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Exodus: Empires at War #12
Time Strike
The New Terran Empire is still trying to recover from the Ca’cadasan strike that left over three hundred million dead and ripped the heart out of the ship production of Central Docks. The Donut, the huge station in orbit around the Supersystem black hole, was almost destroyed in that strike, and its defenses have been strengthened considerably.
That Caca strike didn’t do all they had wanted, but it had hurt the Empire’s war making capabilities.
The Ca’cadasans are at it again, with a two-pronged attack on the Empire. Sean has to decide, and quickly, how his fleet is to counter this move. The fleet, short of resources, could use the almost thousand ships destroyed and damaged in the enemy strike. And Sean would give his soul to get his heir, killed in the Caca strike, back. The lure of changing time, something he learns is very possible, beckons. Despite the warning that time travel was the undoing of the Ancients who had once ruled his sector of space. But the Ancients are not extinct, and they will do whatever they can to prevent the humans from disrupting the time stream and destroying their own race. Even if it means destroying the one weapon the humans have that might win their war of extermination against the Ca’cadasan Empire. They will try to prevent the Time Strike with their last resources, with their lives.
380 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2017
77 people are currently reading
26 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
October 6, 2017
Wow! This was a quick read. Probably because it was very exciting. In this one, we’re mostly seeing the New Terrain Empire fighting off a major offensive from the Ca’cadasans. After the Ca’cas devastating strike against several of our key strategic locations, the New Terrains are just barely starting to recover. The New Terrain Empire lost a lot of ships when the Central Docks were almost destroyed. Many of those ships were in for repairs along with others that were brand new or almost finished. Repairs were underway at the capital as well as at the Donut. Fortunately, the Donut is repairable and can continue making wormholes as before.
Still, the loss of the heir to the Throne, Augustine, has put the royal family in a terrible, but understandable mood. While we know the tiny baby wasn’t killed, we don’t know who did it or why. In this book, that all becomes clearly apparent. And yes, it involves Time Travel!
Time travel has been eluded to in previous books, but it’s also brought up the disappearance of a previous ancient civilization that was thought to have been very advanced. They too had reached a point where time travel was something they were tinkering with when suddenly their civilization ceased to exist. It was thought that messing with time travel and the timeline was the cause of that civilizations demise and any effort to develop something along these lines were met with skepticism. Still, one New Terrain scientist had written papers about developing a time travel method, but he was dismissed from his position and thought insane.
So, if one of Emperor Sean’s subjects does come up with a method of going back in time, will he or should he even use it? It could save billions of his subjects and reverse the recent devastation that his home world had just experienced. And secondly, would his military leaders even let him tinker with time. Many were much older than Sean and had lived with the stories of how forbidden it was to mess with time travel that they just might have to do something if this young emperor got off on the wrong track.
But, now the Ca’cas were attacking again on three different fronts. We just barely enough ships to manage one fight, the other areas were required to conducting holding and delaying tactics until more ships could be brought to them. With the judicious use of wormholes, these battle groups could do the job, but they needed to be reinforced almost immediately. So now all the new technology the New Terrains have developed gets put to the test.
The Ca’cas Empire is having it’s own problems. Their Emperor is one of the smartest to sit on the throne and he knows how to manage his fleets. Yet, his ideas of leaving battles to fight another day goes counter to the Ca’cadasan military philosophy. Some of his Generals are beginning to question his leadership; not directly to his face, but it’s certainly something they are not comfortable with. The Ca’cadasan military always operates on the premise of attack until the enemy is destroyed or you have nothing left to fight with. What would happen if this current major offensive were to stall and the Ca’cas started incurring major losses. Would the Emperor have the smarts to withdraw his fleets and would his military leaders even let him? Interesting!
I do not believe the next book has been written yet, but I can assure you it will be forthcoming. This war is a long way from being over. Things are changing and in some big ways, but the New Terrains have a long way to go. Very interesting story and with this book, back to being exciting.
