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Title: Exodus

Subtitle: Empires at War, Book 1

Author: Doug Dandridge

Narrator: Finn Sterling

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-17-14

Publisher: Douglas K. Dandridge

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 350 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Humanity's worst nightmare has again come out of the Dark. Can a human race in turmoil survive?

When the human race faces extermination at the hands of an expanding species the last survivors travel 1,000 years to reestablish the race 10,000 years away. It is now a thousand years after the birth of the New Terran Empire. The race has aggressively expanded during that time, with a fleet that has never lost a war against an alien species. But the signs are there, the old enemy is back, and the Fleet will face its greatest challenge in a foe 50 times their size.

Science fiction in the tradition of Anderson and Weber, where the physics of normal and hyperspace dictate the strategy and tactics. Enormous fleets battle across the immensity of space with advanced technologies. Can the proud human Fleet hold off the tide of an advancing enemy, rallying allies and deploying new tech? Or will the conquerors achieve what they could not 2,000 years before, and end the existence of the upstarts.

Members Reviews:

Smart, Realistic Military Science Fiction

What did you love best about Exodus?

Doug Dandridge combines a healthy dose of in-depth technical description with excellent story telling to paint a realistic backdrop for his "Exodus" series. Not having read much of this genre in recent years I was pleasantly surprised with the way this story developed setting the stage for for future novels while still delivering a great deal of action both in space and on the surface. This is not just ship to ship combat. There are plots and sub plots a plenty that make this story and the characters come alive.

Great Book -- but Book 1 by itself is frustrating

I loved the story, but what it is is a book-long "setup". Unlike some books written in volumes, this story does not stand well by itself. By the time Book 2 arrives I may have to listen to this book again to regain the storyline in my head. Unlike J.K. Rowling or Jack Campbell, in which each book was a story in itself, "Empires at War" does not stand alone well.

It is a great book and will probably be a great series. If you read it now, you will have to wait for Book 2. That to me is frustrating.

Only Buy If You Are Desperate

I usually don't write reviews of books I don't like. Call this a lukewarm, mediocre review. First, the good: The premise is engaging and is set forth in the prologue. Earth is destroyed by aliens and a small ship of survivors makes its way a 1000 light years away to start over. The story opens 2000 years later. Obviously, the plot line will be the aliens re-discovering the hated humans (who assassinated the Emperor's son) and utterly destroying them. The archetype myth becomes David (the human empire) v. Goliath (the alien empire). Except the humans have advanced to within 20 years of technological parity with the aliens. Almost a fair fight. Pretty interesting idea.

The bad: The narration is just awful. Mr. Sterling has narrated some gay romance stories (at least that's what they look like to me on Audible) so I am surprised at how poor this narration was. His accents are terrible. His inflections are all wrong. Just bad reading. No excuses for this. If he had a director, the director was asleep. If no director, he needed one. I will say that he improved his diction and reading as the book progressed.

More bad: This is obviously going to be a serial series.