The Sphere Of Travel (TSOT2)
Steve Simons returns to the site, releasing a serialized audiobook version of his novel, The Sphere Of Travel (TSOT2):
This story is rated 12 as there is a romantic theme and also death, but nothing explicit, it’s still a clean story.
We find the team of David and John set to adventure out again. This time in an improved sphere and both of them are going to travel together. A new member is introduced to the team, Debbie Gill. Debbie takes over David’s role, predicting the location of the black holes.
The trip does not go according to plan, but oh no,
don’t look to me to spill the beans as to what happens, you just have to listen to the story to find out. Oh here’s a teaser then, this is not just the one story, this time you get double the value,
as it is two stories wrapped up in one book.This one runs into 32 chapters and our test audience just couldn’t wait for the next installments to hit their players. In fact they are so keen they already want the next book! Oh yes there will be a final book in the Trilogy.
This book is complete, so the choice of getting all episodes at once in the default feed is yours. Or if you want to pace yourself, get a custom feed and control when episodes are sent out.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
April 15th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
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May 1st, 2009 at 5:35 am
i am a huge fan of the first. infact it is my all time favorite audio book. i am up to chapeter 15 and i am hooked. im happy to know that there will be another in the series.
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:23 pm
I’m enjoying the story, but thought that I’d pass on that I’m still just tolerating the music. This time the music is not as jarring (better than the last book), but still seems extra long in the intro. I expect the story to start at about the time the vocals start.
I have subscribed to 69 Podiobooks. I’ve enjoyed some totally, while others I couldn’t get into and didn’t finish.
In the books I enjoy most, music is used sparingly, as ‘punctuation’.
I have over 5,000 songs on my iPod so I do not listen to Podiobooks for the music… My enjoyment comes from the stories and I tend to get impatient with long intros of the installment or interruptions of the story, especially if it’s a good story.
And as I said I am enjoying your story.
August 14th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I have to agree with Largosmiles about the loud music and not wanting to have it in podcasts. Whenever it happens, I download the book chapters or episodes and instead of adding them to iTunes, just save the MP3 files on the disk. Then I load them up in Amadeus Pro (any sound editor that shows a waveform will do). You can see the loud parts which are clearly music and can tell where to click to get right into the story. (Zoom so you have about 3 minutes of sound displayed.)
Unfortunately it takes the fun away from having them on the iPod, but it does work.
Byronw
September 30th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Steve, Love your writing and narration, but really cant get past the intrusive music. Can’t listen. Good work though.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
BE WARNED: This book ends without any real resolutions. The resolutions are offered in TSOT3 – which you are forced to pay £4 to £7 for – outside of podiobooks!! I feel this is misleading to readers and disrespectful to podiobooks. At the least, I thought potential readers should know this and be able to make an informed decision.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
The following is feedback I sent direct to the author. I felt so strongly about it that I have posted it here too:
I grabbed TSOT1 from podiobooks and was intrigued enough to get TSOT2. However, now that has finished, it seems that the only way to get TSOT3 is to pay for it? Is this true?
If so, I am very, very dissappointed in you. While I totally understand the desire and need to make money from your creations, I beleive you are going about it in a deceitful, duplicitous way. I feel like I had not been given enough honest information to make my decision to listen to TSOT2 – if I had been told it was only part, and that part 2 required me to pay, then I would have been able to make an informed decision. But I was not told that I would have to pay for the second half of the book, and so I feel mislead and betrayed.
I have been known to pay for audio books that I got free from podiobooks if I feel the deserve it, but I am far more reluctant to pay now that I am being forced to – that is no way to treat your customers.
You may not think that TSOT3 is just part 2 of TSOT2, but in my mind it certainly is. So many plot threads were not resolved that the story was not finished in any sense. Sure, they got back to Earth, but so what – we don’t know what Earth, what time, what circumstances, so the only thing that was ‘resolved’ is essentially not resolved at all. Therefore, nothing was resolved. Therefore, TSOT2 is not a complete book. Comparing this to other series, or even trilogies, like Lord of the Rings, there is a definite resolution at the end of the book, but avenues are left open for the next. And even then, you knew you were going to pay for the subsequent books ahead of time. Sure, TV series use cliffhangers at the end of seasons (which is becoming increasingly despised anyway), but they don’t force you to pay for the next season. An apt analogy is drug dealers that hand our free samples to get people addicted so they can sell more drugs. Is this a business model you can adopt with a clear conscience?
Do you also realise you are bypassing podiobooks’s system, and therefore depriving them of a share of the fee you charge? If you appreciate creators getting paid, then you should appreciate (and pay) podiobooks for their had work in creating their site and promoting your books.
Also consider the price for a minute. It is effectively 7GBP for me in New Zealand – that is about $15 NZD. Sure, I get all 3 ‘books’ but lets be honest – all I want is TSOT3. I can buy a full, published novel for $15 that includes professional illustration, editing, publishing, and writing. While I got engaged in your work, I am afraid I have to be honest and say it is not professional in any of these regards, and yes, I felt this before I found out about being forced to pay. I find the writing often pulls me out of the story by switching from 1st person to 3rd person and back etc – something any writer is told to never do. And saying things like “John thinks…” is very lazy exposition – professional writers are very artful and clever in conveying the same things without stating it outright. It may be tolerable in screenplays, but not in novels. Audio production was generally quite good, with a few moments that impressed me, but was still not professional – e.g. the music often had varying lengths and in general lasted too long, loosing momentum and getting frustrating.
So you may be wondering why I care to hear TSOT3? I was intrigued by some of the concepts, and I am curious about the unresolved elements (what happened to Paul, how there could be a plausible explanation for people being deleted, etc). However, given my experience so far, I am not 100% confident that these will be resolved plausibly and satisfactorily. Therefore, I was just willing to invest my time in hearing TSOT3, intending to donate if I thought it deserved it. However, that seems impossible now.
Please bear in mind even free transactions have a transaction cost – readers have to contribute their time – considerable hours – to downlaod and listen. So I currently feel like I paid (my time) and did not receive the product implicitly promised (aka a story, which by definition has a start, middle and end). I would be (just) willing to pay more of my time to receive what I originally expected, but I am certainly not willing to pay money because 1) I feel forced, 2) I feel it is only half a book, and 3) it is priced at a professional level, which it is not.
I would appreciate you: 1) making TSOT3 available for free, or 2) making it very clear in TSOT2 in at least 2 or 3 ways that the story is not resolved until TSOT3 and that people are forced to pay for TSOT3 (though this still leaves many existing, disgruntled listeners).
I would be interested in hearing your response.