Invaders (Invaders Series Book 1)

The hero is circumstantially isolated and writes in first person, which makes for a very intense story. There aren't any ordinary people at all in the story though it takes place on Earth, except right at the end when he talks to the secretary of State. Heppner ties together a lot of cult stories from hieroglyphics to the Olympians to Roswell-like aliens, without doting on it and without it quite becoming a pointless X-Files unsolved plot. There are a few things that fell off the table and were never tied up, but in general, though there is room for a series, the novel is 100% complete with a satisfactory end. It is classic Heppner action without the tedious long space voyages and crew that slow down other of his novels.

Nothing is drawn out. The hero guesses at a plan and takes action and pretty soon wins or loses each round. He's an above normal ex military type but not superman. Not at the start anyway. The alien sidekick sentient crystal he picks up soon amps him up. Most authors would draw the following encounters out into a 4 or 5 novel series. Heppner blasts through all the myths and legends so fast it is head-spinning, in an entertaining way.

It is so inventive I am reminded of Burroughs and John Carter. And indeed, it is not without a Burroughs-like inspirational romance target, who just happens to be a victim of one of the more diabolical alien entities. But Logan has his reasons for not giving up on her.

Not sure what is happening with Vaughn's latest book but it is not that great a read - as someone else commented it's almost like someone else wrote it. The whole story seems way far fetched and the hero is a dill.

All well done SciFi has something in common - rules. If the author proposes that wormholes circumvent the need for faster than light speed, then fine, but he can't, at the end of the book, finding himself in a corner, also say they can act as time travel devices. Fine too if it's spelled out at the start - wormholes allow virtual FTL travel and also time travel but the rules need spelling out at the start or the work loses all tension.

The lack of tension is the case here both because of the first person narration and second due to the author just throwing another tech or ability or something whenever there's a serious obstacle. It's even evident in the relationships. For example, the protagonist is banished from the presence of a god-like being and told it's doom to return to his august presence. The protagonist, a few hours later, shows up, is welcomed by the being and even given a game changer gift.

The narrator seems utterly sex starved as well. Toward the start he develops a crush on an oddly colored alien who struts around in high heels (good grief) but later switches to having a worse crush on an enslaved Earth girl. The latter becomes an obsession with him causing him to teleport (another added later on tech) into one impossible dangerous situation after another. He survives as we know he must or he can't be narratiing th story, can he?

The protagonist wanders thorugh the story killing everything he can from aliens to ancient proto-humans (don't ask) to whatever he can. Along the way, we get idiotic situations. Here's one of them: a nuke goes off not from the California coast. We're told it's larger than any nuke ever developed by humans. It, however, does almost no harm. No big wave. No contamination. No quakes set off. Good to know that nukes are really almost harmless after all.

I feel good and safe now.

The general impression I get is that this is a book written by a circle of geeky fanbois still in high school. It's fun in a way but utlimately tedious and predictable.

Like other recently released books, this one felt like it was written by someone else who isn't as good. I am seriously starting to wonder if Heppner is paying someone to Ghost Write for him. I really enjoyed the first books in both the last Starship and Alien Honor, the last books in both series were pretty terrible.

This book suffers from a consistent lack of believability. In one impossible situation after another everything goes right for the hero. There's nothing particularly special about the hero either. His character is flat, the dialogue boring, there's really no reason to like him. Everyone except the main character is also an idiot. They think highly illogic things and make insane assumptions time and time again, giving the hero HUGE openings to manipulate them in glaringly obvious ways.

Overall, the story jumps all over the place. It starts with a Marine security guard fighting aliens, then it's still aliens, but now he's a super human fighting aliens, then he's fighting robots, then ancient crystal aliens, then ancient aliens who hate crystal aliens.

My biggest gripe is that both his allies and enemies are stupid in exactly the same way. So stupid they make him look smart, but he's actually pretty stupid too.

