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  • Outland

  • Quantum Earth, Book 1
  • By: Dennis E. Taylor
  • Narrated by: Ray Porter
  • Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (2,951 ratings)
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Outland cover art

Outland

By: Dennis E. Taylor
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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Summary

When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it's up to six college students and their experimental physics project to prevent the end of civilization.

When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to Outland - an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. The group races to establish control of the portal before the government, the military, or evildoers can take it away.  

Then everything changes when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet. The team has just hours to get as many people as possible across to Outland before a lethal cloud of ash overwhelms them. 

Nothing has prepared the refugees for what they find - a world of few resources and unprecedented dangers. Somehow, they must learn to survive, because Outland may not just be a safe haven - it could be their new home.

©2019 Dennis E. Taylor (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

What listeners say about Outland

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Bright young things

How far you go along with and enjoy 'Outland' will depend on your ability to swallow the central premise; that a handful of young US University students crack the secret of hopping between dimensions and are able to build a collection of interdimensional portals as and when needed.
Given the breadth of talent it takes to launch a shuttle into space, or build a particle accelerator, to put it mildly, this is a bit of a stretch. One engineering graduate (Bill, the wisecracking one with a penchant for movie references) is able to build the portals. One mathematical whizz cracks the maths. And an alpha male jock called Richard pulls it all together. Matt is pulled in because he is also good at science and has a trust fund. His girlfriend gets suspicious and joins him. And her bff, Monica, incredibly 'hot' and with a penchant for guns, and access to same (second amendment) later, handily, joins them.
They discover alternative Earth's, a grim future where humanity has been wiped out be greenhouse gases, and a world where humans haven't evolved, full of prehistoric mammals and hungry apex predators they christen 'Outland.'
Meanwhile, in the background, the Yellowstone Park super-volcano rumbles ominously. People read the danger signs but others do the mayor in Jaws thing and deny there is any danger. Said super-volcano erupts (the blurb tells you this, so this isn't a spoiler) and the kids evacuate, along with other students, to Outland. They also have to deal with some irate local thugs, an insurrection amongst the students, and the National Guard (who are ok really). The baddies telegraph their badness by calling the women 'bitch.' A lot.
So this isn't Issac Asimov. It is purely pulp science fiction, and it is no worse for that. It is a lot of fun. The writing is brisk, the volcano stuff is done well, with tension building slowly, and the young leads are on the whole quite likeable.
Kudos to Ray Porter, the narrator of the audiobook, who swings from character to character with effortless voice acting ease, and never flags or tires.

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125 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Missed the target

I liked the concept and listened all teh way to the end but the book lacked substance. The two major themes - inter-dimensional travel and end of the world event - are not explored and developed sufficiently to do either justice.
The characters lack depth, and much of the narrative and dialogue is weak and predicatble. The best I can compare it with is a movie which promises much but lacks the depth or excitement and goes straight to DVD.

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36 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I find that I like everything by this Author

Loved it. Finished it too fast, and not because it's a small book. Try Bobiverse as well.

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29 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Not recommended

Taylor is not able to follow up on his Bobiverse success. His writing style is to directly transcribe his imaginings and publish. This works well on a space odyssey with mainly one character. It falls flat here in a universe with more characters and ironically more closely related to our world. All characters are caricatures. The plot is poorly expressed, and both politics and science are embarrassingly naïve.

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Too american for this listener

Which sounds like a stupid criticism, american author writing for an American readership, no big surprise. This is Taylor's first novel and its interesting enough in terms of plot but has little of the moral complexities of his later work. The protagonists are University students but behave and sound like adults - spoiler - a world changing volcanic eruption threatens every living person and it seems to mean so little to them, they worry about coffee, they get guns, lots of guns, and millions die, including friends and relatives and in seems to mean so little.... And more guns, Americans and their love of firepower. Six hours into this I stopped, gave it a good chance, but I didn't care about any of them because they didn't seem real or worthy of my interest... Actually disliked the characters, so vapid... And did I mention the guns. The narrator is professional but can't bring across the age of the characters, they sound like thirty year olds.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

On the edge at every end of chapter

When is someone going to make a movie out of this amazing book?!? I loved it so much I devoared it much quicker than expected. Dennis E. Taylor I can't wait to read your other books. As for Ray Porter I can't express how much I am grateful that you narrate books. YOU. ARE. SO. GOOD! Thank you! ❤️ On to the next book!

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17 people found this helpful

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

Insufferable characters

The overall story is fairly interesting but what ruins it is the absolutely insufferable characters. All very stereotypical 'geeks' and incredibly annoying, and not what actual nerds actually speak like . I find the dialogue completely cringe worthy, noone speaks like that. I physically rolled my eyes at the dialogue many times.

I loved the Bob tribology however it must be said this author seems to only be able to write one type of woman, the sassy snappy, incredibly intelligent. They all seem the same. But to be honest his male characters don't vary much either.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The Long Earth by Sir Terry Pratchett

Really deserves some of the credit here, unless I've missed an older source that they are both based on.

It's a fun story, well written and well performed. But the similarities with The Long Earth don’t end with the Yellowstone Eruption and sideways stepping to alternate earths. It bugged me a bit too much the further I ventured in.

Will read more, would love to see an acknowledgement towards Sir Terry for inspiration.

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14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Dennis e Taylor saves humanity again

cant wait for book two. love the style of this book. geek scifi at its finest.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Chewing gum for the ears

After the excellent Bobiverse and enjoyable Singularity I was looking forward to this book.
Sadly, it was a disappointment. The book doesn't live up to or really follow the preface and is a generic 'Magic Door' to another universe book. Extremely simple story with obvious plot 'twists' resulting in a shallow two-dimensional listen that ignores any of the scientific challenges to such a gateway in divergent universe.
Well narrated which made it listenable but overall it's more a book to pass that time that to stir the imagination hence chewing gum for the ears.
I doubt I'll buy any more in this series though will consider other Dennis Taylor books in the future.

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11 people found this helpful