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)2025 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.

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.

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?

Sub-plots

I am amazed how well the author came up with several great sub-plots, all interesting on their own. Usually, stories with multiple sub plots have one excellent one, several so-so, and a weak link.
Dahners' writing craft ties up the plots without cliffhangers. Leaving only the pleasant reading feeling of "what happens to them [the MC] next?"
His vocational and advocational interests always shine through.