By Dennis E. Taylor
It was my lucky day!
When a Public Relations Specialist from Audible reached out to me and asked me if Id like to review Dennis E. Taylor’s newest audible original, Outland, I jumped at it. I’ve been on a big fantasy kick lately and haven’t been paying too much attention to new sci-fi stuff so this was a nice change of pace.
Dennis E. Taylor is known for his most recent best-selling Audible Originals Singularity Trap and the Bobiverse trilogy. If you’ve been following my reviews from day 1, you will recognize Bobiverse. It was one of the first reviews I wrote about a year ago. I absolutely loved all 3 of the Bob books and wished there were more. I am probably going to be checking out Singularity Trap at some point now too. The book is read narrated by the multiple Earphones Award-winning and Audie-nominated narrator Ray Porter who also read the Bobiverse books so I already knew I liked the narrator.
What is Outland?
I was sent a synopsis of the book and it sounded pretty interesting. It talked about an experiment that went wrong and some college kids opened a portal to an alternate earth in which humans never evolved. It talked about the students using this tech to help save humanity from a natural disaster. If you go to Amazon or Audible and read the synopsis of Outland, you will find that it isn’t entirely accurate, but it’s close enough to get the idea I guess.
Why I like books like Outland.
The thing I think I like most about a book like this is all of the super nerdy sci-fi and fantasy references and jokes throughout the book. The main characters in the book have a lot in common with me. They are people that I can easily relate to. The way they interact with each other is the same way I would interact with my closest friends. Not only do I totally “get” them, but they are probably the group of people I would have most likely hung out with at college. This gives some realism, at least for me, to fictional characters in a sci-fi story about alternate earths. If you enjoy books with lots of nerdy references and jokes about popular fantasy and science fiction, this could be a book for you. In a way, it reminds me of books like ready player one.
Spoilers ahead
A little bit of detail about the story probably with some spoilers. A group of college students are working on a device that can change probability. I believe they called it something like quantum uncertainty. Think butterfly effect. The “gate” as they call it opens up to an earth that is almost exactly like our earth. Yes, there are a bunch of Stargate references while they build the “gates”. In this new earth, a catastrophic event happened 100,000 years ago and wiped out humans. Having no humans means animals that went extinct on our earth did not go extinct on the new earth which they end up calling Outland.
We’re gonna be rich!
What does every good time traveler want to do the first time they go back in time? They figure out how to get rich of course, and our college kids are no different. They, believe it or not, start panning for gold. The students quickly make a bunch of money and use the money to reinvest it to expand their mining operation and stocking up on supplies for more extended trips to Outland.
Or not…
Then disaster strikes on earth. Yellowstone erupts which turns out to be a world-ending disaster. The book then turns into a story of survival and rescue. I won’t go into too much detail, but the group is able to go back and forth to scavenge supplies and rescue people. They start to realize they may have to live in Outland for a while and start to rebuild society on a brand new earth.
A fantastic story I could listen to over and over again.
Dennis E. Taylor has created a fantastic story that will make you think, laugh, and wonder if traveling to other dimensions is actually a possibility. Outland releases in audiobook format exclusively on Audible May 16th of this year, 2019. If you enjoy a sci-fi story that will make you think long after you stop listening. Or maybe you just want a good laugh at some super dorky Sliders, Stargate, and redshirt references. Then be sure to pick up Outland on Audible. You won’t regret it!
Whats next?
I’m currently reading Six Sacred Swords and should be finishing up with that pretty soon. I’m really enjoying that. After that Tales of Kingshold just released on Audible TODAY!!! This is a must-read book before book 2 comes out. Kingshold was fantastic. If you haven’t checked out my review for book one yet you can find that RIGHT HERE.
I have a ton of stuff on my plate atm other than all this bookish stuff. Still trying to get enough stories together from middle-school and high-school kids to compile an anthology. I need to get organized on Goodreads. I started a D&D 5e campaign for my son and his friends. I’ve been building a ton of terrain and painting miniatures for that. I’ve been thinking about starting up Youtube again. And, last but not least, I am working on a new design for the site! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this review and all of my rambling. Here’s a giant mimic I built and painted to entertain you:
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