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Exodus: Empires at War #8
Soldiers
The Cacas have been kicked out of the Empire and Republic, but New Moscow is still at risk.
Less than a billion of the original fifty billion population are left, and they are being turned into rations for the Conquerors.
Sean and the Alliance Fleet have ejected the Ca'cadasans from the territory of the New Terran Empire and the New Terran Republic. But the deadly aliens remain in the space of the Kingdom of New Moscow. Centuries before the people of the Czar emigrated from Republic space, setting themselves up hundreds of light years from the borders of the two larger polities. They have paid for that mistake, the Cacas rolling over them and almost obliterating their population. Now the large aliens are processing the survivors of New Moscow to feed their own forces, a genocide such as this sector of the Galaxy has never before seen.
Sean has ordered that the people of New Moscow will not go into the night. A plan has been formulated to take the planets where the prisoners are housed away from the Cacas and rescue the civilians. Plans are great, but only the Soldiers, Marines and Spacers of the Alliance can make the plan a reality. Soldiers like Samuel Baggett and Cornelius Walborski, Spacers like Bryce Suttler and Len Lenkowski. Men and women willing to put their lives on the line to save the innocent. Will their courage be enough to stop the genocide of the people of New Moscow.
Less than a billion of the original fifty billion population are left, and they are being turned into rations for the Conquerors.
Sean and the Alliance Fleet have ejected the Ca'cadasans from the territory of the New Terran Empire and the New Terran Republic. But the deadly aliens remain in the space of the Kingdom of New Moscow. Centuries before the people of the Czar emigrated from Republic space, setting themselves up hundreds of light years from the borders of the two larger polities. They have paid for that mistake, the Cacas rolling over them and almost obliterating their population. Now the large aliens are processing the survivors of New Moscow to feed their own forces, a genocide such as this sector of the Galaxy has never before seen.
Sean has ordered that the people of New Moscow will not go into the night. A plan has been formulated to take the planets where the prisoners are housed away from the Cacas and rescue the civilians. Plans are great, but only the Soldiers, Marines and Spacers of the Alliance can make the plan a reality. Soldiers like Samuel Baggett and Cornelius Walborski, Spacers like Bryce Suttler and Len Lenkowski. Men and women willing to put their lives on the line to save the innocent. Will their courage be enough to stop the genocide of the people of New Moscow.
371 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 14, 2015
44 people are currently reading
63 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 14, 2019
Bleh
Editing and dialogue are as usual, a little shaky. The bad aliens eat people after starving them. Eating intelligent beings is gross, starving them first is just stupid. It has to be the cheapest way (thought wise) to utterly label the bad aliens (evil).
The small human polities aren't very effective in war or peace, it seems. Their purpose is apparently to act as place holders, until the empire gets around to expanding through and around them. The benevolent empire, which has never in the series been convincingly presented as benevolent, doesn't have much social cred left at this point. The small human empires are advance scouts for the march of humanity, it seems. This aspect and others of the empire must be modeled on the U.S. manifest destiny crap. The U.S. was barely a country and by thirty years in, the ruling cliques were dreaming of occupying all of North America, while controlling South America and the Caribbean. Sounds like the New Terran Empire doesn't it? The new terrans had never lost a war? That's hard to believe with such lack of attention to planning (economic, military or social), internal and external security, diplomacy or a myriad other imperial necessities.
No quick communication wormholes were shared with either of the small human kingdoms (that's what they are, after all). Level VII propulsion was not shared with these allies, why?
The fleets have been getting bigger and bigger with each volume. The writer has succumbed to naval inflation, which is the attempt to portray the scale of multisystem naval warfare, while masking the writer's inability to visualize such a backdrop. At a certain point, it reads as crazy silly. The naval personnel has to be hundreds of millions, which would fit but they manage to stay shorthanded, it seems.
What's up with tramp freighters? Why no convoy requirement? If a ship sails off by itself, when it enters any system, it should be searched, boarded and kept a distance from any station, planet or installation, shouldn't it? If your economic system forces merchant crews to take those kind of chances, maybe you need to write a different kind of economic framework.
There's the usual, disregard of intuition, assumptions of human intellectual superiority, general complacency that clashes with what we are told is a war of extermination. No one has even bothered to inform the citizens, that the new enemies are the dreaded old enemies and by the way, they eat people. That would get a lot of people on board with the war effort (even the nobility).
