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  • The Event: The Survivors Book One
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4.0 out of 5 stars
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5,868 global ratings
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4 star
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3 star
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2 star
6%
1 star
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The Event: The Survivors Book One

The Event: The Survivors Book One

byNathan Hystad
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CAS
4.0 out of 5 starsInvasion
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on January 8, 2023
This book was well written and an entertaining read. The first two thirds of the book is basically a race against time as the few remaining survivors of the alien attack race to find an alien device in Peru. After that it gets a little chaotic but comes to a satisfying conclusion. Looking foreword to reading more from this author.
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Top critical review

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Dr. R
3.0 out of 5 starsit had promise
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on March 31, 2020
The author ends the first chapter with a great line:
โ€œBut since my wifeโ€™s death, Iโ€™d learned to not get upset by the things I couldnโ€™t control. Alien invasion would fit into that category.โ€

This was one of the better proofread novels on the Amazon โ€œfreeโ€ list. However, I still noticed *many* missing commas/hyphens/contractions as well as run-ons. Much as I wanted to leave a good review, I could only make it through a quarter of the novel before giving up. Here are some examples that frequently jarred me out of the flow.

His main problem was what I will call the vague antecedent.
โ€ข My clientsโ€™ (of what business/service?) Until 18 percent mark, I had no idea what the main character did for a living or his religion and race until 24 percent.
โ€ข To my office (where? Turns out to be a room upstairs)
โ€ข When I saw it (with no previous mention of what it was)
โ€ข We got there (with no mention of the destination)
โ€ข We made it unscathed (with no mention of the destination)
โ€ข He never told us Ray had a key ring but uses them later.
โ€ข โ€œitโ€™ll be tough to see cars at a complete stop on the road, though we may be able to do it at a really slow pace,โ€ How do you see slowly?
โ€ข They hear where another survivor is, but the text never says theyโ€™re driving there. In fact, it never actually mentions driving until they arrive.
โ€ข a beam shines down from the sky, but it never says where the beam lands relative to their moving truck. He also doesnโ€™t mention stopping the truck.
โ€ข Whatโ€™s your name?โ€ she asked (the main character who sheโ€™s actually related to and met). โ€œHis name is Carey. Heโ€™s my neighborโ€™s dog
โ€ข โ€œwe were standing at the entrance to the room,โ€ Four were mentioned, and we have no idea which he is referring to.
Close behind were logic lapses:
โ€ข His wife didnโ€™t ask him to save the world in her note, though thatโ€™s how he summarized it. (I read it three times to be sure.)
โ€ข If someone had already been there and left open the deposit box, why would they relock the outer door?
โ€ข Disarm is a poor word choice for โ€œthis device,โ€ if as the text says it was created to counter the tractor devices not blow up.
โ€ข Why does he suddenly assume a hike across to Jersey when Ray brought a boat and they use it next scene?
โ€ข How does one open a locked Trump hotel-room door with no power?
โ€ข A quarter of the way through the book, he changes what he calls his wife to Janny.
โ€ข People in the US use yards, not meters.
โ€ข A dog at the driverโ€™s feet would be sitting on the pedals.
โ€ข He never got out of the truck to speak with Mary but gets in again in a few pages
โ€ข A ventilation hose for a generator wonโ€™t fit through a closed closet door.
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From the United States

