an outstanding space opera

definitely the story has been well work through and the dramatisation plus voice acting is very good quality

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This is not an audiobook, but a performance

Let me preface this by saying in all my years listening to audiobooks, here on audible or elsewhere, i never felt the need to write a review. So forgive me, this is my first.

I heared about the Sojourn first on the spacedock youtube channel and put it on my wishlist. There it set ignored for a while.
I see now that daniel left the channel to worn on this marvelous project. While i enjoy the story and setting a lot, it is not what makes this piece of art unique. It is:

The mesmerizing music

The fabulous sound effects

and the big cast of passionate voiceacting.

You are not listening to a book being read, you are part of a performance taking place on the great stage of: your mind.
There were many times when i grabbed my phone. Hooked. To see the action on screen. Only to realize, there is no video accompanying the audio.
I am only half way through it, but i had the need to put my feelings into words.

To everyone involved in creating the Sojourn:
Thank you.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Refreshing and Original scifi!

Amazing voice cast with some guest surprises for any scifi fans and a gritty story that unfortunately makes you binge it in full 😋

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New style for the genre - finally!

"The Sojourn" ist the first audio book in a long while I genuinely enjoyed and was immersed in.

The play strikes a balance seldomly achieved: it gives enough detail to be followed easily and spark curiosity but never loses itself in explanations of any kind. The amount of context given and new world building just fits.

Voice actors are mostly believable (as I am from outer space, I can tell ;) ) and throughout relatable without going in to too much drama or back story. Sound effects and music are of high quality and add to the experience.

The story ist divided into meaningful chapters and in itself coherent with a well designed but not over the top cliffhanger at the end. I am genuinely looking forward to season 2!

My only criticism would be the use of some stereotypical accents, as is common in any form of entertainment nowadays. By no means am I an expert in this regard, but I wish character building could do without it.

This is a brilliant debut and not only do I want more - I also hope the team behind the Sojourn to do other projects with bolder world building and "alienness"!

Give it a listen - and see you in the Tantalus Cluster.

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An experience with light and shadows

I genuinely enjoyed The Sojourn Audiodrama despite not being fan on the audio format generally, but I am left with an overall mixed feeling that I would like to explain. And while it was really well made and the story was written in a way that you can follow it easily, The Sojourn lacks the depth of a sci fi book due to its format thanks to which you can only mediate information through dialogue.
However, my biggest issue of the story is that it did not feel original in many parts. Its hook, to travel to this distant cluster is interesting and creates a lot of potential. You will be disappointed though if you are awaiting a complex story that spans over each episode/chapter, because in most cases the opposite is the case with a case of the week scheme. These stories are unfortunately to well known. Warning SPOILERALERT: some bomb attack that is believed to be caused by an opposing faction while it is actually one of your own guys and the opposing faction actually saves the day, by sacrificing itself; being stuck on a planet, with one person wounded; the weekly fist fight and getting drunk in the bar since that is the way of the Sojourn to show conflict and character building; speaking of characters: the motives are also well known, the captain remorsing her role in the previous war, being enstranged from her father who was a military hero; Croft being the typical space cowboy; meds being the generic bad ass women whose identity is about being tough and joining every fist fight - reminding me of bobby draper. Then you have Vadric, an generic friendly alien that is joining the crew.
Coming back to the story elements, I also think it is not a good idea to introduce the alien race so early, it destroys all mysteries. Instead we have another human-like religious race that we have seen before already which maybe was compelling a few decades ago, but it feels outdated today (because it is overdone). I have hopes though that the similarities between humans and avari will be explained in later seasons. There are other elements which are not new, such as the usual admiral who thinks he can do better and does not allow any disagreement, seizing the power as soon as possible (reminiscent to Admiral Cain). But even overall, the story is rather poor: the expedition travels to the new cluster, retrieves the gate components to build the gate, and then flees to escape the forces of the Avari. That is over 7 hours of overarching plot summarised. Next season has to start in the tantalus cluster then I presume, which will be the same start as it is the case for season 1. in other words, the story of season one is a circle that has the size of a beermat. Overall, the story breathes being American (character cliches, one-liners, marvel-side-kicks, the cheering, the semi-epic speeches). Some people love it, I am a bit oversaturated.
When it comes to the audio quality, the sound effects and the music is top notch while the experience is a bit mixed in regards to the speaking roles. There are voices such as Matthew Kaufmann‘s which sound like butter (i could listen to his voice all day) but also voices such as Jimmy Lockett who speaks every line as he was reading a speech and thus only knows one tonality.
Overall, my experience is mixed as I mentioned, probably because Spacedock was an institution for me when it came to sci-fi. The Sojourn is not bad at all, but it is not great either. Daniel Orrett did not create a series that stands out of the masses. It is simply not distinguishable and compelling enough for it. That really hurts to say, because I want this story to be good. I will continue listening to it and I hope when season 2 is finished, the series will have improved.

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