Dark Island: The Definitive Edition

Foreword by Ernest Dempsey (The Dark Island Trilogy, Book 1)

By: Matt James

Narrated by: Dan Delgado

The "Definitive Edition" of Matt James' action-packed, international bestselling novel Dark Island features expansive rewrites, revised edits, a reformatted interior, stunning new cover art, and a foreword by USA Today bestselling author Ernest Dempsey.

Like the "Dark Continent" of Africa, the island of Madagascar holds many chilling secrets.

A massive earthquake rocks the mountains within Madagascar’s Andringitra National Park, exposing a network of hidden tunnels, and releasing a pack of hypersensitive predators.

Unfortunately, they aren't alone when they reach the surface...

Ian Hunt lost his wife to the creatures that fateful night. Seven years later, he's still haunted by the tragedy.

Found inside a local watering hole, Ian reluctantly accepts an offer to lead an exploratory team deep beneath the surface in search of the truth.

What he and the others discover is the find of a lifetime...if they survive long enough to tell anyone.

Extinction is alive and well at the heart of the “Dark Island.”

From Ernest Dempsey's foreword:

"From the beginning, you feel excitement, terror, grief, wonder. Matt pulls your emotional strings. He makes you feel the environment around the characters. You can smell the air, and feel the darkness.

His word choices create powerful, punchy sentences and paragraphs that imbed you in the story without making you drowsy.

The action sequences are hard, and highly intense. It’s truly difficult to put down.

Dark Island is, put simply, a fun, and exciting story."

©2024 Matt James (P)2025 Matt James

Guess every author misses every now and then

Having enjoyed "The Charlee Flynn Adventures" and "Blood King," I was eager to explore more from this author and picked up the newly released "Definitive Edition." Unfortunately, this one was a miss for me.

While I'm familiar with the author's campy, action-oriented style, this one dialed it up to a level that didn't work for me. It felt less like a adventure and more like an over-the-top B-movie, which made the story difficult to invest in.

On a positive note, the narrator did an good job with character voices and performance, providing a better listening experience despite the material.

Dinosaurs!

Good story. The characters are interesting and multi-dimensional. Once you suspend disbelief and accept the context the story develops and I was engaged. And now, I want more, I hope the rest of the trilogy shows up on Audible. I love a dinosaur adventure story.

Sleeping material

Boring. No good storyline. Characters shallow. Could not follow. Slept through it, on and off. disappointing.