Final Days

Final Days, Book 1

By: Nathan Hystad, Jasper T. Scott

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

The countdown to the end of the world has begun.

A mysterious convergence of natural disasters threatens to destroy life as we know it, and people across the United States are going missing. With no one left to investigate, Special Agent Kendra Baker takes the case, trying to solve the disappearances before she’s out of time. 

Among those abducted is Valeria Miller, the daughter of ex-Marine Corporal Andrew Miller, and he’ll stop at nothing to find her. 

With the help of an unstable conspiracy theorist, they find themselves on the trail of a reclusive billionaire who just might have all the answers. 

As the natural catastrophes escalate and the evacuations commence, it becomes a race against the clock to find the abductees before it’s too late. 

Final Days is a doomsday science fiction thriller, written by Jasper T. Scott and Nathan Hystad.

©2020 Nathan Hystad and Jasper T. Scott (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Excellent, fast-paced action packed adventure!

I read the book before listening to the Audible version. I'm glad I did, and I wanted to listen to the book because I wanted to hear how Ray Porter, a narrator I am very fond of, brought it to life. Hystad and Scott do not disappoint with the story, and Ray Porter does a masterful job bringing this to life. Ray has some incredible voice intonations and inflections, and you can practically HEAR the characters shrugging, smiling, and etc. with his outstanding narration.

Even though I had recently read the book, I found that the audiobook was just as gripping, exciting, and entertaining as the written version. Maybe more. I listen to books mostly while I am taking my daily hike, which is typically about a three mile stint in the hills of Tennessee, so it is a HIKE. Final Days was so absorbing that I would find myself having climbed Heartbreak Hill and not even been aware of it I was so engrossed in the story. Even knowing the exciting and slightly cliff-hanging conclusion I was still enthralled. I picked up on details I had missed in the written book.

Nathan Hystad's great skill is in bringing characters to life, and painting pictures with words that actually bring you into the story and into the action. You feel what the characters feel, you see what they see, you relate intimately to their thoughts and feelings. Jasper Scott's epic story-telling ability is outstanding, and this mashup definitely works.

Usually, I have 3 tests that dictate whether or not a book will get top marks from me: Did I enjoy it, and did it take me along on the journey and provide lots of entertainment and escape? Next, Would I recommend it to others? Was the book well executed with no or few errors, typos, language, and grammar issues? And third, would I want to read or listen to the next book(s) in the series?

The answer to those questions is a resounding YES for Final Days, this first installment in the Final Days saga. I am also certain that I will listen to more from this outstanding author dynamic duo. They are that good.

I am a very hard man to impress, as those of you who read and follow my critiques and reviews know. I have high, perfectionist standards and a critical ear as an author myself, as a highly educated former English major and editor. So I don't hand out 5-star reviews lightly. If it sucks and should be completely overhauled for the next version (or scrapped), I am not shy about telling an author or readers that. Fortunately, this audiobook ticks all the boxes. Actually I was surprised to hear a few (literally 2 or 3) incorrect pronouns or names of characters in the narration, but they did not prevent any understanding, and I noticed them mostly because I was so startled to hear them. Most people will likely miss them.

If you are a lover of these authors, or narrator Ray Porter, and near future sci-fi stories that are fast-paced and driving, I recommend this audiobook without reservation.

