Now releasing: Beneath by Jeremy Robinson
Jeremy Robinson is back from the deep and headed to space in Beneath:
Three thousand years after a chunk of iron the size of Khufu’s pyramid collides with Europa, Jupiter’s sixth moon, an asteroid borne of the collision crashes into Earth’s Arctic ice shelf carrying extraterrestrial microbial life. The first man to come into contact with the microbes hears voices—and then dies.
After determining the meteorite originated from Europa, the Global Exploratory Corporation sends oceanographer and biologist, Kathy Connelly, and her crew to the moon aboard the Surveyor, an experimental spacecraft. They are charged with the task of melting through miles of ice to the hidden ocean beneath, where the search for alien microorganisms begins. But a startling discovery awaits them on the surface of Europa.
Life.
Vast fields of red, plant-like organisms fill the cracks crisscrossing the moon’s surface, surviving on nutrients welling up from the waters below. Intoxicated by thoughts of what might lie beneath, Connelly and her crew activate the Thermal Exploratory System and melt through the ice—toward a world that does not want to be found, toward a force that will do anything to make sure they never leave.
They search for life. They find death.
About the Author: Jeremy Robinson is the author of six published novels including his hard cover thriller, PULSE and INSTINCT, which are part of his Chess Team series. His books have been translated into eight languages.
About the Narrator: Jeff Kafer is an amazing narrator and winner of the 2008 Voicey Award for Best New Voice.
PRAISE FOR BENEATH:
“Here’s a near-future space adventure that’s as frightening as it is smart. Jeremy Robinson’s BENEATH is packed with believable tech, a page-turning story and an alien intelligence so creepy, you’ll pray NASA never makes it past the moon.”
–J.C. Hutchins, author of PERSONAL EFFECTS: DARK ART and 7th SON: DESCENT“Jeremy Robinson hits his stride in BENEATH. His story-telling is as tight as ever, delivering thrills that raise the heart rate and science detail that gets the mind cranking just has hard. An evocative blend of Crichton and Clarke, BENEATH is destined to become an instant new media classic.”
–Phil Rossi, Best Selling author of CRESCENT, HARVEY, and EDEN“Isolation, cold, and the unknown: Like The Thing, Into the Void taps into those fears, and a couple more we never know we had. Robinson strips away all that we hold dear, sends us into the deep dark, and dares us to make our way out of it.”
–Mur Lafferty, author of PLAYING FOR KEEPS and award-winning podcaster of I SHOULD BE WRITING and the HEAVEN series“Robinson grabbed my attention in the first chapter, and kept hold of it. BENEATH isn’t your run of the mill way distant future fantasy sci-fi. It reads like its real, like it could happen today…but we hope and pray it doesn’t.”
–Basil Sands, author of 65 BELOW and FAITHFUL WARRIOR“Masterful Craftsmanship…a chilling tale that finally answers the question: Are we alone?”
–thenovelblog.comPRAISE FOR ROBINSON:
“There’s nothing timid about Robinson…”
– Jeff Long, NY Times bestselling author of THE DESCENT and YEAR ZERO“How do you find an original story idea in the crowded action-thriller genre? Two words: Jeremy Robinson.”
– Scott Sigler, New York Times bestselling author of CONTAGIOUS and INFECTED“Jeremy Robinson is an original and exciting voice.”
– Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of THE CHARLEMAGNE PURSUIT
February 9th, 2010 at 6:30 am
All I can say is that I was very happy to see Jeremy Robinson back here and that I know it’s going to be a great ride….along with the amazing Jeff Kafer.
Made my day!
February 9th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Thanks Rosanna! I’m just as glad that you’re back and listening. That’s what it’s all about.
– Jeremy
March 21st, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Loving the book so far, one of the few titles that i’ve been so hooked on that i’ve been listening to it during publication. The narration and audio quality leave nothing to be desired, and my disbelief may well be on permanent suspension. After this and Kronos, i’m off to reading all the rest of your works i can get my paws on, cash required or no. Cheers!
March 24th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Really enjoying this book. The quality of the narration is excellent, the story gripping. I had the feed running 1 episode a week but have been burning through this releasing extra episodes to find out what happens next. I’m surprised at how poorly briefed the crew were about the ship though, didn’t see what it added to the story and it occasionally pulled me out of the flow of the book thinking about it.
March 31st, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Glad you’re enjoying the book, guys.
Sean, a BIG thanks for checking out the print books after listening to the free ones. Without folks buying the print books (I recommend PULSE and INSTINCT!) I wouldn’t be able to afford to put out the podcast novels. These suckers ain’t cheap!
Steve, good point about the crew. I believe the original version of the story had them rushed out to Europa much faster than three months and that detail got overlooked. Just pretend it was three weeks instead of three months.
Thrilled you’re enjoying it regardless.
– Jeremy
April 6th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Wow just listened to episode 13.
Increadible book and easily one of the all time best audio books I’ve heard to date (and trust me I’ve been through a lot)!
