Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Enlightenment Protocols: a history of inter-stellar wars

Tales from the Tribes of the Central Metropolitan Region




The Enlightenment Protocols, Book 1- Tribes
Tales of the tribes of the Central Metropolitan Region
As told to the Sol-Earther Don C. Ciers
By Don Ciers (a military novel)
Published March 29th 2012 by Xlibris Corporation
©Copyright March 2012
ISBN: 1469143135, ISBN13: 9781469143132
Paperback, 512 pages

The Enlightenment Protocols set out the requirement for first contact by the Commonwealth of Stellar States with inhabitants of planets within the galaxy. The inhabitants must be educated enough to realize that there are off-planet living beings, maintain a good standard of living and take steps to protect their environment.

“Enlightenment,” Ciers explains, “is a global tribe’s acknowledgement of their role as stewards of their own Home world, its moons and other uninhabited celestial bodies within their planetary grouping.”

If a civilization wishes to join the Commonwealth, there must be a global governing body that can speak as one and it also helps if there is something of value to offer, such as agricultural or industrial goods, which can be exchanged for Commonwealth protection.

This is important because the galaxy also contains a war-faring group called the Alliance of Stellar Republics. These republics think nothing of conquering both enlightened and unenlightened civilizations to take what they want and make slaves of the people.

The two factions have come to loggerheads a number of times in the past, particularly when the Alliance, which wages war to the glory of its god, Pygani, conducts a takeover and the Commonwealth then jumps in to stop them by using its Recondo forces.

The primary protagonist in all of this is Commodore G. W. Morgan on the battle cruiser CBC Draaken, who has taken the lead in such campaigns, sometimes without going through the chain of command for approval first. Enter another lead character, journalist Maria Hardesty of the Destrian Information Group, who is determined to bring the Commodore down.

This book is called a military novel but should more properly be labeled a military space novel (aka science fiction) due to the setting of the story, which is for the most part, aboard the various war ships. There are some more sensitive moments, such as a flirtation between Hardesty and a young lieutenant but much space is given to describing previous conflicts, the destroyers and frigates both inside, the military hardware and weaponry and how they travel in inter-stellar space.

It appears that Ciers is quite knowledgeable about the actual mechanics of warfare. At first I thought he had really done his homework until I checked his bio on Linked In and discovered that he was an Infantry Senior Sergeant in the U.S. Army for 22 years and a Haz Mat Contingency Planner for 17 years. He has obviously used his expertise, along with a bright imagination to turn this work into an intensive, interesting and believable sci-fi novel. Doing the latter can be the trickiest part since sci-fi calls for out-of-this-world people, settings and plots but Ciers has managed to keep it real.


To purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.com, go HERE.



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