Banishment

The Forgotten Empire #1

by Raymond L. Weil

From USA Today Bestselling Author Raymond L. Weil comes the first book in a new military science fiction series. Can Earth save the Human Empire? The Confederation consists of the seven oldest races in known space. They control a vast section of the galaxy. All races in that part of the galaxy are subjects of the Confederation and forced to obey the Confederation’s laws. The Human Empire is well aware of the Confederation and has been careful not to intrude upon Confederation space. However, now the Confederation has decided the Human Empire has grown too large and needs to be brought under control of the seven races. Warfleets are dispatched, and soon massive space battles erupt throughout the Empire. Can the Humans survive or is the time of the Empire over?

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure, Space

348 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 22, 2020

About the author

USA 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.

Reviews

[Mattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the premise, but wow do I have problems with this book. The language is sub-college, perhaps even sub-HS level reading comprehension. Sloppy writing abounds like using vague words or identical phrases over and over, a bad habit that nearly drove me insane. Everything is told, not shown (there is NOTHING to read between the lines). Everyone speaks the same language. Humans are always good, reasonable, noble. There is only one bad guy, the Confederation, which is personified by the Druin. Limited adjectives, for example, the Druin are always “cold” and “cold-blooded”.

The characters are so shallow, they’re practically ghosts, with no descriptions, no interesting characteristics, much less deep emotion. Dozens of scientists abandoned to die in escape pods? Billions died? Shrug, move along.

There is zero attempt to be realistic in terms of military action or procedures, computer programming, nor factual or hard science. Thankfully the basic astronomy was correct which was my reason for awarding one full star.

I kept reading out of sheer stubbornness but I hated most every minute of it, because I was busy rewriting each sentence in my head. No way would I ever recommend this book.

[Shannon Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't often do reviews, but as I rated this a one I felt I needed to do so. This book felt like a first draft, a very rough first draft. It tell you everything and reads at times like a script. The characters are shallow and you do not care or even get to know any of them. The writing is very basic and you never feel as if you are seeing two cultures. You have fantasy humans being very fantasy eroupian.

The humans are also very "yay shinning knights we are super duper good!". Every, fucking human, even the pirates comes off super honor code. All the bad stuff is always the super evil "cold blooded" aliens. Who we are told are "cold blooded" pretty much every time they show up.

There was a good idea here, but I can not recommend anyone waste time on this. It is bad.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I really did. The premise seemed interesting and the plot seemed fine, if light on in-depth societal analysis, but I just couldn’t. This book suffered heavily from a bad case of telling instead of showing, to a degree I haven’t seen in a long while. There were many parts of this book that also could have used a bit more time spent on better reasons for why things happened the way they did.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK read, that took a long time to become interesting. I never became vested in any of the characters.

[Victoria Nuzzolillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every wirting class out there should use this book as a (bad) example of Telling vs Showing. From the first paragraph, everything is TOLD and nothing is shown or alluded to in a way that would entice you to continue reading. By page 5 I'm trying to understand how a powerful human Empire completely misses the fact that an armed fleet of thousands of ships is preparing to attack, despite warnings. Really? Your entire military had no clue and the warnings didn't prompt any further investigations. Makes no sense whatsoever.

The same phases are used over and over. All the characters are one dimensional; no one has depth or nuance. All the humans are good and all the other species are bad. Why keep referring to the Druin as "cold" or cold-blooded" instead of showing us this lack of emotion. (Side note: Vulcans were "emotionless" too but that didn't make them the bad guys and Star Trek later told us a interesting story behind that apparent lack of feeling.) So, perhaps the Druin express their feelings differently or perhaps - since they're Not Human- they have an entirely different range of emotions. Now, that would be interesting to explore but I don't think it ever happens in this book.

