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  • Earthside

  • Quantum Earth, Book 2
  • Written by: Dennis E. Taylor
  • Narrated by: Ray Porter
  • Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (165 ratings)

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Earthside

Written by: Dennis E. Taylor
Narrated by: Ray Porter
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Publisher's Summary

The fate of mankind is in the hands of a group of 20-something science nerds in the sequel to Outland, by the Audible #1 best-selling author of the “Bobiverse” series.

The Yellowstone super-eruption has put an end to modern civilization. As cities and countries continue to fall, the colony of Rivendell in the alternate Earth known as Outland looks more and more like the only real hope for humanity. But life in Rivendell isn’t getting any simpler, either. Bill and Kevin continue to discover new worlds; the population continues to rise; winter is approaching; and everyone has their own opinion about how things should be run.

Then, a garbled plea for help from Omaha sends most of the security forces back Earthside to investigate, leaving Monica’s police force understaffed just as a large group of refugees arrive with its own ideas and power structure. With threats from both inside and outside, will the colony even survive until spring?

©2023 Dennis E. Taylor (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC.

What listeners say about Earthside

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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WOW

Great Listen!! I listened to both books in 3 days. Ray Porter is an amazing narrator!! Keep them coming Dennis!

2 people found this helpful

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Amazing Follow-up!

It's rare for a post apocalyptic book to trump it's originator but this one does.

can't wait for part 3

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Worth the wait

Over a year since I read Outland, and since the first book I have been wondering how the story would continue. Without giving away anything I can say you will not be disappointed.

I especially liked the snippets of old earth, and the authors interpretation of how the world moves on after the Yellowstone eruption. Clearly a large amount of research and thought was taken to determine a different countries way ahead, both with the countries current social norms and specific geographical environmental collapse/change due to the eruption taken into account.

Many different people create many different views, I am happy that the author could cram as many as he could into this novel.

We’ll done

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Another Hit from Dennis E Taylor

I can’t get enough of this series, and got this sequel on release day! I want to continue exploring this world with the Outland crew and hope Dennis continues this series, like he has with Bobiverse. These books are witty, creative, intelligent and sci-fi gold. Ray Porter brings this book to life, even as a solo narrator performing multiple people. I could listen to Ray Porter all day long. I can get lost in some of the quantum-science jargon, but that’s ok. I’m there for the visual, characters, sarcasm and wit. Give us more!!!!!

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I will grasp onto every word this man writes.

Ray porter & Dennis E. Taylor are powerhouses of content. I’ve listened to most everything that they have created. I highly recommend this and the other series that Taylor has created.

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yes!

When I looked at the player and saw only 5 minutes remaining in the book, I actually groaned in dismay. This book 2 has turned this universe(s) even better than the first. Narration was better also. I look forward to book 3... (and 4-17).

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Loved this

An absolutely amazing book with the continuing story of Outland. Oh I won’t give the book away but if you loved book one then this book is awesome. Follow our heroes as they navigate this new world and also try to adapt to a new form of government whilst trying to keep their humanity intact.
The narrator is fantastic and of his sense of humour is infectious. Ray Porter is absolutely fantastic. Looking forward to when book 3 comes out.&@

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Great story, well read

Interesting medium for providing a dissertation on the negative aspects of American politics and culture

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love these guys

I never get tired of listening to Ray narrate Dennis's writing. I bought this without hesitation and will continue to do so with any of Dennis's future work. I've been hoping for this sequel

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  • ZaL
  • 2023-01-28

Got it yesterday and could not stop.

Great second chapter to the saga with some great ideas. Hopefully more to come soon.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Tom Scharf
  • 2023-01-28

Good, but let down by angry politics

I get all the angry self righteous political lectures I can take from just turning on the TV, I don’t want more in my chosen entertainment, especially if they are presented in a cartoonish way. A 14 year old can give a better defense of liberty and capitalism and trade offs between economic systems. Authors channeling their personal political anger never works for their full audience and it is best to leave that stone unturned in my opinion.

I finished the book in two days and it was very entertaining. There were some plot holes but they were minor in the grand scheme. I look forward to the next book but hope it has less brain dead partisans all around.



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  • Leisa
  • 2023-01-29

Why all the politics?

Why take a fun story and make the second half about politics? Noble liberal/socialists versus the negative stereotype conservative and religious people? Nearly ruined this more me. That is not why I listen to light sci-fi.
I don’t think I’ll be looking for the third book.
Very disappointing! 3 stars overall for the memory of what the first book was like.

58 people found this helpful

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  • Mindy
  • 2023-02-01

Do you read these comments, Mr. Taylor?

