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Exodus: Empires at War #7
Counter Strike
Sean and the Empire have fought their way out of the corner. Now it's time to strike back.
The Ca'cadasans have been hit hard, but they are not yet out of the fight.
The ambush worked, to a point. The Cacas took grievous losses, but still retain a powerful force in Imperial Space. And they have sent for the ships they had besieging the New Terran Republic to back them up. The Donut, the enormous station used to generate the wormholes that are the Empire's major technological edge, is in danger with Cacas aboard, and Imperial troops have been cut off in Fenri space. Despite the setbacks, now is not the time to let up, and the Empire plans a Counter Strike to remove the Cacas from the Empire. The plan is risky, but if it succeeds the fortunes of the war will turn. And if it fails, the Empire will be one step closer to going under.
˃˃˃ The saga continues, as massive Empires war with each other across thousands of light years of space. Scroll up and grab a copy today.469 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 19, 2014
42 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Doug Dandridge
75 books142 followersDoug Dandridge was born in Venice Florida in 1957, the son of a Florida native and a Mother of French Canadian descent. An avid reader from an early age, Doug has read most of the classic novels and shorts of Science Fiction and Fantasy, as well as multiple hundreds of historical works. Doug has military experience including Marine Corps JROTC, Active Duty Army, and the Florida National Guard. He attended Florida State University, studying Biology, Geology, Physics, and Chemistry, and receiving a BS in Psychology. Doug then studied Clinical Psychology at the University of Alabama, with specific interests in Neuropsychology and Child Psychology, completing a Masters and all course work required for a PhD. He has worked in Psychiatric Hospitals, Mental Health Centers, a Prison, a Juvenile Residential Facility, and for the his last seven years in the work force for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Since March of 2013 he has worked as a full time writer. Doug has been writing on and off for fifteen years. He concentrates on intelligent science fiction and fantasy in which there is always hope, no matter how hard the situation. No area of the fantastic is outside his scope, as he has completed works in near and far future Science Fiction, Urban and High Fantasy, Horror, and Alternate History.
Doug has published 34 books on Amazon, with over 230,000 sales with 5,000 reviews averaging 4.6 stars. He will be publishing his first traditionally published book in 2018, followed by the second book of the contracted series. Also in the planning stages are post apocalyptic and alternate history series.
Doug has published 34 books on Amazon, with over 230,000 sales with 5,000 reviews averaging 4.6 stars. He will be publishing his first traditionally published book in 2018, followed by the second book of the contracted series. Also in the planning stages are post apocalyptic and alternate history series.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 13, 2019
Why doesn't the girlfriend just die
By the 16% mark, I almost gave up. Dr. Jennifer realizes that it's insane to be on a warship in the middle of a horrible battle, she could get killed (duh), she also doesn't want her boyfriend to see her being sick, because he loves her Sooo much! She demands a that he promise not to lead the fleet from the front (duh). She demands to get married and make babies as soon as he gets back to the capital.
It's a romance novel climax, that's not written very well. It tries to normalize two moronic characters with the notion that that's what anyone would do. I'll just share the dangers of battle suffered by my millions of sailors because it wouldn't be fair otherwise, is a ridiculous statement. Reading it once was almost enough to drop the series by itself. Reading it dozens of times must be an attempt to drive away readers.
This will be followed by a big, imperial wedding and she should be pregnant by the next morning. That's so truly sad. Social climber makes good, emperor nails down the first woman who doesn't have sex with him against the first available wall and humanity is safe. Aagh! Why is the love thing even in this series.
I'm reading for the aliens, battles (flawed but close), the good secondary characters and the broad universe. Not thrilled by any of the higher level decision making.
By the 16% mark, I almost gave up. Dr. Jennifer realizes that it's insane to be on a warship in the middle of a horrible battle, she could get killed (duh), she also doesn't want her boyfriend to see her being sick, because he loves her Sooo much! She demands a that he promise not to lead the fleet from the front (duh). She demands to get married and make babies as soon as he gets back to the capital.
It's a romance novel climax, that's not written very well. It tries to normalize two moronic characters with the notion that that's what anyone would do. I'll just share the dangers of battle suffered by my millions of sailors because it wouldn't be fair otherwise, is a ridiculous statement. Reading it once was almost enough to drop the series by itself. Reading it dozens of times must be an attempt to drive away readers.
This will be followed by a big, imperial wedding and she should be pregnant by the next morning. That's so truly sad. Social climber makes good, emperor nails down the first woman who doesn't have sex with him against the first available wall and humanity is safe. Aagh! Why is the love thing even in this series.
I'm reading for the aliens, battles (flawed but close), the good secondary characters and the broad universe. Not thrilled by any of the higher level decision making.