I read science fiction almost exclusively and I can say without a doubt that INVADERS Is a cut above most of the other quasi-military , one man against the vast alien conspiracy stories I normally read.
In the first place the main character has no idea who, what, or why he's battling the one of several antagonists , he's just trying to survive and live the next 5 minutes.
He is of course ex-military, a guy with a special ability to think on his feet and adapt rapidly to radically changing situations. That much is formulaic but instead of becoming a stock story where the protagonist can do no wrong he is left to his own devices to first figure out who and what he is fighting against and how to best stay alive in the process. He makes mistakes and for most of the book is at a loss as to which way to turn. But in the end perserveres and eventually saves the day, the Earth and the girl!!
All along the reader is to busy wondering if he will survive the next page , to worry about the stories resolution.
That makes an entertaining book! I hope to see a sequel where perhaps the main character meets more Solarians ( gods of golden times) maybe he'll get to become a Demigod himself, like Hercules or Prometheus. That would be cool.

No spoilers review (hate those)- from start to end, pretty much non-stop action, so that's all good. The overall storyline is a pretty well paved road though. How about just a human vs aliens? Anyway, lots of "kill my way outa this one" action that gets this tree stars... had a few issues at the start where the guys sees stuff and spends pages trying to rationalize it, which could have been done with a tad faster. The choice of aliens is.... odd, all over..... some things go a tad too fast, so you're like " what just happened?" It's an ok read for kindle unlimited, hate to pay more than $2 for it otherwise.... at times reminds me of a high school effort in a sci-fi writing class....

Great start to a possibly grand series. Logan, a lowly security guard stumbles onto an alien attack on the solar farm he works at in Nevada. After killing some uptight alien's, he is captured and taken to Greenland, killing aliens every chance he gets. He escapes and finds all kinda of lifeforms in stasis chambers. While running from the aliens thru many underground tunnels, beneath the icepack. He stumbles on an alien ship with a sentient crystal entity that is the last of a guardians of the galaxy type organization. The crystal, Pax and Logan get together to try and ward off attack's from space and an out of phase/dimension ship hiding in plain sight in Nevada. Great storyline with nonstop action and battles. Can't wait for the next book. Enjoy, Trapper

I couldn't even finish this drivel. The protagonist was whiny, moronic, and unbelievable. One minute bragging about being a Marine and operating best under pressure, and every time something happens being terrified, passing out, and injuring himself TWICE because he panicked. He did more harm to himself in 30 pages than the aliens did in 75 pages. Crawling around on his knees because he was too scared to stand up, and then a page later talking about how he was a hero. What? Not to mention a supposed former Marine security contractor using a .44 magnum revolver as an EDC, and not having any spare rounds with him. Inconsistencies about his experience and even the clothes he was wearing. Headed out into the desert as a head security guy, and Oh, I am wearing a cheap suit and dress shoes? Come on. Just unbelievable settings and dialog.

Having read several of Hepper books I was looking forward to this new series. This starts out differently than most of his books with an ex-marine doing security work for a power company. I liked the fact that the main character was not some super hero and had plenty of flaws.
Having read the entire series I found my self looking forward to each new book and without giving too much away there were plenty of unusual twists to the plot to keep me entertained for several days...

Another excellent book by Vaughn Heppner. I've been following this author for a while now and his writing has improved tremendously in recent years. I won't spoil or summarize the book, only add my thoughts.

I loved the fact that Heppner developed a rich and detailed world that I was immediately sucked into. This is clearly the beginning of a great series and I'm looking forward to reading more about our protagonists. I was a bit disappointed, however, in the lack of (human) characters in the book. The cast is quite small. Another thing I noticed was that the plot became a bit too complex towards the end. Too many plotlines converged and I felt like there was a bit too much happening, and not enough time to let it all sink in. I hope going forwards Heppner slows things down a bit and lets us get to know our characters in further depth.

A good story but a little juvenile for its audience. It was like reading the good comics from a by gone era. Still a good read though and I could see a 2nd book but maybe put a little more thought into the science in science fiction.