I do not like having to write this, but I feel it has to be done. I was pretty excited about this story, as I am for all of your stories. I pre-ordered it, re-listened to Outland, and even set a date in my calendar to remind me when I can start to listen. This book really missed the mark for me though. It is understood by most, that we live in a hyper-politicized world. That is something that I cannot change, and me, not being a terribly political person, have found day to day life more stressful in recent years. I read and listen to books in order to escape that and dive into a great story. The political settings in stories like Bobiverse were well thought out and well written hilarity. This political setting was the antithesis of that. This book was just more of the same day to day reality. It came across to me as a political rant that lasted hours,  sprinkled with reused phrases from the fantastic Bobiverse series (something that comes across as either laziness or just unoriginal) and so many f-bombs that just came across like the venting of personal frustrations. I have enjoyed every one of your books to this point and will be buying many of your future books I am sure. The change is that I will not pre-order them. I will wait a while after new releases to see the comments to be sure that I don't end up with another political... whatever this was.. I hope this helps fellow listeners and yourself Dennis, assuming you read any of these. Ray Porter, you were fantastic as always!

52 people found this helpful

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  • DCGrits
  • 2023-01-31

Got bad with this second book

Went from mostly about finding and exploring escaping to a parallel in time during a Yellowstone eruption apocalypse, to a more political story. Young college educated know it alls who are better and smarter than all others. It progresses to a book on establishing a government in this new time line which would be better done by these young college kids. Became an unbearable listen. Should have kept to the exploring the escape and survival aspects in parallel time.

42 people found this helpful

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  • CMFarmer
  • 2023-01-31

Too political

Was unnecessarily political.
I loved the Bobverse series and was very excited for a sequel to Outland. But Earthside seems to be Taylor's attempt to be voted "prom queen."

I wanted a good story like all Taylor's books before, but instead got a book that seems to be more about Taylor wanting to be part of media's current trend of the self-perceived "popular crowd." Earthside insults everyone over 50, anyone with common sense, and everyone left of the left.... so yeah... pretty much over 50% of the population.

And the saddest part is, the political preaching was unnecessary. Sad, very sad.

36 people found this helpful

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  • James Phieffer
  • 2023-01-31

Politics ruins everything...

This has the potential to be an interesting series, hence my decision to buy book 2.

But the amount of political bashing, as well as introducing age biases and straw man characters almost made this unfinishable.

There could be lots of discussion about potential political designs for the colony and such without the "older, conservatives are racist idiots who ruined the world" trope the book descended into. Frankly, Greta Thunberg deployed more nuance than was used in writing most of the characters in this book.

I'm curious about where the universe this book creates is going, but after this book it's clear that the 1632-Ring of Fire universe and others written with intelligence have nothing to fear.

This is a really poorly written follow-up to Outland, and one which may - deservedly, even - kill off a series that could have been really good.

35 people found this helpful

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  • Mariana Padilla
  • 2023-01-29

Disappointing follow up

Almost no character development. The story just ping pongs from conflict to conflict. A let down after such a long wait. I’d rather the author spent his time on the next Bobiverse book rather than this one.

29 people found this helpful

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  • justin
  • 2023-02-02

Too much politics

Way way too much current politics for a fictional story. I read/listen to fictional books to escape real life not have it thrown back in my face!!!

25 people found this helpful

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  • Radish Bliss
  • 2023-02-01

trope

Good read if you feel like being stereotyped by yet another author. However, read Stephen King instead, at least you'll get a good story after being stereotyped and the ending won't revolve around how much half the people in the country (you!) suck. Someone should remind Dennis that Nazi planet could also be called national SOCIALIST planet.

23 people found this helpful

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  • Nathanael
  • 2023-01-29

Vignettes, NOT a story...Kluge & Tubers!

I enjoy Taylor's creative ideas, Porter's voice is pleasant to listen to, and I will buy further books with either. However, flaws in Taylor's writing is starting to show.
The Quantum Earth series is a nifty idea. This book is vignettes of things that happen after the first book. There's no over arching story or character development. Villains? Yeah, 3ish. What's the saying? “A story is only as good as its villain.” -Luke Taylor(?)
The villain are cardboard stereotypes. They serve no purpose but present temporary conflicts that interrupt the main character's being nerds and bemoaning politics and social commentary.

Taylor's writing ability doesn't perform well here. As mentioned, the story structure was lacking.
-Writing/Narrative 'voice' shifts from declarative conveyances of information to semi-1st/3rd person perspective of things.
-Characters are poor in this book. Taylor has a tendencies to use "feisty female" as a catch all for female characters. Heinlein had a similar problem.
-Author's personal lexicon hasn't improved. It has shown up in nearly all his books. "Kluge" & "Tubers" one is over used by multiple characters, the other is a term Americans rarely use. Also, shared idioms among characters flattens their depth.
-Potential author-bias seems to leaching into all his characters. Quick example is religion, author seems to put Christians in one category of "fundamentalists". It's a boring overused stereotype in media. More time is wasted making that "group" look bad than writers actually researching the topic. Richard Dawkins takes the gold metal in that competition. Point being: Copy/pasting gross generalizations over used by other media is lazy and is about as creative as "zombies".

There's some praise to go around. An unexpected age-based social conflict develops. That is creative and the author develops a context that is well placed for the scenario of this story. It does seem explored fairly well and, given the author's age, presented from college kids viewpoints. Also, the perceived demeanor of the military is greatly improved in contrast to the author's prior depictions of military.

Again, I like Taylor and Porter. I would love the opportunity to buy them and drink and chat about many things. Despite my criticism and low ranking, I'm interested in seeing where this series goes.

21 people found this helpful