Gravity Wars: Extinction Orbit

by Vaughn Heppner

There are no light sabers, telepathy or warp drives here. No hyperspace or jump points, either, just the hardest science we know to show how space war might really take place.

This is the genocide campaign. Chief Marshal Assur wants it all, victory over Earth and immorality for the Valiants.

The plan is brutally simple. Some call it the Dinosaur Initiative. Crash three asteroids into the planet, wiping out the human race the way most of the king dinosaurs perished eons ago.

The Valiants will guide the powered asteroids all the way to Earth with their new and improved fleet.

Those of Earth must put aside their differences and build a fleet big enough to challenge the Valiants and stop the asteroids. If they fail, it’s game over for the human race.

The plans are the fighting will be everything.

EXTINCTION ORBIT is the fourth book in the GRAVITY WARS series, written by bestselling author Vaughn Heppner.

365 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 7, 2024

About the author

You can visit Vaughn at www.vaughnheppner.com

I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine.

I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.

Reviews

[Dane T Randel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel dumber after reading this series and can’t understand why I made it through aside from that it went fast because it is utterly unchallenging. Spoilers ahead, but the story is so predictable that I’m not sure it matters. The premise is bland, with the ‘aliens’ being *gasp* human, a fact that is drummed in from the first book on but not really delved into with any depth. Even when the author wrote in revelatory discoveries that would shine light on the ancient shared ancestry of Earthers and Valiants, he failed in hundreds of tedious pages to expand on those discoveries or to go into the minds of any of his characters when they hear of them, rather choosing to jump to their conclusion without question. Then the Valiant peacenik that wants to make it all public knowledge waits until the very end of the climactic battle to make her entrance, and I guess we’re to just assume that if she does that the massive militaries will just stop on a dime and embrace one another as brothers?

In addition to the story being weak, the author has a tendency to repeat pieces of exposition verbatim over and over (‘she was ruthless, cunning, and brilliant’ for example, or making sure we’re aware of the physical stature of characters through incessant mention of it like it somehow really tells us something about them that it didn’t last time we found out they’re muscular, or short, or tall) rather than showing through the story how the character embodies those characteristics. I think the whole series could have been half its length if he had cut out all the endless repetition of exposition, and this in particular made it feel like the author was writing down to his audience, like they can’t keep track of the skeletal details that make up his characters for more than five pages at a time.

The characters were universally uninteresting and lacking depth. Probably the most fleshed out character, John Steele, is still just an archetypal ‘God, guns, and country’ guy who has to fight because his woman and kids are counting on him and the character is repeated three times just with different first names. I guess we’re to be inspired by his consistency across generations and centuries, but it really just felt like a lazy way to make a vague endorsement of traditional masculine values without building them into a character that had any nuance whatsoever. Other characters just never really develop aside from really interesting stuff like getting a bit flabbier with age, and when they actually do experience a change of heart like Naram Sin toward the end of the book there is little that builds and helps the reader understand why he goes from honest to a fault to a bastard well in line with the bastards he’s spent the rest of the series detesting.

All in all, just avoid it, there are plenty of good books out there with authors in invested in more than just churning out drivel.

[James K Cookmeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting use of the current technology. It's very similar to Jules Vern.

I really liked the extrapolated look into the possibilities for future technologies.
The consideration of a more advanced civilization prior to our current is something I have believed for some time. There may have been multiple civilizations even prior to the dinosaurs.

[James Mount · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Series!

Story line is fast paced and exciting. This is one of the best sci fi authors and look forward to more books from him!

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

End of fourth volume of serial

I enjoy the series
The series resolved with a satisfying conclusion
However there is a potential for the story to return
Let’s see

[Rick Waldeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Lee-sa Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Would absolutely love the series to continue. It definitely played out the way I believe it would in reality. Greed and glory being the downfall of alien and humans.

[Mr P Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this conclusion(?) to the series. If it was to continue I’d want to see integration of the aliens and prep for a vim invasion.

[rnagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful!

This book was well written with a satisfying conclusion to the Gravity Wars series! Thank you, Vaughn Heppner for an entertaining and imaginative tale!