January 6, 2020
Enjoyable Story - Terrible Editing
I do enjoy the overall storyline very much. The editing is just atrocious though. Misspelled words, misused words, even some words that are completely missing from some sentences. There are also several thematic items that do not make sense in the logic of this “universe”.
Please have somebody proofread your drafts before publishing, it will tighten them up.
I do enjoy the overall storyline very much. The editing is just atrocious though. Misspelled words, misused words, even some words that are completely missing from some sentences. There are also several thematic items that do not make sense in the logic of this “universe”.
Please have somebody proofread your drafts before publishing, it will tighten them up.
March 10, 2019
I was really hoping that the Empress would die, based on the Emperor's prophetic dreams and the shapeshifter's plans. Ah well, I can always hope she dies after she pops out a kid or two.
I'd really enjoy this story more if it was just about admirals and fights and didn't focus so damned much on the stupid Emperor and Empress. I still like it enough to continue reading, don't get me wrong.
I'd really enjoy this story more if it was just about admirals and fights and didn't focus so damned much on the stupid Emperor and Empress. I still like it enough to continue reading, don't get me wrong.
August 30, 2014
This is a great book, at least for me. It is just my cup of tea. There are space battles, there are ground battles, there are great characters, there are some despicable and not so great characters as well but I will get to that, there is a well written story, there are heroics, there are…well a lot of enjoyable stuff. In short this book really have most, actually everything, that I want in a great space opera.
As with the previous books this one follows more or less seamlessly from the previous book in the series. There are still fighting going on to save the black hole station and the humans are rallying to, as the book blurb states, strike back at the Ca’cadasans. I do not think I am spoiling things too much by saying that I am happy that the situation at the black hole station gets resolved fairly early in the book. After all, if the station would have been lost the war would have been lost and the book series pretty much done with. I also have never liked those infiltration, deception and backstabbing kind of story elements. Clobbertime with capital ships are more my kind of story.
We again get to follow several main characters, including a few from the Ca’cadasan side although the latter ones not in so much detail which I think is the way it should be. Mr. Dandridge’s writing is very good as usual and it is very enjoyable to follow the story and the characters develop whether it is in space or on the ground (although I do prefer the “space stuff”). The emperor himself is not that much at the center of the action any more which is of course logical. You cannot have the head of state run around doing hand to hand combat.
There are some characters, political idiots as well as just idiots, that have snuck in and spoiled a few pages. There are especially one political individual who makes me want to go fast forward a page or two. I really hate characters that will go to such lengths as to obstruct the war effort at a time when the survival of the human race is at stake. Luckily these elements of the plot are sparse and not very intrusive.
Well, as the title states, in this book the humans do counter strike. Although it is not the almighty, roll over the enemy, that one might think. Casualties are high on both sides and, even though the humans manage to more or less kick out the Ca’cadasans from their space, the war is far from over. At the end there is also a plot twist, which I will not divulge of course, which seems to indicate that the series will take a bit of a detour from “just” fighting Ca’cadasans. The exploration expeditions also makes a new alien contact and this one I like a lot more than the one in the previous book. As a matter of fact, this new species looks like it might be just what the doctor ordered against the Ca’cadasans.
The book has, without ending too much in a cliffhanger, set the stage for some interesting books to follow and still it manages to have a decent conclusion to this chapter of the story. I am eagerly waiting for the next instalment in this series.
As with the previous books this one follows more or less seamlessly from the previous book in the series. There are still fighting going on to save the black hole station and the humans are rallying to, as the book blurb states, strike back at the Ca’cadasans. I do not think I am spoiling things too much by saying that I am happy that the situation at the black hole station gets resolved fairly early in the book. After all, if the station would have been lost the war would have been lost and the book series pretty much done with. I also have never liked those infiltration, deception and backstabbing kind of story elements. Clobbertime with capital ships are more my kind of story.
We again get to follow several main characters, including a few from the Ca’cadasan side although the latter ones not in so much detail which I think is the way it should be. Mr. Dandridge’s writing is very good as usual and it is very enjoyable to follow the story and the characters develop whether it is in space or on the ground (although I do prefer the “space stuff”). The emperor himself is not that much at the center of the action any more which is of course logical. You cannot have the head of state run around doing hand to hand combat.
There are some characters, political idiots as well as just idiots, that have snuck in and spoiled a few pages. There are especially one political individual who makes me want to go fast forward a page or two. I really hate characters that will go to such lengths as to obstruct the war effort at a time when the survival of the human race is at stake. Luckily these elements of the plot are sparse and not very intrusive.
Well, as the title states, in this book the humans do counter strike. Although it is not the almighty, roll over the enemy, that one might think. Casualties are high on both sides and, even though the humans manage to more or less kick out the Ca’cadasans from their space, the war is far from over. At the end there is also a plot twist, which I will not divulge of course, which seems to indicate that the series will take a bit of a detour from “just” fighting Ca’cadasans. The exploration expeditions also makes a new alien contact and this one I like a lot more than the one in the previous book. As a matter of fact, this new species looks like it might be just what the doctor ordered against the Ca’cadasans.
The book has, without ending too much in a cliffhanger, set the stage for some interesting books to follow and still it manages to have a decent conclusion to this chapter of the story. I am eagerly waiting for the next instalment in this series.
October 3, 2014
Another excellent continuation of a great story line. This is the seventh book and they are all great reads. I would have given this 5 stars out of 5 but there were just took many typos, words like and instead of an, the instead of they, and so on. While the reading is easy, you find yourself saying, “What was that?” a number of times because the sentence didn’t make sense.
Still, this is the story you’ll want to read. After all this time the Humans and their alien allies have been getting their butts kicked by the Cacas, it’s now time for payback. The Emperor, Sean, is waiting on a double star to supernova which he thinks will cause the Cacas all sorts of problems with tracking ships. He’s gathered a mighty armada and plans to attack the Cacas again after their recent battle in the Congreeve system. He believes that his victories at Congreeve and with the problems created by the supernova, his forces might just be able to drive all the Cacas out of the Terran Empire. But, things don’t always go as planned!
We get to read more about Cornelius Walborski, the Officer Candidate, who seems to always find himself in the middle of desperate action. Now he’s at the “Donut” and the Cacas have a surprise they are about to spring on that installation. If it gets destroyed, the Terran Empire is most likely doomed. I wonder if Walborski is in for another medal?
And then, there’s the supernova which should go off in a couple of months. Should is the operative word. No one controls a supernova. It will happen when it happen. And what happens if it goes off sooner than expected? Can Emperor Sean’s armada manage to get itself together fast enough to conduct the planned attacks?
Lots of fast action and great writing. We get to know more about the people we have read about over the last six books and we finally get to feel good about the war but it does feel kind of anti-climatic. You need to read this book to find out if the outcome was what you expected?
The war isn’t over and I hope there are many more stories in this series.
Still, this is the story you’ll want to read. After all this time the Humans and their alien allies have been getting their butts kicked by the Cacas, it’s now time for payback. The Emperor, Sean, is waiting on a double star to supernova which he thinks will cause the Cacas all sorts of problems with tracking ships. He’s gathered a mighty armada and plans to attack the Cacas again after their recent battle in the Congreeve system. He believes that his victories at Congreeve and with the problems created by the supernova, his forces might just be able to drive all the Cacas out of the Terran Empire. But, things don’t always go as planned!
We get to read more about Cornelius Walborski, the Officer Candidate, who seems to always find himself in the middle of desperate action. Now he’s at the “Donut” and the Cacas have a surprise they are about to spring on that installation. If it gets destroyed, the Terran Empire is most likely doomed. I wonder if Walborski is in for another medal?
And then, there’s the supernova which should go off in a couple of months. Should is the operative word. No one controls a supernova. It will happen when it happen. And what happens if it goes off sooner than expected? Can Emperor Sean’s armada manage to get itself together fast enough to conduct the planned attacks?
Lots of fast action and great writing. We get to know more about the people we have read about over the last six books and we finally get to feel good about the war but it does feel kind of anti-climatic. You need to read this book to find out if the outcome was what you expected?
The war isn’t over and I hope there are many more stories in this series.
April 21, 2015
Space opera at its best.
This series just keeps getting better. The theories that Doug dreams up just fit so well into the story, that you can see them coming to life inside your head. While I love all this, along with the totally epic space battles, what keeps me reading these books is the way Doug develops his characters. They are not just believable, you will find yourself actually caring about them. This is very well done.
While there are a few typo's, they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book in the slightest. It sets a breakneck pace from the first page, and will drag you along until you are left begging for more at the end of the epilogue.
Book eight is at the first draft stage. All I can say is "Hurry up, Mr D!"
This series just keeps getting better. The theories that Doug dreams up just fit so well into the story, that you can see them coming to life inside your head. While I love all this, along with the totally epic space battles, what keeps me reading these books is the way Doug develops his characters. They are not just believable, you will find yourself actually caring about them. This is very well done.
While there are a few typo's, they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book in the slightest. It sets a breakneck pace from the first page, and will drag you along until you are left begging for more at the end of the epilogue.
Book eight is at the first draft stage. All I can say is "Hurry up, Mr D!"
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews