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A review by jenbsbooks
Cast Under an Alien Sun by Olan Thorensen
3.0
I signed up for a one-month KindleUnlimited subscription and figured I'd binge as many books as I could. Fairly high ratings, interesting premise ... just the text included in KU, but Audible was having a sale, so I paid $3 or so to add on audio.
As this started up though, I wasn't sure if I'd continue ... a bit of a jumpy start. Begins as the plane is going down, then jumps to a few hours earlier to give the reader background on the MC, then back to the crash, then awakening - survived/saved by aliens who have healed him but won't return him home (it's been a couple Earth years regardless), but instead drop him off on a different planet which is very like Earth, just more 17th century primitive. The conversation between Joseph and the alienAI just felt really stilted and eye rolling.
I did get enough into the story to continue once Joseph was placed on ground ... it had the slightest tinge of "Outlander" with our MC coming "from the future" (even if it isn't really Earth's past) and with knowledge (instead of being a nurse with a medical background, he's a chemist). He's also been "enhanced" by the aliens, so that he can learn the language quickly, has perfect recall of what he learned on Earth, won't get sick, etc. He tentatively starts to contribute based on his knowledge, "inventing" a bunch of things that will help, having all these wonderful ideas ... some suspension of disbelief required here ...
The world was apparently transplanted from Earth, so still humans, many of the same plants/animals, although there are some unique species too. Some things have developed similarly, some differently. Always a bit interesting to see what an author comes up with to differentiate this "other world" ... I think one of the main things that stood out was the "week" ... a "six day" (not seven) so their "years" happen more quickly. There are little communities, a bit of trade, some Viking like invaders, wanting to plunder/rape/kidnap for slaves. While the reader mainly stayed with the MC/Yoseph(Joseph), we'd also get peeks at some others in the community, and the "bad guys" in other lands.
Some different names ... and I can struggle with names in general, often just remembering "it started with C" which wasn't as helpful here with Carnigan, Caedelli, Keelan, Culich, Clengoth, Caernford, Kiltar, Kulvin, Kalcan, Cadwulf. Some other names ... Narthani, Elwin, Lanthan, Selfcell, Preddi, Eyewell, Maera, Luwis, Vortig, Filtin, Willager, Norla, Dyllis, Beynom, Musfar, Shamir, Yorm, Hetman, Dyfeld, Buna, Halla, Sistian, Diera, Vegga, Yonkel ... just to name a few.
Too many times we get the inner commentary of the MCs mind (just a little annoying).
So, I finished, but I don't think I'll continue on with the series (it's totally setting up MC and Maera to get together though, that's feeling obvious!)
ProFanity x8, some sex
Other words: Dais, cacophony, SURREY (boy, I haven't ever heard that one outside of "Oklahoma" and believe me, I started singing "surrey with a fringe on top" ...)
As this started up though, I wasn't sure if I'd continue ... a bit of a jumpy start. Begins as the plane is going down, then jumps to a few hours earlier to give the reader background on the MC, then back to the crash, then awakening - survived/saved by aliens who have healed him but won't return him home (it's been a couple Earth years regardless), but instead drop him off on a different planet which is very like Earth, just more 17th century primitive. The conversation between Joseph and the alienAI just felt really stilted and eye rolling.
I did get enough into the story to continue once Joseph was placed on ground ... it had the slightest tinge of "Outlander" with our MC coming "from the future" (even if it isn't really Earth's past) and with knowledge (instead of being a nurse with a medical background, he's a chemist). He's also been "enhanced" by the aliens, so that he can learn the language quickly, has perfect recall of what he learned on Earth, won't get sick, etc. He tentatively starts to contribute based on his knowledge, "inventing" a bunch of things that will help, having all these wonderful ideas ... some suspension of disbelief required here ...
The world was apparently transplanted from Earth, so still humans, many of the same plants/animals, although there are some unique species too. Some things have developed similarly, some differently. Always a bit interesting to see what an author comes up with to differentiate this "other world" ... I think one of the main things that stood out was the "week" ... a "six day" (not seven) so their "years" happen more quickly. There are little communities, a bit of trade, some Viking like invaders, wanting to plunder/rape/kidnap for slaves. While the reader mainly stayed with the MC/Yoseph(Joseph), we'd also get peeks at some others in the community, and the "bad guys" in other lands.
Some different names ... and I can struggle with names in general, often just remembering "it started with C" which wasn't as helpful here with Carnigan, Caedelli, Keelan, Culich, Clengoth, Caernford, Kiltar, Kulvin, Kalcan, Cadwulf. Some other names ... Narthani, Elwin, Lanthan, Selfcell, Preddi, Eyewell, Maera, Luwis, Vortig, Filtin, Willager, Norla, Dyllis, Beynom, Musfar, Shamir, Yorm, Hetman, Dyfeld, Buna, Halla, Sistian, Diera, Vegga, Yonkel ... just to name a few.
Too many times we get the inner commentary of the MCs mind (just a little annoying).
So, I finished, but I don't think I'll continue on with the series (it's totally setting up MC and Maera to get together though, that's feeling obvious!)
ProFanity x8, some sex
Other words: Dais, cacophony, SURREY (boy, I haven't ever heard that one outside of "Oklahoma" and believe me, I started singing "surrey with a fringe on top" ...)