Hystad and Scott are Gifted, Porter is Masterful

Final Days is a Sci-fi mystery thriller, that is action packed and moves at a pace that makes the Fast and the Furious look like they have taken Miss Daisy out for a drive.
It has two main streams, the first follows Kendra Baker, a Detective who is has been on the job for a while and knows her stuff. The type of veteran cop that is willing to listen, but if you push them too far, they have no problem pushing back.
She starts looking into multiple missing cases, at a time when no one else is interested, because there are constant news reports, media hype, and general public unrest about siesmic activity along the San Andreas fault line, and a subsequent massive flow on effect, people evacuating, panicking, the usual things you expect.
With little or no support, Kendra is left to her own devices to follow up on all these missing persons, as even the Police are leaving, and those that remain, are being tasked with things deemed more important than missing persons.
The second main character is Andrew Miller, an ex-Marine, now divorced, who is just trying to get on with things. During his story, his daughter, Valeria, goes missing, and Andrew starts hunting for his Daughter, even though the rest of the coast is leaving and moving inland.
This is a really intriguing and fascinating story, you have no real idea about what is going on, why are people missing? What is this countdown? Are the rumours of a mass siesmic ‘end of the world’ type event true??
And in the middle of all of this, we have Andrew and Kendra, both trying to look for missing people, One a desperate Father looking for his little girl, the other a determined Cop, who, in the face of everyone else abandoning their post, she just won’t give up on these people – basically following the same leads in similar circles, and both of them coming up with increasingly more frightening answers.
The character work in this book is beyond exceptional, it is so realistic, that there is a particular part in which Andrew Miller, the ex-marine, has a flashback PTSD episode. The detail in the scene, the description of his attack and how he feels, what he goes through at that exact moment, it was so realistic, that as someone who actually suffers from a similar form of PTSD, I had to actually stop reading for a bit as the book had a physical effect on me. This is how good the story is.
His Daughter, Valeria helps him through this particular episode, helps him pull back from the pain he is suffering, and this to was exceptionally well written, like they had climbed inside someone who suffers the illnesses head.
This is one of those stories in which when you finish, you are left sitting thinking about the Characters for a good couple of days afterwards, they are incredibly powerful and emotive with real grit.
There are some other really great characters, including Miller’s Wife, and Valeria’s Mum, who again, is portrayed with brilliant accuracy as the emotional Mother, terrified for her Daughter in the face of a country that is falling to pieces around her. Her new husband (Valeria’s parents are separated), is a rich sleaze, and his character is just funny.
There are several others I am not going to mention as I don’t want to give away spoilers, but each character in this book is done with a purpose, has backstory and depth, and has been thought through. The character work is just outstanding and is a real highlight of this book.
Both Authors have also given a lot of attention to simple details as well, such as the type of weapon that the Officer carries, and making sure that they had extra ammunition (they run out of ammo to, no never ending ammo clips).
It’s this attention to detail that creates an additional layer to an already masterful level of character driven story telling, and makes this so much fun, as there is a level of realism to it that makes it so much more enjoyable.
This is a story that is utterly intriguing, from the very first pages, where it starts to build, rumours in the background, we move between the two major streams so that we can see there is something going on, but no one knows what, and to the common person, they are just bits of talk on TV, until suddenly Miller’s Daughter goes missing, and the story ramps up to full speed, and you are flicking through pages to see what happens next…
If you want a really fun, exciting, action-packed thrill ride, with a powerfully emotive, character driven story, Hystad and Scott have got the book for you, and they don’t disappoint!
Ray Porter is one of the best Narrators out there today. The quality of his Narration has no equal. Porter’s voice is so tranquil, so easy to listen to. His character voices are just brilliant, he has a way of creating so many voices, male and female, with so many different characteristics that he can generate this massive ensemble of characters for a story. He flows effortlessly through books, some Narrators are really jilted, you can hear them reach the end of every sentence, but Porter just tells a story, and once you sit down and start listening, you get totally captivated by his dulcite tones, and get lost in the adventure that he creates. When you listen to Porter Narrate, you really feel like you are a part of the story, not just listening to it, but you feel like you are really there, experiencing it with the Main Characters, like you are standing there with them.
The other really wonderful thing about Ray Porter is that no matter how long you listen to him, you just can’t tire of his voice. Some Narrators kind of grate on you, others don’t read well, some are great, but just a bit overwhelming. Porter is like the Goldilocks of Narrators – everything is just right and you can listen to him for hours. He is one of the most gifted Narrators on the market today, and you just have to listen to him.

1 Hour Story Made Into 8, Badly

Cliches, tropes, and forgettable characters in a story as original as a knock, knock joke,

Engrossing plotline, reads like a detective novel!

Even my wife, a non-sci-fi fan, loved the book and the twists. It kept us enthralled through the whole book. We got to the end and are hooked, we need the next one guys! Keep them coming!

Dumb people doing dumb things in a dumb apocalypse

Okay ... sheesh. It took TWO people to write this? Why not make it three and make sure the third writer understands why and what people tend to do in critical incidents.

I love sci-fi so the plot could have been just fine. The critical thing with sci-fi is that you get the PEOPLE right. I see the genre as a sort of laboratory within which you get to see how actual people act in and adapt to circumstances that are impossible (or incredibly improbable) in present day/present circumstances. I know that idea is missing several ancillary features of Sci-fi but I see it as the primary feature and maybe that’s subjective but it’s my PoV.

This story frequently overestimates, underestimated and/or completely miscalculates the most important What Would People Do aspect of a story like this.

It physically hurts me to say this next part about Ray Porter because I he’s definitely a favorite of mine. His villain billionaire voice makes me want to stick a pencil into my brain through my ear canal.

Occasional typos or misvoicing is no big deal to me as long as the story hangs together and the people are doing people stuff and roughly true to character (including when they become so stressed that they break character which can be awesome). I did laugh at one line “... I will not comprise about this, Kendra.”

Well, I’m not willing to comprise my own standards for a credit (and a quite short book for that credit).

3 stars so the A overseers are less likely to bury this review. It’s just my opinion but I imagine that people who have acted as first responders to critical incidents or just understand human nature will get a nails on chalkboard effect from this piece. Oh man I just remembered how annoying nearly all of the minor characters are ... I don’t need to hear the insane Christian lady quoting the entirety of Revelation ffs and I get that the mayor is meant to be Trump-esque but why give so much story time to them?

This book is depressing. And not in a good way. It produces more of a existential ennui than some cathartic deep feels.

Different

The book leads up to the event, reading as a mystery following the disappearance of people. With different natural disasters going on all the while two people are trying to discover the missing. Eventually you figure out why the people are missing, but I must say it is an interesting lead up to the apocalypse. Yet I’m not sure where the ending leads the next in the series and if it’s something I’d be interested in. But all in all it held me into every chapter.

Fake reviews are ruining Audible - Absolute Trash

It is really appalling. The number of Fake Reviews in Audible keeps growing at the same rate quality goes down the drain.

Warning: May contain spoilers, yet it does not include everything that's wrong with this book.

First of all: The promise of the premise in this book: Failed, to the point of cheating the reader: An exciting cover, an exciting headline. And an absolute lie of the book description.

Let's put it this way: The theme about the "final days" before total apocalypse is nothing more than 3 or 4 words per chapter; it limits itself to reading '7 days to the end of the world', and so on... That's it! That's what you get for the Final days of the world, at some point I think you can read that supervolcanoes have gone wild, Hurricanes have ravaged every coast in the world, F99 tornadoes are striking everywhere., and California will move itself to Melbourne, and Japan.
The story is actually centered in characters that no matter how hard you try to empathize or even dislike enough to be believable... A coffee with an archeologist talking about one piece of bone has more substance, and it would be time better spent. The characters you can find are simplistic, and borderline dislikeable, who have their daughter kidnapped, the police gives another unrealistic response, not just to them, but to the parents of the daughter's friend - and they both got the same answer! So, the police apparently are just sharing the same script, it can be summarized with "Forget about her, we're busy, and the world is coming to an end, better save yourselves"

Then there is the cliché of how people interact in any formulaic story (a+b+c=Writer's journey, voilá, bestseller!) Everyone's got a shotgun, and everyone will react to the main characters with the same line and in a grave voice: "What do you want? Who are you?" - And the rest of the writing, is just lackluster - actually, lazy would be a better description.

