am not the only one who loves apocalyptic stories (what does that say about us? lol) and I thoroughly enjoyed Sunfall. Mr. Gideon takes a different approach than many other books of the genre that I've read lately in that the books focuses on the very early days following an event, which in this case is a solar event that hits the planet and plunges the world into darkness. We don't jump right to people going crazy and society being total chaos, instead we see the slow slide, real issues that people are faced with when the power goes out for an extended period of time. The cast of characters is varied and entertaining, we get a good mix, those with a prepper mentality (though even these characters didn't see, prepared for this kind of event) and those for who such an event seems unthinkable. The book jumps back and forth between two groups of people, a bunch of college kids and a grandmother and town they are trying to get home to, both storylines are highly entertaining and I was sorry when the book ended. Thankfully the second book in the series is already out, and I've already purchased it, though unfortunately it is not available in audio format.

Speaking of audio format, as I noted earlier the book follows two different stories and each of these is told by a different narrator. Kevin Pierce, who I've heard before, narrates the grandmother's story and Becket Royce, this is my first time hearing her work, narrates the college kids story. Both of them do an excellent job and I will definitely be checking out some of their other work, and I hope they record the sequel.

Really good start to a series

Any additional comments?

Good start to a series. The story pulled me in immediately and kept my attention until the end. It's a well written really good story that flows smoothly and is very entertaining, engaging and enjoyable.

While it is similar to many post apocalyptic stories out there, it has it's own unique little differences. I enjoyed that even though the characters have some knowledge and a few preps in case of an emergency, they were not fully prepared prepper's ready for any emergency. They were caught off guard and had to figure things out as they went along just as anyone would have to. The situations the characters found themselves in, and the things that were happening in each story line were believable and realistic. While there are things that happen throughout the story, it isn't full of constant violence and gore which was a nice change. Society doesn't deteriorate all at once. The changes are gradual.

The story unfolds through two separate but interconnected story lines. Showing what each side of a family is going through and dealing with when the world changes in an instant. Ripley and her friends trying to leave collage and make their way home and the family they are trying to get home to.

Great cast of interesting characters. Especially Dottie. The characters grow on you throughout the story but Dottie is immediately likable. The story does end in a cliffhanger. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Really enjoyed the dual narration. This is not the first time I have listened to a book narrated by Kevin Pierce and Becket Royce. Both did a great job with the narration. Nice voices easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a nice even pace. Good character voices. Having the each side of the story narrated by different narrators really brought the characters and story to life. Very enjoyable.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.

Typical CME survival story.

A typical CME survival story. Our protagonist Ripley Miller is a college student at the University of Maryland when the grid went down. We follow Ripley and her college friends as they deal with the loss of power and make plans to travel home. They run across the usual band of brigands who surface as soon as a crisis appears. There are several sub-plots of different people dealing with the situation in their own way. Not much action, but lots of conversation. At this point I don’t know if I’ll invest in book two or not. Three.point.five for a talkative start.

Decent start to a YA disaster series

First, let me say that I'm going to assume this book is targeted at YA. Maybe it isn't, but if I go in with that assumption, it makes it easier to accept a lot of things and smooth over some rough edges.

The story is told from two perspectives: a girl at college with her friends and a grandmother in a small town waiting for said kids to make their way back home (while dealing with her own problems on her end).

The author opens up the book with an intro that sort of puts down other similar works as "prepper porn". Perhaps there are degrees to it, but I'd personally classify this story as the same. For the kids at college, less time is spent on their actual adventure getting home than on all the "prep" work that went into it. These kids already had maps printed and emergency bags packed for something like this, and we spend a LOT of time talking about it.

The characters also spend a lot of time discussing and inner-monologuing the psychology and behaviors of other "survivors". Because of this, I'd say this was less of a story and more of a social commentary mixed with, well, "prepper porn". Softcore, probably, but porn nonetheless.

I do wish the author had spent more time developing the characters. Most of them were interchangeable, and it was hard to follow who was who for a good portion of the listen. In fact, Cory, the grandson of the grandmother the kids are making their way back home to, seemed only to exist for that reason. He was often shoehorned into a scene, and because the author did not do much to set scenes up, a character would suddenly speak or be said to perform an action and you'd be left wondering if you missed the fact that they were there all along. Sadly, that character was often Cory.

I also wish more had been done to explain their physical characteristics. It was a while before I was able to form a mental picture of them all, and even then, I wasn't too sure I had it right. What made matters worse, is that there are a number of scenes where race plays a part in things, and it's only then that you realize "oh, they're black?". Even then, you can't be sure though. Marco is spanish, that's clear. At least 2 of the kids are black, I think? There's a gas station attendent with a name you can't gleam much from who has racial epiteths thrown his way, and I still don't know what he is. When you're going to throw racial drama into the mix, it would be extremely helpful to know the races of the characters.

I found the grandmother to be the most interesting character of them all. She was fleshed out well and acted in a consistent manner throughout. The 4 college kids however seemed to be all over the place. Their personalities, points of view and priorities seemed to switch up depending on what the author needed for that situation.

This made her story far more interesting to follow. While she fell into the same traps of analyzing the psychology and behaviors of others while preparing for a long-lasting state of emergency, it was done far more naturally. The grandmother used what she had at her disposal (brains, connections and physical property) to prepare herself for the disaster. I wish the story with the college kids was written in a similar vein.

The story ends fairly abruptly with no resolution to the conflicts the book spent a good portion of its 10 hours setting up. Disappointing, but sadly expected.

Overall, it's not a BAD book at all, and I often found myself getting lost in the small town half of the story, but it plodded along far too much without a commensurate payoff for the time invested. I don't think I'll be picking up book 2 to possibly be treated to more of the same.

Both narrators did an excellent job, top notch performances.

Better find your SPF 1000

I flew through this story. It is right inline with the typical stories I enjoy. There was a lot to like about this one. The author does a great job of describing the scenes as to give a very vivid picture. I absolutely loved the relevant pop culture references sprinkled throughout the story. I also really enjoyed the internet lingo thrown in there too. The duel narrators and duel POV is something I have really grown to like. It gives many different vantage points of what is going on. The author does a good job of mixing them as to not mesh them too much but bits and pieces were intermingled. One thing that I was a little disappointed with was the rushed and abrupt ending. It just happened, but I know this is going to be a series so it is not a deal breaker for me. Both narrators do such a great job all the way through this story. Especially, with voicing the opposite sex. I was a bit worried when I first began listening because the male narrator was voicing the POV of a female dominated section. It totally worked though. Again, timing and urgency was also well done with those tense scenes. I cannot wait to see where the next book takes our rag tag journeymen. I also cannot wait to see what happens when everyone finally meets up. I was gifted this audiobook from the narrator, publisher or author in exchange for an honest review via Audiobook Boom. This gift in no way affected my opinion of this publication.

Enjoyed

I received a free copy of this audiobook in return for an unbiased review.

I've truly enjoyed this book! I like that there were two narrators with two different points of view. I felt like this book followed what would actually happen in this type of event more so than the normal end of the world book. I recommend this book if you are just getting into this genre. I am looking forward to listening to the next book in this series.

Slow and boring

The story is not going to knock off your socks. It drags on and on. Lucky it didn't cost much. There is no excitement and drama . Having said all of this, it seems to be realistic.