Still, the loss of the heir to the Throne, Augustine, has put the royal family in a terrible, but understandable mood. While we know the tiny baby wasn’t killed, we don’t know who did it or why. In this book, that all becomes clearly apparent. And yes, it involves Time Travel!
Time travel has been eluded to in previous books, but it’s also brought up the disappearance of a previous ancient civilization that was thought to have been very advanced. They too had reached a point where time travel was something they were tinkering with when suddenly their civilization ceased to exist. It was thought that messing with time travel and the timeline was the cause of that civilizations demise and any effort to develop something along these lines were met with skepticism. Still, one New Terrain scientist had written papers about developing a time travel method, but he was dismissed from his position and thought insane.
So, if one of Emperor Sean’s subjects does come up with a method of going back in time, will he or should he even use it? It could save billions of his subjects and reverse the recent devastation that his home world had just experienced. And secondly, would his military leaders even let him tinker with time. Many were much older than Sean and had lived with the stories of how forbidden it was to mess with time travel that they just might have to do something if this young emperor got off on the wrong track.
But, now the Ca’cas were attacking again on three different fronts. We just barely enough ships to manage one fight, the other areas were required to conducting holding and delaying tactics until more ships could be brought to them. With the judicious use of wormholes, these battle groups could do the job, but they needed to be reinforced almost immediately. So now all the new technology the New Terrains have developed gets put to the test.
The Ca’cas Empire is having it’s own problems. Their Emperor is one of the smartest to sit on the throne and he knows how to manage his fleets. Yet, his ideas of leaving battles to fight another day goes counter to the Ca’cadasan military philosophy. Some of his Generals are beginning to question his leadership; not directly to his face, but it’s certainly something they are not comfortable with. The Ca’cadasan military always operates on the premise of attack until the enemy is destroyed or you have nothing left to fight with. What would happen if this current major offensive were to stall and the Ca’cas started incurring major losses. Would the Emperor have the smarts to withdraw his fleets and would his military leaders even let him? Interesting!
I do not believe the next book has been written yet, but I can assure you it will be forthcoming. This war is a long way from being over. Things are changing and in some big ways, but the New Terrains have a long way to go. Very interesting story and with this book, back to being exciting.
November 22, 2019
Such promise completely squandered
This was probably the turning point for irreparable damage to plausibility of characters, series plot, the background universe and time frame management.
The equivalent to a teenager running the empire without supervision, broke through the final wall for any kind of believability (present and future). The emperor is a spoiled brat, who commits to a time trip to the past to end the dreaded enemy's race. Genocide is not even the issue. This enemy species is committed to ending the genome of earth life, so moral considerations ring so false that it's hard to believe that the writer continues to flog the moral superiority of humanity one last time. The strong possibility that the attempt would destroy the human race as a consequence should make that option a non-starter. The military scientists, the crazed noble and his henchmen and women have no problem with that outcome? The military doesn't step in (as in remove him from the the throne) when the emperor "slyly" asks their opinion of that course of action, because he's such a slickster (who has all the subtlety of an eight year old planning to steal a box of forbidden cookies)? The emperor doesn't question that his "recovered" son's rescue might have been staged (the military questions the alleged time rescue). The empress is a character from "Desperate Housewives" and is an obvious danger to the empire, since the emperor is willing to destroy the universe to make her smile again. The emperor lies to every one who supposedly owes him allegiance and makes a unilateral decision to just dip his toes into time changing water to get a feel for it (he knows much better than the theorists, the alien civilizations' account of the outcome of the ancients' attempt to do the same, etc). This craziness is supposedly fueled by his guilt over the death of so many humans to date and his baby almost dying (or may have almost or did die?). This what passes for a picture of a caring monarch (this bozo gives Hamlet, Romeo or Oedipus a run for their money, without the excuse of teenage self-righteousness or self-involved adolescent lust or Destiny decreed by the gods). The writer committed to this character books ago and even if he were to now see the light, there's no way to get off this dead end track.
