Olan Thorensen has 8 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 1 narrator, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 211 ratings. The most-rated is Forged in Fire.
Forged in Fire
Summary
Joseph Colsco has survived what many would not have - cast naked on an alien planet amidst humans speaking an unknown language and with a different culture and history. Now, known to the people of Caedellium as Yozef Kolsko, he has risen out of despair to prominence and finds himself a central figure in the culmination of a struggle against an imperialist power bent on subjugation. The clans of the Island of Caedellium must gird themselves for what is to come. If they can't unite to a degree previously unimaginable, they will fall into the bottomless abyss of lost history. Their strengths are their determination, bravery, potentially new allies, and a single man with a mysterious history. The options are simple: victory, death, enslavement. Yozef Kolsko may have transformed from who he had been on Earth, but did the trials he has undergone produced a savior some of his adopted people see him as or is he an illusion? The crucible of fate is about to yield a final product, but is the result enough against a formidable enemy?
©2018 Podium Publishing; 2017 Olan Thorensen
Heavier Than a Mountain
Summary
Beware of creating your worst enemy. All Joe Colsco wanted out of life was a reasonably interesting job supporting a quiet, comfortable suburban lifestyle, eventually a small family, and time to pursue hobbies. Instead, a freak accident casts him naked onto a beach of another planet inhabited by humans with technology circa 1700. In time, Joe, now known as Yozef Kolsko, makes the difficult acceptance of a new life, has a respectable position in his new society, and is married with a child on the way. But all is not rosy. He has become embroiled in a struggle beyond any dream he could have had - or any nightmare. The Narthani are a militant society intent on subjugating the Caedelli, the people he's come to identify with. Despite Yozef's hope to focus his life on transferring scientific knowledge and supporting a quiet life, he finds his life's direction moving beyond his control. As his actions and ideas become more important in resisting the Narthani, he reluctantly finds himself dragged into leadership roles he doesn't believe himself qualified - including efforts to unite the Caedelli clans. The transformation of Joseph Colsco to Yozef Kolsko is about to take another step. Unwittingly, the Narthani themselves are creating an opponent unlike any they have ever faced, an enemy beyond their conceptions.
©2017 Olan Thorensen (P)2017 Podium Publishing
Cast Under an Alien Sun
Summary
What if you were thrown into a foreign society, never to see home again? What would you do, and could you survive? Joe Colsco boarded a flight from San Francisco to Chicago to attend a national chemistry meeting. He would never set foot on Earth again. On planet Anyar, Joe is found unconscious on a beach of a large island inhabited by humans where the level of technology is similar to Earth circa 1700. He awakes amid strangers speaking an unintelligible language and struggles to accept losing his previous life and finding a place in a society with different customs, needing a way to support himself and not knowing a single soul. His worry about finding a place is assuaged when he finds ways to apply his knowledge of chemistry - as long as he is circumspect in introducing new knowledge not too far in advance of the planet's technology and being labelled a demon. As he adjusts, Joe finds that he has be dropped into a developing clash between the people who cared for him, and for whom he develops an affinity, and a military power from elsewhere on the planet - a power with designs on conquest. Unaware, Joseph Colsco has been poured into a crucible where time and trials will transform him in ways he could never have imagined. Cast Under an Alien Sun is a story that's science fiction in premise, adventure in execution - a cross-genre adventure with elements of science fiction, history, hard science, epic fantasy, time travel, romance, alien contact, and space colonization.
©2016 Olan Thorensen (P)2017 Podium Publishing
The Pen and the Sword
Summary
The Narthani, a militant realm who believe their manifest destiny is to rule the entire planet, Anyar, plan to absorb Caedellium into their empire and crush any resistance. Yozef Kolsko (a.k.a. Joe Colsco) works to find ways to increase the chances of resistance to the Narthani's planned conquest. Complicating his life is attraction to a brilliant daughter of an island leader, and his uncertainty of his own mind, hers, or intricacies of Caedellium customs. Despite his desire to devote himself to introducing new knowledge, Yozef is drawn more and more into developing weapons and giving tactical and strategic advice - things he knows he's unqualified to give. The enemy is coming. The odds seem overwhelming, and it will take all Yozef can do, the courage of his new people, and luck, to survive.
©2016 Olan Thorensen (P)2017 Podium Publishing
Tales of Anyar
Summary
The Destiny’s Crucible series chronicles the incredible adventure of Joseph Colsco, a college student of no particular importance who is thrust into an unimaginable fate by an accident that couldn’t happen - but did. Cast naked on the planet Anyar, he forges a new life for himself and rises to prominence and responsibilities he would otherwise never have imagined. However, much is left undone and uncertain. For fans who finished the first four installments, many questions were left unanswered and many stories left untold. This collection of short stories and novellas addresses some of the questions, expands previous books, and points to future directions. The anthology begins not on the planet Anyar but on Earth, with the aftermath of the improbable accident that starts Joseph Colsco on his new life.
©2018 Olan Thorensen (P)2018 Podium Publishing
Passages
Summary
For Mark Caldwell, an unsatisfying life was about to take a turn both terrifying and exhilarating as his fate took an unimaginable turn. When Mark took his aisle seat aboard United flight 4382, he was ignorant of three facts. The fellow passenger in the window seat was named Joseph Colsco. Neither of them would ever set foot on Earth again. They both would be cast naked on an alien planet. Adapt or die. Those were the choices. Determined to grasp the chance at a second life, Mark plunges into an adventure he couldn’t anticipate and leading to a future he can’t predict.
©2019 Olan Thorensen (P)2020 Podium Publishing
An Ancient Enemy
Summary
When an alien spacecraft accidentally destroys United Flight 4382, 27 passengers and crew are saved...but life as they knew it ceases to exist. Five survivors find themselves on the planet Anyar, including Joseph Colsco, Mark Caldwell, and Heather Chen. Some others have different destinations. Cast away on a planet with bizarre physical features unlike anything on Earth, Dan and Liza Oglethorpe will never again set foot on Earth. They will never again talk with family and friends. They will never again see an ocean. They are thrust into a fantastical fate that eventually leads them, six years later, after dangers are overcome and a measure of peace is achieved, to a morning in a dry valley on an alien planet...and the uncertainty of living through a battle to see evening.
©2020 Olan Thorensen (P)2021 Podium Audio
Harbinger
Summary
Unconnected lives intersect in a bleak setting. Nothing will ever be the same. Harbinger (def.): Something that foreshadows or initiates a major change. Humanity lurches into an uncertain future, dismissive of warning signs. Only the most naïve believe humanity will step back from the brink. Yet in a place that doesn’t exist, a riddle, a puzzle, hope, fear, danger, salvation - all come together. Zach Marjek has faced death in the far corners of the Earth and survived where others have failed. Now, he's thrust into an unimaginable situation where jaded mercenaries, an Inuit wanderer, a murderous Yupik, a young mother, a video game designer, a retired general, a new president, a Chinese marine, and mathematics prodigies must come together. Their lives and fates intertwine to revolve around a mystery with consequences that could range from disaster to salvation. As the mystery unravels, a danger unbeknownst to the players lurks and prepares to take what cannot be taken. The future - and life? - hang by the thinnest of threads.
©2020 Olan Thorensen (P)2021 Podium Audio