Top notch writing, audio quality and narration can’t congratulate enough – I’ll be ordering some copies of your books for friends and family as presents.
Thanks for releasing this podcast.
April 6th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Thanks Jonathan! I’m glad you’re not only enjoying the story, but have noticed the hard work that went into the quality of the production. More than that, thanks for ordering the print books! Without them, the free audiobooks wouldn’t be possible and I’d be out of a job.
– Jeremy
April 12th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Oh man, this just keeps getting better and better! I’ve been listening to this in batches of two episodes on my way to and from work and I keep finding myself compulsively checking the page to see if a new episode has been released! How many more to go?
April 14th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Glad you’re enjoying the book, Brett! There are seventeen episodes total. So, three more weeks. Of course, you could become a Thrillevangelist and get the whole thing now.
See http://www.jeremyrobinsononline.com/thrillevangelist.html for details.
April 20th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Great narration and audio. Couldn’t finish the book though. To unrealistic in terms of logic. Scientists wouldn’t do 80% of what the scientists in the story are doing. First trip to a moon of Jupiter and they switch space suits on them with no warning? High speed off roading on a new environment with the land rover? Finding never before discovered alien life and digging it up with a shovel?
Don’t think so.
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Great book. Plenty of pulse-pounding action, drama and characterization. My only petty, minor issue with the audio was with Jeffrey Kafer’s pronunciation of “Europan”. Rather than “yer-oh-pean” it should be “yer-oh-pen”. I know, I know… it’s a minor glitch but I noticed it nonetheless.
April 23rd, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Zeus, you had me freaked out for a few minutes, thinking I had to refund Jeremy his money, But the way it’s written in the book is “Europian”, so I think I’m in the clear.
April 23rd, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Kind of a long trip for a lecture on the evils of being human….
April 29th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Great story. I really enjoyed it. I look forward to hearing more from Jeremy.
May 3rd, 2010 at 10:28 am
Thanks for the support, everyone! If you enjoyed the story and have a chance, would you mind hopping on over to Amazon and posting a review for the Kindle book? Every one helps a lot. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036TH6T0
Thanks!
– Jeremy
May 4th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
So much talent wasted.
You have great audio quality and the narration is spot on BUT it is so childish. Listening to Beneath makes me feel so, so old.
If this is a young persons novel – OK, but you should say so.
This story has so much potential all left to rot in silly characters doing silly things.
I am about to give up having got to episode 9.
The final straw was hearing two “scientists” hold hand and count to three before turning around to see some shocking thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on, that only happens in play-school.
Jeremy Robinson please get yourself an HONEST editor to knock your stories into a grown up world.
I am so sorry as this is such a waste of your and other persons talent.
May 6th, 2010 at 12:24 am
I just finished this book but would have to agree with several of the commenter’s here, I really had to suspend my disbelief to an unreasonable level. Sure aliens on Europa, no problem, spaceship full of scientists there no problem. The problems are with the way the scientists behave, regularly breaking protocol and making poor decisions to such an unbelievable level that it started to break apart the story.
May 6th, 2010 at 8:55 am
I was not disappointed.
I loved this book. It had just the right blend of science and fiction and fantasy and thrills to keep me wanting more.
I think that Jeremy Robinson does such a great job at characterization and interweaving fantasy with reality….. that some people forget about the word Fiction after the word Science.
Great story!
May 12th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Thanks Rosanna. Appreciate the support.
To others, please remember that this is FREE. Is this my best book? No. Those are published by Thomas Dunne, in hard cover, with an editor. This is an older book of mine and was put out, at my expense (not the listener’s), because a lot of fans wanted to read/listen to BENEATH, my only unpublished book. The scientists do some stupid things, yes, and reflects where my writing was seven years ago (when I wrote it). But its not hard sci-fi and is supposed to be fun. I’m not disagreeing with the critiques, only the tone–the voice of someone who was given something for free, and now feels ripped off.
Should I be expected to give away my best books for free? I don’t think so. If you want to read my best books, go buy them.
– Jeremy Robinson
May 14th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Jeremy, thanks for presenting your work in this format, for sticking to a consistent release schedule and springing for professional narration. Jeff Kafer, another great job. For all the simplification of science and situation, this was still an engaging story. I could quibble about dialog, editing etc, but the bottom line is that I was compelled to check in for each week’s chapter and enjoyed the ride.
May 18th, 2010 at 12:32 am
Hi Jeremy
Firstly I want to say, thank you for an excellent book. I really enjoyed it. And while I realize it is fiction, and don’t have a problem with fictional technology, I think I found a glaring mistake where you failed to adhere to the technology you created.