CAS
4.0 out of 5 stars Invasion
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on January 8, 2023
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This book was well written and an entertaining read. The first two thirds of the book is basically a race against time as the few remaining survivors of the alien attack race to find an alien device in Peru. After that it gets a little chaotic but comes to a satisfying conclusion. Looking foreword to reading more from this author.
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THE HOLEY ONE
4.0 out of 5 stars After one week to get from the NE USA to their destination in Peru South America, they find they have Millions of miles to go.
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on March 12, 2018
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This book was recommended to me by one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors, Jasper Scott. This is the first novel for this new author, Nathan Hystad and I have to agree it is very impressive. My Amazon stats may suggest I'm an easy reviewer to get a four or five-star review from. That's only because I rarely post a public review of any book I feel doesn't deserve at least a four-star rating. Instead, I'll send a critique directly to the author if I agreed to review it or, I'll just stop reading part-way through.
This book deserves to be read, the story is fully deserving of a five-star rating and there were surprisingly few Typos, spelling, or grammatical errors, especially considering this is the first book by a new author. The only flaw I found was the author's unfamiliarity with sailboats and the lack of "technical support for this. A group of survivors decides to "borrow" a single-masted sloop from Tampa Florida and sail down to Colombia, around 1,600 miles and estimated it will take "forty hours, or thereabouts," They expect to "...average around thirty to forty miles an hour." While America's Cup Racers may approach forty Knots, the average speed in 2007 was just ten Knots. The engineering and design of these boats, (and their professional crews) today is so far superior to the normal sailboat that Maximum speeds would be far more likely to be below 7 - 8 Knots. With winds normally falling in the nighttime hours the average cruising speed would likely be in the five to six-knot range. Given that our survivors have only a week to save the world at a location in Peru, a different mode of transportation is required.
After a number of adventures getting from the Northeast down to Florida and the adventures getting from Colombia to Peru, the action really picks up speed when they arrive at what this team thinks is their destination. Ha, they've got Millions of miles yet to go and, their faith in the predictions of their significant others years before "The-end-of-the-world" actually comes about will be tested repeatedly.

Review by THE HOLEY ONE
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Mike Nemeth
4.0 out of 5 stars Never trust an alien
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on August 12, 2019
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Dean lost his wife, the love of his life, three years prior. He's an accountant who keeps mostly to himself. But all that changes one day when the ships show up. It changes for everyone. Writer Nathan Hystad pulls the rough concept from "The Day the Earth Stood Still," the 1951 nuclear proliferation cautionary tale by director Robert Wise. But Hystad drops the similarities early. He doesn't have a guy named Klaatu spouting platitudes. Dean remembers something his late wife told him. Something important. The ships, which appear over most population centers, just sit there, somewhat like Klaatu's robot Gort. But then people start to disappear, captured in a green glow that causes them to rise and pass through any object. Dean touches the amulet his wife insisted he wear. Somehow, it kept him planet-bound. Dean's left alone, his best friend taken from his living room. Didn't even finish his beer. The neighbor's dog, a spaniel, becomes his one companion. But this isn't some apocalyptic novel about a guy learning to live off the land without anybody. Dean discovers he's got a mission, that his wife knew something, that he's required to play some role in saving humanity. And he's just one guy. Hystad crafts a compelling story, one that brings regular twists and turns. Dean's in for a ride. And since I just finished "The Event," the rest of the Survivors series appears pretty interesting. I already picked up the second novel in the series.
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Clabe
4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining romp in between alien tractor beams!
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on July 23, 2018
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Imagine that alien space ships suddenly appeared over every major city on Earth and began harvesting every human being using tractor beams. Imagine that humanity is powerless, terrified and has no idea whether they will live or die. Imagine that three or four people have been spared and have no clue why. Each of them has been married to a spouse that has died mysteriously and with similar symptoms. Imagine these few are chosen to play a special role in a comic civil war in which Earth is caught in the middleโ€ฆand that they have no concept of what they must face.

Dean, is one of the โ€˜chosenโ€™. Allied with a cocker spaniel named Carey, Deanโ€™s character must meet up with others who are chosen to be led by an alien race against a faction of the same alien race who are determined to inhabit the Earth. Dean proves to be a likeable, if somewhat clueless, hero bolstered by a second chosen, Mary, as they struggle again long odds and internal treachery to save the other occupants of Earth.

The Event is a slightly far-fetched read that I found entertaining just to see what kind madness turned up next. I particularly wanted to know the fate of the rest of the occupants of Earth; whether or not Earth would be saved from some of its excessive human population by the hostile actions of aliens. Doubtless, you will interested in finding that out as well.

To do so, however, you will need to buy a copy of The Event and read it. The Event should be appreciated by most any sci-fi fan with a sense of humor.
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Greyhound37
4.0 out of 5 stars A good mystery that reels you in, but sometimes lacking in science and logic
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on June 8, 2018
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A good mystery story with some science fiction thrown in.

I enjoyed the mystery writing in this book. Lots of unexplained happenings, stringing the reader along til the end. However, there were a few things I had hoped more effort had been put into to make the experience more complete.

