Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately I have been unable to get into it.

Invaders From Beyond is a book comprised of three stories. “Midnight at the Garden Centre of Good and Evil” is the longest of the three, taking up nearly half of the book. The other two stories are “Blighters” and “Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves.”

Alien invasions make for great, time tested science fiction, and are a genre I love reading. However, none of these stories held my attention for very long, and, at times, I found myself skimming without quite realizing. Many of the characters felt a bit flat. The jumping about in time within the first few chapters of “Midnight at the Garden Centre of Good and Evil” felt misplaced and didn’t allow any time to truly connect with the main character or care about his plights happening currently or in the past.

In all, this was a book built on a great premise but, as a whole, didn’t manage to fully deliver upon it. Perhaps I will revisit this collection at some point in the future and see if opinions on any of the tales have changed.

All 3 stories had the potential for me as I am a sucker for alien first contact stories. Akk three stories fell flat for me. This book was like the B movies of old which I am not a fan of. The humor consisted of one-liners and the characters were cardboard cut out cliches. If I had grown up watching B movies I would like be more forgiving. 1.7/5 Midnight by Colin Sinclair was too slow at first and gradually crammed too much towards the end. 2.3/5. Blighters by Tim Major. I liked none of the characters and the Alien conquering the world was weird and Becky was written like a man. The humor was so lame in this one as well. Maybe this was the point as humanity was turning to junkies without anyone realizing. Still, who would think the lead believing Canada was governed be king was funny? Overall all 1.5/5.
Rag Bones and Tea Leaves by Tim Major: Just a pretentious Moses allegory story, 0.3/5

Invaders from beyond by julian benson.
'Alien invasion' is one of the oldest devices in modern science fiction, dating back to Wells’ The War of the Worlds. It spoke to the paranoia of mid-twentieth-century life, spawning such classics as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Thing. Why do so many damn aliens want to invade Earth anyway? And who’s going to stop them? Is this going to take long? Only I was going to go to the pub later.
A good read. Little slow in places but readable. 4*.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is a collection of three short stories revolving around the idea of alien invasion.

Midnight at the Garden Center of Good and Evil by Colin Sinclair 0.5/5
I'm going to abbreviate this as Midnight for the sake of my sanity. This story was dreadful. The characters were flat and lacked depth. The "Big Bad" monologued for four pages and it was an absolute drag to get through. The, for lack of a better term, 'love interest' was a textbook definition of a manic pixie dream girl. The actual premise of the work was really great but the execution was very poor.

The Blighters by Tim Major 2/5
The Blighters was forgettable. The premise was also pretty neat here but I had no attachment to the main character.

Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves by Julian Benson 3/5
This story was leagues above the other stories in this collection. If you were at all interested in this collection I'd say skip the first two and just buy this story on it's own. The characters were actually well fleshed out and the premise was well-executed.

I was looking forward to seeing if three authors could gel together and write three separate stories in one book. I think they nearly did it. All three stories were stand alone, all different and all had some good parts and some not so good. Although I did enjoy all three, there was something lacking that I couldn’t put my finger on. However I would read more from them and I will never look at a snail the same way again!

Invaders From Beyond caught me with its tagline, and I do rather like Attack The Block and The World’s End. What we have here is three tales of the unknown, of aliens among us, of something rather weird, all of which I like to look for in my SF, especially in the shorter variety on offer here. The main question is whether these stories hit the mark, or if the expectations given by that tagline are just too high to meet…

Midnight in the Garden Centre of Good and Evil by Colin Sinclair
This is the first story in this collection, and as the title says, it’s set in a garden centre. A strange venue for alien invasion, that’s for sure, and given the way the story starts with staff banter around a Friday night delivery event, it’s a little weird. It’s also very British, and, until about halfway through, somewhat disjointed and certainly not shouting ‘alien invasion’ to you. However, when the story takes a turn into the expected alien territory, it does so quickly, and before you know it things are full-on strange. The ending is also quick to come about, though it is somewhat satisfying. However, this isn’t an easy read, mainly due to the fact that you just don’t really know what is happening until it’s right there, and the characters are a little all over the place. There’s also a lack of exposition for both characters and situation, and explanations fall woefully short of the target.

Blighters by Tim Major
Blighters is more a short story about Becky, our main character, than explicitly about the alien Blighters of the title. However, don’t let that fool you, this has some great aliens in the Blighters – they’re highly sought after and the effect they have on humans, essentially a natural high, means that violence will be committed to keep them hidden. It’s this we learn through Becky’s eyes whilst she deals with the loss of her father some years before and has a hatred for many people due to the apparent cover up of his death. In the end this all comes together nicely, and it has the added bonus of some nice closure to the story.

Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves by Julian Benson
When Hal and his mother move to a new apartment in an estate of flats, Hal and his new friend, Shahid, take to following a local mysterious Rag and Bone Man that goes around collecting unwanted items due to rumours of his involvement in a death on the estate some years back. From there we have a strange tale of this mysterious man and the connection Hal has with him, and the truths he learns along the way. Set in the late 60’s the prose brings the era to life, and while it is an interesting story, it is very slow moving without any real push to keep you reading other than the explanations for what, exactly, is going on.

Now, Invaders From Beyond is a strange one. It’s the kind of book I’d pick up if I saw it on the shelf due to the cover art and blurbs, but it’s one that fails to meet these high expectations almost across the board. I couldn’t compare this collection to Attack the Block or The World’s End, and even the title is a misnomer. While the first story, Midnight in the Garden Centre of Good and Evil, is the closest of the three to an alien invasion tale, it’s unfortunately too disjointed to really work as that. Blighters and Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves are both better stories – the latter probable the best of the two – but they are not ‘alien invasion’ ones, more in the ‘aliens among us’ category.

It’s hard to recommend this collection based on what its ambitious title is telling you because, quite simply, it isn’t. However, that’s not to say it’s not worth reading – two of these stories are certainly interesting and are strange enough to work. It may well be worth checking out the stories individually, though a brief look at online retailers lets you know you buying this collection is the more economical choice.

Due to some seriously dismal reviews, gonna be passing on this one. Kinda sad cause the premise looks very intriguing, but how many readers can be that wrong about this one.

This novel is composed of three stories by three authors. The stories are Midnight in the Garden Center of Good and Evil by Colin Sinclair, Blighters by Tim Major and Rag Bones and Tea Leaves by Tim Major. I have given a brief synopsis of each story but overall they were boring and nothing really stood out about them.

Midnight in the Garden Center of Good and Evil by Colin Sinclair - 2/5 Stars
A group of garden center employees notice something isn't right when a new garden center opens up across the street. When the new garden center starts to resemble a cult with religious like devotion, bizarre rituals and disappearances they realize something sinister is going on.

The plot in this story read like a bad B rated action movie. It was filled with bad one-liners, unrealistic explosions and a bad government cover up at the end. The characters were very one-dimensional with a forced heroic death. This story feels ike a mash up of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Blighters by Tim Major - 1.5/5 Stars
Becky's best friend is dissatisfied with her life so she wants to find a Blighter, an alien species that crash landed on Earth years ago. It is speculated that Blighters created a sense of peaceful emotions to anyone around them. So Becky and Gail go in search of one but what they find is much more.

This story was incredibly boring. The minimal action wasn't well written so the fight scenes didn't seem real. The characters are bland and Becky is written like a man. Although the author claims she is a woman throughout the story I kept referring to Becky as a man in my head. There was supposed to be some funny moments but I didn't find them funny, like Becky thinking Canada has a King but knowing Justin Bieber is from Canada.

Rag Bones and Tea Leaves by Tim Major- 1.5/5 Stars
After Hal moves to a new neighborhood he makes a new friend, Shahid. Together they decide to investigate a weird person who wanders around the community begging. He is completely covered and wears a strange mask. This strange person eventually leads them to some stranded aliens.

This story had too many religious tones. The main plot felt like a bible section where our hero (Hal) leads some stranded strangers to a new promised land, WAY too cliche. The story was boring and the mystery was even slower, I almost fell asleep numerous times while reading it and it took all my willpower to finish it.

Thanks to Abaddon Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC.

I enjoyed this collection of 3 short stories of aliens. I thought the stories fit well together and the last story left me wanting more!

Three stories from British authors. I enjoy reading science fiction but most of the space opera style. These works were difficult to read and I finished none of them. It is very difficult to describe the writing style used so I won't.

*thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

2 stars.
This just didn't interest me. I like SciFi so it wasn't that. The stories just felt lacking and I wasn't so interested. I do really like the cover thought.

Invaders From Beyond is a below average collection of three sci-fi stories in which aliens play a key role. Billed as book for fans of Attack the Block and At World's End it kicks off with a strange, rambling introduction from the editor and never really recovers.
Of the stories on offer only the Julian Benson's Rags, Bone and Tea Leaves is worth the investment.