Two and a half hours later, the same stories just drag in front of your eyes. They still can't find her, and the narration everywhere keeps up with the tone of the book - one of the paragraphs that actually tends to the end of the world, simply reads "Earthquake!" (Without any consequence, could have been either ommitted) and it's delivered in the most ridiculous whiny voice where you can't avoid to either cringe, or laugh if you've got a lighthearted sense of humor.
I'm not kidding, two and a half hours later: Same time that it would've taken you to watch some award winning movie, played with your kids, or take your wife shopping, read some nice chapters like Murakami - slow, but his prose is as smooth as butter - Suzanne Collins, if you want to read some of the better dystopian book, etc...
I couldn't get past those two hours without the need of a break and then realize that I had indeed lost that much life,

If you are determined to read this book, in spite of these warnings, go ahead and please, please, for Audible's sake, write a HONEST review after, at least to find some equilibrium with the Fake ones. It might make no much of a difference though, Scott and Hystad publishers will just pay for 10 more clickbait-like fake reviewers. (How can you tell? 'this book is high paced... I couldn't put it down, etc and overhype all over the place, of course, with 5 stars in each area... If you happen to like for any reason the story, you won't be able to get past the narration, and viceversa - I found both equally bad.

Really bad character writing and motivations

It seems the author, who must be an end of days prepper type, has a hard time writing characters with any close to realistic motivations or personalities. The story idea is not a bad one which is why I got the book, However the characters are all one dimensional and continuously behave in ways that no person would act. It's horribly frustrating as a reader. They all seem to be acting with no real emotional or even intellectual grasp of what is supposed to be going on around them. The main character is not just flawed but seems to be intellectually challenged as he does thing repeatedly which make no sense in the context of his situation, It leaves you as the reader frustrated at not just his stupidity but the very unrealistic nature of his responses. The FBI agent is written horribly. There seems to be no understanding by the author of how such agents actually operate. Not to mention that a an agent with her background would never be allowed in her position or be operating completly alone. It's a weird dystopian world where at the time of greatest need not even the Army National Guard is on duty helping with evacuations etc. The characters seem to only be marginally aware of what's going on around them and how odd it is. There seems to be no ability to connect context and situation. It is days before the "FBI" agent even makes a connection to the kind of people being taken and what's happening to the world. It's just not believable. They are not just flawed characters they simply seem to be following a script disconnected from reality. Like whole sections of the book are written by two people who are not really on the same page with each other.

Unfortunately it seems that the same personalities that are inclined to be "prepper/end of days types" have trouble understanding human nature and behavior. This may be a result of the same kind of personality who engages in those behaviors. This could have been a good book had it been better research and the author had gotten some decent guidance and editorial supervision along the way. It reads, unfortunately, like a book which is self published and never got any solid review/editing along the way. Whole sections of the book are just written with such poor understanding of human motivation and understanding of police procedure that no amount of suspension of disbelief can get you beyond its failings and allow you to simply become emerged in the story.

The whole world in which it takes place is terribly one deminsional. This seems to lead to the characters blundering their way through an equally one dimensional world. It's a bit like listening to the ideas of some one who supports Trump and his equally one dimensional narcissistic world view. It's a shame. Written well this might have been a fun series of books.

Mystery Wrapped in an Apocalypse

As always, Ray Porter is a phenom. His performance alone can make a book. Fortunately this story is great and the narration is just a bonus.
A mystery/end of the world story, with interesting characters and a plot that moves at a good pace.

I was left wanting more and can't wait to start the next book. I'm an avid sci-fi/fantasy reader and was super surprised and pleased by how much I liked this book.

I'm excited for more story and character development in the next installment!

Great book

Very entertaining through out the escrow book. The huge suspension over coming impossible odds was not a reoccurring theme like you see a lot recently and that was refreshing. Will certainly get the next two books when released

Apocalyptically Cliched

I was hoping for good things from this book – an exciting premise, many positive reviews and read by the inimitable Ray Porter. Unfortunately, it just does not deliver. The plot is paper thin, entirely predictable and without a single twist. Despite the fate of humanity being at stake, there is little genuine sense of tension or jeopardy. It seems that the authors have regurgitated pretty much every eye-rollingly dire cliché from the disaster genre template or James Bond; Billionaire entrepreneur builds sanctuary (called ‘Eden’ of course) to protect the genetic cream of the human race, ex-marine (replete with PTSD and drinking problem) in race to find kidnapped daughter…you get the picture. The characters are so one-dimensional, I found myself caring little for their plight and ended up rooting for the apocalypse. It also did not stack up as a complete book in its own right, and just serves as an introduction to the series. What could have been a potential surprise, is completely given away by the cover of the book! Unfortunately, even Ray Porter cannot elevate this yarn and I won’t be hanging along for the ride…

Good story

Great story that is thought provoking - builds up with the background story and characters coming together. Looking forward to the next instalment. Thanks to Nathan and Jasper for an enjoyable book

Who Picked the Cover Art?

Spoilers, I guess?

Imagine if Se7en’s poster was Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box? Or if The Sixth Sense movie poster was Bruce Willis’ gravestone?

So the start of the story sets out that there are enormous natural disasters which will cumulate in massive destruction. Well. Judging by the cover art, I’m guessing it ends with people escaping into space?

We find out that thousands of people are going missing. Well. Judging by the cover art I’m guess they are being abducted so they are taken on the space ship to avoid the end of the world?

A mysterious billionaire is up to some funny business. Well. Judging by the cover art I’m guessing that he built a spaceship and a launch platform in the middle of the ocean.

The protagonist’s daughter is missing. Well. Judging by the cover art I’m guessing that she has been taken to a launch platform in the middle of the ocean.

And even though the preposterous meeting between Kendra and her sister was completely unrealistic - I still expected that too. In fact - the only thing that did surprise me was that the sister wasn’t PiedPiper19.

The story is fine. The writing is fine. It’s basically a cliff hanger ending with no questions answered. I think this is disrespectful to the reader and I won’t be reading anything else in this series.

Ray Porter is wonderful though.

Paint by numbers

I imagine a few people have fallen into a similar trap with this book by looking at the number of 5 star reviews. Personally i was not so much disappointed but incredibly bored with the story, which is a far worse crime in my opinion. Nothing surprising happens and as my title says ‘it’s a paint by numbers’ all the way through. Ray Porter does a fine job as usual (although I’m still not a fan of his female ‘voice’) See Steven Pacey for how it’s done properly :). Anyway, yeah this wasn’t for me I’m afraid. Generic characters, generic issues and a poor story all told. Best avoided I would say

A bit boring

It was ok, but not enough to make me want to listen to the next in the series.

A good start to a series

The book was easy to follow and well paced. I enjoyed it even if one of the meet-ups between the small cast of protagonists seemed to be more than a little far fetched. Usual fantastic end of the world scenario that sometimes seems a little close to the bone, how they cover the greed and breakup of communities and the breakdown of law and order. I very much enjoyed the Marine character. I just wish the FBI agent had more spine, seemed to be a bit panicky at time. I appreciate that we don't want a cast of terminator like people. But with the training and selection process that the FBI uses and experience that an agent of her years in the field would have - I'd like to think that they would have a little more steel to their attitude.

Ray Porter did his usual fantastic narration. I listened to this probably too soon after listening to all 3 of the rise series back to back that a couple of the voices were rather close, but if that's the only thing I can say I guess that he's done a darn decent job.

Brilliantly entertaining

Brilliantly entertaining, great characters compelling storyline can't wait to read the next chapter of this series.

Mmmmmm

Not sure about this one. I may get the second one if I'm stuck for something.
FYI the cover art gives away a major plot point. Just so ya know.

finished it but...!!!!

the only reason was RAY PORTER...
Just not gripping enough of a story....so cannot possibly purchase the next 2 books..

Now that’s how to build anticipation

A very catastrophic adventure. End of the world action. Good characters. Not a long book, but just the length it needed to be. I highly recommend.