Invasion: Alaska

Invasion America, Book 1

By: Vaughn Heppner

Narrated by: Mark Ashby

Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The invasion of Alaska has begun. And the Third World War may not be far behind.

In this controversial book, Vaughn Heppner explores the theme of a shattered America facing the onslaught of the new colossus in the East: Greater China.

The time is 2032, and the Chinese are crossing the polar ice and steaming through the Gulf of Alaska. They have conquered oil-rich Siberia and turned Japan into a satellite state. Now a new glacial period has begun, devastating the world’s food supply. China plans to corner the world’s oil market and buy the needed food for their hungry masses.

A weakened America uses old technology against the next generation of military hardware. The invasion unleashes the Hell of battle as two armies turn the snowfields of Alaska red with blood.

Invasion: Alaska is a thundering techno-thriller of vast scope from bestselling author Vaughn Heppner.

©2011 Vaughn Heppner (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

5 stars

Great book well crafted and very realistic. The reader was excellent and provided good life to the dtory

Unrealistic.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. It was just to far fetched for me.

Would you recommend Invasion: Alaska to your friends? Why or why not?

No. This author came off as a closet China lover. It's about 30 years in the future and the Chinese military has multiplied its military by 10 fold while the USA has a military straight out of 1980. It's basically a scenario where every Chinese military technology is optimistically better than can be imagined right now, and the American military had devolved to the point where it couldn't beat Iraq. The Chinese have their way with the USA via laser cannons, anti satellite missiles, drones, tanks, and fighter planes. A perfect example is in 30 years China has went from no aircraft carriers to 8 that are better than any of the USA's aircraft carriers. Basically the USA got STOMPED for the entire book and the only thing that stopped China was bad luck.

What does Mark Ashby bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I though the narrator did an outstanding job. He read the story well and brought the characters to life. I would have no problem buying another story that he narrated.

Was Invasion: Alaska worth the listening time?

No. My statements above give my reasons. The story is based on China doing everything to perfection over the next 30 years, and the USA having nothing go right over the same time period.

Enjoyed this book!

Exciting and realistic; great listen!
The narrator did a great job--Ive listened to audiobooks daily for years and Mark Ashby is one of the best narrators I've listened to.

The book did a good job bringing a futuristic conflict into light. Made me think of how mass warfare is so devastating.

Wake Up Call?

This book is scary as it reflects current trends - I hope people take heed.

Needs more character development

I enjoyed the story immensely, however it could have used more character development. there was so much happening that you never had a chance to get to know anyone that much except Paul and Bill. The rest of the players seemed to have back stories but you never even had a chance to know them, so if they died there wasn't any emotion tied to it. It was like the extra that dies in a movie, they were just there for a scene. I personally wouldn't have minded an additional hour or two if it would have been giving us a reason to like/dislike a character. Overall a good book and I am seriously considering book 2. I hope it has a little more character building otherwise there won't be a thought for book 3.

Fantastic military invasion!

First thing, this is not like "Red Dawn." This is a military invasion with points of view from both sides. This was written extremely well with believable events.

Listen to the sample first

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I've listened to more than 50 audiobooks here, and although I hate to be critical, I really didn't enjoy this one. Maybe the story was meant for a younger crowd, but I found it less sophisticated than most of the other books I've listened to. The biggest downside though is the narrator, the cadence was just strange, and the voice flat. Almost reminds me of the way Paul Harvey spoke. However you describe it, it was hard to endure. So like I mentioned in the heading, listen to the sample before purchase.

Would you be willing to try another book from Vaughn Heppner? Why or why not?

probably not, although I liked the overall plot, and thought it a possible scenario, the writing was a little simple for my taste.

How could the performance have been better?

different narrator

Could you see Invasion: Alaska being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Yes, not sure who would act in it.

Thoughtful unique future warfare

Too realistic, both in economic challenges as well as why an invasion by China would be problematic as an look at what a weak economic system would do to america... very smart

Excellent beginning of a new series.

Really enjoyed this book. Great story and excellent narration. This is an excellent read for anyone who enjoys military books.

Suspenseful and believable

Mr Heppner has created a future world which seems reasonable, consistent within its basic premises and hence credible. In it a new glacial age has changed weather patterns making food far more scarce, petrochemicals far more important and the world a far more dangerous place. China, after years of military build-up, has become both rich from trade and a major military power and has consequently become expansive. America, after years of trade deficits and unbalanced budgets, has become much weaker, much less resolute and shorn of its military alliances. Facing a weakened and irresolute America, China has decided to seize the Alaskan oil reserves by force and thus starts a war between the two countries.

In addition to a logical and credible world situation Mr Heppner has also created a set of characters, American, Chinese and Canadian who are interesting, have reasonable back-stories, and react as normal people thrust into their situation might well react. They are not all admirable, but they are all believable and none are so superior as to make the situations unreasonable. While fiction, the book has the feel of a narration of real events involving real people making real decisions about real life situations and thus is a very pleasant alternative to the normal set of super-human secret agents, all-knowing detectives, mindless zombies and super-duper ninja-like fighters one often finds in current suspense novels. These people make both good and bad decisions, both succeed and fail, both live and die. I found the book so interesting and believable that I decided that I would buy the second book in the series. This may be military fiction but it is not made up of battle following battle but rather is a meld of the personal, political and military and this promises to be a very interesting series. The narration is excellent, the story both interesting and credible and it is not hard seeing the events as real-life news headlines.