The empress is such a waste of space, with no emotional depth. Her sole contribution is to push out babies and remind everyone that she's not just a pretty womb, because she's a doctor, who will practise anywhere she pleases regardless of who she endangers by her presence. Oh and occasionally she has thoughts about how humanity has an image to maintain or how moral humanity is (not like our alien neighbors?). Right!!! The writer thinks that power exercised directly or indirectly through one's spouse, is and should be both consequence free as well as responsibility free. The writer could have read about historical monarchs rather than studying Disney Princesses. Had he read the consequences of Charlemagne's actions in Germany, George's fight with parliament over royal prerogatives that deprived his forces the financial backing to put down the american colonials, Wilhelm the Last's cowardly failure to insist that his General Staff accommodate his reversal of the order to execute the mobilization into the 1914 conflict. There are so many more examples that could help a writer develop a clearer picture of how power and responsibility are two sides of an often misunderstood coin.
The Empire is benevolent because humanity isn't aggressive? That's news to me. Humanity would never countenance genocide or slavery? I wonder when that happened. Humanity is destined to absorb all the civilizations it encounters because of its higher technology. Now that sounds more plausible and is at the heart of the writer's world-building. It would work if he dropped the morality that he constantly ascribes to human empire and lead with "we're the bestest, the strongest, the smartest, the toughest, the most deadly beings in the galactic arm and gosh darn other sentients love us (if they know what's good for them). That's the core of his future, so own it and move on. If you need to dress it up, something's wrong. Just write a human star culture that actually is worthy of all that alien adulation, unless he can't picture it. It makes it hard to enjoy the good stuff when you sound like you're a press release on the benefits of being of use to the Terran Empire. The diplomacy is grounded in a version of realpolitik that showcases a nasty human first (and only) perspective that belies all the "Aren't we the nicest" sentiments that get repeated over and over. The cultural blind spots are stunning. Add in the editing and dialogue create a disappointing jumble.
The above is the view that the reader should have. This while reading the deal making with humans guilty of widespread genocide and trade with the slaver Fenri race until it's time to crush an ally of the dread enemy. Aliens are so crazy that distrust the humans, win every war but don't start any??? Wow! Aliens gonna be alien, I guess.
The constant exposition, that contradicts the characters' actions, decisions and the general action is brain hurting. It got harder and harder to make any connection to humanity in this book. It's a hegemonic state that even allows aliens to become rich. It boasts a fifty percent unemployment rate with no possibility of working without moving to a frontier planet. The only reason given for people moving to the frontier is to have children. is that every person's dream? People can vote and how are candidates selected? Why are they concerned about the electorate that has no real reason for political power or meaningful way to express it. Business is the preserve of nobles and rich commoners. A job is a prize. Emotional satisfaction and self-esteem are not on the menu but they can vote for whom? They get a dole and it's not clear just what that covers. Education, entertainment opportunities are not described. All in all its a pretty simplistic vision of the present US, as described by American TV or movies.
The weird thing is that seeing the background universe too closely, really destroys the interesting stories about the alien cultures and individuals, the soldiers, sailors, diplomats, scientists, merchant mariners and frontier people that he writes pretty well.
This was probably the turning point for irreparable damage to plausibility of characters, series plot, the background universe and time frame management.
The equivalent to a teenager running the empire without supervision, broke through the final wall for any kind of believability (present and future). The emperor is a spoiled brat, who commits to a time trip to the past to end the dreaded enemy's race. Genocide is not even the issue. This enemy species is committed to ending the genome of earth life, so moral considerations ring so false that it's hard to believe that the writer continues to flog the moral superiority of humanity one last time. The strong possibility that the attempt would destroy the human race as a consequence should make that option a non-starter. The military scientists, the crazed noble and his henchmen and women have no problem with that outcome? The military doesn't step in (as in remove him from the the throne) when the emperor "slyly" asks their opinion of that course of action, because he's such a slickster (who has all the subtlety of an eight year old planning to steal a box of forbidden cookies)? The emperor doesn't question that his "recovered" son's rescue might have been staged (the military questions the alleged time rescue). The empress is a character from "Desperate Housewives" and is an obvious danger to the empire, since the emperor is willing to destroy the universe to make her smile again. The emperor lies to every one who supposedly owes him allegiance and makes a unilateral decision to just dip his toes into time changing water to get a feel for it (he knows much better than the theorists, the alien civilizations' account of the outcome of the ancients' attempt to do the same, etc). This craziness is supposedly fueled by his guilt over the death of so many humans to date and his baby almost dying (or may have almost or did die?). This what passes for a picture of a caring monarch (this bozo gives Hamlet, Romeo or Oedipus a run for their money, without the excuse of teenage self-righteousness or self-involved adolescent lust or Destiny decreed by the gods). The writer committed to this character books ago and even if he were to now see the light, there's no way to get off this dead end track.
The empress is such a waste of space, with no emotional depth. Her sole contribution is to push out babies and remind everyone that she's not just a pretty womb, because she's a doctor, who will practise anywhere she pleases regardless of who she endangers by her presence. Oh and occasionally she has thoughts about how humanity has an image to maintain or how moral humanity is (not like our alien neighbors?). Right!!! The writer thinks that power exercised directly or indirectly through one's spouse, is and should be both consequence free as well as responsibility free. The writer could have read about historical monarchs rather than studying Disney Princesses. Had he read the consequences of Charlemagne's actions in Germany, George's fight with parliament over royal prerogatives that deprived his forces the financial backing to put down the american colonials, Wilhelm the Last's cowardly failure to insist that his General Staff accommodate his reversal of the order to execute the mobilization into the 1914 conflict. There are so many more examples that could help a writer develop a clearer picture of how power and responsibility are two sides of an often misunderstood coin.
The Empire is benevolent because humanity isn't aggressive? That's news to me. Humanity would never countenance genocide or slavery? I wonder when that happened. Humanity is destined to absorb all the civilizations it encounters because of its higher technology. Now that sounds more plausible and is at the heart of the writer's world-building. It would work if he dropped the morality that he constantly ascribes to human empire and lead with "we're the bestest, the strongest, the smartest, the toughest, the most deadly beings in the galactic arm and gosh darn other sentients love us (if they know what's good for them). That's the core of his future, so own it and move on. If you need to dress it up, something's wrong. Just write a human star culture that actually is worthy of all that alien adulation, unless he can't picture it. It makes it hard to enjoy the good stuff when you sound like you're a press release on the benefits of being of use to the Terran Empire. The diplomacy is grounded in a version of realpolitik that showcases a nasty human first (and only) perspective that belies all the "Aren't we the nicest" sentiments that get repeated over and over. The cultural blind spots are stunning. Add in the editing and dialogue create a disappointing jumble.
The above is the view that the reader should have. This while reading the deal making with humans guilty of widespread genocide and trade with the slaver Fenri race until it's time to crush an ally of the dread enemy. Aliens are so crazy that distrust the humans, win every war but don't start any??? Wow! Aliens gonna be alien, I guess.
The constant exposition, that contradicts the characters' actions, decisions and the general action is brain hurting. It got harder and harder to make any connection to humanity in this book. It's a hegemonic state that even allows aliens to become rich. It boasts a fifty percent unemployment rate with no possibility of working without moving to a frontier planet. The only reason given for people moving to the frontier is to have children. is that every person's dream? People can vote and how are candidates selected? Why are they concerned about the electorate that has no real reason for political power or meaningful way to express it. Business is the preserve of nobles and rich commoners. A job is a prize. Emotional satisfaction and self-esteem are not on the menu but they can vote for whom? They get a dole and it's not clear just what that covers. Education, entertainment opportunities are not described. All in all its a pretty simplistic vision of the present US, as described by American TV or movies.
The weird thing is that seeing the background universe too closely, really destroys the interesting stories about the alien cultures and individuals, the soldiers, sailors, diplomats, scientists, merchant mariners and frontier people that he writes pretty well.
Read
July 29, 2017Struggles to show a leader at breaking point
This book builds slowly. I found myself dipping in and out of it to other faster paced stories. I've read all of the main story line novels so pushed through with this one. Seems to have lost its touch, did not enjoy as before.
