Invasion

Ell Donsaii, Book 18

By: Laurence Dahners

Narrated by: Rebecca Valderrama

This is the eighteenth book in a series of near-future Hard-SciFi Thrillers.

Their heroine Ell Donsaii has a nerve mutation that’s rendered her a genius as well as providing her astonishing athletic abilities. Her genius has let her revolutionize our world with a number of inventions, including instantaneous communications and trans-dimensional portals that deliver fuel, water, food, and energy all around the solar system

Invasion is about Russia’s invasion of Georgia, a country that also borders Russia but is much smaller than Ukraine. The President has been advised to call on Ell (who still owes some time on her original Air Force commitment) for ideas. He and his cabinet want to know whether she can think of a way to stop that invasion, but do it without involving the US military—and the possibility of nuclear escalation.

Ell wants to block the invasion and do it with less bloodshed—which plays into the president’s request that she help stop the invasion without directly giving the Georgians any US weaponry.

Her solution is to support the Georgians with “engineering” equipment, rather than any warfighting apparatus.

“Civil engineering equipment” doesn’t sound warlike but it’s good at blocking roads and changing the flow of water, and …

Meanwhile Ell’s twins, Caii and Raii, are incorporating into the family and Ell’s getting D5R back on track after it spent years on the back burner while Ell was finding her lost twin daughters.

©2023 Laurence E Dahners (P)2024 Laurence E Dahners

The twin sisters many talents.

The entire book was fantastic. I especially liked the cleverness of the twins, and there kind hearts.

Too short

Not the best in this series. Not a lot going on and rather ant-climactic. I'm a fan of the Elle Donsai series of books, but I really think this one is one of the weakest. Could we please have some more of the Vaz/Tiona stories?

Save Georgia

Please bring back Laura Bannister as the Narrator. The current Narrator different voices she acts out are grating. I love the story line but I almost stop listening .

Some of the storyline could have been developed more . Since you left alot of cliffhangers bring the next book out soon.

Never get involved in a land war in Asia when Donsaii is involved.

In the third book Ell stopped China from invading Taiwan. Apparently, Russia didn't pay attention, as they are going to invade Georgia. But, how do you stop an invading force without using any weapons?
You have the newly elected President as Donsaii for help.
Of course she is brilliant, even when not everything goes as planned.

good next story but poor performance.

the story wasn't the strongest but it was very entertaining. but I had to struggle with listening to what seemed like a young teenager reading the story. the narrator would probably be good for books targeted at preteen but totally inappropriate for hard sci-fi

It was just a great story

I like how they found the twins and the whole story was just awesome I really hope there is going to be another book in the series

it's a really interesting story i enjoy how it shows how one great invention to change the world

i like listening about how the technology in this story if we're possible how it would change the world makes me think how things like airplanes and plastics made such a big impact interesting to think this science fiction could be someday out tomorrow. it's a great story can't wait for the next book

Felt a bit short, not a fan of the narrator

The book's a bit shorter and less momentous than most, but in a series that runs this long, it feels like a necessary beat in the story arcs. Need some sort of lull to get us centered with the new family organization, keeping up with all these prodigies, and the world changing rapidly. It's still fun and creative and enjoyable so....I'm not gonna complain!

Except about the narration. I was cautious about "I don't like it" in reviewing the last book because I know how much I dislike change, so I didn't want to be overly harsh in her first book in the series. This book, however, made it clear to me that I'm really not a fan. She doesn't have enough range, her basic narrative voice is a bit...immature? Whiny? Disaffected? They're all too strong but go in the right direction of the problem. She definitely does not stand up to Bannister. That said, I've heard far worse narrators out there. I wouldn't not get the book because she narrated it, but I'm enjoying them far far less, and being pulled out of the story by narrative issues far more often.

Valley girl narration

I love the series, but this narrator made many of the characters sound like immature, shallow tweens. I'll have to read the book myself to see if that is how the dialogue was written.

the novel was okay

I miss the original narrator, though this one does okay, even if, half the time, she sounds like she's got a wad of gum in her mouth. The audio quality sometimes was in and out.

The story was okay. I think Ell is too smart to participate in a proxy war for the USA, and that it is weird that she doesn't publicly support political candidates, but yet she's willing to be politically engaged in someone else's war. Also, I bet she could've stopped the war by just offering Russia an exchange deal of some sort with D5R.