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Ell Donsaii #4
Rocket!
"Rocket!" is the fourth in a series of near future SciFi/Thrillers whose young heroine Ell Donsaii has a nerve mutation which has rendered her a genius and an athletic phenomenon. In “Rocket!” she works out the enormous potential of the wormholes she discovered in "Lieutenant." Though they only provide small openings through space, the wormholes could prove to be a tremendous boon to humankind.
204 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 30, 2012
472 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Laurence E. Dahners
60 books669 followersI was born on the island of Cyprus where my dad was employed as a mining engineer. We moved to the Philippines (more mining) when I was three and then to Arizona when I was 9. I went to med school at the University of Arizona and did a residency in Orthopaedics at the University of Kansas. I taught Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until I retired in 2017.
I've always loved science fiction and it's been great fun getting to write some. I also like music and have a little home recording studio. You can read more, listen to some music and look at some of my art, at http://laury.dahners.com/ if you like.
If you want to contact me, or be put on my email list to be notified when new books come out, just email me at ldahners@gmail.com
Laury Dahners
I've always loved science fiction and it's been great fun getting to write some. I also like music and have a little home recording studio. You can read more, listen to some music and look at some of my art, at http://laury.dahners.com/ if you like.
If you want to contact me, or be put on my email list to be notified when new books come out, just email me at ldahners@gmail.com
Laury Dahners
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
February 20, 2024
Very good!!
August 19, 2017
After reading four books in this series, I think I'm done.
The reason I even got through four is because the story is good, somehow, and feel-good as well. No matter how one-dimensional the characters are, I still root for them, and especially for Ell Donsaii herself, Miss Mary Sue. Good God the characters are boring. And yet I still rated each book 3 stars. The average rating for this series is above 4 stars, impressive for such poorly-written books.
I just wanted to point out how important editing is. A professional editing job could have boosted the quality of this series to a higher caliber, something that isn't just the latest self-publishing phenomenon.
Here's hoping the author figures this out and uses some of the proceeds from this series to create something better next time around. I'll be there to read whatever he's got.
The reason I even got through four is because the story is good, somehow, and feel-good as well. No matter how one-dimensional the characters are, I still root for them, and especially for Ell Donsaii herself, Miss Mary Sue. Good God the characters are boring. And yet I still rated each book 3 stars. The average rating for this series is above 4 stars, impressive for such poorly-written books.
I just wanted to point out how important editing is. A professional editing job could have boosted the quality of this series to a higher caliber, something that isn't just the latest self-publishing phenomenon.
Here's hoping the author figures this out and uses some of the proceeds from this series to create something better next time around. I'll be there to read whatever he's got.
July 16, 2016
These Ell Donsai books are pure fantasy fulfillment via their main character. Ell is gorgeous, sweet, brilliant, preternaturally athletic, basically a perfect human being who hasn't even reached her twentieth birthday. She can win Olympic medals, beat bad guys in hand-to-hand combat, develop revolutionary new math and physics theories that change the world as we know it and make her a billionaire, all while being sweet and self-deprecating around all the men who fall in love with her.
In other words, the stories are totally unrealistic. But when I'm in the mood for purely escapist stories with an unbelievable yet likeable protagonist, these fit the bill.
In other words, the stories are totally unrealistic. But when I'm in the mood for purely escapist stories with an unbelievable yet likeable protagonist, these fit the bill.
March 2, 2021
I haven’t come up with a better term so I will call these books “competency porn” (think Sherlock Holmes and James Bond). I LOVE competency porn so I blew through all the Ell Donsaii books in about two weeks. As a result I’m giving books 1-16 the same review. While these books largely hit my sweet spot, I recognized several imperfection but, before listing those, I want to first say I greatly enjoyed these books and so I encourage anyone who enjoys “competency porn” (I really hate that term) to give them a try.
The first problem is actually kind of a small, yet somewhat annoying: I had read the author’s Vaz series (alos recommended competency porn) immediately before this one. In fact the Ell Donsaii blurb did not make the book sound appealing to me and so I only gave them a try because I liked the Vaz series so much. Unfortunately this resulted in realizing the author re-used story lines. While this is disappointing it only slightly diminished my enjoyment and the Ell series, with its 16 books to Vaz’s 4, quickly moves beyond this issue.
The second problem is the author writes by recipe and that recipe is: Have multiple secondary story lines that remain unresolved at the end of the book to make the reader buy the next book. An example would be a main story line about terraforming Mars accompanied by a side story line about a vaccine. The Mars story will be resolved by the end of the book but the author will also have spent pages setting up a will he/won’t he for a character to secretly try the vaccine. While the author almost universally handles multiple story lines well, in the end I found this approach truly unfortunate as this author is good enough to keep readers coming back without this manipulation. In short, this author’s books would have been much better if treated as stand alones rather than installments.