I ended my torture after the second chapter when the meek, cowering royal princess drove me to my breaking point.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept

I loved the story concept, it was an excellent premise that I couldn't wait to read and develop. Unfortunately, that was the only positive thing. I struggled with the story execution, characters and writing. I couldn't make myself care about any of the characters which was frustrating. I made it through 60% before I started skipping ahead and I don't think I ended up missing anything. One of the few books in my life I couldn't make myself finish.

[Shirley Nelson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, this was written at a 4th grade level (if that) and felt more like a fairy tale. Humans were supposedly inhabiting many planets and threatening the massive Federation with only 2 billion people? The Druins were mercilessly anniliating all humans but let the royal family go to a primitive planet (just don't develop high tech). I couldn't take any more and quit half way through. It was a mercy killing.

[Sgt Maj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy, Light, Read. Some Quibbles

Nothing new. Long time ago, large Human Empire gets thrashed by larger multi-Alien Confederation.Human Empire, known as Imperialists — not to be confused with us primitive Earthlings — finds a primitive Human planet in backwater Space and sets up a base in hopes of retaking their Empire in the future. Also, Confederation banishes some Imperialists to same backwater. Earth.

Flash forward a thousand years, and real story begins. How the Imperialists move forward in retaking their Empire, along with using us Earthlings for the war effort.

For some reason, no Earthlings ever ask, question Imperialists about bringing intergalactic war to Earth. We’re in a very large region of basically empty Space and no one has any interest in area.

Found myself not really caring about anyone. Character development was weak throughout.

Didn’t feel any of Imperialists who lived on Earth for thousand years have any special regards, nor identity with Earth. Nor any observations of a species that has fought wars for over 5000+ years. Imperialists just tweaked our scientific development over time, all focused on themselves and retaking their Empire. Found all this strange.

While kinda like able, our ‘fellow’ Humans , the Imperialists come off as arrogant, special and somewhat superior. I didn’t feel any strong character pulls, even with the few earthlings in the mix.

If you like the building of an Empire and a lot of drowsy pages with a dash of romance..... This is for you.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts with a totally unprepared Human Empire being smashed to pieces. The rest of the book is about the implementation of a plan to rebuild the Empire.
The book isn’t bad and the idea behind the story was intriguing, but the implementation was very simplistic and the dialogue a bit stilted. Also at times the author took such a long time to get anywhere, sometimes repeating chunks of the story. The book seemed a lot longer than its three hundred pages.
If possible I would have given 2.5 stars, but I’m willing to give the book the benefit of the doubt.

There was one thing about the story I didn’t get was the survivors are determined to get back at the ‘Durins’, but although they have built more spaceships they don’t seem to have a plan to defeat the Durin. After over a thousand years it actually took an Earth Human to suggest using a computer virus, even then they seemed to think it wasn’t allowed.
As for the attempt at romance, I wish the author hadn’t bothered

[Justin T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

Solid book. Fun to read. Characters are enjoyable, and you want to learn more about them. Great sci fi concept.

[M. Garnet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than the first. The characters are filled out and you can really get into them more than just the action. A fast paced story that keeps you reading from page to page. I read late at night and this is a mistake because I stayed awake to finish this book. Good job Mr. Weil.

[Gotbadger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read better fanfics, so much dumb stuff. DNF at 38%

Exact line that made me quit: "Women! Why are they so hard to understand?”

[Radu · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're thinking of reading this book (or anything from the author) hoping you'll have some great insights into the future, discover some cultural/scientific/social developments you might have missed or get a deeper understanding of human/alien nature, steer clear.

I keep reading R. L. Weil's books because they are easy, fast reading as an alternative to binging Netflix (and because sometimes I just want bad literature).

His books are sort of like action movies with bad dialogue and mediocre fight scenes. Or like telenovelas, if that's your thing. All you need is to turn off your brain and enjoy the shallowness.

Let me just state my conclusion after reading the first book in this series: the author writes SciFi not because he understands science (if he does it doesn't show in his books), but because he likes to write simple stories across maaaaany pages.

The science is bad, the plot is shallow, the whole thinking around how a galactic empire (Human or Confederation) would develop if FTL travel and communication would be possible is childish, there culture is clearly American:top wine = Cabernet from California; best food: lobster and steak, etc etc, with likely unintentional drops of religion and sexism (An admiral tells "go play Princess" to the Empress, who happens to be his future wife. Then we went to play admiral. Women love shopping and interior design. They promise to always obey the husband.). Really?

While reading, I imagine the writer as being a dude in his 60s who's traveled to exactly no place and took a basic writing class before writing these books. Why do his books score 4.X/5 on Goodreads??? I'm annoyed with myself for reading, but then again someone has to balance out the many great writers out there. To be honest it's likely the editors and publishers' fault for allowing this to go to print...

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

The name Raymond L. Weil sounded familiar to me, it gives you a kind of Arthur C. Clarke vibe, doesn't it? And the idea behind this book sounded pretty exciting. Earth, a haven for the survivors of a long destroyed human empire which originally sprung up in the stars!

Was he a classic 60s/70s sci-fi author I'd found on my dad's bookshelf when I was 13? An author whose works I'd devoured during my school holidays?

No, it turns out he's an untalented hack who wrote a book called Invasion Earth Fall that I'd read in 2018 and had apparently managed to wipe from memory. Here's how I opened my Goodreads review - "I don't think I've ever finished a book this badly written before."

I managed to wade through 20-ish pages of Banishment. Oh my god, this is so badly written, I wanted to scream. I'm usually pretty generous when it comes to trashy genre novels (be they fantasy, sci-fi or romance). But this one? Ugh! Who is rating this book so highly? Is he paying folks to review his books.

Unreadable. Abandoned.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raymond L. Weil is one of my most read authors. His stories are all very well written and seem to have a long timeline. This new series appears to be in that same mold. While I do enjoy his stories, sometimes I think he’s geared his writing style to young adults. There’s nothing wrong with that, except his writing sometimes gets repetitive. That continues in this story, but it doesn’t necessarily distract from what he’s writing about, just know that you’re going to be reading the same thing from chapter to chapter only by someone else either talking or thinking. It’s noticeable, but I’ll continue to read his stories as long as it doesn’t get more than it is now. I don’t like reading a book twice!

Ok, on to this new series. We star out in a galaxy way far from Earth. We’re in the Shoran Expanse within the Human Empire that on the brink of war with the Confederation. The Confederation is a massive empire based upon seven ancient civilizations that have grown enormous. They have power far beyond what any other planetary system has and they hammer that power down on anyone who attempts to go against their control. The Human Empire is right next to the Confederation and has been expanding into territory that was thought to not be of interest to the Confederation.

Well, the Confederation didn’t need much of an excuse to invade the Human Empire. They began by wiping out every Human Empire military fleet it could find and they did so relatively easy. The Human Empire was advanced, but no where near the technology level of the Druins which were the enforcers for the Confederation. Their battleships where huge, several times the size and lethality of a human battleship. The human fleets were unable to fight back and neither were the planets. The Druins would destroy all planetary defenses and then bombard the planet with antimatter missiles until very few humans were left alive on the planet. They did this throughout the Human Empire finally coming to the homeworld of Golan Four. High King Bramdon Starguard (what a name!), his wife (she has no name), Son (Prince Aiden) and Daughter (Princess Layla and his royal court were all waiting for the arrival of the Druin Admiral who would announce their fate.

To the Druins, all species except the seven civilizations of the Confederation, were considered sub-standard. Not all species were human, but that didn’t make any difference. If you were not of one of the seven, then you were nothing more than a slave if that’s what they wanted. Otherwise, you were killed off. High King Bramdon thought that was what was going to happen to his family. But, he also knew that the Druins believed that banishment was worst than death, so he sought an arrangement that spared his Son and most of the Royal Court. They were banished to a remote planet in an absolutely desolate galaxy far, far from the Confederation. This planet was very primitive although it did have some existing humans living on it. The surviving humans of the Royal Court including Prince Aiden were set down on this planet with only some very meager supplies and no technology. They would have to survive on their own and never return to Confederation space.

