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Charles E. Gannon

Imperative (Starfire) MP3 CD – Unabridged, September 20, 2016

by Steve White Charles E. Gannon (Author), Marc Vietor (Reader)

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The war with the Arduans - profoundly alien invaders who originally arrived in STL ships - is over. Most of those attackers are now probationary (and very productive) citizens of the Rim Federation.

However, many among the Arduans' warrior caste have accepted neither defeat nor the personhood of any of the other intelligence races. Their leader, the ruthless admiral of the second Arduan exodus, Amunsit, is in firm control of the Zarzuela system. Along with a fifth column among the peaceable Arduans, she hopes to find allies in subsequent refugee fleets that abandoned their race's now-dead home system long ago.

But as the victors' diplomats attempt to soothe tensions with these warlike neighbors, two heroes of the last war - veteran admiral Ian Trevayne and young troubleshooter Ossian Wethermere - suspect they have stumbled upon a deeper Arduan plot: one that could shatter the Pan-Sentient Union and perhaps interstellar civilization itself.

Language

English
Publisher

Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
Publication date

September 20, 2016
Dimensions

6.5 x 0.63 x 5.5 inches
ISBN-10

1531876188
ISBN-13

978-1531876180
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (September 20, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1531876188
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1531876180
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.63 x 5.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,188,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #34,537 in Space Operas
- #45,703 in Books on CD
- #62,035 in Science Fiction Adventures

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154 ratings

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Charles E. Gannon

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Go to his website at: www.charlesegannon.com

Dr. Charles E. Gannon is a Distinguished Professor of English (St. Bonaventure University) and was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in American Literature & Culture from 2004-2009.

Dr. Gannon's series include hard-sf interstellar epic (the Caine Riordan series, set in his Terran Republic universe, nominated for three Nebulas, two Dragons, and winner of the Compton Crook Award) and epic slipstream fantasy (the forthcoming Broken World series). He also collaborates with Eric Flint in that author's New York Times Best Selling series "Ring of Fire series" as well as with Steve White in the NYT Bestselling "Starfire" series. He has also worked in universes/shared worlds such as War World, Man-Kzin Wars, the Honorverse, etc.) and in various anthologies and Analog SF Magazine. You can visit and learn more about his various SF universes and projects--past, present, and future-- at: www.charlesegannon.com.

Along with about 50 other SF writers (such as Larry Niven, Ben Bova, John Hemry/Jack Armstrong, and Greg Bear), he is a member of SIGMA, the "SF think-tank" which advises intelligence and defense agencies (cf. www.sigmaforum.org). In his role as a subject matter expert on advanced military/defense/intel concepts, he has been featured on the Discovery Channel, NPR, Fox, and a wide variety of other national media outlets.

His earlier work includes various products and flash fiction for the gaming industry. He worked as both author and editor for Games Design Workship on their award-winning games "Traveller," "2300 AD," "Dark Conspiracy," and "Twilight: 2000."

Dr. Gannon has many credits in non-fiction; his most noteworthy is his book "Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction." Now in second edition, it won the 2006 American Library Association Award for Outstanding Book, and was the topic of discussion when he was interviewed by NPR (Morning Edition).

Dr. Gannon has been a Fulbright Fellow at Liverpool University, Palacky University (Czech Republic), and the University of Dundee. He also received Fulbright and Embassy Travel grants to these countries, as well as The Netherlands, Slovakia, England, and Italy. Holding degrees from Brown (BA), Syracuse (MS), and Fordham (MA,PhD), he has published extensively on the interaction of fiction, technology (particularly military and space), and political influence.

Prior to his academic career, Dr. Gannon worked as a scriptwriter and producer in New York City, where his clients included the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and The President's Council on Physical Fitness.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

154 global ratings

5 star		57%
4 star		28%
3 star		11%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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cathy

Good read but it is a series, not a one off book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 4, 2016

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Short answer: This is better Exodus and Extremis but if you aren't even passingly familiar with the whole Starfire series, you're going to be really lost and probably disappointed. The whole series covers almost 500 years.

Middle Answer: read In Death Ground at a minimum first. Then Imperative.

Long answer:
In 1977, Task Force Games published a little game of starship combat called Starfire, so small of a game that it came in a ziplock baggie. It was a huge hit. Fans and TFG kept adding to it and in the 1990s, David Weber of science fiction fame rewrote the rules AND made a truly wonderful scenario book called Stars at War, which reads like a novel (combining in depth narrative sections with scenarios) but you can actually play out the battles using the game system. This covered four different wars and the major races in the Starfire universe.
Next came Crusade the scenario book and Crusade the novel, so if you didn't play the game you could read about space battles the old fashioned way...in a book.
Then came In Death Ground and The Shiva Option, both novels, and the massive scenario book ISW-4 Arachnids.
Then there is the orphan novel called "Insurrection" which had just the novel and not a game treatment.
Then David Weber moves out of the picture and revised writing teams take over. This is where Exodus, Extremis, and Imperative slide into place as novels but no game treatment.

BaenBooks has reissued Crusade and In Death Ground as Stars at War One and Insurrection and Shiva Option as Stars at War 2. These are NOT the same Stars at War that David Weber wrote for Task Force Games back in the early 1990s.

The game system is now owned and supplied by Starfire Design Studios

7 people found this helpful

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Jim M

Possible spoilers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 15, 2019

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I really, really like the Starfire series, especially In Death Ground and Shiva Option. Exodus and Extremis were ok, still decent books.
Imperative unfortunately is simply silly. Spoilers ahead...

One of the main plot points is kinetic kills against numerous systems from generational ships from one source. The ships are allegedly moving at .6c to .8c. Ok, so far I can buy that. They align the ships and destroy them creating clouds of debris that continue at the same relatavistic speeds towards inhabited systems. Still ok so far although starting to get sketchy. The objects destroy planets and installations throughout the PSU. Ok, now we are into LotR fantasy and a complete disregard for basic physics.
The stars in the PSU, as stated many times, are hundreds of light years apart. The kinetic bombardment would have taken hundreds, if not thousands, of years to take place. Sublight objects starting from relatively close together, required by the storyline of fleets fleeing a supernova, would have a gap of 7 or 8 years just between Sol and Centauri, and they are close together. In the PSU three light years was considered incredibly close in an earlier story. The main characters would have been dead of old age generations before the bombardments destroyed the listed planets and locations. I don't mind suspending disbelief under certain circumstances but not when they are trying something like kinetic weapons.

The authors completely lost me at that point. I'm not even going to bother getting into the idea that an object weighing a few tons moving at .6c could destabilize a main sequence star while managing to pass entirely through it.

I wanted to like the book, and I'll read the next one, but I am very disappointed by the complete disregard for science in this one.

3 people found this helpful

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......lookylul

one of the most tense Starfire books I have read...spoilers (kind of)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 4, 2020

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I have played the game Starfire since 1982 and have read every book so far in the series. Starfire is famous for large (some would say gigantic) space battles and the never ending race for new weapons and tactics. And frankly....a lot of the Starfire novels are very predictable. Alien threat or civil war, big space battles and lots of straight up action with fighters, x-HAWKS and beams of all kinds. Now enter this book, part of the Exodus saga, we now have spies, subtle tactics and an old threat come back to life. This novel starts off slow but halfway through, I had to keep reading as I really felt the drama and agony of the protagonists. For the first time in my reading of Starfire novels, I felt like humans and allies could really lose and lose badly. Just starting the next book and look forward to the conclusion of this saga. If you like military sci-fi and action, you will not be disappointed. Great job guys! I hope we have a Wethermere on our side in real life.

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Michael S. Lawson

Another Great Read In The Starfire Series!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 10, 2016

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This is the 7th book in the Starfire series. The first 4 were written by David Weber and Steve White. The 5th was written by Steve White and Shirley Meier. The 6th and now the 7th were written by Steve White and Charles E Gannon. Despite the author changes this series has maintained a high quality of writing and the story line has remained true to the earlier books. Of course Steve White has co-authored all 7 books and he is an excellent author as well as being one of my favorite authors.
In this one the various human space empires as well as several of their alien allies come under attack from not one but two of their old enemies. This book is an excellent example of Military Science Fiction with good character development and great space battle scenes. The Arduans’ who appeared from space in slower than light colony ships were defeated in a very bloody war and at great cost to the humans and their allies. A few of them however fled and awaited more of their colony ships to arrive to reignite hostilities. During their wait they discovered a hidden colony of "Bugs", a species that had attacked with genocidal intend against all the other sentient species. They had been though to have been totally destroyed but had been in hiding biding their time before attacking again. Now both the Arduans’ and the "Bugs" are attacking on several fronts and things are looking bleak for the humans and their allies.
I highly recommend this book and this entire series to fans of Military Science Fiction and of Space Opera.

2 people found this helpful

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Oludare Senbore

Space battles at its best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 21, 2016

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What do I say? If you love space opera and space battles, then this book continues in the tradition of the series. It's spectacular.

Scott Osmond

Good Entry

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on January 3, 2017

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It starts a bit slow, intelligence operations and intrigue, then explodes with action that is familiar to readers of the Starfire universe. Relativistic impactors, new devastating energy weapons and a old enemy returns. I enjoyed this entry. Towards the end the reader gets a look at why the professionals in the military don't just frown at fraternisation but are openly hostile to it, in short sending a lover or spouse out to die can play merry hell with discipline or raise the Spector of favourism if held back.

Amazon Customer

SOrry but I cannot recommend this. As an avid reader of mil sci ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 27, 2016

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SOrry but I cannot recommend this. As an avid reader of mil sci fi I can suspend my disbelief only so far. BUt here we have a race fleeing their destroyed home world...that's one world, through real space and without a history of space combat and with way inferior tech able to completely retask their refugee ships into interstellar battleships and go up against at least a dozen interstellar empires with ft long capacity.who have recently fought a huge war against the bugs. Come on. it's like Ancient Rome being able to out produce and outfight the Modern USN after a couple of years of thei initial contact. COuld NOT get that off my mind. I love the earlier books, but skip everything after Insurrection.

One person found this helpful

Timothy Pearce

Not a bad book, but the cliffhanger-end and seeming "how will ...

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

Not a bad book, but the cliffhanger-end and seeming "how will the good guys ever win?" plotline really takes away from it. I'm not entirely sure if some of the "real world" physics in the book are actually valid either.

One person found this helpful

Divyan

Right start from where he left off

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on March 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

Brought my memories back to earlier bug wars. Maybe the years elapsed since last read , I found this novel lack a little intensity. However, I know the coming instalments remedy that fault.

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Imperative (Starfire) MP3 CD – Unabridged, September 20, 2016

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