Review: Full on Military SF at its best!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2014
Got to say, Dandridge’s Empires at War series is now on my ‘must read’ list now. As soon as each book comes out I now pounce on it as read it from cover to cover.In this instalment the Cacas and the Humans at last clash in a multi-thousand ship battle - this truly is, as the title says “The Day of Battle”.Picking up where from the Long Fall ends, the out-teched and out gunned humans know the only way to buy time to develop their war capacity is to destroy the invading Caca fleet before yet further reinforcements arrive from the Caca’s home worlds.But how to do it? Ship for ship the Cacas are both far more powerful and far more numerous. The decision is made is allow the Cacas to believe they can finish the war at a stroke - by capturing the human emperor.But the human Emperor Romanov has a plan of his own – if he can lure the Cacas to a pre-planned location, then maybe, just maybe, the few tec advantages the humans do have can be bought fully in to play - if he can defeat the invading Caca this time round the maybe humanity will buy enough time to resist the next wave of the Cacas onslaught.So what did I like best? The space battle at the end was tuly epic – a multi thousand ship engagement that occupied a full quarter of the book. The human battle plan was brilliant, well executed and in distinct phases that made sense logistically and time wise – one of the best space battles I’ve read in ages.Characterisation and dialogue were excellent too, with a few twists and turns that both make sense and surprise.And what didn’t I like? While the space battle was excellent, logical and well planned, the use of idiom on perspective failed occasionally. Sometimes a transition from one part of the battle space to another wasn’t too clear. A few sentences later I found myself back in sync as to who was doing what, but a few more specific references to names and locations would have clarified things a bit better.But this is a minor point. Overall the book was great, worth the $$ and I will definitely buy the next one.