Hayden's World: Volume 1

Hayden's World Collection

By: S.D. Falchetti

Narrated by: Shamaan Casey

Survival tales in the skies of Uranus, desperate struggles at the solar system's edge, and near-lightspeed interstellar expeditions await in this hard science fiction collection of seven Hayden’s World short stories.

Forty-Three Seconds: James Hayden has a dream, and the Riggs test vehicle is going to take him there. But when failure after failure leads to his last chance exploding spectacularly, he must partner with an AI and gamble everything for one last shot at the stars.

Silver-Side Up: Two old friends, a silver space ship, and a perfect day for a test flight.

Erebus: In one month, Sarah will take the helm of the newest Riggs ship. But growing opposition may shut down the program before she gets her chance. When James’s last-ditch publicity stunt traps him light-days from rescue, Sarah must decide just how far she’s willing to go to save a friend.

Signal Loss: Life aboard the Aristarchus isn’t much of an adventure, and Kyan just wants to do his job and get back to his family. When he discovers a mysterious object at the edge of the solar system and an unexpected contact during comms loss, data running turns life-or-death 13 billion kilometers from home.

Last Stand: Kyan testifies about the events in Signal Loss, but other agendas are in play.

Aero One: Jia can’t breathe, her ship is minutes from breaking apart in Uranus’s atmosphere, and the lifepod just burned up. Things aren’t going well. When her injured engineer’s solution sends them plummeting into the icy stratosphere, they find themselves trapped in a life-or-death battle against time, the elements, and unexpected visitors.

Titan’s Shadow: A year later after the events of Aero One, Jia is trying to restart her life as a freelancer aboard Saturn’s newly-built Cassini Station. But Cassini has its own secrets. When a chance encounter with a past adversary sets old battles in motion, she must unravel the mystery of Titan’s Shadow before more lives are lost.

©2018 Shawn Falchetti (P)2023 Shawn Falchetti

Interesting and Entertaining Collection

This is a highly entertaining and richly described set of seven survival stories. Each one occurs in outer space leaving the crew at the mercy of luck, smart thinking, and taking chances.

The author, S. D. Falchetti captures the desperation, camaraderie, and fast thinking that occurs when being in survival mode. His vivid descriptions and action-packed stories are exhilarating and imaginative. Each story was well written with plot twists that were unexpected and engaging. He developed each character with depth and a level of humanity that encourages connection. His descriptions are rich and vivid.

The narrator, Shamaan Casey delivered a solid performance with unique voices throughout the stories. He interjected the correct amount of emotion and enthusiasm capturing the action of the audiobook accordingly. His delivery and cadence were perfect and varied as appropriate.

This is a great collection of action-filled survival stories.

There were no issues with the quality or production of this audiobook.

Left Me Craving A Full Novel.

Excellent hard sci-fi that left me wanting more. The writing is compelling and keep your attention. Every short story makes you want more and more. I am hoping for a full novel and series. The narrator did an outstanding job as well making this 5 stars across the board.

A thrilling collection of science fiction tales!

S.D. Falchetti's "Hayden's World: Volume 1," narrated by the dynamic Shamaan Casey, is a thrilling collection of hard science fiction tales that will leave you on the edge of your seat. With impeccable storytelling and engaging narration, this audiobook is a must-listen for fans of survival tales and interstellar adventures.

interesting stories

great science fiction stories and narration had me excited to keep listening from the beginning

Compelling Science Fiction

Like Andy Weir, S.D. Falchetti has the ability to create fiction that keeps me interested in science, and that’s no easy feat because I have always leaned toward the “fiction” in science fiction. But this collection of stories, set in and around “Hayden’s World,” is packed with science and technology, and then fiction takes over and transports us to the future. The characters are easy to root for, and the stories are compelling. My favorites were 43 seconds and Erebus, but all of the stories are excellent. There is a chapter at the end of the book explaining the science, and I appreciated that as I am not an expert in that area.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator Shamaan Casey has a captivating voice. He did an amazing job of portraying all of the characters, regardless of gender or culture. This includes AI voices too! I was captivated by his performance and will seek out his work again.

My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 on sites with no half-star option.

I received a gift copy of the audiobook. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

The glory and dangers being in space

Received as an audio review copy from the narrator Shamaan Casey, this is an honest review. Hayden's World: Volume 1 is a grand collection of adventure stories beautifully brought to life by Shamaan Casey. Whether it's the haunting realism of just how dangerous getting into space can be from 43 Seconds to Erebus ( my favorite ) James find himself in desperate need of rescue after a really spectacular public stunt tossing him for from home and testing the friendship he has with Sarah to an extreme level. A wonderful anthology to spend your time with, highly recommended.

Excellent Collection of Stories

4.5 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite parts of short stories is the ability to read them in one sitting. Yes, writing a novel is impressive, but to be able to pack a full story into such a small package is difficult. And to have each one feel like it has a proper beginning, middle, and end is even more challenging. Combining them into one easy-to-read format (a volume of them, for example, like Hayden’s World, is) is perfect, in my opinion.

Every story within this collection didn’t have to flow into the other, but each one had bits and pieces that made more sense reading them in order. But all of them being in/around the same world was pretty awesome. Rarely do I read a collection like this that feels like a complete story too. Each story had its own arc, but the whole thing felt like it was a living and breathing thing from Hayden’s World.

I won’t go into too much detail about every story here, I read and reviewed 43 Seconds before and went a little more into that story, but for this, I’ll give my overall feeling. That is to say, I did have a stand-out story. I liked Signal Loss the best, but each one had its place in my heart. Falchetti is a master storyteller who brought so much to these short stories.

Combine that with the excellent narration by Shamaan Casey, who, as I mentioned in 43 Seconds, I hadn’t ever heard do straight Sci-Fi before, and it’s such an enjoyable listen. Casey brought life to these situations, and his deep and booming voice worked well for the intense scenes.

Absolutely Great Stories

This is a very well written collection of stories that interconnect. I thoughly enjoyed this book and listened to it completely in one sitting. I highly recommend this Audible book and for all you Si Fi people, this will be a great read. Narrator does a Great job with the various characters voices and the entire storyline.

It is a fun ride

This book is a fun ride with a new look at technologies. Its characters are engaging to the readers with a hint of action and drama. The book kept me engaged throughout the listen. It did distract me from work a few minutes, well maybe more than a few minutes.

What space exploration should feel like

If you like your science fiction deep, thoughtful, and somewhat more on the harder side, I believe you will find that “Hayden’s World: Volume 1” will scratch that Sci-Fi itch. The audiobook contains multiple fascinating science fiction short stories, each follows a larger overarching theme across the entire audiobook. This is the first work by S. D. Falchetti that I have listened to, and I have to say that I mostly enjoyed each of the stories. I think that everyone will have their own favorite from the number given in this volume set. I can easily see the author’s passion for space travel along with his background in mechanical engineering coming out in his writing. The audiobook was superbly narrated by Shamaan Casey. With his smooth and deep narration voice, I found that his narration helped set the various story’s surroundings and just how void space really is. Even with all the space and technology, there were times of deep emotion along the way. If you are one that likes to consume your science fiction in shorter bits and find that you enjoy more hard style, then I think you will really like what you hear in this newly released volume of short stories.

I found the introduction and exit chapters very informative as to the author’s purpose and desire in writing the stories contained in this volume of work. We clearly see he has a passion for space, near lightspeed travel, and different ship configurations. But, as I said earlier the stories are not just simply the nuts and bolts that make a decent science fiction tale, not at all. The author blends in both emotional periods and time where difficult moral decisions need to be made as well. As the listener, one always wonders what would have happened if the character made the opposite moral choice. There were a few times that I found myself laughing out loud as well. The use of humor was often leveraged to alleviate the buildup of tension over time. For me, each of these stories tells how vast space is and just how dangerous interplanetary exploration is as well. Take the most difficult thing you can imagine here on earth and multiply that by a factor of one hundred and you get an small idea of how hard space is and how unforgiving it can be.

The stories take us from the earth to the moons of Saturn and even farther to the possible discovery of Planet X. There may be even a bit of extraterrestrial life found while on the outer edges of our solar system. Although it seemed a bit odd at first, the author’s incorporation of a social media platform, even usable in space, was a bit of a twist. Yes, there were delays in communication, due to how big space is, but having this technology made a few of the stories more interesting. When I began listening, I felt that the stories had a feeling of the movie Interstellar with some of the movie The Sphere woven in, both good things. There was that wonder of space, but also the unknown aspects that float to the surface. I like the quote that said something along the lines that, “space exploration is 99% boredom and 1% wonder”. Often, we only get the wonder part in other stories, but here adding some of the boredom helps us understand space better and it felt more realistic.

With Shamaan Casey doing the audiobook’s narration, I really do not have anything negative to say. All his works I have reviewed in the past, along with this one, are polished and professional. He has a unique voice and I know that I can often fall into his narrations with ease, and I find the characters he voices to have emotion and purpose. There were no audio anomalies which I noticed while listening. Again, this is a narrator which I could listen to all day long and not get tired of his voice.

Parents and younger listeners, the book does contain some profanity, but this was on the lighter side and mostly sprinkled in different stories. I do not recall anything else that would impact the recommended age apart from this being more in the genre of hard science fiction, so it may be a bit difficult for younger readers to grasp the concepts and train of thought while listening. Apart from these, I would say that teenagers and above would enjoy this set of stories.

In summary, this is a great volume of science fiction stories that tie to a single theme. Even with them being more on the hard science fiction side, they are enjoyable by most. The narration was clean and crisp with a voice that is both easy to listen to and a great storyteller. It will be interesting to see if there will be additional volumes of such stories from this author in the future.