Ok let me get some confessions out of the way. This book is going to struggle in this review. The reason you may ask? I have just finished listening to two of the latest releases in two of my favourite long running zombie series. ‘Arisen’ (Book 11) and ‘The Undead’ (Book 12) series, and both of them happened to be the best in each series. I enjoyed every part of them and the narration in both of them was brilliant… and it gets worse for ‘SpaceMan’ because I’m not a ‘Kevin Pierce’ fan. I hope I don’t offend the people who love listening to Kevin Pierce. Don’t get me wrong I think the guy does a great job, the quality of recording is good if not great. He doesn’t seem to stumble over any words or names, he nails the emotions of the characters. But his voice just seems so old fashioned for my liking. I even increased the playback to 1.5x speed just so I could get over listening to him. Please notice I used the words ‘my liking’, you may just think I’m a idiot… and you are probably right. But do yourself a favour and listen to the sample first and then make a call. This isn’t a long story just 7 hours and 40 minutes, so speeding it up shortened the length dramatically. Also very important if the $ per hour factor plays a role in your purchasing decision… it certainly does in mine!
On the point of not being an long story, is the fact that it is only part of the story. I like stories which in themselves have some conclusion. This one doesn’t really, it is left for the next in the series.
I do feel a little ripped off because of the fact this story is so incomplete and because of the shortened listening time due to speeding up the narration. I feel as though this should have been combined with the second in the series. The total length with the two combined would be no more than many other stories I regularly purchase.
Ok with that gripe out of the way, it is onto the story itself.
The story blurb below is exactly right in its description:
Clayton Shepard is 249 miles above Earth when the lights go out.
He has no communication, limited power, and an unbreakable will to survive.
His one goal: find his way back to his family.
Shepard is an astronaut on his first mission to the International Space Station.
When a violent blast of solar magnetic radiation leaves him stranded in orbit, he’s forced to use his wit and guile to find a way home.
He has no idea what he’ll find when he gets there.
SpaceMan is a post-apocalyptic/dystopian tale that tells the survival story of a man and the family he left behind. It’s written with the help of former astronauts, NASA team members, and well-respected astrophysicists that give SpaceMan a unique sense of detail and desperation.
The story does has many things going on, and quite a few characters. But at no stage did I feel part of the story. It didn’t get me thinking ‘what would I do?’ or ‘I would have done that?’ But once again I could not fault the story, there where no glaring mistakes except for an explantation of why some electrical equipment on the space craft worked when everything else didn’t. The author certainly comes across as having done plenty of research.
Now I know these comments are going to put in ‘negative nancy’ light compared to other reviews on audible. But like I said it was going to struggle because of what I had listened to prior to this one. The narration problem was purely my person taste. If you listen to the sample and don’t mind Kevin’s voice than you will probably like this story and I do hope you do, because Tom Abrahams certainly deserves high praise for his ability as a author!
For me personally, the fatman is giving this one just one thumbs up and with no ‘heeeeeeeey’.