Finally, from my point of view, the books are short. The three samples I took from the series were: 217, 210 and 210 pages. I view anything under 300 pages as short and prefer books 350 pages or longer. I must admit, however, that I got all of these books for $4 off Amazon so I don’t really feel shorted. Had I seen these books on a shelf in a book store I likely wouldn’t even have picked them up based on how thin they are.
Bottom line: While not perfect, these books are pretty easily worth the read for any lovers of competency porn.
The first problem is actually kind of a small, yet somewhat annoying: I had read the author’s Vaz series (alos recommended competency porn) immediately before this one. In fact the Ell Donsaii blurb did not make the book sound appealing to me and so I only gave them a try because I liked the Vaz series so much. Unfortunately this resulted in realizing the author re-used story lines. While this is disappointing it only slightly diminished my enjoyment and the Ell series, with its 16 books to Vaz’s 4, quickly moves beyond this issue.
The second problem is the author writes by recipe and that recipe is: Have multiple secondary story lines that remain unresolved at the end of the book to make the reader buy the next book. An example would be a main story line about terraforming Mars accompanied by a side story line about a vaccine. The Mars story will be resolved by the end of the book but the author will also have spent pages setting up a will he/won’t he for a character to secretly try the vaccine. While the author almost universally handles multiple story lines well, in the end I found this approach truly unfortunate as this author is good enough to keep readers coming back without this manipulation. In short, this author’s books would have been much better if treated as stand alones rather than installments.
Finally, from my point of view, the books are short. The three samples I took from the series were: 217, 210 and 210 pages. I view anything under 300 pages as short and prefer books 350 pages or longer. I must admit, however, that I got all of these books for $4 off Amazon so I don’t really feel shorted. Had I seen these books on a shelf in a book store I likely wouldn’t even have picked them up based on how thin they are.
Bottom line: While not perfect, these books are pretty easily worth the read for any lovers of competency porn.
July 4, 2021
Dahners, Laurence E. Rocket! Ell Donsaii No. 4. Kindle, 2012.
Ell, now out of the Air Force, founds a company in the Research Triangle Park near Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Her work in quantum communication has led to the discovery of wormholes that make rockets lighter, cheaper, and much more efficient. In fact, she can safely launch small rockets to orbit from the parking lot of her lab. Dahner’s technological inventiveness is even better than usual in this book. I especially like that he explores not only the possibilities but also the limitations of Ell’s gadgets. Dahners writes to a very tight formula, so if you have read any of his science fiction, nothing here will surprise you. But you should be entertained. 4 stars.
Ell, now out of the Air Force, founds a company in the Research Triangle Park near Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Her work in quantum communication has led to the discovery of wormholes that make rockets lighter, cheaper, and much more efficient. In fact, she can safely launch small rockets to orbit from the parking lot of her lab. Dahner’s technological inventiveness is even better than usual in this book. I especially like that he explores not only the possibilities but also the limitations of Ell’s gadgets. Dahners writes to a very tight formula, so if you have read any of his science fiction, nothing here will surprise you. But you should be entertained. 4 stars.
April 6, 2020
Still a fun good series, but too many quick edits.
I still enjoyed this book almost as much as the last but there are things that I noticed that I did not care for. There are too many quick edits and changes of scenery without resolutions. Such as the executive of the aerospace company at the White House his dastardly deed’s were undone then the story change scenery without any resolution except that he was going to get arrested there was no drama. We have to assume that the board dismissed him right then and there but it would’ve been good to have read that portion and seeing the boards dismissal of him. That is my only gripe. Good series.
I still enjoyed this book almost as much as the last but there are things that I noticed that I did not care for. There are too many quick edits and changes of scenery without resolutions. Such as the executive of the aerospace company at the White House his dastardly deed’s were undone then the story change scenery without any resolution except that he was going to get arrested there was no drama. We have to assume that the board dismissed him right then and there but it would’ve been good to have read that portion and seeing the boards dismissal of him. That is my only gripe. Good series.
May 28, 2020
Awesome!
Rocket is only the fourth story in the Ell Donsaii series that I have read so it is a bit early to comment on the series. I am waiting to see if Dahners, in his wisdom, addresses my thoughts later. Among my thoughts are the "fifth dimension" is an unknown entity, could there be dangers of any kind? Also, why call it "fifth" as there are only three dimensions, length, width, and depth. I suspect Dahners counts "time" as a dimension. All in all a tremendous story and I understand why El Donsaii is so popular. His approach by first asking, "What if?" and making a story around THAT speculation is amazing and fun.
