Customer Reviews

The Colorado Sequence

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Amazon says this book has four hundred pages. I can't verify that because I downloaded it to my Kindle, but it seemed much, much longer to me.

The storyline is vague and confusing, full of broken plot threads. At times, I felt I was reading something patched together by a team of middle-school adventure-story fanboys. It begins with a scientist who has discovered a mathematical formula to predict the future and somehow ends with her restoring "balance" to Earth by traveling to another universe and re-hydrating a desert planet. Along the way, she visits the secret island hideaway of an evil organization (nod to Ian Fleming), is snowbound in a deserted Colorado hotel (nod to Stephen King), takes a ride in a mine cart (nod to Spielberg's Indiana Jones), and is menaced by evil, shadowy horsemen with glowing eyes (nod to J.R.R. Tolkien). I think I also caught references to Star Wars, The Matrix, and Alice in Wonderland, but perhaps I was merely delirious.

Cochran's writing is awkward and clumsy. He has occasional trouble maintaining the proper tense from the beginning of a sentence to its end: "And the feeling was exhilarating to her that they may be entering a deserted Rocky Mountain town that was covered in deep white snow." He tends to use the same words over and over. In one ten-line excerpt from the novel, the words "look" or "looked" are used eight times. That's a lot of looking. From his bio, I was shocked to discover the author teaches writing at a North Carolina university.

In short, this book is desperately seeking an editor. As it was self-published, I'm sure no professional editor came anywhere near it. Although this was a Kindle download and cost me only eighty cents, I was angered to think I could have saved the change and downloaded one of the classics absolutely free. In the future I will be wary of self-published "bargains."

The idea is great, almost like something Michael Crichton would imagine. But the book is sorely needing an editor. Often through the book, Stacey repeats lines that he stated just a sentence or two before almost as if he thinks we weren't smart enough to get it the first time. By the time it had happened the fourth time I was about ready to put the book down and forget it. But, I did find myself wondering how the story would end, so I read through. He does get his tenses mixed and often switches between first and last names of the characters (again, an editor would catch this) but the story is enjoyable. I definitely think it's worth a read especially at this price and I think that Mr. Cochran should keep it up. His ideas are creative and definitely worth being told.

Cochran spins a good solid story, the story line was great -- suspenseful with enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested and involved -- but it suffered a bit in the presentation. Basically this was a 4 1/2 star story hurt by a quirky presentation.

The author's propensity to constantly switch between first and last names was somewhat irritating -- for example, in the span of a couple of paragraphs he'd refer to them as Amy and Sara, Amy and McKenzie, Levine and McKenzie and finally Levine and Sara -- leaving the reader to constantly jump to follow the characters -- as a result it took away from ever really connecting with the characters. He also showed similar behavior with measurements -- switching between metric and imperial although not to as great an extent.

I read this on my Kindle and found it fairly well formatted with the only noticeable drawback being an occasional extra page between chapters.

I'll likely read Cochran again -- he tells a good story -- and I'm hoping his presentation will come up to the level of his stories.

All in all I enjoyed most of the storyline but the writing itself was a bit quirky. Many times I had to stop because I thought I may have been reading the same paragraph or sentence over and over again even though I apparently was not. Also, the constant alternating between metric and imperial measurements kept causing me to pause but I'm going to assume it was editor error. The story flowed like a made for TV movie, which can be entertaining when bored, but at no point did I ever connect with any of the characters or imagine myself in the middle of the action. Lastly, Amber Page is a great name for a little girl but using the name Ben Tovar for a character was straight out of elementary school humor. I was seriously waiting for I.P. Freely, Willie Makeit and Betty Cant to appear somewhere, at which point it would have set my Kindle on fire and walked away.

I do see Stacey Cochran getting better, but he really needs to have other accomplished writers, not friends, going over the material before it goes out for publication.

The Colorado Sequence, by Stacey Cochran, is a unique blend of hard science fiction, fantasy, and thriller.

Dr. Amy Levine has revealed a mathematical formula, dubbed the Colorado Sequence, which wields fantastic power. The sequence unravels the String Theory and explains the framework of reality. How can she prove this? Dr. Levine can predict the future. With the government and other dangerous forces on their trail, Dr. Levine and her friends travel to Colorado to complete her work on the sequence. But the storm of the century has hit Ouray, Colorado and the group becomes trapped in the snowbound town. With time running out for both their survival and an entire world that Amy discovers, the group must work together to find the key to unlocking the world's greatest secret.

I can't pretend to understand all of the scientific and philosophical terminology that is discussed in this novel. But enough is explained for a layman to get the basic idea. The strength of this book is the story and level of suspense. I didn't want to put this one down simply because of the suspense and wondering who would make it out alive. With strange creatures, harsh elements, and deadly tests, danger seems to lurk around every corner.

Stacey Cochran is a bright new rising star in the literary field. His newest book, Colorado Sequence, hooks readers from the start! This novel is wonderfully intelligent, has a great plot, and lots of fascinating characters your care about. Colorado Sequence has everything you could ask for: an imaginative story line, lots of action and is full of suspense. The heroine, scientist Amy Levine, has discovered a mathematical sequence which explains not only the world and everything in it, but also predicts the future. The United States government not only wants to find out what the sequence is, but they are trying to capture Levine and suppress what she has discovered. The ending has non-stop action and makes you want to read on 'till the end. I loved it! I hope to see more from this creative author!

Richard Triebe

Stacey Cochran had fine story idea about parallel universes, but the writing style is juvenile. The story is basically a chase. Her characterizations are stereotypical. The prose is flat, without word play or any sense of writing rhythm. Considering how many great sci-fi books there are, this is an easy one to pass up.

A unique blend of fantasy and suspense, the Colorado Sequence builds a strong female character in Amy Levine. At first, she appears to have discovered a way to find prescience through mathematics but as the story unfolds what she has actually discovered is the link between universes.

Quite a number of interesting twists as Amy and her group of adventurers work towards avoiding an upcoming cataclysm between our reality and the other dimensions.

Julio Vazquez, author of Where is Love?, Death at Disney, and The Truant Murders

In dire need of editing. Silly plot line. I guess for 99 cents I don't feel ripped off but what a waste of time.

Won't repeat the synopsis, you can read it in all the other excellent reviews. But, if you like Patterson and any of his mysteries-thrilers you will definitely love "The Colorado Sequence". Had to read it all in one sitting, it was that good!!!!