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The Empire of Texas

Available exclusively from Great Authors Online: The Empire of Texas is Rodger Olsen's first solo effort. His first book was a successful collaboration with Leo Frankowski.

This is a story of today gone wild. Following a devastating plague, the traumatized and stunned survivors have decided that the problem was the doctors who flaunted God by meddling in the miracles of life, and the engineers and scientists who forced people away from the pure and simple life. They have turned the world clock back to a more peaceful time, complete with the disease, back breaking labor, and early death of those "peaceful times". Fortunately, even 400 years in the future, not all is forgotten. A few good men, like the Emperor of Texas remember that there once was a better world and want it back. This is not easy in a time when doctors are lynched and a steam whistle would cause a riot, but there is no choice. Someone, an Evil Someone, somewhere, has started back up the road to civilization and they are coming soon, for a "Mongol style" visit. To survive, the Emperor has to get the country ready for war by running the biggest confidence game in history.

This is high adventure in a world where the only law is the Law Of The West, a very real place that never existed. The author has also included the complete text of The Star Of India, a novelette about how a very few people with grit, courage, brains, and a tall masted ship survive the Fall to begin again.

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COMMENTS

Submitted by Dave on Wed, 2006-09-13 03:25.

I enjoyed your book & will buy its sequel. You did a good job writing this story.

You asked for comments so I'm posting some. Please use them as you wish for future work:

The character of the Emperor Emeritus in Chapter 8 "..interviewing serving girls all night" dosn't match the rest of the book - for example in Chapter 34 he stopped using his house in town upon marriage

In Chapter 29 I noticed a basic error in science - to use rails for telegraphy they have to be insulated or the signal will be shorted to ground. I don't know how you'd solve this considering the need for railroad spikes and the fact that tar won't work

I realize the Empress Emeritus is supposed to be educated but considering the state of medicine, torn ligaments may strike some readers as a false note

You've probably noticed these, the page or so that your proof reader skipped & others that I didn't notice. But I felt that as well as you write that can take constructive criticism in the spirit it's offered.

Looking forward to your next book.

P.S. I'd take the Star of India off the title page for downloads.
DPS

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Thank you for your input.

Submitted by Rodger Olsen on Fri, 2006-09-15 15:23.

Oops. I didn’t research the "rails as telegraph lines" beyond noting in an old publication that Railroads were using signals carried over the rails to communicate with their trains. All I can say, is the members of the "Archeology Committee" must be smarter than me, cause you're right - it would seem hard to do. Maybe they hid an insulated wire along the base of the rails.

The "Emperor Emeritus" is the current emperor's father. He has become somewhat more of a flirt as he got older. The current emperor, Burton Adams, is the one who gave up his house in town and would never consider cheating on his wife.

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Conductivity of Rails

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2008-01-31 22:53.

Using rails as an electric circuit was a big problem for electric streetcars and electric interurbans, because although they received their electricity from an overhead wire in most cases the excess was returned along the rails. Unfortunately these had joints, so they would weld copper plates or cables to the bottoms of the joints in the track (people tended to steal the copper otherwise!). These turned the rails into an uninterrupted circuit. But as they aged the copper connectors would break, short-circuiting the electricity into the ground, where electrolysis would destroy underground water pipes in the city. The same problem would hold for your telegraph idea--just ONE bad joint along miles of conducting joints and you'd be Mongol Kibble!

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It was a good read

Submitted by thariq on Fri, 2006-08-18 11:33.

It was a good read, with a well thought out story which did`nt ramble on but kept the reader turning the pages!! Can not wait for the next in the series

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book 2

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2006-08-06 15:55.

any eta on book 2 hows it going

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Machines in the Texas Empire

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2006-05-28 23:24.

The chapters I read were good and held my interest. I do have a question, If the the luddites were after doctors and other scientist as well as machines, well Who managed to keep the rifles and handguns going ie ammo ? The first emperor ? if the first, was a history buff, may he knew that it was the need to manufacture better weapons in large quantities that started the push of the industrial revolution.

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Why they kept guns - From the author

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2006-06-09 01:29.

Simple survival needs encouraged the hypocrisy. These people are crazy, but no one is THAT dumb. No one but the Japanese ever gave up their guns, and when the West came calling, they learned quickly what a dumb mistake that had been. Remember, the Luddites hate all that they don't understand, and guns look like simple things. They do, however, have a problem making them after they shut down all of the power to the lathes and other machine tools – and ammo is a problem when you have to make it by hand. That's why you see the city guards carrying flintlocks. This variety happened in the real world. At about 1925, Phillipine rebels were using matchlock pipe guns against modern machine guns, and cap & ball rifles were still being used in the Middle East.

One of the first drafts of the novel had the Emperor and the Pope agreeing to a phoney war to scare people into accepting industry. I think that the plot I ended up with was better.

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Copy-editing blurbs.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 2006-04-18 15:59.

In the context in which it appears here, the word is "flout", not "flaunt". To "flaunt" is to brazenly display.

Also, in "...A few good men, like the Emperor of Texas remember..." either no comma or another one after "Texas"

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I realy enjoyed this book

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2006-02-09 22:03.

I realy enjoyed this book its a realy good page turner cant wait till the next one .

Dave

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The Empire of Texas.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2006-02-08 03:54.

Oh, Dear! I haven't read the book yet, although it sounds interesting, but if you check the blurb I think you will find an anomaly in that it reads in part 'In the wake of a devastating PLAQUE. Surely it's meant to read PLAGUE? Unless there was a serious shortage of dental hygienists?
Best wishes.
Ellie

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Ahem...

Submitted by Chris Ciulla on Thu, 2006-02-09 22:57.

The plaque has been dispatched.

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Conan Reader

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 2006-01-04 13:33.

This was a good book. I don't even usually like books like this, where the world has ended and people start all over again, but after an hour or so, you can't put this thing down. The characters are great and the plot really is original. You haven't read anything like it before. The science part was very good and the adventure was great.

There are two things that bothered me a little. Most of his characters are likable, but Mr. Olsen has a style that includes showing some characters that come and go like in real life, where you see them in one or two scenes and then never see them again. It feels real, but I was left feeling that I wanted to know more about what happened to some of them. I suppose that will help sell the sequel.

The other thing was that he includes a separate but related novelette called the "Star Of India" where a group of people escape the plague by sailing away from civilization on an old ship. It was a real good story, but too short. I really wanted that part to be longer and more detailed. This book is worth buying.

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