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”!