Invasion

Alien Invasion, Book 1

By: Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

They are coming. The countdown has begun.

First visible only as blips on a telescope image, the discovery of objects approaching from Jupiter's orbit immediately sets humanity on edge. NASA doesn't even bother to deny the alien ships' existence. The popular Astral space app (broadcasting from the far side of the moon and accessible by anyone with Internet) has already shown the populace what is coming. So the news has turned from evasion to triage, urging calm and offering the few facts they have:

The objects are enormous, perfectly round spheres numbering in the dozens, maybe hundreds. They are on an approach vector for Earth. And they will arrive in six days.

©2015 Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant (P)2015 Podium Publishing

terrible, absolutely terrible

a bunch of self involved assholes flee an imminent alien invasion while having trivial arguments.

slow headache

27 chapters of a family stuck in traffic. Aliens? not in this book. very boring.

Armageddon Redux

Fantastic introduction to author's Platt and Truant. Reasonably fast paced and well laid out "Alien Invasion" story. If you liked the movie Armageddon, you will love this book. My only issue with it is that book 2 is not available yet..... Ray Porter does a fantastic job with the narration. Very well done and worth the credit.

Just what I was looking for!

Loved the slow steady build to the climax of the book. Perfect reader. Can't wait for book 2.

Marathon Listening to this Book!

If you could sum up Invasion in three words, what would they be?

Building suspense and action.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Invasion?

There were several but I would spoil it for others that haven't read the book if I detailed it.

Which character – as performed by Ray Porter – was your favorite?

Meyer was my favorite because I liked his attitude. He reminded me of myself in a lot of ways. Ray Porter's voice is addictive when he portrays the male characters. I liked the way he vocally portrayed Meyer.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nothing was really "moving" but there were some areas that were thought provoking. The interaction between the siblings and the boyfriend was true to life. The author really captured the angst of puberty in the teenage son, Trevor.

Good but far to short and yet to stretched

I rather enjoyed many details of the story but 30% of the story spent far to much time on a whole lot of nothing, and yet still I am debating on buying the follow up books.The fact that Ray Porter did this narration made it a great listen as he usually does.

Even perfect preparations fail...

Interesting approach to a doomsday scenario. Not a deep, complex story, but a fun listen. Interesting postulation on how or why a wealthy business mogul would prepare for an apocalypse event.
I love Ray Porter's narration!

Captivating!

Could not stop! Finished the book in 2 days and it was fantastic! On to book 2!

Very entertaining

I am really liking this pair of authors. Their Rise Again books were super fun. This one is too. You have to take it like a tv series, though...and expect the series to continue in the next "season." I will immediately download Book 2 and hope it comes soon!!!

True page turner

Alien invasion stories seem to be especially popular right now. Ernest Cline just released Armada. Edward W. Robertson is killing it with his Breakers series. James S.A. Corey’s Expanse series is crushing it, and is set to debut the television series on Syfy soon. While the appeal of the fantastic in what may come from meeting an alien race, and possibly more suspenseful, if they are met soon before their wicked intentions of domination are revealed, the most appealing aspect to these stories are the characters who may be soon to perish.

Invasion, co-written by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant, has done a phenomenal job taking an entire first book prior to the alien landing to entertain and endear us to a cast of characters ripe for an emotional disaster. On the surface of the story’s outline, the plot seems simple, and if the characters were bland, it would be mediocre at best. The aliens have shown up on space footage and a family separated from coast to coast has to find a way to a bunker in Colorado. Most of the story takes place in their cars or walking. While reading, I was amazed at how as a writer I might have been intimidated at how to make this transitional and introductory book entertaining while knowing it will be mostly a travelogue. Platt and Truant are master creators though, so it’s no surprise that the characters they’ve built have so much budding conflict between them that they could have been going to the grocery store on a normal Saturday morning and I would have been hooked.

Our main character, Meyer, is an entrepreneurial tycoon with two teenage kids, a son and a daughter. His son is enduring the beginning of puberty and a star crossed crush with Meyer’s new wife, a hot yogi who’s only fourteen years older than his son. His daughter has a secret and happens to be with her boyfriend when she’s picked up, so now he’s forced to go with them instead of going to his family. His new wife is struggling with the changes she’ll have to make to survive in this new world, as well as a jealousy over possible lingering romance between Meyer and his ex-wife. Everything from dialogue to getting into their inner thoughts keeps this story highly engaging and one of the best stories I’ve read this year. The ending really took me by surprise and I immediately had to get started on Book Two, Contact.

