Linus is taken prisoner from earth by a barbaric civilization rampaging through our galaxy. He is to be sold into slavery, spending his life toiling in the factories or front lines. Or he may be killed at any time for the amusement of his captors. This evil Empire is ruled by invincible tyrants with limitless abilities. They have powers to make any wish come true just by thinking of it. And the depravity of the rules filters down to every level of society. This empire has vast armies with advanced technology far beyond that of any of the conquered planets. Linus is not a superhero. He is an ordinary person with no special weapons or fighting skills. His journey through this society is a revelation about ourselves and our culture. It's a study of power, who has it and how they got it. This novel is about 157,000 words (about twice the size of the average sci-fi book). It is not intended for children or teenagers, but will be entertaining to thinking adults.
Empire of the Gods
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
David Stag is a lifelong Science Fiction fan who has spent his entire working life in non-fiction science. With several engineering degrees, David has designed products and equipment used around the world by consumers and businesses. David is considered an expert in his field and occasionally does consulting work now, having designs that cover the range from ½ hp to 800 hp. He has twelve patents and enjoys doing mathematics and writing computer programs. But he also has dirt under his fingernails from rebuilding various cars and motorcycles, and even raced cars for a number of years. David also enjoys playing guitar, piano and video games.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Transparency: I was emailed a copy of this (very long) book to read and review so here is an unbiased report.
To start out, the author's writing style is very detailed and articulate. It can get a little too wordy at times, but there is no loss for descriptive measure. As the story progresses, a lot of the writing diverges off into philosophical and moral inner-monologs of main character, Linus. This assists with making the subject-matter concepts more interesting and intelligent, but it does detract away from story progression.
In all honestly, plot does not seem all that important in this book. Things happen to carry Linus to different locations and meet different people, but that's about it. A lot of the book is about what Linus is thinking and how or why he does not agree with what is going on. So a lot of it is about analysis and not about action or drama.
Character development for Linus is terrific since the story revolves around him and his experiences & thoughts, but any other development that occurs with other characters becomes irrelevant as the setting of the story abruptly changes too frequently: 3 major times by my count. Each time this occurs, Linus is shoved into a new environment with a whole new group of characters and it seems a tad odd that the previous personnel are eliminated as if they were old candy wrappers. This causes a non-fluidic change in story atmosphere that seems a bit artificial. This is where improvement can be made in terms of writing an actual story.
Because of the fact that most books I read are plot-driven, this one was quite a change. It was intelligently written and makes you think, but it was definitely not an "exciting page-turner", although I doubt the author meant it to be like that. I would recommend this book to those who want to experience good writing but are not looking for a particularly thrilling story.
I do appreciate David Stag's efforts and encourage him to write more. He really is a good writer...much better than a lot of other authors I've read in the past. There is room for improvement though as the ending was a bit too underwhelming and "Pleasantville-ish".
To start out, the author's writing style is very detailed and articulate. It can get a little too wordy at times, but there is no loss for descriptive measure. As the story progresses, a lot of the writing diverges off into philosophical and moral inner-monologs of main character, Linus. This assists with making the subject-matter concepts more interesting and intelligent, but it does detract away from story progression.
In all honestly, plot does not seem all that important in this book. Things happen to carry Linus to different locations and meet different people, but that's about it. A lot of the book is about what Linus is thinking and how or why he does not agree with what is going on. So a lot of it is about analysis and not about action or drama.
Character development for Linus is terrific since the story revolves around him and his experiences & thoughts, but any other development that occurs with other characters becomes irrelevant as the setting of the story abruptly changes too frequently: 3 major times by my count. Each time this occurs, Linus is shoved into a new environment with a whole new group of characters and it seems a tad odd that the previous personnel are eliminated as if they were old candy wrappers. This causes a non-fluidic change in story atmosphere that seems a bit artificial. This is where improvement can be made in terms of writing an actual story.
Because of the fact that most books I read are plot-driven, this one was quite a change. It was intelligently written and makes you think, but it was definitely not an "exciting page-turner", although I doubt the author meant it to be like that. I would recommend this book to those who want to experience good writing but are not looking for a particularly thrilling story.
I do appreciate David Stag's efforts and encourage him to write more. He really is a good writer...much better than a lot of other authors I've read in the past. There is room for improvement though as the ending was a bit too underwhelming and "Pleasantville-ish".
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
An absolutely great book. As a previous reviewer said, this book is wonderful for a first time author. One can tell that a great deal of passion went into crafting this story, you truly can tell Stag appreciates good sci-fi and wanted to make his mark on the genre.
Upon first reading about the book I was hoping to be in for something along the lines of Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Peter F. Hamilton... something good that I could really get into and find myself falling for the characters. Well, this book did just that... Linus is a character that almost anyone could relate to, he's a scared young man in an overwhelming situation.
I don't particularly want to go into any details as I'm not a fan of spoilers, be they unintentional or not so just take my word for it and read this if you like any of the authors I previously mentioned. I truly hope this author continues to write as I want to see far more from his mind.
Upon first reading about the book I was hoping to be in for something along the lines of Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Peter F. Hamilton... something good that I could really get into and find myself falling for the characters. Well, this book did just that... Linus is a character that almost anyone could relate to, he's a scared young man in an overwhelming situation.
I don't particularly want to go into any details as I'm not a fan of spoilers, be they unintentional or not so just take my word for it and read this if you like any of the authors I previously mentioned. I truly hope this author continues to write as I want to see far more from his mind.
Format:Paperback
I'm not a huge Sci-fi fan, but this was on my Kindle To Read for the Blog list and so I started reading. I contract with myself to give every new book at least 10% before putting it down the first time. I realized I was well over 20% when my kids yelled, "Whats for dinner?" Well that got me moving and I put the book down only to pick it back up a few hours later and finish it the next day.
Linus is a character you can really enjoy, one that is innocent and yet not stupid in any way. Life and death are everywhere and who knows what is best? I enjoyed the different worlds, and the explanation about Humans....very convincing. Ta was a character I liked and yet knew something more had to be going on with her. The many different characters you meet and get to know are interesting and varied. Lots of death and goodbyes that made me sad at times, but a good ending.
At 90% I wondered how the book was going to come together and end. Well it did and the author wrapped it all up really tight. I love the idea that we all have the ability inside us to become anything we wish, and yet we usually end of aiming so much lower than we should. What do you want to be, do, write, achieve? Well than put the work in and do it. I loved the end of the book and really think that we all have the gift to become what we want...but we have to work at it. Nothing comes for free, everything has a cost.
One quote from the book that I've heard before was, "It's not that we don't like what we have...it is just that we want what we don't have more." How true is that? Look at your neighbors do they have things you wished you had and yet I'm sure you have things they wished they had. When you stop looking to get more, is when I believe, you find what you have been looking for all the time. A simple happy life with family and friends is all I really need and yet all the images around me say I should want more and so I do.
Read this book if you love Sci-fi and read this book if you like a good story with interesting characters and ideas. I think you will be surprised by the depth of this authors vision.
Linus is a character you can really enjoy, one that is innocent and yet not stupid in any way. Life and death are everywhere and who knows what is best? I enjoyed the different worlds, and the explanation about Humans....very convincing. Ta was a character I liked and yet knew something more had to be going on with her. The many different characters you meet and get to know are interesting and varied. Lots of death and goodbyes that made me sad at times, but a good ending.
At 90% I wondered how the book was going to come together and end. Well it did and the author wrapped it all up really tight. I love the idea that we all have the ability inside us to become anything we wish, and yet we usually end of aiming so much lower than we should. What do you want to be, do, write, achieve? Well than put the work in and do it. I loved the end of the book and really think that we all have the gift to become what we want...but we have to work at it. Nothing comes for free, everything has a cost.
One quote from the book that I've heard before was, "It's not that we don't like what we have...it is just that we want what we don't have more." How true is that? Look at your neighbors do they have things you wished you had and yet I'm sure you have things they wished they had. When you stop looking to get more, is when I believe, you find what you have been looking for all the time. A simple happy life with family and friends is all I really need and yet all the images around me say I should want more and so I do.
Read this book if you love Sci-fi and read this book if you like a good story with interesting characters and ideas. I think you will be surprised by the depth of this authors vision.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very nice
I really enjoyed this book. This book is is clearly in the top 10% of the scifi books I read in the last few years. They could make a decent movie out of this novel. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Daniel Lemire
Thoroughly Enjoyable
Empire of the Gods is a thoroughly enjoyable book. David Stag crafts a gripping tale that keeps you guessing. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. K. Jones
a novel full of deep ideas borne along by a fascinating science...
One way to discuss the current state of affairs of the human race is to take an aspect of our society and scale it up so as to place that aspect of our society under a magnifying... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Patrick Regan
Promising Start
David Stag's EMPIRE OF THE GODS wasn't bad. Obviously a first novel, he will get better as he continues to write. Not to say this one was bad. Not at all. Read more
Published 5 months ago by George R. Johnson
Empire of the cruel men with colored toys
About two weeks ago, I was contact by David Stag, author of Empire of the Gods, and was asked if I would be willing to read and review his book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mathachew
Entertaining Read
I'm a Sci-Fi addict so I was glad when I was offered to review this book. This is not what I would call an easy read, but I would say it is a very entertaining one. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Patti Chadwick
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