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  • Cast Under an Alien Sun

  • Destiny's Crucible, Book 1
  • By: Olan Thorensen
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
  • Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (115 ratings)

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Cast Under an Alien Sun

By: Olan Thorensen
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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Publisher's Summary

What if you were thrown into a foreign society, never to see home again? What would you do, and could you survive?

Joe Colsco boarded a flight from San Francisco to Chicago to attend a national chemistry meeting. He would never set foot on Earth again.

On planet Anyar, Joe is found unconscious on a beach of a large island inhabited by humans where the level of technology is similar to Earth circa 1700. He awakes amid strangers speaking an unintelligible language and struggles to accept losing his previous life and finding a place in a society with different customs, needing a way to support himself and not knowing a single soul. His worry about finding a place is assuaged when he finds ways to apply his knowledge of chemistry - as long as he is circumspect in introducing new knowledge not too far in advance of the planet's technology and being labelled a demon.

As he adjusts, Joe finds that he has be dropped into a developing clash between the people who cared for him, and for whom he develops an affinity, and a military power from elsewhere on the planet - a power with designs on conquest. Unaware, Joseph Colsco has been poured into a crucible where time and trials will transform him in ways he could never have imagined.

Cast Under an Alien Sun is a story that's science fiction in premise, adventure in execution - a cross-genre adventure with elements of science fiction, history, hard science, epic fantasy, time travel, romance, alien contact, and space colonization.

©2016 Olan Thorensen (P)2017 Podium Publishing

What listeners say about Cast Under an Alien Sun

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad

I thought the narrator did a good job but the story was a bit underwhelming. It is a pretty good concept, just not executed that we'll. I almost quit a few times and don't think I'll listen to the sequel.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Fantastic and cringe at the same time

I read/listened to the five books. The story, plot, and research underpinning this series is great and had the potential to get almost full marks across the board. Enjoyable and worth it. However there were some very cringe worthy and cheesy sections that let it down. I can forgive the few inconsistencies with time distance etc.. no big deal. But OMG the romance and relational interludes were like reading or watching a pathetic tv soap like, ‘Bold and Beautiful’ script unfold in front of you. I predicted easily what was going to happen in the first half of the first book the way the author was going to head with the romance through the whole series. It was like he couldn’t help but introduce his own fantasies into the story. If only the author left this ‘Bold and Beautiful’ crap out it would have got higher marks from me. Also each book followed a same same formula with plot development l, but I didn’t mind that. It was the cringe worthy romance crap that was annoying especially in book four. Overall it was enjoyable.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it, very happy I stumbled onto this.

In my wish list for a long time, I was a bit hesitant to get it and I shouldn't have been. I think I'm going to binge listen this series now.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Series Review. More fantasy than sci fi.

Although I enjoyed this series, as I continued through the 2nd and subsequent books, I found myself increasingly annoyed and frustrated, primarily with the central economics within the story/society. I found myself repeatedly asking the question "where does the money come from?". After all, the coins just keep rolling in from the sale of commercial goods despite the fact that most people in this level of society never had actual money. So where does the coin come from?

Secondly, by the 4th book, the author repeats himself a lot. Sometimes within the next paragraph. It felt unnecessarily drawn out, protracted and desperately in need of a good edit. The novels also felt like they were an extended narration of a tech building computer game. It really did. It is also very predictable and the author frequently telegraphs his intentions. Furthermore, nothing ever goes wrong - ever!

Having leveled these criticisms, I must say that I did enjoy them, and felt that they are one of the more entertaining series I have encountered in recent times. The first book made me smile and feel good at times, and this was surely due to the wholesome and nice story that contained very little conflict and violence.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Cringeworthy beginning but improved as it went along.

A protagonist called “Joe”. I mean cummon’!.. I was on the verge of returning the book because the beginning was so badly written, but I persevered and thank god, it improved. The idea at the book’s heart is really appealing and finally it connected with that story; one of finding yourself in the past, knowing what you know now, and how you’d deal with the issues and responsibilities that knowledge created. It’s surprising good yarn that travels quite well and raises a few thought provoking issues. I just wish the author could go back in time and read-write the first few chapters!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, I will read the next one.

Overall the writting was excellent and the story interesting. The author did an outstanding job of describing a world and characters that made sense.

However, the performence was excessively emotional in places. The story a little too expansive and detailed in sections and some parts felt like they were put in during editing rather than part of the core story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Integration into a low Tech parallel Earth Culture

This is book 1 of an engagingly written Sci-Fi story, where the slightly geeky main character Joseph has to adapt into a parallel Earth culture with a technological level of the 17 hundreds. The humans on the island Caedellium were taken from a pre-European culture - thus their development follows similar structures then those on Earth, although there are significant differences in their society. Book 1 revolves mainly around Joseph's integration into his new environment and social status while coming to terms with a situation that will most likely be irreversible. The book is written from several point of views of different characters. It will be helpful to go to Olan Thorensen's web page and download the Anyar/ Caedellium maps and the character list to prevent confusion with the many different names.
The narration of this book series was excellent - especially with so many players involved. It is a very entertaining read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic start

Great start to a tried and true formula. Mr Davis narrative was excellent and I look forward to the next audio in this series.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Story

Highly recommend this book. Characters and the story draw you in. I'm already downloading book two!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Tim
  • 10-11-2017

Great idea

The main plot hook maintains the interest and I’m loving the series all the way so far.
There are many other ideas that perhaps I would have introduced in Joseph’s place but a couple he did I wouldn’t have thought of, in such is my enjoyment.
Looking forward to flight and naval additions

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