Empires: The First Battle

by Gavin Deas

Two alien invasions. Two heroes. One Story. Collects EXTRACTION and INFILTRATION in one volume!This groundbreaking collaboration between two Gollancz authors tells of the invasion of Earth by two different alien races - at the same time. Two men become aware of the threat, and must work to sabotage the invasion plans and see off the aliens.Each book follows one hero, uncovering the threat to humanity and the world from their point of view. Each book can be read on its own, and will give the reader a complete, kinetic, fast-paced military SF story. But read both books and the reader gets something else - another view of (some of) the same events and crossover points, culminating in a bloody battle at Canary Wharf.The two books can be read in any order, but together they tell the story of humanity caught in the crossfire between two deadly alien races, who have made Earth their battleground...

688 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 13, 2014

Reviews

[Sontaranpr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two stories seen from two different PoV running somewhat concurrently involving a lot of the same people. Earth is being invaded by the Pleasure. Hyper advanced aliens who let you corrupt yourself till you give them everything they want. They work through politicians, the media, celebrities to change the population's mindset to further their goals. A slow game but far less messy than turning up and going all Close Encounters of the Violent Kind. Nothing we have would even be considered a joke against them if they did but it's just not good business. Then these aliens discover another race is already on Earth and has been so for centuries. They're an unknown and if it's one thing the pleasure doesn't like it's competition.

Unfortunately the story doesn't end as much as just stop. Both stories end with Mars exploding so at least big booms. A proof of concept rather than a complete plot arc. The technobabble is amusing without going to far in depth trying to explain the wizz bangs and booms.

I'd like to read more to see where this would all end up.