Physicist Dr. Amy Levine has discovered a mathematical sequence--the Colorado Sequence--that describes an underlying pattern and a guiding force within the very fabric of reality. Now she's on the verge of an astonishing breakthrough, and the U.S. government wants to know how she has done it. How has Dr. Levine learned to accurately predict the future? And they're willing to kill her to find out. Levine and a group of friends escape to Colorado to unravel the mystery of the sequence, but there they become snowbound. They must locate a secret treasure room, find a hidden key, and answer an ancient riddle before a devastating eruption destroys them all ... and the power of the Colorado Sequence is lost forever.
Our PB.com 'review', more a comment than a review, written a long time ago when we were young and foolish. I almost didn't include it, but it's humbling to expose my roots:
Very nice book, and it serializes very well. Only 2 minor points, cause we all have to have minor points. First, don’t say gun-metal gray anymore. Second, ease up on the eye color thing, it’s a bit repetitive. Otherwise wonderful, and I be proud if I were you.
How We Would Describe This Book: Definitely fantasy, but with genuinely distinct differences from the standard fantasy genre. Stacey does a great job staying away from mainstream fantasy, no dwarfs, gnomes, or cookie-cutter monsters here, thank goodness! TCS is a sweeping, epic tale which defies the reader to guess where it's going next, then repeatedly dashes one's hopes to have guessed correctly. There is, in fact, so broad a range from where the books starts to where it ends, we're an amazed the author could pull it off, but thank you sweet Muses, he did.
NARRATION: Obviously, with PB.com releases, this is a critical aspect to the product. Stacey went to the trouble, and we're sure considerable expense, of having TCS read by a voice acting professional, Owen Daly. No fault here for bringing in a ringer, though most PB.com releases are read by their author, using a reader is fine. The problem I run into time and again is that the 'reader' is usually a friend, and the give painful new meaning to the expression 'amateur performance'. So, here we are gifted with a pro, and Owen is a marvelous actor. His efforts over a very long book are top notch, displaying a rich tonal range and a confident lilt to his phrasing. He makes some minor attempts to modulate from character to character, so the speakers are distinct, but does not force too great a change; perhaps that's by design, perhaps by limit of his range. In any case it's only a small detractor. We'd say TCS garners 19 points in this section.
EDITING/TECHNICAL ELEMENTS: Very well done, very professional. Again, this is a long book, and it is hard to maintain excellence over the long haul, so kudos to Mr. Cochran again. There were a few, a very few, glitches 2/3 the way though, gaps in editing, but they were isolated and did not significantly effect the overall product. We will award 19 points in the category.
ORIGINALITY OF STORY: The full 20 points here, and this is one of many cases where we'd like to cheat and slip in a few extra, but that would be, as we tattled, cheating. The aforementioned sweeping, imaginative and completely unantcipatably fresh scope of TCS is worth the price of admission in and of itself ( alright, don't be snarky and remind us it's a free podiobook, you whither our hyperbole). It is humbling to see the application of such creativity in a book, especially one of this length. One long standing ovations from us, with a bow mid-stream.
QUALITY OF WRITING: TCS is very well written. We see in PB.com releases, three general categories of writers: the good, the not so good (not bad, we wish it were so, for alliteration's sake if nothing else), and the ugly (which reaches way out to encompass a lot of the bad mentioned a moment ago). With TCS, we are proud to include this author in the good group, as a serious writer, not a story teller. There was some element of the style more conducive to the audiodrama genre, and not up there with the best writers we've encountered in PB.com, maybe an offshoot of the epic nature of the story. For example, I felt the author slipped in not allowing the protagonist to be stronger, more assertive and confident at a critical stage. She foresaw her friend in mortal danger while standing on a pile of gold coins, but when her friend rose to stand on a pile of gold coins, where she did in fact meet her end, the heroine said nothing. So, we'd say the writing pulls down an 18, just a bit off perfect, but never a serious detractor.
WOW FACTOR: There are definite wow factors in this book. The often mention sweeping imagination, the creation of parallel worlds and bold characters really pull TCS up to the top tier. The use of music is stunning, generating real impact, adding significantly to the book. So, wide-ranging vision, top notch narration, unparalleled use of music, great writing, and a satisfyingly long tale make TCS's wow equal to 20 points.
TOTAL SCORE: 96 well earned points for this compelling story, a must read for any audiodrama, fiction, or imagination fan.
For more information about Stacey Cocrhan: http://www.staceycochran.com/
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