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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
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (304 ratings)
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Cast Under an Alien Sun cover art

Cast Under an Alien Sun

By: Olan Thorensen
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
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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

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Series - so good I read them first!

Cane across the series on kindle format and loved the premise so much, that I bought it. I am dyslexic and rarely read, thus a huge fan of audible. This is a fantasy plot, but reads like realism and is both very intelligent, detailed and at times witty. Really easy to get drawn in and hooked. This story is fantastic and I am so happy it came to Audible. Dear fellow fantasy audible lovers - I truly, truly cannot rate his series enough and the highly talented author. Haha, I am not paid or affiliated, me being a young British chap and the Author a Yank.

Definitely give it a go, I guarantee you will not waste a credit, but like me, will end up listening to it again and again.

Enjoy, I know you will!

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12 people found this helpful

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

I prefer a character led story

I found the story contained to much of the author "telling" us facts rather than letting us discover them with the character, for me, it slowed the story down. I also thought "do I need to know all this background?" Tell me when I need to know it, if in fact I do need to know it.

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7 people found this helpful

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

When can I get the next one?

What did you like most about Cast Under an Alien Sun?

Loved the premise and the characters. Well written story and strong delivery.

What did you like best about this story?

The technical aspects and the realistic characters

Have you listened to any of Jonathan Davis’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Nope

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

When will the next one be available on Audible? Very frustrating that I can't continue - may have to revert to old fashioned Kindle or heaven forbid paper!

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6 people found this helpful

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

Main character was the biggest problem

I can't really recommend. It was ok'ish, but not really. The writing was only meh, the book just dragged on and on and on...
One of the biggest problems was the main character. He lost all of my respect when he had a large hole dug in the middle of his village near their wells and filled that said hole with some pretty toxic stuff. He even wondered about if the stuff would have any harmful effects, but his solution was just to grin to himself and thank the gods that there was no chemistry pollution oversight agencies or such in his new home planet. Twice.

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5 people found this helpful

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

I gave up...

Any additional comments?

Tedious, unengaging, excessive exposition, silly fantasy names and the prospect of several volumes of this story...life's too short, and there are a lot of much better books to listen to.

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5 people found this helpful

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

Interesting idea, but poorly written.

I tried with this, but have given up six hours in. I liked the basic idea behind the story, but found it poorly written (far too much exposition). Narration was fine.

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3 people found this helpful

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

Teenage wet dream............

What did you like most about Cast Under an Alien Sun?

The start before it became the cringe-worthy POV sex diary of a day dreaming virgin.

What could Olan Thorensen have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

honestly, stop trying to game of thrones with all the sex scenes could have had twice the character development if you had cut out like 5 of the sex with farm girl scenes

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The main character had the same tone throughout even though, to begin with, he was a mess.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

yeah angry and embarrassed I listen to audiobooks on transport and in public so all the sex scenes were just not needed at all.

Any additional comments?

pick a genre and stick to it, could have done without all the needless sex scenes not saying to have none just cut it back dude.

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3 people found this helpful

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

disappointingly boring

I was really excited after the first chapter, the story seemed to be promising and interesting. But it turned out that the main character is dull, the alien planet, including the habitants living on it and their customs, just like earth, including Abbeys, scholars and braised beef and that the most challenging thing for the main character to face is how to break up with a woman he just met a few weeks ago to have finally sex again after nine months of abstinence.
The really interesting idea of how a chemist would try to change this world with his knowledge and how this foreign society would react, is resolved in a very simple way: he doesn't face any challenges, not even the slightest criticism, people around him just accept his soap and paper and anasthetics and fertilizer factorys so that he is able to buy himself a comfy little cottage.
After reading the book I have the feeling that I don't know the main character at all, the book doesn't even tell how he coped with loosing his wife and unborn child, it's barely worth mentioning.
wouldn't buy it again!

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2 people found this helpful

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

OMG this is dry slow and boring.

I am trying hard to enjoy this as I paid for it but OMG it's dry and slow. OK I have now finished the book. If you loose all the bits that do not involve the main character then I would have given 2 stars. Don't waste your time and money

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2 people found this helpful

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

Boring, over-complicated rubbish

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If the reader had read a different book it would have been considerably better.

What was most disappointing about Olan Thorensen’s story?

Getting in to it. It started well, but soon ran into the sand.

Any additional comments?

Don't bother.

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2 people found this helpful