Just before the Druins reached Golan Four, Princess Layla was taken away as part of Project Exodus. The High King has drawn up a plan where those of his court and family that could escape if such an even as was happening now, would go immediately to a remote asteroid that no one except the Captain of the escape vessel would know about.

So, now we have two sets of Human Empire people still alive but unaware of where the other group had gone. Yet, each of these groups vowed that some day they would return with enough force to conquer the Confederation and specifically the Druins. It might take them thousands of years to do so, but those of the Exodus group had access to cryo-sleep and some intended to return in a thousand years to see that war to it’s end.

The other group on the primitive planet had the same plan, although they knew it would require them to pass this plan on to their future generations and also get help from the natives of this planet. The primitive planet they were on was called “Earth”!

[Don Viecelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Book Review Number 192:

This review is on The Forgotten Empire: Banishment (Banishment, Book 1) by Raymond L. Weil. I have read numerous books by this author and enjoyed them. This book is a Space Opera, Military Science Fiction book and the start of a brand new series.

The story begins with the Eighth Fleet of the Human Empire on patrol in their part of the galaxy between heavily populated Human worlds. High Prince Aiden Starguard is in command. Everything appears normal, but conflict is building between the Confederation and the Empire.

The Confederation is composed of several older alien civilizations that control all of the known space. The Human Empire has been trying to expand its home worlds and grow its warship fleet to compete with the Confederation. This is prohibited by the Confederation aliens and has to be stopped with serious consequences.

To teach the humans a lesson, the Confederation warship fleet attacks the Human Empire worlds and cause unimaginable destruction. The Humans are force to accept their fate as lower subjects of the Confederation.

A small number of higher nobles are banished to a far away star system where the local civilization is still backwards. This is their punishment for trying to expand their empire without permission from the Confederation. A thousand years will pass before Humans will regain the technology and the strength they need to fight the oppressive Confederation.

I give this book Four Stars because the story is entertaining and suspenseful. The main characters are interesting and use royalty as part of their history. The plot is well conceived and allows further development. The dialogue and writing style are good. The hard science is believable. I look forward to following what happens to the Human Empire in this new series.

Keep reading good science fiction and let me know when you find an interesting novel or author.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome

I have read a lot of your books and all of them have been brilliant, part of the reason I was inspired to wrote my own sci-fi book, of which I am 55 pages in.
The only issue I had with this book, was "Druin interdiction system" when this was introduced in the book, I feel it was said far to many times, almost every conversation after that someone mentioned it, and it just didn't feel like natural conversation, but of course this is just my opinion, and does not take away from the fact that when I finished it, I was disappointed to realise it was only written very recently, so there is no follow up as of yet 😂

Hope all goes well with the surgery and follow up treatment, I will certainly be buying the next one when you release it 👍

[Michael Moreau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen quite a few people say that the writing and story is incredibly predictable and that's fair, but it's still a fun read. Yes the story is pretty standard fare space opera. Yes some of the dialogue feels staged and cheesy. Yes pretty much all of the technology and political structures are done with the "hang a lantern on it" philosophy, but I think people forget that not every book needs to be technically perfect.

Sometimes telling a story is just that, telling a story. I really wish people would get off of their high horses and just enjoy things for what they are. Did this book blow me away? No. Did I still find it interesting, yes. I have already started reading the second book.

[Nick Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Galactic space opera

A story with an interesting and engaging premise. I must admit to having been irritated early on by the use of the word illicit when the context clearly indicates it should be elicit (chapter 3 I think). Romantic interaction is rather clumsily handled and does not add much to the narrative. Also there is a fundamental assumption of heterosexuality. There is a linguistic problem that needs addressed - language changes over time but we have characters separated by a millennium able to immediately communicate.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author takes on a familiar tone with this one – humans being oppressed by mean aliens and it’s going to take some time to catch up technologically but look out galaxy once we do. The characters were enjoyable and I will admit to having a couple of Walter Mitty moments daydreaming what it would be like to have some of the prospective technology today like fusion power. I’m looking forward to the next one in the series. If you have enjoyed the author’s other series I am sure you will like this new one, also.

[Hartvig · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF@39%

Fell firmly off the wagon when they started talking about computer viruses.

"I got an idea; lets use computer viruses to attack the drones!"

"Computer viruses!! You absolute madman! They have been outlawed because they could wreak havoc on our colonies, which have no defense against viruses whatsoever!"

Never mind that billions are dead, the use of computer viruses is so unthinkable that they hadn't thought of it at all. Brilliant writing /sarc

Juvenile writing, large plotholes etc. etc. I have no idea why the rating is so high. Why isn't this tagged as YA?

[Nikola Lubojacký · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author comes with interesting idea. The plot is not too complex and keeps moving forward. Characters are likeable, yet a bit underdeveloped. On the other hand the story is focused on the larger picture, which I personally appreciate. If you like exact information you will be satisfied, author always gives precise explanation and short overview.

Generally the story is thought through and easy to follow. One star down for general simplicity of the story, but still it really is worth reading. And it gets even better with the other books in the series.

[Enzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The age old story of humans being oppressed by aliens. But it went a little different when they setup shop on earth of our past. That caught me.
It is fast and light reading and I hope it will get more meat as it gets to the rest of the series. But I like the premise and how it was executed on the first book of the series.
Humans at a severe disadvantage is not new but that humans coming from space would help earth move forwards in large jumps is a great back story.
I can't wait for the next one.

[Les · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alternative history on humanity.

Excellent read,it would explain many giant steps in scientific development, the human empire is crushed and shattered and the ruthless commonwealth dictates mans future or rather lack of, this is the story of the resistance. This is a great read and the only stretch I can see is the hypothesis that earth leaders are capable of agreeing on anything that doesn't financially benefit there narrow world views.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It Was … OK

The beginning of the book was quite intense with military action and lots of destruction, much of it seemingly over the top. It successfully divides the protagonists from the antagonists, and definitively defines good and evil. After that, the narrative is less distinct in calling out described actions and it takes pages to create the same assurances. The book was mildly interesting but not a series I expect to follow further.

[david mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Syfi at it's best

Another well written story with strong characters and fast paced action.
Mr.Well is one of my favorite authors. This new story does not disappoint.
I hope his health problems are brought under control.
Looking forward to the next book in this series.
Good luck Mr. Well and our prayers are with you.

[Christine Harmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humans who did not originate from Earth...

An interesting idea to begin with and developed well into an interesting space story with good strong characters and some, not lots, romantic potential. Well it is part of our human condition. Thank you Mr Weil. I look forward to book 2 of this series.

[Burt Yankiver · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is always difficult to start a new series when people expect so much from you. Ray Weil is a master and has put us on the road again. He is imagined a new universe with good guys and real bad guys and frankly, the odds appear long, yet I can't wait to see what happens.
This story was great, easy to read and a wonderful appetizer for what is to come.
Keep up the great work, Mr Weil.

[Janetta Bitting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will Humanity Survive

The human empire was defeated by a savage confederation of 7 races. The royal family there isolated on earth. Hidden survivors wait for the opportunity to defeat the confederation. There characters are well developed. The reader will be hopeful that the humans will prevail. Come on next volume.

[jr weightman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey !!!!!!

This is the first book in a new series from one of my favorite author's. The first few chapters were a little slow. And then I though it was just like one of his other series. But the more I read, the more I saw it was different. So please take a chance and get this book. I don't think you'll be disappointed !!!