Rocket is only the fourth story in the Ell Donsaii series that I have read so it is a bit early to comment on the series. I am waiting to see if Dahners, in his wisdom, addresses my thoughts later. Among my thoughts are the "fifth dimension" is an unknown entity, could there be dangers of any kind? Also, why call it "fifth" as there are only three dimensions, length, width, and depth. I suspect Dahners counts "time" as a dimension. All in all a tremendous story and I understand why El Donsaii is so popular. His approach by first asking, "What if?" and making a story around THAT speculation is amazing and fun.
July 31, 2019
I have just discovered this series of books by Laurence E. Dahners (the Ell Donsaii Series). I have read the first four books and I can say that I loved each one of them! The main character, Ell Donsaii, is fantastically real in the way she acts and thinks, and the other characters in the series (so far) are equally complex and well developed. I just wish I had found this series before the author had written fifteen (!) books for the series.
July 17, 2017
Another great book from Lauren's Dahners
Another Great book but with issues: it looks like author does NOT aware that, at least right now, regular civilian GPS unit will not work at high altitudes and/or on fast moving object due to CoCom-imposed hardware limitations (so either they use their own fabricated GPS chips or running SDR on main CPU)
Another Great book but with issues: it looks like author does NOT aware that, at least right now, regular civilian GPS unit will not work at high altitudes and/or on fast moving object due to CoCom-imposed hardware limitations (so either they use their own fabricated GPS chips or running SDR on main CPU)
December 16, 2020
Awesome again
3rd re read. And still a lot of fun.LO returns get another industry with her port technology and of course saves the day. Par for the course with these books but enjoy it. Always fun to figure out what new technologies can do for society and the changes in industry that they represent. Good news is 1 books left in this series for more re reading.
3rd re read. And still a lot of fun.LO returns get another industry with her port technology and of course saves the day. Par for the course with these books but enjoy it. Always fun to figure out what new technologies can do for society and the changes in industry that they represent. Good news is 1 books left in this series for more re reading.
January 17, 2021
Good science!
Science was reasonable, it should be invented tomorrow. This is another example of "what if" science fiction. You can be sure, if people are involved, someone is gonna be greedy and screw it up for everyone. That's why socialism and communism won't work, each needs "perfect people" to function as planned. News flash idiots, people are not perfect!
Science was reasonable, it should be invented tomorrow. This is another example of "what if" science fiction. You can be sure, if people are involved, someone is gonna be greedy and screw it up for everyone. That's why socialism and communism won't work, each needs "perfect people" to function as planned. News flash idiots, people are not perfect!
August 22, 2021
I think the number of attempted kidnappings is excessive. A good follow-up to the last one, but it lacks a lot of depth and detail that one would expect from such an astonishing technological discovery. These novels are more of a guilty pleasure/indulgence though, rather than a detailed novel of the significance of such a monumental discovery. And the novel delivers on the indulgence.
February 20, 2022
Awesome
Undoubtedly this is another really fun and exciting addition to the series overall. I really enjoyed how this book expanded on her earlier scientific concepts, and started an expedition to a new frontier, the last frontier! Like I said previously, if you wanna joyed the previous books, you should have fun with this one.
Undoubtedly this is another really fun and exciting addition to the series overall. I really enjoyed how this book expanded on her earlier scientific concepts, and started an expedition to a new frontier, the last frontier! Like I said previously, if you wanna joyed the previous books, you should have fun with this one.
October 27, 2023
Great ending
Working out the implications of her fifth dimension discovery. Well done -- answers don't come easily and the authors scientific mumbo jumbo is well done. The bad guys are surprisingly easy to be foiled. Nice growth of the main character. What's not to like -- five stars!!😀
Working out the implications of her fifth dimension discovery. Well done -- answers don't come easily and the authors scientific mumbo jumbo is well done. The bad guys are surprisingly easy to be foiled. Nice growth of the main character. What's not to like -- five stars!!😀
January 1, 2024
Fantastic Series
This is the 4th book that I have completed in about 3 days. (Had to get some work done as well.) I cannot say how great full I am that we have writes that are able to keep readers so enthralled. It is simply an enjoyable series that I cannot wait to start on the next book in the series. Go out and start reading. You will not be disappointed. D
This is the 4th book that I have completed in about 3 days. (Had to get some work done as well.) I cannot say how great full I am that we have writes that are able to keep readers so enthralled. It is simply an enjoyable series that I cannot wait to start on the next book in the series. Go out and start reading. You will not be disappointed. D
March 26, 2024
Extremely fun and enjoyable series!!!!!
Congratulations to Lawrence Dahners for this amazing series. It’s hard to find such an interesting and exciting author who not only writes intelligently but also provides top rated plots, characters and excitement in the stories. I’m really looking forward to the next book.
Congratulations to Lawrence Dahners for this amazing series. It’s hard to find such an interesting and exciting author who not only writes intelligently but also provides top rated plots, characters and excitement in the stories. I’m really looking forward to the next book.
March 29, 2025
Using $10 words!
maven of microconstruction should read expert (in or) of microconstruction. I will probably forget maven and will most likely never use except like here to point out its not a word you will probably never see again or ever use. So why use words like this in books? I love the story line and just download the next in the series. Keep up the great writing.
maven of microconstruction should read expert (in or) of microconstruction. I will probably forget maven and will most likely never use except like here to point out its not a word you will probably never see again or ever use. So why use words like this in books? I love the story line and just download the next in the series. Keep up the great writing.
October 16, 2017
Out of this world!
Once again we get to meet Ell an engaging and caring heroine, who loves weird science! The story does a great job of explaining the science, but beyond that it's just a heck of a good story!!
Once again we get to meet Ell an engaging and caring heroine, who loves weird science! The story does a great job of explaining the science, but beyond that it's just a heck of a good story!!
June 24, 2020
Very hard scifi
A lot of the speculative science used in this book actually has a very strong foundation in daily life, not just in theory. Kind of surprising to see that what hinders us is not science but greed.
A lot of the speculative science used in this book actually has a very strong foundation in daily life, not just in theory. Kind of surprising to see that what hinders us is not science but greed.
October 29, 2021
Well worth reading, lots of fun…
A charming series with some interesting ideas, great characters and a definite ‘feel good factor’. I’ve found this an easy series to binge read.
Highly recommended!
A charming series with some interesting ideas, great characters and a definite ‘feel good factor’. I’ve found this an easy series to binge read.
Highly recommended!
August 25, 2023
Easy read for all.
This book kept my attention from start to end. After I finished the second book in the series I purchased the whole 17 book series. It reminds me of the science fiction that I read in the 60 s and 70 s.
This book kept my attention from start to end. After I finished the second book in the series I purchased the whole 17 book series. It reminds me of the science fiction that I read in the 60 s and 70 s.
December 11, 2023
This series continues to captivate me.
Book 4 of the Ell Donsaii series by Laurence Dahners continues to entertain. The development of the characters is really genuine and polished. The storyline continues with engaging imagination. I’m off to the next book right now.
Book 4 of the Ell Donsaii series by Laurence Dahners continues to entertain. The development of the characters is really genuine and polished. The storyline continues with engaging imagination. I’m off to the next book right now.
January 7, 2024
I’m geeking out on the science and loving the story
I have nowhere near enough education to understand most of the science speak in this series, but I’m loving it!!! The characters are unique and I love the integrity of our heroine.
I have nowhere near enough education to understand most of the science speak in this series, but I’m loving it!!! The characters are unique and I love the integrity of our heroine.
October 15, 2024
Ell does "it" again
Fun read. Thinking out-of-the-box is required. Reading these stories satisfies my super-hero wanna-be wishes. You don't need to be a tech-nerd to enjoy these stories.
Fun read. Thinking out-of-the-box is required. Reading these stories satisfies my super-hero wanna-be wishes. You don't need to be a tech-nerd to enjoy these stories.
October 3, 2017
Very good adventure - I like the idea of experiencing where science might go into an overall positive future.
January 28, 2018
Another great story
Back in the world of Eli Donsaii to explore 5th dimension teleportation. Good guys, bad guys, genius physics equals great story.
Back in the world of Eli Donsaii to explore 5th dimension teleportation. Good guys, bad guys, genius physics equals great story.
January 31, 2018
too short
quicker than previius
quicker than previius
May 13, 2019
Book 4 - Yay!
Ditto the good reviews.
Amazon reviews = author perks.
No reviews = no perks.
Dahners deserves plentiful perks.
20 words.
Ditto the good reviews.
Amazon reviews = author perks.
No reviews = no perks.
Dahners deserves plentiful perks.
20 words.
December 7, 2019
Had me laughing
Gear story and probably my favorite so far. Really enjoying the series and all the tech.
I never been a reader and my wife is amazed that I am done with book 4!
Gear story and probably my favorite so far. Really enjoying the series and all the tech.
I never been a reader and my wife is amazed that I am done with book 4!
December 31, 2019
This author writes reliably well and his books are always fun to read, if you enjoy his style :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews