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Earth Fall #1
Invasion
From USA Today Bestselling author of The Slaver Wars comes a new military science fiction series. The Trellixian Empire was constantly expanding, seeking new worlds for their ever-increasing population. If worlds were discovered with existing sentient populations, they were cleansed to make room for colonization. Hundreds of budding civilizations had been eliminated by Trellixian battle fleets. On Earth years in the past, a scout ship fleeing from the Trellixians crashed. Scientists investigating the wreckage discovered what the Trellixians had done to the world the scout ship escaped from. They also discovered it was only a matter of time before the Trellixians reached Earth. A daring plan was implemented involving the major world powers. They would prepare in secret for the coming of the alien invaders. The only question was, how could one world resist a galactic empire?
334 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 19, 2018
1828 people are currently reading
270 people want to read
About the author
Raymond L. Weil
93 books339 followersUSA Today Best Selling Author
I live in Clinton Oklahoma with my wife of 40 years and our cat. I attended college at SWOSU in Weatherford Oklahoma, majoring in Math with minors in Creative Writing and History.
My hobbies include watching soccer, reading, camping, and of course writing. I coached youth soccer for twelve years before moving on and becoming a high school soccer coach for thirteen more. I also enjoy playing with my five grandchildren. I have a very vivid imagination, which sometimes worries my friends. They never know what I am going to say or what I am going to do.
I am an avid reader and have a science fiction / fantasy collection of over two thousand paperbacks. The space program has always fascinated me and I've followed it since its inception. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an astronaut. Now, I just write about it.
I live in Clinton Oklahoma with my wife of 40 years and our cat. I attended college at SWOSU in Weatherford Oklahoma, majoring in Math with minors in Creative Writing and History.
My hobbies include watching soccer, reading, camping, and of course writing. I coached youth soccer for twelve years before moving on and becoming a high school soccer coach for thirteen more. I also enjoy playing with my five grandchildren. I have a very vivid imagination, which sometimes worries my friends. They never know what I am going to say or what I am going to do.
I am an avid reader and have a science fiction / fantasy collection of over two thousand paperbacks. The space program has always fascinated me and I've followed it since its inception. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an astronaut. Now, I just write about it.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
January 25, 2018
a highly incompetent and superficial writing ,mixed with some military jargon,very naive and probably stupid lines ,probably intentional ,delivered by soldiers
stuff like
“We all lost people. Someday we’ll make the Trellixians pay for what they took away from us.”
“We should be out there hunting the aliens and making them pay for what they’ve done. Many of our Rangers have lost their families. Wives, children, brothers, sisters and probably nearly everyone else close to them. They are demanding we take the fight to the enemy. What am I supposed to tell them?.”
. “After what the Trellixians have done my people will want some payback.”
that's after 80% of the world dead,and we have no way to hurt them
i don't remember if the slave wars was this bad
stuff like
“We all lost people. Someday we’ll make the Trellixians pay for what they took away from us.”
“We should be out there hunting the aliens and making them pay for what they’ve done. Many of our Rangers have lost their families. Wives, children, brothers, sisters and probably nearly everyone else close to them. They are demanding we take the fight to the enemy. What am I supposed to tell them?.”
. “After what the Trellixians have done my people will want some payback.”
that's after 80% of the world dead,and we have no way to hurt them
i don't remember if the slave wars was this bad
May 6, 2018
Good Reads and Amazon need to do something about the fake reviews. There is no goddamn way this should be anywhere close to a 4+ star rating. Absolutely terrible writing. I got 30% of the way through and had to stop.
I mean, come on. These ratings are gamed. Let's take a look:
Some classics ratings:
Starship Troopers: 4.0
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress: 4.17
Dune: 4.2
How about good, newer scifi novels? Well...
Terms of Enlistment: 3.97
Leviathan Wakes: 4.22
Old Man's War: 4.2
The Windup Girl: 3.7
Now, I know you can't account for taste, but Earth Fall: Invasion is higher than all of these?? There's something fishy going on here, and I'd hope the goodreads staff would do a little investigating.
I mean, come on. These ratings are gamed. Let's take a look:
Some classics ratings:
Starship Troopers: 4.0
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress: 4.17
Dune: 4.2
How about good, newer scifi novels? Well...
Terms of Enlistment: 3.97
Leviathan Wakes: 4.22
Old Man's War: 4.2
The Windup Girl: 3.7
Now, I know you can't account for taste, but Earth Fall: Invasion is higher than all of these?? There's something fishy going on here, and I'd hope the goodreads staff would do a little investigating.
February 28, 2018
It's so bad that you have to read it actually. Worst book I've ever read in my life. Writing style is horrific: primitive, repetitive, inelegant crap. Plot is obvious.
May 21, 2018
After the death of his father, Sam is still struggling to come to terms with the Illuminate powers that he inherited, the changes that the alien nanites have wrought on his body, and the mysterious summons calling to him, urging him to come and retrieve “his birthright.”After the death of his father, Sam is still struggling to come to terms with the Illuminate powers that he inherited, the changes that the alien nanites have wrought on his body, and the mysterious summons calling to him, urging him to come and retrieve “his birthright.”
February 20, 2018
I recently decided to start writing reviews of some books instead of just rating them. What a shame my first review has to be of “Earth Fall: Invasion”. While this is the first book I’ve read by the author, it seems he’s been quite prolific. You couldn’t tell from this amateurish attempt. It’s predictable and lacks depth, character development, and originality.
Spoilers to come.
The entire premise of the book is a rip-off of “Independence Day”. We have an alien spacecraft that crashes in Roswell in the 1940s, scientists who work in secret underground bases to reverse engineer the craft and develop new technologies, alien invaders bent on eliminating humanity, followed by the scientists figuring out how to beat the aliens when humanity is on the brink of defeat. The only thing different than the movie is the first alien craft is from a defeated enemy of the aliens who invade 80 years later, not one of the alien invaders crafts. This general theme is hardly original to “Independence Day”, so the author could be forgiven for replicating it if we were presented with original ideas and an engaging story; sadly we’re not.
One of the most baffling characters in the novel is Lisa, one of the main protagonists. Lisa is introduced to us several years before the invasion and we’re told she holds several degrees and is the best research assistant of the genius professor who, we later find out, is leading the program to develop alien technology. We’re repeatedly reminded how smart Lisa and the professor are. For reasons that are incomprehensible, the professor doesn’t tell Lisa about the alien research and have her help with his endeavors, instead he tells her to join the army and, for some reason, she abandons her scientific career and does this.
Several years later, the aliens conveniently invade just a few months before Lisa’s army time is finished and she’s tasked with observing them so she can pass crucial information to the professor; except she doesn’t, for months. They have her hide, without doing much of anything, while 80% of humanity is killed. Finally she comes out and scans a dead alien with some unexplained scanner and picks up an alien rifle with some special gloves; hardly tasks that require someone who’s so smart they’re “more important than an entire company of Army Rangers”.
Later Lisa is told about the alien research program and, for some unknowable reason, given an important position, in lieu of thousands of scientists who had been working on the program for years, even though she knows nothing about the new technology. She spends the rest of the book commenting on how cool the technology is and saying how much she has to learn. She’s a major part of the story yet contributes almost nothing.
Lisa is far from the only problem with this book however. A lot of time was spent in anticipation of things the scientists would learn from Lisa’s scans and how that would help them build new weapons and defenses. I was looking forward to some in depth discussion about these discoveries, alas it wasn’t to be. There were a total of two scientific components to the story; one was that the power supply problems were solved by wiring them in parallel (seriously?), the other was a new super-heat-resistant alloy that the humans hadn’t discovered yet still had the ability to manufacture in bulk essentially immediately.
While I would have liked more science, the science that was there was atrocious, and the scientists talked in a stilted, unbelievable way, reminiscent of a Jeff Goldblum character (more “Independence Day” references). If the author spent any time researching the science it was wasted, unless he spent that time watching Jeff Goldblum movies, in which case, well done.
The stilted speech of the scientists is emblematic of the lack of character development throughout the book. When someone expresses empathy for the massive loss of life it comes across as trite and insincere. When characters express feelings it’s never explored or affects their actions. All in all the people we meet are boring and hard to relate to.
One common theme of the book is repetition. We’re told how smart Lisa and the professor are, repeatedly. We reminded often about characters suspicions of secret research bases, so much that there’s an unrequited anticipation of something cool happening when they’re finally revealed in full. While there’s impressive detail of the weapons deployments the military uses, it gets old quickly; “More Claymores!”.
I could go on and on about the shallowness and superfluousness of this book, but I’m already shocked at the length of this review. My first one!
There is one good thing. The writing is extremely fast paced, no doubt that’s aided by the lack of character development and no impediments from having to write story arcs that make sense, but it does suck you in, at least for the first third of the book. Unfortunately, once you realize that there isn’t much there and your hope for a big payoff will not be realized, the book falls flat. It’s such a shame because the premise shows a lot of promise; quite the disappointment when all’s said and done.
Wow! I can’t believe how long this turned out to be. My disappointment must have gotten me a little worked up. I’m off to find another, better, book to read for my next, hopefully shorter, review.
Spoilers to come.
The entire premise of the book is a rip-off of “Independence Day”. We have an alien spacecraft that crashes in Roswell in the 1940s, scientists who work in secret underground bases to reverse engineer the craft and develop new technologies, alien invaders bent on eliminating humanity, followed by the scientists figuring out how to beat the aliens when humanity is on the brink of defeat. The only thing different than the movie is the first alien craft is from a defeated enemy of the aliens who invade 80 years later, not one of the alien invaders crafts. This general theme is hardly original to “Independence Day”, so the author could be forgiven for replicating it if we were presented with original ideas and an engaging story; sadly we’re not.
One of the most baffling characters in the novel is Lisa, one of the main protagonists. Lisa is introduced to us several years before the invasion and we’re told she holds several degrees and is the best research assistant of the genius professor who, we later find out, is leading the program to develop alien technology. We’re repeatedly reminded how smart Lisa and the professor are. For reasons that are incomprehensible, the professor doesn’t tell Lisa about the alien research and have her help with his endeavors, instead he tells her to join the army and, for some reason, she abandons her scientific career and does this.
Several years later, the aliens conveniently invade just a few months before Lisa’s army time is finished and she’s tasked with observing them so she can pass crucial information to the professor; except she doesn’t, for months. They have her hide, without doing much of anything, while 80% of humanity is killed. Finally she comes out and scans a dead alien with some unexplained scanner and picks up an alien rifle with some special gloves; hardly tasks that require someone who’s so smart they’re “more important than an entire company of Army Rangers”.
Later Lisa is told about the alien research program and, for some unknowable reason, given an important position, in lieu of thousands of scientists who had been working on the program for years, even though she knows nothing about the new technology. She spends the rest of the book commenting on how cool the technology is and saying how much she has to learn. She’s a major part of the story yet contributes almost nothing.
Lisa is far from the only problem with this book however. A lot of time was spent in anticipation of things the scientists would learn from Lisa’s scans and how that would help them build new weapons and defenses. I was looking forward to some in depth discussion about these discoveries, alas it wasn’t to be. There were a total of two scientific components to the story; one was that the power supply problems were solved by wiring them in parallel (seriously?), the other was a new super-heat-resistant alloy that the humans hadn’t discovered yet still had the ability to manufacture in bulk essentially immediately.
While I would have liked more science, the science that was there was atrocious, and the scientists talked in a stilted, unbelievable way, reminiscent of a Jeff Goldblum character (more “Independence Day” references). If the author spent any time researching the science it was wasted, unless he spent that time watching Jeff Goldblum movies, in which case, well done.
The stilted speech of the scientists is emblematic of the lack of character development throughout the book. When someone expresses empathy for the massive loss of life it comes across as trite and insincere. When characters express feelings it’s never explored or affects their actions. All in all the people we meet are boring and hard to relate to.
One common theme of the book is repetition. We’re told how smart Lisa and the professor are, repeatedly. We reminded often about characters suspicions of secret research bases, so much that there’s an unrequited anticipation of something cool happening when they’re finally revealed in full. While there’s impressive detail of the weapons deployments the military uses, it gets old quickly; “More Claymores!”.
I could go on and on about the shallowness and superfluousness of this book, but I’m already shocked at the length of this review. My first one!
There is one good thing. The writing is extremely fast paced, no doubt that’s aided by the lack of character development and no impediments from having to write story arcs that make sense, but it does suck you in, at least for the first third of the book. Unfortunately, once you realize that there isn’t much there and your hope for a big payoff will not be realized, the book falls flat. It’s such a shame because the premise shows a lot of promise; quite the disappointment when all’s said and done.
Wow! I can’t believe how long this turned out to be. My disappointment must have gotten me a little worked up. I’m off to find another, better, book to read for my next, hopefully shorter, review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2018
Gotta love it!!
This is a WONDERFUL old-fashioned aliens-invade-earth space yarn. I loved it.
Triumphing against incredible odds, humans find a way to survive.
Totally realistic? No. But it has enough credible threads woven into the tapestry to make it plausible, and realistic enough. I loved the way Roswell was woven into the narrative and eventual solutions.
Don't expect a deep psychological thriller here -- this is bare-bones survival or extinction tale. The characters aren't there to emote or torture themselves; they're way too busy just surviving and killing hostile aliens.
Sometimes, an attacked planet just does what it has to do!!! This is such a story.
This is a WONDERFUL old-fashioned aliens-invade-earth space yarn. I loved it.
Triumphing against incredible odds, humans find a way to survive.
Totally realistic? No. But it has enough credible threads woven into the tapestry to make it plausible, and realistic enough. I loved the way Roswell was woven into the narrative and eventual solutions.
Don't expect a deep psychological thriller here -- this is bare-bones survival or extinction tale. The characters aren't there to emote or torture themselves; they're way too busy just surviving and killing hostile aliens.
Sometimes, an attacked planet just does what it has to do!!! This is such a story.
February 24, 2018
Bad
Every sentence is declarative. Statements are stacked to create paragraphs. Info dumps with measurements of aliens using human terms before humans appear in the book are foolish.
Corporals are never jumped in rank straight to Captain.
Wait, a nuclear device detonated 1500 meters above an ocean and there were survivors?!?
Admittedly, this is all in the first two chapters, but it doesn’t give me hope for the rest of the book. Even the dialogue is stiff, with explanations being given for everything, even the obvious motivations.
Every sentence is declarative. Statements are stacked to create paragraphs. Info dumps with measurements of aliens using human terms before humans appear in the book are foolish.
Corporals are never jumped in rank straight to Captain.
Wait, a nuclear device detonated 1500 meters above an ocean and there were survivors?!?
Admittedly, this is all in the first two chapters, but it doesn’t give me hope for the rest of the book. Even the dialogue is stiff, with explanations being given for everything, even the obvious motivations.
February 2, 2018
Entertaining enough.
This book was entertaining, yet it seemed to be stuck as an overview. It did give character details yet the characters didn't quite come alive. Also there were plenty of times that things were explained as just because, when I felt so much could have been done with it. Granted with this unique writing style the author did cover a lot of material very quickly, but I think that was what bothered me. All in all it was an entertaining read regardless of the negative feed back. Read this if you've an open mind.
This book was entertaining, yet it seemed to be stuck as an overview. It did give character details yet the characters didn't quite come alive. Also there were plenty of times that things were explained as just because, when I felt so much could have been done with it. Granted with this unique writing style the author did cover a lot of material very quickly, but I think that was what bothered me. All in all it was an entertaining read regardless of the negative feed back. Read this if you've an open mind.
April 30, 2018
This is garbage! How does this have 4.25 stars after almost 1000 reviews? The writing is just plain bad. Like a non native speaker is telling a story. Characters seem like they all spent way too much room in a closed garage with the car running.
I am not sure what part of the book is science in "science-fiction". A nuclear explosion that vaporizes the water below but a guy from a wooden boat survives by jumping in the water?
The dialogue is what killed me at 5% read. I just couldn't witness Kardashian style dialogue being performed by semi retarded aliens
I am not sure what part of the book is science in "science-fiction". A nuclear explosion that vaporizes the water below but a guy from a wooden boat survives by jumping in the water?
The dialogue is what killed me at 5% read. I just couldn't witness Kardashian style dialogue being performed by semi retarded aliens
June 12, 2018
Well Written and I Am Looking Forward To The Next Book
I gave this book 5 stars because I was needing a book that held my attention, was well written, had a good story, moved right along and kept me up too late. No superman type heroes nor steamy love descriptions nor riding off into the sunset happy ever after but plenty of action, despicable enemies, international tragedy, logical planning, hope and a solid start and conclusion. Oh yes, this is a refreshingly new take on a worldwide catastrophe without "overprepping" a story.
I gave this book 5 stars because I was needing a book that held my attention, was well written, had a good story, moved right along and kept me up too late. No superman type heroes nor steamy love descriptions nor riding off into the sunset happy ever after but plenty of action, despicable enemies, international tragedy, logical planning, hope and a solid start and conclusion. Oh yes, this is a refreshingly new take on a worldwide catastrophe without "overprepping" a story.
February 27, 2018
Battle Commander Balforr is seriously incompetent and should not be allowed to breed. However, the Jelnoid race might be even worse.
November 13, 2019
Finally!
For some reason I’ve had a hard time finding something decent to read. I’ve read some books that were real dogs, others that just couldn’t hold my attention for more than a few chapters. I stumbled across this book and am glad I did. Great story line, and almost as important, no typos! I look forward to reading the next one. Thanks, Raymond!
For some reason I’ve had a hard time finding something decent to read. I’ve read some books that were real dogs, others that just couldn’t hold my attention for more than a few chapters. I stumbled across this book and am glad I did. Great story line, and almost as important, no typos! I look forward to reading the next one. Thanks, Raymond!
May 17, 2019
I don’t know, but it seemed like I had read some parts of this book before. I guess I might have read an excerpt at the end of another of his books, because right in the middle of this one, I knew what was going to happen. Not all the way to the end, but just enough to know that something was going to happen about midway through the book to make things change. Still, this book was very good although the aliens appear to be kind of dumb.
For the last eighty years, Earth has known we were not alone in the universe. Of course the worlds government didn’t tell anyone. It was a deep, dark secret kept from the public for all those years. Yeah, right, if that could ever happen. With our nosy news reports, nothing can stay a secret very long especially the kinds of things that this Earth kept hidden.
You see, the Roswell, NM incident really did happen like everyone thought. It was an alien spacecraft that crashed and there were aliens aboard, two of which survived! One even survived for twenty-six years telling our scientist everything he could about his worlds technology. While he was doing that, we tried to reverse-engineer everything on his ship. But, back in 1940s and 50s, we just didn’t have the science to understand much of this alien tech. Over time we did manage to get some thing figured out. One thing we did know was that this alien spacecraft had come from a civilization that was under attack and about to be wiped out. This was a scout ship making a mad dash to our planet knowing they could never go back home, but they did warn us of what was coming.
So, for eighty years the governments and military of Earth have been doing huge things in secret. But, time has run out. A fleet of Trellixian starships had just appeared in the Solar System headed for Earth. We knew they weren’t going to be friendly although they initially tired to convince us they were. All they were doing was scanning the Earth to determine our strengths and weaknesses. The Trellixians needed our planet for their vast colonization efforts. They have destroyed many other planets and civilizations just to get rid of the target planet inhabitants so they could colonize it with Trellixians. They were not here to be friends, but to exterminate the human race.
Our planet gave the Trellixians a surprise. They had never came across a single planet with so many nuclear weapons or with such vast armies. Every nation on this planet was armed to the teeth; even its civilians were armed. That didn’t bother the Trellixians much. They knew our weapons were far inferior to theirs and the conquest of Earth wouldn’t take very long, or so they thought.
It turns out that Earth really needed about two more years to have been able to fight of the Trellixians without much loss of human life. Now, they had about two to three weeks to get some new advance weapons manufactured and out to the front-line troops. It was going to be close. Millions of humans were going to die, but there were plans to save millions more. It would have been very comforting to know that the Earth had safe-havens for civilians, but due to secrecy, none of them knew about them or where to initially go. But those that fled to the mountains were fortunate because that’s where all our preparations had been made.
Humanity would not be so easy to defeat as the Trellixians first thought. And, this war is far from over. i’m anxious to read the next book coming in March 2018.
For the last eighty years, Earth has known we were not alone in the universe. Of course the worlds government didn’t tell anyone. It was a deep, dark secret kept from the public for all those years. Yeah, right, if that could ever happen. With our nosy news reports, nothing can stay a secret very long especially the kinds of things that this Earth kept hidden.
You see, the Roswell, NM incident really did happen like everyone thought. It was an alien spacecraft that crashed and there were aliens aboard, two of which survived! One even survived for twenty-six years telling our scientist everything he could about his worlds technology. While he was doing that, we tried to reverse-engineer everything on his ship. But, back in 1940s and 50s, we just didn’t have the science to understand much of this alien tech. Over time we did manage to get some thing figured out. One thing we did know was that this alien spacecraft had come from a civilization that was under attack and about to be wiped out. This was a scout ship making a mad dash to our planet knowing they could never go back home, but they did warn us of what was coming.
So, for eighty years the governments and military of Earth have been doing huge things in secret. But, time has run out. A fleet of Trellixian starships had just appeared in the Solar System headed for Earth. We knew they weren’t going to be friendly although they initially tired to convince us they were. All they were doing was scanning the Earth to determine our strengths and weaknesses. The Trellixians needed our planet for their vast colonization efforts. They have destroyed many other planets and civilizations just to get rid of the target planet inhabitants so they could colonize it with Trellixians. They were not here to be friends, but to exterminate the human race.
Our planet gave the Trellixians a surprise. They had never came across a single planet with so many nuclear weapons or with such vast armies. Every nation on this planet was armed to the teeth; even its civilians were armed. That didn’t bother the Trellixians much. They knew our weapons were far inferior to theirs and the conquest of Earth wouldn’t take very long, or so they thought.
It turns out that Earth really needed about two more years to have been able to fight of the Trellixians without much loss of human life. Now, they had about two to three weeks to get some new advance weapons manufactured and out to the front-line troops. It was going to be close. Millions of humans were going to die, but there were plans to save millions more. It would have been very comforting to know that the Earth had safe-havens for civilians, but due to secrecy, none of them knew about them or where to initially go. But those that fled to the mountains were fortunate because that’s where all our preparations had been made.
Humanity would not be so easy to defeat as the Trellixians first thought. And, this war is far from over. i’m anxious to read the next book coming in March 2018.
April 19, 2018
Loaded With Potential, but...
Earth Fall: Invasion reminds me of The Matrix trilogy: the beginning was fun, but flaws in execution damage the experience.
So. The beginning. Really enjoyed it. Most stories of this type have the human race beating back an impossible enemy with clever tricks and raw tenacity. It was refreshing when the plot flips the script and we-puny-humans get our collective hinders kicked.
But...
The way the story is written, you end up being told the same things in the same way numerous times (be prepared to chuckle when you see “radiation lasts 30 hours”). Sometimes, the same statements are given by various characters that shouldn’t have any knowledge of the situation. It really yanked me out of he story.
Another huge problem I had: Lisa (one of the main characters) is constantly described as being a remarkable genius. Yet throughout the tale, she does nothing smart. You’re given no reason to believe she’s anything but normal... except for others constantly declaring that she is a mental giant. After a while, you start to zone it all out.
The way the invaders are described doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The humans, after being killed by the billions, continuously refer to the aliens as Trellixians. I think at that point, we would have countless slurs for them. The closest we get is right at the end, where some humans begin to call them lizards. The complete lack of hatred was not believable.
Even after all that, though, I have to say that the story has potential. It feels like there’s gold to be mined. I’m just not sure if it will be realized in coming books.
Earth Fall: Invasion reminds me of The Matrix trilogy: the beginning was fun, but flaws in execution damage the experience.
So. The beginning. Really enjoyed it. Most stories of this type have the human race beating back an impossible enemy with clever tricks and raw tenacity. It was refreshing when the plot flips the script and we-puny-humans get our collective hinders kicked.
But...
The way the story is written, you end up being told the same things in the same way numerous times (be prepared to chuckle when you see “radiation lasts 30 hours”). Sometimes, the same statements are given by various characters that shouldn’t have any knowledge of the situation. It really yanked me out of he story.
Another huge problem I had: Lisa (one of the main characters) is constantly described as being a remarkable genius. Yet throughout the tale, she does nothing smart. You’re given no reason to believe she’s anything but normal... except for others constantly declaring that she is a mental giant. After a while, you start to zone it all out.
The way the invaders are described doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. The humans, after being killed by the billions, continuously refer to the aliens as Trellixians. I think at that point, we would have countless slurs for them. The closest we get is right at the end, where some humans begin to call them lizards. The complete lack of hatred was not believable.
Even after all that, though, I have to say that the story has potential. It feels like there’s gold to be mined. I’m just not sure if it will be realized in coming books.
March 2, 2018
Rather sophmoric
I literally jumped forward page by page for the first half of the book. There was minimal information that had any significance moving the story forward. About 60% into the book I slowed down a bit, but even then I could speed read and get the gist without losing any significant aspects of the story. Character development was not a priority. The premise of the story was good the execution severely flawed.
I literally jumped forward page by page for the first half of the book. There was minimal information that had any significance moving the story forward. About 60% into the book I slowed down a bit, but even then I could speed read and get the gist without losing any significant aspects of the story. Character development was not a priority. The premise of the story was good the execution severely flawed.
January 15, 2019
Note: This is for the entire trilogy. I do not think there are any blatant spoilers but be aware.
This is a quite nice little alien invasion trilogy by Raymond L. Weil. Sure it follows a fairly standard mode. Humanity learns that they are not alone. The aliens are not nice guys. Humanity learns, adapts and finally kicks ass. Not the most original story for sure but what the heck, I do really like these kind of stories.
Overall I have liked the books from this author. They are generally well done. Perhaps not the most complex books around, sometimes even a bit too simple, but in general I have found them quite read-worthy. This series is no exception.
This story spans three books and from the names, Invasion, To the Stars and Empires at War, I suspect that you can guess the main outline of the story fairly easily. Although it starts off very dark and with a lot of despair I do like that the overall story-line is one of advancement and humanity becoming strong.
The books are generally well written with enjoyable characters, decent enough science, plenty of good action etc. etc… Obviously the first book contains a lot of on-the-ground action. The title is not Invasion for nothing. The further into the trilogy we get the more the action moves into space. The story progresses nicely with nice build ups most of the time. Sometimes the technological advancements and, especially, how fast it goes from theory to implementation are a bit too fast and unbelievable but it is still acceptable.
I also very much like that we get to see parts of the story from the other side. This is quite entertaining every time the humans springs some surprise on the invaders and especially towards the later half of the trilogy where humanity starts to kick alien butts.
Overall, as I already mentioned, I quite liked these books. They do not quite reach 5 out of 5 but they are solid 4 star ones.
I do have one huge gripe though. The author just had to drag in CERN into the story. Maybe I am biased since I have been working at CERN for over 20 years but still. Do not drag in CERN unless you know what the f… you are talking about!
First of all, according to the author CERN is located in “…in France and Sweden”. What he f…? Look at a bloody map for Christ sake. CERN is located in France and Switzerland! That kind of blunder is really unforgivable.
Second the LHC cannot, I repeat cannot, be turned into some particle beam weapon. I cannot be bothered to go into all the technical and physical can-not-do’s but just trust me, it cannot. Even with a huge latitude given for this being science fiction.
Third, this statement: “It had taken weeks of hard work just to get it to fire off the two beams” is just nonsensical. Weeks? Just bloody read up a bit on what you are talking about before throwing around “cool names”. The LHC is a superconducting installation. To warm it up to a temperature where one can physically work on it and then cool it down to operating temperature again, that alone takes months (and about 10 000 tonnes of liquid nitrogen which is evaporated just for the first stage of the three stage process).
This kind of nonsense really irks me. As I said, maybe I am biased but still. Get the facts straight for Christ sake!
Still, as I wrote, good books. I binge read the entire trilogy in a couple of days.
This is a quite nice little alien invasion trilogy by Raymond L. Weil. Sure it follows a fairly standard mode. Humanity learns that they are not alone. The aliens are not nice guys. Humanity learns, adapts and finally kicks ass. Not the most original story for sure but what the heck, I do really like these kind of stories.
Overall I have liked the books from this author. They are generally well done. Perhaps not the most complex books around, sometimes even a bit too simple, but in general I have found them quite read-worthy. This series is no exception.
This story spans three books and from the names, Invasion, To the Stars and Empires at War, I suspect that you can guess the main outline of the story fairly easily. Although it starts off very dark and with a lot of despair I do like that the overall story-line is one of advancement and humanity becoming strong.
The books are generally well written with enjoyable characters, decent enough science, plenty of good action etc. etc… Obviously the first book contains a lot of on-the-ground action. The title is not Invasion for nothing. The further into the trilogy we get the more the action moves into space. The story progresses nicely with nice build ups most of the time. Sometimes the technological advancements and, especially, how fast it goes from theory to implementation are a bit too fast and unbelievable but it is still acceptable.
I also very much like that we get to see parts of the story from the other side. This is quite entertaining every time the humans springs some surprise on the invaders and especially towards the later half of the trilogy where humanity starts to kick alien butts.
Overall, as I already mentioned, I quite liked these books. They do not quite reach 5 out of 5 but they are solid 4 star ones.
I do have one huge gripe though. The author just had to drag in CERN into the story. Maybe I am biased since I have been working at CERN for over 20 years but still. Do not drag in CERN unless you know what the f… you are talking about!
First of all, according to the author CERN is located in “…in France and Sweden”. What he f…? Look at a bloody map for Christ sake. CERN is located in France and Switzerland! That kind of blunder is really unforgivable.
Second the LHC cannot, I repeat cannot, be turned into some particle beam weapon. I cannot be bothered to go into all the technical and physical can-not-do’s but just trust me, it cannot. Even with a huge latitude given for this being science fiction.
Third, this statement: “It had taken weeks of hard work just to get it to fire off the two beams” is just nonsensical. Weeks? Just bloody read up a bit on what you are talking about before throwing around “cool names”. The LHC is a superconducting installation. To warm it up to a temperature where one can physically work on it and then cool it down to operating temperature again, that alone takes months (and about 10 000 tonnes of liquid nitrogen which is evaporated just for the first stage of the three stage process).
This kind of nonsense really irks me. As I said, maybe I am biased but still. Get the facts straight for Christ sake!
Still, as I wrote, good books. I binge read the entire trilogy in a couple of days.
August 17, 2019
Moderately entertaining but with many flaws
Did I enjoy this book? Yes
It's this a great book? No
The premise is decent and the main reason I have this a 3. It presented a scenario about alien invasion that makes a somewhat believable explanation for why we aren't curb stomped completely and can fight back from. It also doesn't shirk from the reality of unavoidable devastation such plots must generally imply.
Where it mostly falls down is in two areas. One is the science in the science fiction - the phrase "Jelnoid technology" is massively overused to hand wave away how various things are achieved without even an attempt at jargon to aid in suspension of disbelief. It essentially treated like magic. Furthermore there are many inconsistencies with the abilities of the aliens, mainly in their sensors - at the start it talks up their ability to scan deep underwater but tne there are many instances later where even basic thermal imaging (which police have had for decades!) would have totally changed some events yet the aliens don't even mention using it until about 3/4 through the book. The other area is in the characters, they are quite two dimensional and are overly prone to exposition in situations it makes no sense to say those things (except for the readers benefit). If this were a movie I'd describe the characters as wooden, its not awful mind you as they at least aren't total caricatures or do unrealistic things (just say unrealistic things).
So yeah, that's Earth Fall. It's ok, so if you're after a light read abound of the world survival, military stuff and aliens then this is for you. It you're after a more in sciency sci-fi world (be it star trek sci jargon or hard scifi) then look elsewhere.
Did I enjoy this book? Yes
It's this a great book? No
The premise is decent and the main reason I have this a 3. It presented a scenario about alien invasion that makes a somewhat believable explanation for why we aren't curb stomped completely and can fight back from. It also doesn't shirk from the reality of unavoidable devastation such plots must generally imply.
Where it mostly falls down is in two areas. One is the science in the science fiction - the phrase "Jelnoid technology" is massively overused to hand wave away how various things are achieved without even an attempt at jargon to aid in suspension of disbelief. It essentially treated like magic. Furthermore there are many inconsistencies with the abilities of the aliens, mainly in their sensors - at the start it talks up their ability to scan deep underwater but tne there are many instances later where even basic thermal imaging (which police have had for decades!) would have totally changed some events yet the aliens don't even mention using it until about 3/4 through the book. The other area is in the characters, they are quite two dimensional and are overly prone to exposition in situations it makes no sense to say those things (except for the readers benefit). If this were a movie I'd describe the characters as wooden, its not awful mind you as they at least aren't total caricatures or do unrealistic things (just say unrealistic things).
So yeah, that's Earth Fall. It's ok, so if you're after a light read abound of the world survival, military stuff and aliens then this is for you. It you're after a more in sciency sci-fi world (be it star trek sci jargon or hard scifi) then look elsewhere.
June 23, 2018
The story is too fast paced. There are a multitude of ideas and situations that could be further developed, but are presented as done deals and then by-passed as the author goes onto the next part of his story. Some examples:
1. the development of deep military bases and tunnel systems; 2. the history of the alien spacecraft found in 1947 and how information and technology was extracted from this event; 3. The interaction of the military/NASA with the alien engineer following 1947; 4. more details and personal stories of the initial contact and start of conflict; 5. human-human interaction and politics during the years following 1947 when politicians and leaders of many countries joined together to plan action against the coming invasion; etc.
The author glossed over so much that would have made the story much better. The basic idea/plot reminded me of "Ender's Game". I think this author could learn a lot from Niven, Pournelle, etc. as far as presenting his story to the reader.
1. the development of deep military bases and tunnel systems; 2. the history of the alien spacecraft found in 1947 and how information and technology was extracted from this event; 3. The interaction of the military/NASA with the alien engineer following 1947; 4. more details and personal stories of the initial contact and start of conflict; 5. human-human interaction and politics during the years following 1947 when politicians and leaders of many countries joined together to plan action against the coming invasion; etc.
The author glossed over so much that would have made the story much better. The basic idea/plot reminded me of "Ender's Game". I think this author could learn a lot from Niven, Pournelle, etc. as far as presenting his story to the reader.
April 8, 2018
I managed to read to the end.
I am an average science fiction fan, read quite a few book too. I will say this, it was excited in the beginning, and I managed to read it to the end.
However, I had a lot of issues with this book. I could not connect to any of the characters. Few of the main characters were well defined enough for me to be really invested in their well being.
There was too much technical jargon that was unnecessary. After an MK47 rifle didn’t work, why was I hearing so much about it after if it had zero effect on the enemy?
If you know an invasion is coming, then shouldn’t one of you first priorities be weapons? It seemed like to be the last think they built.
Anyway, like I said I made it to the end. I gave it three stars and hope the next book is better, and that the author work on the characters some more.
I am an average science fiction fan, read quite a few book too. I will say this, it was excited in the beginning, and I managed to read it to the end.
However, I had a lot of issues with this book. I could not connect to any of the characters. Few of the main characters were well defined enough for me to be really invested in their well being.
There was too much technical jargon that was unnecessary. After an MK47 rifle didn’t work, why was I hearing so much about it after if it had zero effect on the enemy?
If you know an invasion is coming, then shouldn’t one of you first priorities be weapons? It seemed like to be the last think they built.
Anyway, like I said I made it to the end. I gave it three stars and hope the next book is better, and that the author work on the characters some more.
April 18, 2018
Aliens again!
Well evil aliens decimate earth x 9 once again. The brave and hardy survivors fight back using Roswell Tech and hidden subsurface enclaves. Must be an alternate universe totally as all Nations appear to be in the know and co-operating for 40+ years, as if. Would also explain why some of the “military” members are apparent idiots and only get around to scrounging alien super tech until near the end of the book despite numerous opportunities. But hey, you need our main characters to do it. Let’s hope the sequel improves their stupid, otherwise this alternate us deserves their Darwinian culling with a Vengeance.
Thankfully most authors get better as they practice their craft, there is hope! Not a bad read, except for the parts where the characters get whiny over their losses ad nauseum and where you go wtf at the military stupid.
Well evil aliens decimate earth x 9 once again. The brave and hardy survivors fight back using Roswell Tech and hidden subsurface enclaves. Must be an alternate universe totally as all Nations appear to be in the know and co-operating for 40+ years, as if. Would also explain why some of the “military” members are apparent idiots and only get around to scrounging alien super tech until near the end of the book despite numerous opportunities. But hey, you need our main characters to do it. Let’s hope the sequel improves their stupid, otherwise this alternate us deserves their Darwinian culling with a Vengeance.
Thankfully most authors get better as they practice their craft, there is hope! Not a bad read, except for the parts where the characters get whiny over their losses ad nauseum and where you go wtf at the military stupid.
May 23, 2022
The first few chapters are a cat and mouse game with the humans trying to get ready for the devastation the are about to bring down on Earth. This was OK, but to be honest there was a lot of backwards and forwards between Earth and the Trellixians, but not a lot actually happened.
The start of the battle was interesting and for a while the description of all the devastation and military units being destroyed was tolerable, but eventually it just becomes a bit tedious.
As the story progresses there are highlights, but I would have liked more character development and less listing of equipment, casualties and how long any new development was going to take.
If possible I would have given 2.5 stars.
The start of the battle was interesting and for a while the description of all the devastation and military units being destroyed was tolerable, but eventually it just becomes a bit tedious.
As the story progresses there are highlights, but I would have liked more character development and less listing of equipment, casualties and how long any new development was going to take.
If possible I would have given 2.5 stars.
March 4, 2018
Disappointedly Simplistic
Classics like Robert Heinlein Starship Troopers are detailed with realistic actors. People in this book are flat and boring. Aliens also are one dimensional and not particularly smart. Supposedly they had overwhelmed. A civilization that had advanced technology but not a very big defensive fleeT so they were all destroyed except for one ship that landed in Roswell NM. As we all authorities covered up the fact. All of the alien good guys in the crashed so called "weather balloon" died except for one ten engineer of the ship who lived 27 years helping the Earthers reverse engineer the advanced technology so the Earth could resist the bad guys when they showed up. Would have been more interesting with more about the good alien. Big hole: Why didn't bad aliens adopt the advanced tech of the race they conquered?
Classics like Robert Heinlein Starship Troopers are detailed with realistic actors. People in this book are flat and boring. Aliens also are one dimensional and not particularly smart. Supposedly they had overwhelmed. A civilization that had advanced technology but not a very big defensive fleeT so they were all destroyed except for one ship that landed in Roswell NM. As we all authorities covered up the fact. All of the alien good guys in the crashed so called "weather balloon" died except for one ten engineer of the ship who lived 27 years helping the Earthers reverse engineer the advanced technology so the Earth could resist the bad guys when they showed up. Would have been more interesting with more about the good alien. Big hole: Why didn't bad aliens adopt the advanced tech of the race they conquered?
August 13, 2024
First, I'm definitely gonna pick up the next book in the series. But this was less than great...
-The science is not good. It's neither coherent nor detailed.
-The characters aren't well done. There are none that are memorable or interesting.
-Lotta plot holes. Why did all the alien colony ships land in Florida? What happened to Africa? It was a global war/invasion, but there's like next to zero mention of the second largest continent... And barely any mention of Asia or Asian countries... The plot was just focused on North America and maybe a bit of Britain.
-Anyways... it's fine for a weekend beach read, but still leaves a lot to be desired.
-The science is not good. It's neither coherent nor detailed.
-The characters aren't well done. There are none that are memorable or interesting.
-Lotta plot holes. Why did all the alien colony ships land in Florida? What happened to Africa? It was a global war/invasion, but there's like next to zero mention of the second largest continent... And barely any mention of Asia or Asian countries... The plot was just focused on North America and maybe a bit of Britain.
-Anyways... it's fine for a weekend beach read, but still leaves a lot to be desired.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 29, 2018
I don't think I've ever finished a book this badly written before. So why did I finish it? I really enjoyed the premise of the book. I wanted to see if we'd beat the evil aliens in the end. I wondered if the writing might get better at some point.
Favourite moment of book - The heroine of the piece who some kind of genius scientist, is shown a spacecraft humans are developing based on a type of Alien tech that she has recently been studying. Her first question? "Can it fly faster than the speed of light?"
Favourite moment of book - The heroine of the piece who some kind of genius scientist, is shown a spacecraft humans are developing based on a type of Alien tech that she has recently been studying. Her first question? "Can it fly faster than the speed of light?"
January 24, 2018
Another good series.
I enjoyed this book, even though I thought it was slow in the beginning. You have to give this book a chance for the action to build up. That is the way most Siri start as far as I’m concerned. Good character development, not sure who the lead character will be but I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series I enjoyed the mix of Earth Tech with Ellie and tech. I think anybody who enjoys science fiction will enjoy this book.
I enjoyed this book, even though I thought it was slow in the beginning. You have to give this book a chance for the action to build up. That is the way most Siri start as far as I’m concerned. Good character development, not sure who the lead character will be but I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series I enjoyed the mix of Earth Tech with Ellie and tech. I think anybody who enjoys science fiction will enjoy this book.
January 25, 2018
The author has written some good science fiction series and I was eager to see where this new one would take us. He doesn’t disappoint and, without having a spoiler he does a good job of describing a possible alien invasion in the not so distant future. While there is hope for the human race – and a continuation of the series – I think what I liked the best was it was fairly realistic: the humans get the crap kicked out of them. I’m looking forward to seeing where the next installment takes us.
March 15, 2018
Not impressed whatsoever
Maybe it's just me, but this book could have done so much more.
There's no character development. The story lines are, mostly, disconnected and run in parallel throughout the book. Getting emotionally connected to the cause or a character is almost impossible to achieve as the author fails to dig deeper into different personalities, their background stories, and where they would fit into a bigger picture.
Won't wait for the next one.
Maybe it's just me, but this book could have done so much more.
There's no character development. The story lines are, mostly, disconnected and run in parallel throughout the book. Getting emotionally connected to the cause or a character is almost impossible to achieve as the author fails to dig deeper into different personalities, their background stories, and where they would fit into a bigger picture.
Won't wait for the next one.
March 19, 2018
Falls short in so many ways
I'm normally happy to read Raymond Weil, however, this book falls well short of his usual work. The character development lacks believability and substance. The books theme and characters seem to lack grounding (very unlike Mr Weil) and it all just seems a bit too preposterous to be plausible. If I didn't know better if swear this is someone else's work.
I'm normally happy to read Raymond Weil, however, this book falls well short of his usual work. The character development lacks believability and substance. The books theme and characters seem to lack grounding (very unlike Mr Weil) and it all just seems a bit too preposterous to be plausible. If I didn't know better if swear this is someone else's work.
March 28, 2018
Alien Lizard species attempts conquest
A fascinating premise - invasion by aliens and not unlikely given our current knowledge of universes. This is a great thrill ride with good characters to relate to and enjoy as well as perfectly horrid enemies in lizard-like guise. An enjoyable read that goes fast and makes you eager for the next volume. Fasten your seatbelt - it’s about to get rocky.
A fascinating premise - invasion by aliens and not unlikely given our current knowledge of universes. This is a great thrill ride with good characters to relate to and enjoy as well as perfectly horrid enemies in lizard-like guise. An enjoyable read that goes fast and makes you eager for the next volume. Fasten your seatbelt - it’s about to get rocky.
May 19, 2018
This is not a great work of literature. It is pulp sci-fi, and not particularly good at that - read it and take from it what you want. The story is fine if you can get past the cliche after cliche. Would I recommend this book if you had to pay for it (read it on Kindle Unlimited)? Probably not. I enjoyed the read though... if you're stuck for something to read not a horrible way to spend an afternoon or two.
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