The short:
Good-to-great description (occasionally bordering on purple), a good hook at the beginning, but the characters are generally cookie-cutter and the plot becomes progressively more ridiculous as time goes on. Was this inspired by a fever dream? Too much deus ex machina, and the deus in question is a dick.

Setting:
Mostly really nifty and very vividly painted. I don’t think I ever had a moment where I couldn’t picture who was where and what was happening (which is a rarity for my spatial-reasoning-challenged self). Even the later thoroughly fantastical (and outright ridiculous) settings were clear and well-described. It seems like description is Stacey Cochran’s strong point. . . I just wish he would polish his plot and flesh out his characters!

Characters:
The main characters felt flat to me, and the secondary characters were almost all completely cookie cutter. I could start linking the appropriate pages on TV Tropes for all the characters, but that would take too much time. Suffice to say, the characters do not seem to transcend or poke fun at their very cliche nature, they seem to sink into it.
The book also suffered from “House of the Dead syndrome,” where the characters are cutouts on a rail with the plot slamming them from one plot point to another in a sometimes confusing fashion. Even though there was *telling* about a character’s motivation and backstory, (1) it was largely tell, not show, and (2) the motivation explanation usually came just a few minutes or even seconds before it became relevant. In several cases, it felt like the “and here’s their motivation” was tacked on at the moment because the plot needed them to do something specific. What characterization was there was interesting, but it mostly left me wishing for more.

Plot:
It definitely started out compelling for me. I did finish listening to the audiobook, after all, so something must have grabbed me in the first few episodes. And really, the beginning grabbed me by the collar and yanked me in. Who is this Dr. Math Geek, why has she done all these crazy things, what crazy secret of the universe has she discovered? Unfortunately, it held my attention less and less as time went on. I think I listened to the last few episodes (at 2x speed) because I didn’t want all those hours spent listening to be wasted. I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed the story more if I’d stopped without the whole sequence of our crazy troupe of characters on the desert planet.

Things frequently feel contrived. It started out a touch unbelievable but compelling (as much good fiction does), but the ridiculous and inexplicable villainy/chance meetings/inconsistent monsters/minor characters’ deaths/almost-tragedies piled on top of each other to the point of outright silliness. I’m sad to say that I just stopped caring about the characters or the plot resolution several episodes from the end (the key room is what did it). So many things felt like they were in there just because the author thought it would be cool, and it feels like the universe can only be explained by the existence of a nearly all-powerful being who creates all these crazy things for the sole purpose of screwing with the main characters. And despite this, the stakes never really felt high at all after the arrival in Ouray, CO.

The bullet-points:
-I wanted to like this. And while I liked parts of it, the whole just doesn’t do it for me.
-I like character-driven stories, and I feel like this is where the Colorado Sequence fell down. If you like plot-driven stories, you may just love this, particularly if you like/can tolerate the author pulling crazy twists and settings out of his hat.
-This feels like it was inspired by a series of fever-dreams. Why? I’ve written a story with many of the weaknesses that I’m complaining about here that was inspired by exactly that.
-I wish there’d been an editor/a more aggressive editor involved. Even cleaning up some of the more minor stuff (the said said said in dialogue, some smaller plot holes, some science stuff that either needs correction or obfuscation) would have improved this book. It’s got a lot of makings of a good story, but it needs a lot of work to be a story I’d tell my friends to read. Of course, I may not be the target audience.

Do keep writing, Mr. Cochran. First off, the only way to improve is to practice. And secondly, you’ve obviously got some enthusiastic fans, and you’ve got a lot the makings of a great story here.

I wasn’t so keen on the story when it seems that Yoda’s brother entered the story in the other world and there was also the strong influence it seemed to me of the Philip Pullman Dark materials books.

This wasn’t *bad* as a podcast story but the weak ending and the other niggles stopped me from enjoying it fully.

I do expect stories from Stacey Cochran to get better though as he has some interesting ideas.

As for the story… I’m not sure. I like the basic concepts, many of the ideas, but the author’s fondness of BANG BANG RATATATA BOOM CRASH sometimes turns me off. Also, the story often falls into the trap of “but professor, tell us…” exposition.

Something to listen to during the commute, but did not grip me enough to want to have the book on my shelves.

there were some continuity issues i didn’t understand. (going from a faulty memory here) the women were diving underneath Prince Osoro Santana’s mountain in their underwear. but barely made it out to fly a plane out of the mountain – in their underwear i figure since they were on the run and didn’t have time to change.

then rented a car? did they find clothes and money on the plane?

i realize these are small issues, but they jumped out at me in the middle of the story.

there were some questionable actions during the blizzard too – how were they going to get the gas after they dug down to the station. and if they could dig down for gas, why couldn’t they have found food in the same manner if there was not enough in the hotel to support them.

lara

Thanks for all of your hard work. I look forward to listening to ‘The Colorado Sequence’.

John

I am tweaking the final episode as I’m writing this post and will upload in a few minutes!

…the plot meanders, the characters have little personality, and the story just isn’t compelling. “The Colorado Sequence” reminds me of Stephen King’s “The Talisman”, stripped of its tapestry of fantastic characters and sense of wonder at the portrayal of parallel worlds and an unlikely hero’s journey. Add in far too much monologuing to explain plot points and background (ala Mark Jeffrey in the “The Pocket and the Pendant” and its sequel) plus the pacing of “Apocalypse Now), and you’ve got a train wreck.

Maybe it’s partly Owen Daly’s Eeyore-esque narration, with occasional coughs, throat-clearings and rustling of his script, but in the end, I blame the source material (which wasn’t edited for audio presentation at all…far, far too many “…he/she said”‘s in there. If Mr Daly portrayed the characters with far more unique voices, you’d not need the “‘X’ said” convention nearly as much).

Stacey, it feels like you don’t know what story you want to tell. Many disparate ingredients (or genres) make for a great Mulligan Stew, but Mulligan Stew thrown in a blender and put on puree just makes for a mess.

Was this originally envisioned as a trilogy? Because there’s enough material for one, that’s for sure! As it is, though, it’s a chore (for me) to listen to.

Jeremy
Drug Intervention Colorado