Stray cover art

Stray

Touchstone, Part 1

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About this listen

On her last day of high school, Cassandra Devlin walks out of exams and into a forest. Surrounded by the wrong sort of trees and animals never featured in any nature documentary, Cass is only sure of one thing: Alone, she will be lucky to survive.

The sprawl of abandoned, blockish buildings Cass discovers offers her only more puzzles. Where are the people? What is the intoxicating mist that drifts off the buildings in the moonlight? And why does she feel like she's being watched?

Increasingly unnerved, Cass is overjoyed at the arrival of the formidable Setari. Whisked into a world as technologically advanced as the first is primitive, where nanotech computers are grown inside people's skulls, and few have any interest in venturing outside the enormous white stone cities, Cass finds herself processed as a "stray", a refugee displaced by the gates torn between worlds. Struggling with an unfamiliar language and culture, she must adapt to virtual classrooms, friends who can teleport, and the ingrained attitude that strays are backward and slow.

Can Cass ever find her way back home? And after the people of her new world discover her unexpected value, will they be willing to let her leave?

©2011 Andrea K. Höst (P)2019 Andrea K. Höst Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Fiction Fantasy
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Please make the final part of the trilogy “Caszandra” available in the UK. It’s ridiculous to make only the first two parts of a trilogy available for purchase

Where is book 3?

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A detailed adventure in several new worlds with psychic space ninjas and a ghost cat.
I have the printed versions and love them. Was very hesitant to get the audio versions just in case ruined books. They didn’t, thankfully Aussie narrator. Slight warning she does go at a pace so I ended up listening at 0.8 speed.
Found the summary of the novel at the beginning unnecessary.
Could we please have the Gratuitous Epilogue too?

Enjoyable escapism

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first of all, I LOVE THIS STORY, so much so that I have it on my kindle app and in hardback form. So it pains me that the audible book let's it down. There are quite a few instances where the voice, volume and tone of the narrator changes. Its usually only for a few words or a sentence (it's literally happened 3 times as I typed about it). This might not be an issue for many, but when you're a neurodivergent who zones out while listening, the change is jarring. More so if you listen to it as you're dozing off.

There are also a few words, phrases and sentences that dont match up with the kindle version. Other than that it's a very decent attempt and the narrators voice is pleasant and calming.

a few little niggly bugs

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