The Gordian Protocol

The Gordian Protocol, Book 1

By: David Weber, Jacob Holo

Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan

New stand-alone novel from New York Times best-selling author of the Honor Harrington series, David Weber

A Man of Two Worlds

Doctor Benjamin Schröder was far from a man of action. In fact, he was a history teacher - chairman of the Castle Rock University history department - and if his life wasn't perfect, it was close. Until, that is, the discussion of his star student Elzbietá Abramowski's dissertation on Operation Oz, the Pacific Allies' invasion of Vladivostok, staged through occupied Japan to meet their Imperial German allies, was brutally interrupted.

The psychotic episode that turned his entire world upside down struck with absolutely no warning, and it was more terrifying than anything he should have been able to imagine, leaving him with a complete, incredibly detailed set of false nightmare memories. Not just of his own life but of an entire ghastly world in which Operation Oz had never happened. In which millions of helpless civilians had been systematically slaughtered in extermination camps that were horrific beyond belief. In which there was still a Soviet Union. In which the Chinese Communists had succeeded, the Korean Peninsula had been permanently divided, thousands of nuclear warheads had spread their deadly threat across the entire Earth, and the Middle East was a festering sore of bloodshed, fanaticism, and terrorism.

The knowledge that those false memories had come from somewhere inside his own psyche was terrible, but with the help of Commander Abramowski, a highly decorated navy fighter pilot who’d been forced to deal with her own PTSD after crippling combat wounds invalided her out of service, he’s put his life back together. With Elzbietá's support, he's learned to deal with the nightmares, to recognize that they are only nightmares that can't - and won't - be permitted to rule his life.

Until, that is, a lunatic named Raibert Kaminski knocks on his door one afternoon with an impossible and horrifying story about alternate realities, time travel, temporal knots, and more than a dozen doomed universes that must inevitably die if the temporal storm front rushing toward the distant future isn't stopped. He has to be lying, of course. Or completely insane. But what if he's not a madman after all? What if he's actually telling the truth?

That possibility is the most terrifying thing of all. Because if he is, the false memories aren't false after all, and that other world is just as real as the one Schröder has always known. And if that's true, Benjamin Schröder is about to become the greatest mass murderer in human history, because he has to choose. Whether he acts or refuses to act, Benjamin Schröder is the one man who will decide which universe lives and which dies, along with every star system, every galaxy - and every single human being - in it.

Including the woman he's discovered he loves more than life itself.

©2019 Words of Weber, Inc. & Jacob Holo (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“[A] fun and thrilling standalone from Weber and Holo....time travel enthusiasts will enjoy the moral dilemmas, nonstop action, and crisp writing.” (Publishers Weekly)

Gordian is a recommend!

I enjoyed this story, lots of great action and fun story development. Really got into the characters and what was happening to them. Very much look forward to future volumes of the series.

Where is the audible sequel?

Good book and I really enjoyed it. Why is there no audible version of the sequel, The Valkyrie Protocol?

inquisitive idiots

it's a good book if you can overlook the idiocy of some of the dialogue and the final confrontation ignoring precedents from the beginning and middle of the book to drive tension. trust me raybert gets better a third of the way through. also ignore the hamhanded philosophical shite where one character cant bring himself to kill something that never should have been even if it means killing it and 15 other somethings by doing nothing.... all that said.. I'm getting the sequel...and hoping its dialogue doesnt feel as young adult as this one did.

sloppy prose, too much jargon, too much politics

story wandered all over the place with a distinct lack of clarity. full of rescue by deus ex machina tactics

started off a bit slow, but picked up!

Great book, slow start, entertaining, it's confusing sometimes. but still very entertaining. I would recommend this to friends, however, I might also recommend reading it rather than listening.

Good not great long, and hard.

Book is good but takes time and a few rewinds to get keep up with everything. I overall liked it.

Another David Webber winner.

1st off, I must state that the narrator was 1st class.
I am a die hard David Webber fan, and this book does not Disappoint. Complex characters, detailed Societies And top notch action scenes.
For me, the book started some what slowly, But then rapidly picked up patients and continue to be fascinated for the remaining pages. The authors kept my attention throughout ancients rob, and I look forward to continue reading it day after day.

Narrator's tone kept knocking me out of the story.

As stated, I kept finding myself retelling portions of the story in a different tone or cadence and found certain portions had become more dramatic, humorous, touching, etc.. I feel that this book would've been better if I had sat down to read it rather than listen to it.

The performance really hurts this.

This was a pretty good story although a bit rambling at times. Unfortunately the performance makes it almost unbearable.

Great take on time travel.

People that can get passed possible knee jerk reactions to opinions that do not agree with their personal political believes might just find this book interesting. I'm not going to lie. I grew up with Honor Harrington so a book that has David Weber on it's cover will be automatically on my to do list. However, a lot of this book does not read like Weber. Mr. Holo seems to have a lot to offer to the Science Function world. I hope to read more of his stories in the future.