The aliens are starting to lose their lustre and humans are getting more stupid by the chapter. The series is close to a one star at this point.
Editing and dialogue are as usual, a little shaky. The bad aliens eat people after starving them. Eating intelligent beings is gross, starving them first is just stupid. It has to be the cheapest way (thought wise) to utterly label the bad aliens (evil).
The small human polities aren't very effective in war or peace, it seems. Their purpose is apparently to act as place holders, until the empire gets around to expanding through and around them. The benevolent empire, which has never in the series been convincingly presented as benevolent, doesn't have much social cred left at this point. The small human empires are advance scouts for the march of humanity, it seems. This aspect and others of the empire must be modeled on the U.S. manifest destiny crap. The U.S. was barely a country and by thirty years in, the ruling cliques were dreaming of occupying all of North America, while controlling South America and the Caribbean. Sounds like the New Terran Empire doesn't it? The new terrans had never lost a war? That's hard to believe with such lack of attention to planning (economic, military or social), internal and external security, diplomacy or a myriad other imperial necessities.
No quick communication wormholes were shared with either of the small human kingdoms (that's what they are, after all). Level VII propulsion was not shared with these allies, why?
The fleets have been getting bigger and bigger with each volume. The writer has succumbed to naval inflation, which is the attempt to portray the scale of multisystem naval warfare, while masking the writer's inability to visualize such a backdrop. At a certain point, it reads as crazy silly. The naval personnel has to be hundreds of millions, which would fit but they manage to stay shorthanded, it seems.
What's up with tramp freighters? Why no convoy requirement? If a ship sails off by itself, when it enters any system, it should be searched, boarded and kept a distance from any station, planet or installation, shouldn't it? If your economic system forces merchant crews to take those kind of chances, maybe you need to write a different kind of economic framework.
There's the usual, disregard of intuition, assumptions of human intellectual superiority, general complacency that clashes with what we are told is a war of extermination. No one has even bothered to inform the citizens, that the new enemies are the dreaded old enemies and by the way, they eat people. That would get a lot of people on board with the war effort (even the nobility).
The aliens are starting to lose their lustre and humans are getting more stupid by the chapter. The series is close to a one star at this point.
November 4, 2018
Alot going on
At this point in the story there is a lot going on. The Empire space is cleared, the rescue of new Moscow, the activity at the bolt, and the contact with the alien race on the other side of the Galaxy fighting the same enemy. The story gets deeper but it also gets more complicated to follow. That's why the four stars. On to the next book.
At this point in the story there is a lot going on. The Empire space is cleared, the rescue of new Moscow, the activity at the bolt, and the contact with the alien race on the other side of the Galaxy fighting the same enemy. The story gets deeper but it also gets more complicated to follow. That's why the four stars. On to the next book.
December 16, 2018
Another Great Read
I find the story and the action make this book hard to put down until I have finished it. There are many twists and turns just like in real life. Very believable characters. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.
I find the story and the action make this book hard to put down until I have finished it. There are many twists and turns just like in real life. Very believable characters. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.
June 2, 2015
The books in the Empires at War series is really my cup of tea to begin with so it is perhaps not so surprising that I liked this book. However, just because a story itself aligns itself well with my favorite type of stories does not mean that it is a good story. In this case, as have been the case with the other books in this series, it is indeed a good story. Actually, as far as I am concerned it is a great story.
When I saw the name of this book I was a bit hesitant. I thought it would be somewhat of a side story focusing on some limited (limited compared to the big picture at least) conflict confined to the surface of some planet. The book can be considered as a bit of a side story but apart from that, wow was I wrong. Actually, having read it I am not sure whether there is more dirt side action or more space action. Since I have a preference for the latter I kind of notice that more than the other. It is definitely a good mix and whether your preference is for one or the other you will not be disappointed.
The nasty Cacas are getting quite a bit of a pounding in this book. I remember a few books back when I started to get a bit weary of the humans getting clobbered all the time. Well the last couple of books have rather made up for that little gripe. It is not exactly like the Empire is effortlessly wiping the floor with the Cacas (that would be rather unrealistic would it not?) but they are certainly getting a fair share of surprises and a good clobbering.
At this point of this post I would say that it would be somewhat superfluous to write that the book is well written but I will write it anyway. The book is really well written! The characters are as enjoyable to follow as ever. The action (combat) is really well done and quite realistic (within the realms of science fiction of course).
Are there any snakes in this paradise then? Well there is. There is a particularly nasty, self centred, egoistic bastard politician. Luckily said politicians is kept on a short leash (for now) but there are a few hints that this will cause future problems and, as anyone who has read more of my reviews knows, I just hate politician garbage. Having vented that piece of frustration I have to say that, luckily, these parts of the story are fairly brief (for now) and do not distract too much from the overall picture.
The book ends in a generally satisfactory way although Mr Dandridge does throw in a bit of a vague cliffhanger at the end. I hate it when a story ends in mid leap and happily this is not the case here. Said cliffhanger is more of a teaser bone for the next instalment. I am afraid that he succeeded. Now I am dying to know what these “people” fighting the Cacas on the other end of the Caca empire actually are.
Many book series that “drag on” for half a dozen or more episode have a tendency to get stale after a while. Let me, with emphasize, state that this is not the case with this one. Right now I am hoping that this series will never end. That is of course quite unrealistic since, at some point in time, the series will have outstayed its welcome if it does not advance towards some conclusion but today this is how I feel.
When I saw the name of this book I was a bit hesitant. I thought it would be somewhat of a side story focusing on some limited (limited compared to the big picture at least) conflict confined to the surface of some planet. The book can be considered as a bit of a side story but apart from that, wow was I wrong. Actually, having read it I am not sure whether there is more dirt side action or more space action. Since I have a preference for the latter I kind of notice that more than the other. It is definitely a good mix and whether your preference is for one or the other you will not be disappointed.
The nasty Cacas are getting quite a bit of a pounding in this book. I remember a few books back when I started to get a bit weary of the humans getting clobbered all the time. Well the last couple of books have rather made up for that little gripe. It is not exactly like the Empire is effortlessly wiping the floor with the Cacas (that would be rather unrealistic would it not?) but they are certainly getting a fair share of surprises and a good clobbering.
At this point of this post I would say that it would be somewhat superfluous to write that the book is well written but I will write it anyway. The book is really well written! The characters are as enjoyable to follow as ever. The action (combat) is really well done and quite realistic (within the realms of science fiction of course).
Are there any snakes in this paradise then? Well there is. There is a particularly nasty, self centred, egoistic bastard politician. Luckily said politicians is kept on a short leash (for now) but there are a few hints that this will cause future problems and, as anyone who has read more of my reviews knows, I just hate politician garbage. Having vented that piece of frustration I have to say that, luckily, these parts of the story are fairly brief (for now) and do not distract too much from the overall picture.
The book ends in a generally satisfactory way although Mr Dandridge does throw in a bit of a vague cliffhanger at the end. I hate it when a story ends in mid leap and happily this is not the case here. Said cliffhanger is more of a teaser bone for the next instalment. I am afraid that he succeeded. Now I am dying to know what these “people” fighting the Cacas on the other end of the Caca empire actually are.
Many book series that “drag on” for half a dozen or more episode have a tendency to get stale after a while. Let me, with emphasize, state that this is not the case with this one. Right now I am hoping that this series will never end. That is of course quite unrealistic since, at some point in time, the series will have outstayed its welcome if it does not advance towards some conclusion but today this is how I feel.
July 4, 2015
Missiles, missiles and more missiles. That’s about all this book is about. The Empire under Sean the First has finally driven the Casa’s out of Empire territory, but they know the Cacas are going to mass for a counterattack someday in the future. Also, Sean knows that he’s going to have to take this fight to the Caca’s home world before it’s over. I tend to agree. Any enemy that wants to eat you has to be completely eradicated.
The Empire has found out that the Cacas have captured the last planet they passed by on their retreat. That planet happens to be New Moscow and it has about seven hundred million people still on it. This planet wasn’t exactly part of the Empire. They were going it alone and as such didn’t have the ships necessary to evacuate their entire population. So, when the Cacas came, most of the population was still on the planet. As I mentioned earlier, the Cacas eat humans. It’s a delicacy for them. And, they eat a lot. Now they have over 700,000,000 humans corralled in camps all over the planet New Moscow and they are processing them through their food processing plants as fast as they can.
Sean and the Empire isn’t going to stand by while the Cacas eat that many humans even if they are not directly his subjects. He tells his military staff to plan on getting those people rescued, not to attack the planet and get everyone killed, but safely rescue seven hundred million people. It’s obviously going to be a very tough job and it’s going to cost a lot of lives. Any type of rescue will involve soldiers on the ground fighting for the defenseless humans.
So, how does the Empire plan to pull this off? That’s what the book is about. You’ll have to read it to get the details. I’ll admit, there was a lot of space battles involving missiles, so much so that I got tired of reading how many missiles were coming towards which group of starships. I must be missing something because I don’t understand how missiles fired days away can still hit a target that may or may not be where it was aimed. The battles do get confusing. Nobody in this book is a hero but you do have a cast of characters from the previous books which is what I like.
And another point I’ll make, this battle doesn’t seem to end in this book. I felt it abruptly shut down there at the end for some reason. I hope the next book comes out soon because there are a lot of lose ends with this one.
The Empire has found out that the Cacas have captured the last planet they passed by on their retreat. That planet happens to be New Moscow and it has about seven hundred million people still on it. This planet wasn’t exactly part of the Empire. They were going it alone and as such didn’t have the ships necessary to evacuate their entire population. So, when the Cacas came, most of the population was still on the planet. As I mentioned earlier, the Cacas eat humans. It’s a delicacy for them. And, they eat a lot. Now they have over 700,000,000 humans corralled in camps all over the planet New Moscow and they are processing them through their food processing plants as fast as they can.
Sean and the Empire isn’t going to stand by while the Cacas eat that many humans even if they are not directly his subjects. He tells his military staff to plan on getting those people rescued, not to attack the planet and get everyone killed, but safely rescue seven hundred million people. It’s obviously going to be a very tough job and it’s going to cost a lot of lives. Any type of rescue will involve soldiers on the ground fighting for the defenseless humans.
So, how does the Empire plan to pull this off? That’s what the book is about. You’ll have to read it to get the details. I’ll admit, there was a lot of space battles involving missiles, so much so that I got tired of reading how many missiles were coming towards which group of starships. I must be missing something because I don’t understand how missiles fired days away can still hit a target that may or may not be where it was aimed. The battles do get confusing. Nobody in this book is a hero but you do have a cast of characters from the previous books which is what I like.
And another point I’ll make, this battle doesn’t seem to end in this book. I felt it abruptly shut down there at the end for some reason. I hope the next book comes out soon because there are a lot of lose ends with this one.
February 10, 2025
Curse you and your love of vague cliffhangers Dandridge! I really enjoyed the book before this and whilst the cliffhanger on that one hasn't turned out to be much of anything YET, I feel that this will be different. I've waited longer than I expected for this to come out as Dandridge has been working on other things but this book was worth the wait. All the key characters I've come to love all make valuable contributions to the story and I feel that this series just goes from strength to strength. The only niggle I had with this book is the name of one of the characters, Stella Artois. I feel sorry for a woman named for one of Europe's most famous beers.
June 8, 2015
Great story...
Even after 8 books, the story keeps getting better and better. On a technical note, the editing has improved considerably from the last book, but there are still far too many errors, whether they are typos or using "an" instead of "and".
Even after 8 books, the story keeps getting better and better. On a technical note, the editing has improved considerably from the last book, but there are still far too many errors, whether they are typos or using "an" instead of "and".
June 29, 2015
Another quality entry in the Exodus: Empires at War series by Doug Dandridge. He did not disappoint with this entry in the series. I devoured this in one day...now I am waiting for the NEXT one to come out.
June 28, 2015
Excellent
Very nice continuation of this addictive space opera on to its seventh episode. I just wish he'd pursue this trail more than a hundred other things he keeps writing on and produce the eighth one really fast.
Very nice continuation of this addictive space opera on to its seventh episode. I just wish he'd pursue this trail more than a hundred other things he keeps writing on and produce the eighth one really fast.
May 23, 2015
Fantastic but the ending aaaaaaagh next book better be soon
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2015
Awesome!
Great book continues to keep you interested! Plot moves fast with an unerring ability to tell a great story, looking forward to to the next one!
Great book continues to keep you interested! Plot moves fast with an unerring ability to tell a great story, looking forward to to the next one!
June 3, 2015
started out a little slow ended great!!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews