The Shield

Exodus: Empires at War #16

by Doug Dandridge

No One Said That Fighting the Cacas Would Be Easy. But They Didn't Mention It Would Be Necessary to Fight Your Own Side. The Ca'cadasans are set to finally destroy the allied fleet on the Nation of New Earth Front. But Beata Bednarczyk will not go out easily.

Grand Fleet Admiral Bednarczyk is finally the master of her own destiny, the supreme commander of the allied fleet, though her sword has been blunted by the last campaign. Still, she has everything her Empire can give her, including some untested tech that could salvage the front. Still, she is saddled with the incompetent Klavarta Alpha Admiral Klanarat, the spacer in charge of the New Earth contingent and the man who had almost lost the front in one battle. Balancing political considerations has never been the admiral's strong suit, but with an alliance of alien races who still don't trust each other she has her work cut out for her.

Great Admiral Mrastaran Hlrata has a clear directive from his Emperor. Close with the enemy fleet and crush it. His ships are needed on the other front, but that will only happen if the enemy here is totally destroyed. Intelligent and well read, he is the best commander the Ca’cadasans can commit to the front. He had a clear plan as well, one that was changed by the immature Emperor who wants to set up a system as a trap for the enemy. Ordered to destroy a planet and its evolutionary lines, acting against his own principles, the admiral is on a timetable set by the young male who knows nothing about military matters. His life on the line, surrounded by males who would like nothing better than to see him fall, the Philosopher Admiral finds himself the one in the trap. And he will do what is necessary to protect his own sons, no matter the personal cost.

The Empire has developed a tech they believe will protect the endangered planet from the power of a nova. But only one thing in the known galaxy can produce the energy needed to power it. The Donut is going to war, projecting its own energy across thousands of light years of space. And putting the station and its wormhole producing capacity at risk. Sean has never been one to shy from taking risks, but will this decision come back to hit him in the heart? Can the Empire win this fight, or will a Caca who thinks before he acts find a way to victory, despite the interference of the Emperor who seems committed to making his every subject angry with him?

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Genres: Space Opera, Science Fiction, Military Fiction

251 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2019

About the author

Doug 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.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I finally caught up in this series. When I previously stopped it was at book twelve not knowing at the time that more books were soon coming. When I did get back to it, I found book 16 and knew instantly that I had missed something. So, I’ve been back to all the others and now I’m caught up and the war with the Cas’cadans is still not over!

The Humans are pushing further into Cas’ca territory much to the anger of their young idiot emperor. He has almost killed all of his leading Admirals and only has a few left one of which is on the second front trying to finish off the Nation of New Earth and the Human Empire off so his assets can be focused on the real battle on the first front. This Cas’cadan Great Admiral happens to be one of their more brilliant ones and he’s been fighing a pretty smart battle against Admiral Beata Bednarczyk. But, he knows that just because his emperor tells him to destroy this enemy doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. He’s found out that Admiral Bednarczyk is just as smart and wily as he is and she has a few more assets that he doesn’t have access to. See, Admiral Bednarczyk has access to the Donut back in Empire space.

Now how does that help her? Well, that would kind of tell you the whole story wouldn’t it. Let’s just say, that even with her secret assets, it’s still going to be a tough battle. The only thing that might save the day is that the Cas’ca emperor might just withdraw his brilliant Admiral for not getting the job done on time and that might be what makes the battle go in favor of the humans. I said, “might”!

Still, there is a development at the end of the book that might have some very significant impact or the rest of the war. What kind of impact will just have to be read about, I’m afraid! Good story and some very intense battles going on. I don’t even try to keep up with all the ship movements during these battles. When you start counting a million missiles coming toward you, that’s when I lose everything!

[Per Gunnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply another great book in this series. Doug Dandridge is one of the few authors who manage too keep a series going for 10+ books and still keep my interest.

[Harold Phipps · Rating 3 out of 5]

Becoming a trudge

There is a good story in this but the space battle are simply becoming something to trudge through. X number of missiles from this direction Y number from that direction. On and on. I know he is trying to portray an epic battle but it is like reading a transcript of a 40k session. This miniature representing this unit and here are the stats move ... Hold on let me check out how far they can move..hmm maybe I should move that unit (lists stats) over there. Let me measure that to be sure. You get the idea. He can write some awesome dialog but he is describing each tree in the forest than simply telling you there is a forest.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series has really gone down hill over the last few books.

Characters have become flatter, the writing has just become so stilted, and the number of spelling and grammar errors is just atrocious.

I'm interested in the Universe that Mr. Dandrige has created, but it's good that this series in on KU, because I wouldn't be reading it otherwise.

[Leif Dolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Behind the Wall

A nice new story set in the Exodus universe. A good feeling of welcome !get when reading a new book from this author. I could say that I hope the war never ends, but I know that there is something new going to happen. The foes have a new and smarter leader! Any guess as to what might come next?

Thank you David

[C.J. Rutherford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read

Love this series, and the author keeps surprising me with innovative technologies, and more ways to kill the enemy. I already have the next book.