This book builds slowly. I found myself dipping in and out of it to other faster paced stories. I've read all of the main story line novels so pushed through with this one. Seems to have lost its touch, did not enjoy as before.
November 1, 2017
I can't believe I've caught up. I've been reading this series for a while now, as it is one of the BEST space opera series out there, but this is his latest book of the series. I am distraught! I want book 13 NOW!
Just kidding(actually not lol). This series just keeps giving and giving. Doug has a talent for wrestling some impossible theories from his twisted imagination, and no matter how plausible, makes the reader wonder how they'd never thought of it before.
Amazing characters, blistering plot pace, and an epic story-line. My most solid 5-stars ever!
Just kidding(actually not lol). This series just keeps giving and giving. Doug has a talent for wrestling some impossible theories from his twisted imagination, and no matter how plausible, makes the reader wonder how they'd never thought of it before.
Amazing characters, blistering plot pace, and an epic story-line. My most solid 5-stars ever!
May 4, 2017
The best galaxy wide space opera series on Amazon
Were up to book 12, but its really book 18? If you've read the spin offs and it feels like a full on mad rush. Its great stuff, and this book actually filled in and finished off some minor storylines with the Other universes project. Really enjoyed this one and whilst it feels like the cacas are dumb it does push the whole "huge industrial might" of their empire.
Were up to book 12, but its really book 18? If you've read the spin offs and it feels like a full on mad rush. Its great stuff, and this book actually filled in and finished off some minor storylines with the Other universes project. Really enjoyed this one and whilst it feels like the cacas are dumb it does push the whole "huge industrial might" of their empire.
January 16, 2018
I actually been holding off reading this even though this series is one of my top ten favorites. I really really have a gripe with time travel stories and I was afraid that this would be the first book in the series that I wouldn’t like.
Well, I was wrong. I liked it about as much as the other books which is a lot.
Not surprisingly the writing, the story and the characters are as good as in other books from Doug Dandridge. The time travel part that I was so worried about? I guess we can just say that it gets sorted out in a satisfactory way…and the Emperor is spared from making a gargantuan mistake and we get the answer to a mysterious plot element from previous books.
In addition, the ancients try to complicate life for the Emperor as well and I have to say that this part was not my favorite part of the story. A people that are supposed to be wise and, well, ancient, going down the route they did, well it did not really feel very wise to me. Even if you accept that they were prepared to hand victory to the Cacas in order to prevent time travel then what? The Cacas already have worm holes. It would just be a matter of time before the Cacas or someone else got the same, not so bright, idea.
What I really did like though was the great space battles were the Empire threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at the Cacas. Doug is really god at writing this kind of stuff. Technological advantages, superior tactics, dirty tricks, big fucking guns, you name it, it’s in there. I just loved reading it.
At the end of the book Doug throws in a little last minute surprise as well. Now I can hardly wait for the next book in the series.
Well, I was wrong. I liked it about as much as the other books which is a lot.
Not surprisingly the writing, the story and the characters are as good as in other books from Doug Dandridge. The time travel part that I was so worried about? I guess we can just say that it gets sorted out in a satisfactory way…and the Emperor is spared from making a gargantuan mistake and we get the answer to a mysterious plot element from previous books.
In addition, the ancients try to complicate life for the Emperor as well and I have to say that this part was not my favorite part of the story. A people that are supposed to be wise and, well, ancient, going down the route they did, well it did not really feel very wise to me. Even if you accept that they were prepared to hand victory to the Cacas in order to prevent time travel then what? The Cacas already have worm holes. It would just be a matter of time before the Cacas or someone else got the same, not so bright, idea.
What I really did like though was the great space battles were the Empire threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at the Cacas. Doug is really god at writing this kind of stuff. Technological advantages, superior tactics, dirty tricks, big fucking guns, you name it, it’s in there. I just loved reading it.
At the end of the book Doug throws in a little last minute surprise as well. Now I can hardly wait for the next book in the series.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews