Final Days: Escape

Final Days, Book 3

By: Nathan Hystad, Jasper T. Scott

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Andrew and Kendra have learned what’s on the other side of the ridge, but it leaves them with more questions than answers. Their colony has turned into a dictatorship under the thumb of its delusional self-appointed leader, the Reverend, making their lives a living nightmare.

With a plan in place and help from their new allies, the group plans to sneak out of the colony and make contact with their new neighbors.

But nothing in Eden is ever as simple as it seems.

Join Earth’s remaining survivors as they struggle for freedom and learn the truth of why they were really saved.

Final Days: Escape is the stunning conclusion to the epic new series by Jasper T. Scott and Nathan Hystad.

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

It’s ok

The performance was much improved as the series went on and this was the best of the 3. The story line was ok, not great. Not enough depth. Things just happened as the writer felt fit with little build up of turning points. I didn’t think there was enough construction leading up to the sequences. And I thought the science was really underwhelming, Particularly for this genre. But it did keep me wanting to listen and find out more.

Great series

Found it easy to visualize the story and the characters. Difficult to stop listening sometimes.

S Kaye

Enjoyable series with great writing. Thoroughly appreciated the characters, it was exciting and k kept my interest. Thank you fella’s!
Hats off to you Ray Porter, you’re different voices always amaze and brings the stories to life!

The protagonists keep getting more annoying

Andrew is almost always angry, barely in control of his temper. He is excessively devoted to his daughter, willing to let everyone down to protect her. The daughter, Val, is also irrationally clingy and emotional. It’s almost like the author has never been a father and is guessing (badly) how a father would act to protect his child. The whole drama just got annoying after a while.

This third book seems not to be the conclusion. The author sets things up for more drama at the very end.

But I’m not sure I want more irrational anger from Andrew. It was a slog to get through this book.

Ok

Ray Porter does a pretty good job with the male voices, but when he does the female voices, it's grating.

A great trilogy end--however, more are coming!!

I so enjoyed this book and the trilogy of books in the series. Audible's postscript says more books are coming. Yay!!

There's so much I want to share about the story, but there are way too many plot spoilers. Let's just say things are not what they appear, and help comes from the most unlikely places.

Throughout the trilogy (so far), the characters are great! We lose some favorites, but there is great character growth along the way.

There is humor mixed with sadness, and war mixed with regret.

Give the seried a chance and you will not be disappointed!!

Give the narrator a chance as well, because Ray Porter is one of the best. This man could read the phone book and make it sound amazing! lol

Character-driven with non-stop action

As a fan of apocalypse fiction, I found myself wanting to keep reading when I had other things to do and read all three books in a month. The characters are unfailingly human with all their flaws and the villains are powerful. I look forward to reading more from these authors.

This is an Outstanding Finale to the Series!!

In the epic conclusion to this story, everyone is in for the fight of their life to survive not just Lewis Hound, but now the religious dictatorship of Shelley Morris, in which she has started the following of Mary, claiming Hound to be their God, and herself to be the new Mary, risen to save them in this new land.
Our gang of heroes, Andrew, the retired Marine, Kendra, the FBI Agent, Roland, the genius hacker, Tony, Roland’s side-kick and teen marvel, Valeria, Andrew’s Daughter, who is also a genius and has multiple talents picked up from her Marine Father, and then there are the extra’s, Kerry, Kendra’s Sister, and Eric Keller, who used to be Hound’s right hand man, but in part 2, and in this book, has realised how wrong Hound is, and has switched sides.
At the beginning of this story, things look grim, as the “Saints of Mary”, as Shelley Morris’s group has taken to calling themselves, has seized control, is living it up, forcing all the ‘Non-Believers’ to do the hard work, with a diet of oatmeal.
If you step out of line, you get shot.
This is a story that is told from the point of view of many different characters, giving it a fast, broad spectrum storyline, allowing it to not only shift focus between different aspects of the storyline and different locations, but also looking at different psychological aspects of the story as well. Andrew Millers character has a lot tougher approach to things than does his Daughter, especially when it comes to Tony.
This differing contrast of views makes for a really fascinating view of events as they unfold around the camp, especially at times when you read similar events from the points of view of two different characters, and the impact it has on them. The character work is incredibly gritty, realistic and at times, very powerful, as our main characters are thrust from one challenge to the next in their seemingly endless battle to free themselves from not just the dictatorship of the ‘Saints of Mary’, but the tyrannical hold of Lewis Hound.
I don’t want to give away spoilers, so I am not going to go into what happens to a great extent, but as discussed in book 2, our heroes have discovered other species on this planet, and in this book, we find out a lot more about these races, who they are, why they are there, and there is a lot more interaction with them.
Book 3 is a full-on action packed thriller, from the very first page, to the very end, it is incredible just how much Scott and Hystad have managed to pack into this book. One of the really brilliant things about this book is that most of the questions you have about the story get answered to (well at least the big ones), leaving you satisfied with the ending, and not wondering about a whole bunch of lose story ends that never got wrapped up (I hate it when Authors do that!!)
As well as the exceptional character work (which is the true highlight of this book), one of the other really extraordinary parts of this book was the world building, from multiple aspects. The actual ‘world building’ itself was very clever, with the descriptions of the new planet and its environment, the alien nature of the flora and fauna, but the other really creative and clever thing was the aliens. Without going into detail so as to not give away spoilers, I will say that the writing with regards to the different alien species was stunning, and added a real depth to the story.
Final Days: Escape is an amazing finish to what has been an outstanding series, Escape does not disappoint, moving along at crazy speeds at some points the action is just spectacular, and you find yourself sitting there with your mouth open in stunned awe at what is happening. There is not just action though, it is thriller, mystery, (a tiny bit of romance), but most of all, it is just all round fun – and an absolute must read!!
Ray Porter is easily one of the best Narrators in the industry today, with a voice that is just so easy to listen to, which, when you are listening to an audiobook, you want a Narrator with a voice that is nice and relaxing, someone you can listen to for hours on end without getting irritated by their voice etc, and Ray Porter is just golden. He also does just such an incredible range of Male and Female voices, all slightly different, so that you have this full cast of characters that fit into the story so well. The other thing he does with such ease is the emotional aspect of characters. Whilst it might be easy to produce a wide range of male and female voices, to do so with such an emotional range, from sheer terror, to such contempt, from a timid little girl to an angry Marine, so a condescending Reverend on a power trip, even a megalomaniac that has taken the last of humanity and thinks he is superior to everyone.
Porter is brilliant, and the audiobook is not just an option, it is an absolute must – one of those times in which you have to listen rather than read, as you get so much more out of an already outstanding book!!

Very interesting book

I found the Final Days series very interesting. At first I was not enthralled with the book but the story line grabbed me and the narration was excellent. By the time I listened to Final Days: Escape I was hooked. The story went from interesting to excellent while the characters were realistic and the narration awesome. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who likes stories with characters who have flaws that they need to overcome in situations that are fluid. You will really enjoy this story.

A Satisfying End

The final book in the Final Days Trilogy wraps it all up in a satisfying conclusion.