Dark Invasion

The Travelers, Book 1

By: Nathan Hystad

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

When Elliot returns to Bell Island the summer of ‘84, he doesn’t expect to be thrust into the middle of an alien invasion. But he won’t let them win....

Elliot has just finished his third year of college as a finance major. After some tragic family news, he isn’t sure what the future holds.

Working part time at the video rental store, Elliot is dumped and offered a promotion, all on the eve of the island’s biggest celebratory day: The Fourth of July.

With the help of his best friend, Bones, the new waitress from the local diner, and a mysterious soldier, Elliot must uncover the secrets that surround Bell Island before it’s too late.

Under the guise of a treacherous storm, Bell Island is invaded, and it’s up to Elliot and his motley group of allies to defend their home.

Dark Invasion is a fast-paced science-fiction adventure from Nathan Hystad, the best-selling author of First Life, The Other Place, The Event, and Lost Contact.

©2021 Nathan Hystad (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

slow moving

I listened but think it could have moved much faster getting to action parts. it may have been the cadence of the narration, storyline dragged.

Hystad has produced another outstanding Thriller!

The story is set the day before the 4th of July weekend, 1984 and follows Elliot Hoffman who has returned home from College during a break to the sleepy little town of Bell Island, a town that is on a small island and only accessible via ferry. He has returned home due to his Mum having been detained in a mental hospital as a result of a breakdown having to do with something she saw when she was younger. Elliot has taken up his old job in the video store on the island (yes, an ACTUAL VHS video store – some may have to google what a VHS cassette is, others are thinking OMG I’m so old right now!), and it is there that we get a bit of insight into his life, as he sees his best friend ‘Bones’, a Billy Idol wannabe, who lives on the island and cares for his elderly and unwell grandmother. He also sees his girlfriend Bethany, who quickly becomes his Ex-girlfriend when she dumps him.
It is then that Elliot’s life takes a rather interesting turn, as he runs into two people who will change his life. The first is the strange man that comes into the video store and hires a video camera, and he learns from Bones he is called Sarge around town, and is a bit strange. The second is a pretty blonde waitress at his favourite diner, Kimberly, who is actually more than she seems.
Whilst Elliot is trying to come to terms with the fact that his Mum is not well, he just got dumped, he is struggling at College, and the cute girl at the diner just came onto him, a strange thunderstorm hits Bell Island. And with the storm, chaos breaks lose, as it appears that Aliens have invaded the island, and are killing people. Suddenly, Elliot, Bones, this new girl from the diner he’s just met, and the strange ex-soldier, are flung into a desperate battle to save the small community on the island before everyone there is killed.
This is a story that is a combination of Predator meets Cocoon with all the humour and pop-culture references of Ready Player One as you are catapulted back to 1984. Hystad does an outstanding job with the world-building not just of re-creating the locations and the time, but the language (I don’t think I have heard the word ‘Rad’ in 30yrs!!), and so many other fun references that it is a lot of fun for anyone that was alive back then.
The story builds quickly, and you are thrown into this action-thriller, in which you really have no idea what is happening to start with, but it builds at a rapid pace. There are so many twists, turns, and plot intrigues you are left flipping pages to desperately find out what is going to happen to characters.
As with all of his books, Hystad’s character work is exceptional. Elliot is brilliant as the somewhat confused young adult, returning to his home town, worried about what others will think of him due to his Mothers illness. There is such a stigma attached to mental illness, especially back then (even still now!), and Elliot is worried not only for how it will impact him, but is also very concerned for his Mum’s welfare. As the story starts to unfold, we get to see that he is a bright person, but just struggling with his place in life, some confidence. Bones is awesome as the try hard punk-rocker, with the mohawk, outfit, and attitude. However, he has a set plan, knowing what he wants, he is just determined to look after his Nan for as long as he can, to make sure she is alright. He makes for a great character.
Kimberly is a fascinating character, really intriguing, I will let her story unfold without any spoilers. The same with ‘Sarge’, I won’t give any spoilers. There are multiple other characters, from Elliot’s sister Cindy, who is the typical teenage girl, to the cops of a small town police station, and the multitude of town’s folk.
Overall, this is a really fantastic Sci-Fi thriller, one that as soon as you start, it is really hard to put down. Hystad continues to deliver these amazing thrillers that are just extraordinary, and absolutely must reads, and this one won’t disappoint!!
Jonathan Davis is a brilliant Narrator, with a really clear and concise voice. He has a fantastic range of voices, both male and female that are really easy to understand and distinguish, with each character having their own separate voice. Davis also does a really wonderful job of capturing the emotional state of the character and portraying that for us, so that we can really understand what the character is thinking at that time in the story, whether they are angry, happy, sad or upset. It adds so much extra to the story, really bringing it to life.
This is easily one of those books that you want to listen to rather than read, as the audiobook provides such a better experience than just reading the book on its own – absolutely worth the listen!!

Loved this story.

Nathan is quickly winning me over. His stories are becoming some of my favorites and this one set in 1984 was a great throwback to a better day.

Just okay......

This was a book that was interesting in the fact that the events occur back in the summer of 1984. Part of me kept thinking that then we would then jump forward in time (why? Honestly, I have no idea, I just kept thinking we would....)

This story is a kind of classic sci-fi story that has us follow along as there is an alien invasion on a small island town - Bell Island. The male MC - Elliot- is a likeable guy who ends up finding himself right in the middle of everything. His mother and his uncle had apparently had an encounter with "aliens" some 40 years ago. Of course, no one believed them and just recently his uncle committed suicide and his mother is in a psychiatric hospital. Elliot is a senior off at college and is home for the summer to help out his family after these new events when everything kicks off.

I liked this book, but to me, it was very superficial. I felt like I was on the top level just following along as everything developed, without any real investment on my part in the story. For some reason, I never really cared enough about what was going on and I'm not sure why. I listened to most of this on audio by Jonathan Davis and he did a good job with the narration.

Good so far, but...

I haven't finished this book, but I have to get this out. why do authors let their characters make such stupid mistakes? It kills me. I'm yelling at my phone as I listen. 😂 I don't know if those mistakes need to happen to keep the story going, but co.me on, is the average person that dumb? You're in a cave, the two-way radio is breaking up.. Duh, go outside. There's more, but I don't want to give anymore away.
The narrator is great and it is an entertaining story. The main characters are likeable.

Bad narration

Story was good. Many times especially in the beginning I couldn’t tell the difference between Elliot and his best friend Bones. It seems their voices were at times the same or switched between them. Very hard to follow along

Narration is painful

Great story but so painful to listen to. It’s read like a how a 3rd grader would read with emphasis on the wrong words. So bad.

Fun read

Not a wasted credit, but not what I was expecting. A little too 'light" for me.

Follow on needed

Hope to there is more. This left us hanging. There is a bigger problem here not seen yet.

Better for young teens

Childish. Very childish. That said, young teens might like it. I didn’t and don’t think most adults would.