Bought the audio version on the store Unlimited, mainly due to the narrator, Christian Rummel. He was very good in the Extinction War series is I thought I'd give this Heppner book a try. Hmmmm, not so much. I let it run into the 6th chapter, but had to just let it go. Can't recommend it. Sophomoric and a bit of an insult to former Marines everywhere.

Really liked this one. Unique concept for 1 individual (and an AI) to battle Aliens. I can see adding more books to this series; investigating and tracking down the "Originator" if in fact it was not destroyed, Joining the Galactic Guardians with new adventures, and upgrading Earths tech to interplanetary travel, etc. Does need to find a new editor or proofreading program to fix errors.

Lots of weird things happens as you cruise along the pages of this :/b took. Aliens with advanced technology but that as single individuals are easy to kill. A human superhero that takes the fighting against the powerful aliens by himself with j u st a single piece of help, a magic crystal with almost unlimited power.
It's an entertaining reading.

Our hapless would-be hero, ex -marine turned security guard stumbles onto alien bad guys messing with his employers solar panel farm, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Intergalactic criminals, the May be creator of mankind, and a crystal based life form in the shape of a smart phone. Who dosen't see watering with blowing up their end of the galaxy to stop the bad guys.

A funny, rip roaring alien invasion story without a dull moment. A great change of pace from other sci-fi because it does not take itself too seriously and instead serves up all sorts of nefarious aliens searching for cosmic treasure on earth while they battle each other and our main character Logan as he finds himself fighting to save the planet from destruction.

Good character development. Logical storyline. Could have been a bit more descriptive. Has some grammatical errors. But, considering the huge number of, at best, sub-par books I have read here using the the store Kindle Unlimited service, this one really stands out. Thank You, Vaughn Heppner, for submitting a really good story to this venue.

How would you react to aliens meddling in our galactic affairs? We like to think this is how we'd be. Now throw in a nagging "partner" and the best !aid plans. . . etc. Now add a God of old and things get really interesting. In the end though; was it really you or did you get some godlike help along the way. After all, you're only human.

I truly enjoyed reading the first series of this book. Lots of twist and turns with seemingly impossible odds for our hero and his companion. Tech is believable as well as the alien menace. I'll be purchasing the next book in this series today.

As usual Vaughan Heppner weaves a story of intrigue and space cowboys. Falling into a invasion by space privateers Logan goes from being a captive to protecting earth with the help of a living crystal. Hard to put this book down. So take the twists and turns, the teleportation, the entrapment, and the winning over all odds. Enjoy!

Having read the Lost Starship series and book 1 of Doom Star, I was surprised at the first person POV of Invaders. The hallmarks are all here: A slightly out of their element protaganist with above average mental acuity matching wits against physically superior opponents. An unlikely love story. At once familiar but oddly new locations. They all weave together to put you into the story and experience Heppner Space first hand. Hoping Invaders becomes a series soon.

What a wonderful homage to golden age sci fi. Ive likened this authors work in the past and I like this. There are times when the action gets repetitive , but that just makes it more like the older sci fi I grew up with. Even the love interest harkens back to Andre Norton , and Asimov. Well done sir , well done.

This space- cowboy story is fast moving, although a little slow in places. A lowly security agent and his talking crystal manage to save earth from space pirates and several other aliens and needs to stop WWIII from starting. This is !my first book from this author and I will definitely read others!

Heppner really blends our current world and a scify future together fantastically. Great protagonist and ensemble characters to keep the personal interest in the characters . I can't wait to read the rest

The story started off exciting and moving forward at a brisk pace. Lots of action, and the story picked up speed as it went. Went in a different direction than what I expected. Thoroughly enjoyed it. You will too.

The background story was exciting and believable. But the excessive, needless details throughout were torturous! Seemed at times that Heppner was slinging superfluous words nilly willy to meet a minimum requirement. Gave it four stars, instead of less, because once I started skipping over the unnecessary passages, the story became quite exciting and enjoyable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have been reading Mr. Heppner's books recently and I highly recommend all of them. He is an excellent author with a tremendous imagination. If you like space opera, you won't regret reading his work.