*****SPOILER ALERT***********
When Choy (hope I spelled that correctly) was attacked by Peterson, she was dragged to a tunnel and dropped down. Subsequently she was spewed out again, she travelled for 3 minutes at 40 mph before she was under the cover of the electromagnetic field again. This means that when Peterson dragged or carried her to the tunnel, both of them would have been unprotected for much longer and should have been fried to a crisp. Am I right or am I missing something? Another thing I thought of, if the crew are protected by the chairs during the massive accelleration and decelleration, what is protecting the plants in the biolab from these masive g’s. Surely they will also be damaged by such masive forces?
*************************
This didn’t really distract me from enjoying the story, and I just want to say thank you again for offering this for free. I for one really appreciate it. Will defenitely be checking out more of your work. Kronos was also brilliant btw.
September 8th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Enjoying it so far. One thing grabbed my attention though, at some point there’s a discussion of the air pressure decreasing rapidly (but apparently not dangerously) for a short time and the characters are portrayed as holding their breaths.
Which is precisely the wrong thing to do, breathe out and if possible set your jaw in the optimal orientation to help your ears equalize down and back up again. When this is done properly air pressure changes become much less dangerous.
If the pressure is changed slowly enough insanely high or low pressures can be tolerated for longer periods. (See surface supplied deep ocean diving rigs, and the reduced atmospheric pressures that the Space shuttle operates at)
April 15th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
I like the book alot but have 2 things I think you could change that would make the story much eaiser to follow. First the characters are always refered to by their last names, but when they talk to each other they mostly use their first names. This gets very confusing when trying to learn all the characters. I would just refer to them by their first names all the time. It also helps to convey the character’s sex. Calling the lead character Connelly doesn’t have the same feel as calling her Kathy. Secondly there are absolutely no segways. One moment you are hearing about 2 characters underwater and the next 2 are fighting on the ship. It gets very confusing and I find myself having to rewind it alot. A little 5 second sound effect or small music clip when cutting to a new scene would help alot.
May 10th, 2011 at 8:04 am
This is a very interesting thriller. Not a very compelling science fiction novel. And the author makes an amazing amount of really odd word choises, such as “clamber” where I expected “clatter” and many, many similar things. The “Kronos” was much better in many respects.
I am willing to grant a science fiction author some freedom with science, but there are limits. This author chooses to employ several tropes that were becoming unscientific at the time of H. G. Wells; today there is very little excuse for them. Especially when I consider that the thriller component in the authors books is very competent and gripping.
November 5th, 2011 at 10:07 am
“Beneath” was a fascinating concept that left me wanting quite a few bits here and there. I can completely buy the initial discovery and subsequent trip to Io. Some of the future tech ideas are kind of neat. On the other hand, I ran into LOTS of things that bothered me during the reading, i.e. (possible spoilers):
There is a lot of vomiting and anxiety going on. Don’t get me wrong, vomiting is no big deal. It just seemed like the default reaction to any situation was for the character to vomit.
Liked the idea of the ‘liquid meta’l chairs for acceleration protection; don’t buy that the first time they try them out is to use them.
Same with the space suits; they train in one, but, get new, high performance suits once on the mission, which they see the first time they use them.
Major controls for the TESS Sphere seem to be topside, for instance, the lighting. Really? They have to ask topside to turn lights on and off for them? Yet the TESS is also an autonomous submersible? So, if they launch with the lights on, they can’t turn them off. Don’t buy that so much, either.
First dive under the ice and the water is milky, nothing can be seen. Our intrepid aquanauts are ready to give up, then and there. Really? They’ve come how many million miles to melt a hole in the ice of Io, descend in the TESS, get their first glance, visibility is obscured and they’re ready to pack up and go home, then and there???
A recurring theme is the isolation against infection – both to protect the crew from the planet, also, to protect the planet from the crew. Choy has designed extensive systems to decon returning explorers. Yet, they blithely hop from a surface crawler, into the TESS and then remove their suits. That would seem to be a major contamination source for the crew.
When the TESS on an autonomous dive becomes stuck in the cave, there were several issues:
1. Why did they not return to their suits, which, conceivably, still had air.
2. You might study the USAF or other studies on hypoxia to see how people respond to decreasing oxygen saturation.
3. If they had died from hypoxia, one person might have been resuscitated, but not both. Too much work for one person and the second would be too far gone (4-5 minutes max.) by the time the first was resuscitated.
4. They have a near death experience and decide to go caving.
5. They have a near death experience, from running out of air and decide to go caving. He could not have carried THAT much air with him.
6. They are how many thousand feet under the ice and water, in a cave, yet they are transmitting and receiving radio traffic. Modern submarines have a very hard time communicating under water due to the fact that radio waves don’t penetrate very far under water. They use VLF or ULF, which is VERY slow, or surface to make communications. (http://www.qsl.net/vk5br/UwaterComms.htm)
I think I would have enjoyed the story more, with a little technical editing.
I give it a 3/5 rating.
My rating scale:
1-Star: I could not finish it
2-Star: I had to force myself to finish it
3-Star: A good read, one time
4-Star: I could read it again
5-Star: Loved it, could read again, many times