I listened to a few chapters of the audiobook, but I didn’t want to wait until I had a moment to listen, so I read this every chance I could in ebook. I have the paperback, too–one of the perks of being a newsletter subscriber and winning a giveaway–but I read way too quickly to make it to the paper version. Anyway, my point was to mention the narrator, R.C. Bray is awesome as always, so if you prefer audiobooks, definitely pick this one up.

I hear a lot of books called page turners, but this one truly stands out as earning such praise.

Not what I expected.

The story line centres mostly on the interaction between the members of a family and their reaction to an imminent Alien invasion of approaching ships . That unfortunately is all you get in this book. It talks about the breakdown of civilisation and the cleverness of the hero in building an underground bunker which they have to journey to, and their adventure on the way. Yawned a lot. Sorry showed promise but in my opinion didn't push any buttons. I listened to the first part of the next book, more of the same. I will not be buying it.

Well narrated disappointing story

Would you try another book written by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant or narrated by Ray Porter?

I'd definitely buy another book narrated by Ray Porter as I've enjoyed previous audiobooks he's narrated and he did a good job with this one too

What could Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

it's not so much that the story is bad...it's just not what I expected having read the synopsis and listened to the samples. I was expecting more science fiction...more focus on the imminent invasion whereas this dealt more with the breakdown of society. I didn't even make it half way through the book but got so bored of the riots etc. Maybe the next book will be better...I'll never know.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

the first few scenes, where the news of the imminent invasion first broke.

Struggling to Finish

Started off good, but I'm struggling with this one.

The narrator is putting me off. His normal male voice sounds like Brian from Family Guy, his female voice for Heather sounds like a female Jack Black.

The way the narration plays out Myers (main male character) is way too serious compared to everyone else who acts likes it's a vacation.

I'll try and get through this one.

Apocalyptic alien invasion of Earth yet again, but this time done much better!

This is a fantastic novel with great narration. The apocalyptic Alien invasion is a theme that recurs often, but somehow this one has been done better than most. My only criticism is that it was a bit short. That could just be because I'm used to reading epic novels now, but to be fair to the authors, this is a series and I already own the next two books.

More of a prologue than a complete book

I can't consider this book as being complete. It really is just a preamble to the main event. Having said that, I can't wait to get to the main event as the story is well written and the narration is awesome. Book 2 commencing as soon as I type this full stop (or period as the pretent English speakers prefer to call it).

1% Alien, 90% BS

What disappointed you about Invasion?

I was expecting a book about Aliens, however, the only Alien part of the book is in the title. The rest is only about one family trying to get to a bunker, running from other human beings. It's Walking Dead without the zombies...
Narration was very good, though.

Would you ever listen to anything by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant again?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

More aliens, less human relations.
Describe the aliens, how do they look? What do they want etc.
Not going to get the next one, as sample made me think it will be only about other people trying to get into the bunker and again, not enough about aliens.
This title should move to romance category.

Not sure if it was the narrator or the female char

They just really grated on me, not sure if it was the narrator doing the female voice badly or doing a shrill nasal voice perfectly but either way I listened about half way and lost interest.

Great start to the series

I genuinely enjoyed this story. It's a good start to a series and introduces you to the main characters well. I found the family interesting and the pacing was great. I know some people complain that this book is just the precursor to the actual Alien Invasion but I think that's a good thing. It introduces the threat then becomes a survivalist/prepper story focusing on the family trying to get to their destination whilst society starts to fall apart around them.

Luckily, both books 2 & 3 are out now so I'm going to go straight onto them as if it were one long story! Really looking forward to finding out what happenes next.

As usual, Ray Porter does a great job narrating. His pace is on point and he's a pleasure to listen to.

Worst audio book/book I have ever completed

Simply the worst story I have ever finished. the only reason I finished it was to see if the invaders were successful. But I'd have to listen to part 2 to find that out and life simply isn't long enough to contemplate that. I'd rather watch paint dry first.

Mind Provoking

Would you consider the audio edition of Invasion to be better than the print version?

I wouldn't know I have not read the print version

What was one of the most memorable moments of Invasion?

When the realization sets into the age old question "are we alone in the universe" is this real or just a nightmare??

What does Ray Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

I always listen to the narrator of audio books because I think that they bring the storey to life and if their passion shines through, it makes it makes the storey a good listen and Ray Porter did that for me.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I did have an emotional reaction because of my belief that there are other races out there and we maybe right at the bottom of the galactic pecking order.

Any additional comments?

I hope that Audible will soon get the next book in the series while the storey is still fresh in my head.