1. The Logic Train derailed sometimes. Some basic premises the characters accepted, seemingly quite easily seemed to defy logic or human nature occasionally. I thought it would all be explained in the end, and some of it was, but ultimately I was left scratching my head a few times thinking, "really? who would believe that!"

2. The Science, or perhaps the facts. Since this book is nominally Science Fiction, I was expecting a little more science and facts. Keeping things deliberately vague is one way to get around having to research things or create advanced technologies from whole cloth, but I really would have enjoyed more detailed descriptions in some areas.

All that said, it was a good, solid book that was enjoyable to read. Had it been a standalone novel I would have been completely sated. When the cliffhanger was revealed at the end, it kind of felt like it was tacked on as an afterthought to an otherwise complete story.
26 people found this helpful
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Marc45069
4.0 out of 5 stars A great little sci-fi adventure!
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on July 26, 2018
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The Event is a great little sci-fi adventure, no more, no less. If you want hard technical science fiction or a story with lessons for today, set this aside for later and get something by Arthur C. Clark or Peter F. Hamilton. But if you do want to escape for several hours in a fast-paced alien adventure, The Event is perfect. Our hero, Dean, and the rest of the world wake up to thousands of sleek spaceships hovering over the worldโ€™s cities. And things go downhill from there! Dean is put on a quest to save mankind. Heโ€™s joined by the typical cast of companions; the buddy, the love interest, the mysterious lady, and of course the loyal dog. He finds other survivors and they challenge the aliens both on earth and in space. This minimalist summary makes the book seem simplistic. But it does an excellent job being the exciting sci-fi adventure it was intended to be. The only problem I had and why it got a 4 and not a 5 was that personally, I do prefer a little more hard science than I found in The Event. But regardless Iโ€™ll read the next book in the series and Iโ€™m eagerly looking forward to it.
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victoria
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast Paced and Original
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on March 23, 2018
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This is a fast paced read with a refreshingly original story. The author goes into just enough detail to let your mind fill in the rest. The violence is tame and no sex. This is a great read for young sci fi fans and for anyone whose tired of the oversexed over violent copycat garbage the world is inundated with.
I would give 5 stars but there were a couple things I couldn't get past. Flashbacks. I hate flashbacks. They're like the author ran out of imagination and is burning time trying to think of a new direction to take the story. I read them this time, but usually skip them with a deep sigh and an eye roll.
The other thing is the author is making a boyish guess about American military training and the world of hired soldiers. I'd suggest a little more education if you're going to write about it or a little more glossing on those parts if you don't have time to research.
Overall a very good read. Your given the option to get the second book for free but I'm not doing that. The author is good so I will gladly pay for the second book.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good start to a series.
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on July 4, 2018
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Well-written, without the usual grammatical and spelling errors that often make these books unreadable. The main character is very nicely drawn, and quirky enough to be interesting (ie not the usual square-jawed hero). The end-of-the world scenario is novel, and the pace is stately without dragging. Only real complaints I have are that the aliens remain strictly two-dimensional, and there are two many important plot points where the hero suddenly remembers a repressed conversation from years back that illuminates a current conundrum. I enjoyed the read, and look forward to reading the next in series.

One suggestion to the author: the action takes place over a short period of time, a single week, and with every hour and day that passes, more people die. It's literally a race against time to save humanity. Unfortunately, it's very easy to lose track of the time frame and hence lose the tension. Might be a good idea to break the action down into days: Day One, Day Two, etc. Bit of a cliche, but it works.
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T.R
4.0 out of 5 stars Original idea
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on January 8, 2022
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This was a new concept book for me. The characters were good and the idea was good. Without giving away anything, two hugh plots holes at the end. Still worth the read.
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Kathleen R.
4.0 out of 5 stars A very enjoyable read.
Reviewed in the United States ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ on May 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
I like SciFi and near-future disaster stories, and this was a bit of both. Sure, there were some questionable areas but, I find that to be true of most of the fiction I read. None of the implausible parts ruined the overall storyline for me.
I can see becoming friendly and even intimate with another rather quickly when you think you may be the last humans left alive. We are a social animal, after all.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series which, honestly, doesn't happen very often. I really want to find out what happens next and I want to know who the Kraskis' enemy is.
I do think more careful proofreading and editing is needed but it isn't even close to being bad enough to keep me from reading the next book in the series!
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