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Honor and Duty #1
Vengeance from Ashes
First, they took away her command. Then they took away her freedom. But they couldn't take away her duty and honor. Now they want her back. Captain Ashlyn Shaw has survived two years in a brutal military prison. Now those who betrayed her are offering the chance for freedom. All she has to do is trust them not to betray her and her people again. If she can do that, and if she can survive the war that looms on the horizon, she can reclaim her life and get the vengeance she's dreamed of for so long. But only if she can forget the betrayal and do her duty.This new edition contains new material not included in the original release of this book.
330 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 17, 2014
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87 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 5, 2014
The few authors I know aren't fond of being compared to other authors but hey, that's how we readers think. In this case, I'll compare "Vengeance from Ashes" favorably to David Weber's earlier, compact works. The title puns on the hero's name--Ash--who was railroaded two years ago by a military court martial to cover up stupid and illegal orders by her superiors that got most of Ash's command killed. She's sent to a prison planet that's a nice slice of Hell, which is where we find her. Her sense of honor and obligation to the troops who were sent to prison with her have kept Ash sane and, if anything, sharpened her feelings about duty. When her friends in the military get Ash's conviction overturned and she's returned to duty, the people whose financial interests led to the situation in the first place.
Like Weber, there are believable, human characters, even among the baddies, and the military aspects are reasonably accurate. Ash's self-reconstruction from almost-broken prisoner to military commander was very well written, though I would have liked to get into her head more. I also would have liked a greater understanding of just why she's so well-respected by the people around her. There are dialog snippets that touch on this, but greater explanation or a flashback or three in the right places would have helped a lot.
While they don't take away from the story overall, some observations: There's not a lot of science here; this is more of a military thriller than a sci-fi novel, interplanetary travel notwithstanding. Also, some of the surprises could have been foreshadowed, a technique I always enjoy, as it motivates me to re-read the story to pick up the references. The linearity of the plot and the gaps in back story were really the deciders that kept me from giving this five stars.
As always, I'm pleased to read a story with few (there are always at least a couple) typos, particularly when I'm such a manticore (Ha! Weber reference!!) when the proofing is bad.
Overall, a very good read. Sam, please consider adding a bit more background on the central characters. A bit more science in the universe would always be appreciated, as well. I'm not looking for a Weber-verse, but some indication that science has affected day-to-day life over the next few thousand years would be good.
Like Weber, there are believable, human characters, even among the baddies, and the military aspects are reasonably accurate. Ash's self-reconstruction from almost-broken prisoner to military commander was very well written, though I would have liked to get into her head more. I also would have liked a greater understanding of just why she's so well-respected by the people around her. There are dialog snippets that touch on this, but greater explanation or a flashback or three in the right places would have helped a lot.
While they don't take away from the story overall, some observations: There's not a lot of science here; this is more of a military thriller than a sci-fi novel, interplanetary travel notwithstanding. Also, some of the surprises could have been foreshadowed, a technique I always enjoy, as it motivates me to re-read the story to pick up the references. The linearity of the plot and the gaps in back story were really the deciders that kept me from giving this five stars.
As always, I'm pleased to read a story with few (there are always at least a couple) typos, particularly when I'm such a manticore (Ha! Weber reference!!) when the proofing is bad.
Overall, a very good read. Sam, please consider adding a bit more background on the central characters. A bit more science in the universe would always be appreciated, as well. I'm not looking for a Weber-verse, but some indication that science has affected day-to-day life over the next few thousand years would be good.
September 15, 2015
Darn! I was hoping. But no. This book is not ready for prime time. It's the kind of thing new writers write, then sling the manuscript into a drawer, and then write four or five more books until they have figured out their craft and finally can turn out something publishable.
Here's the thing - the author's passion for this story and her characters is evident in every single page. Which should be celebrated. She also clearly has been living with all of these characters and places in her head for a long time. But she doesn't have the story telling skill -yet -to realize that she's way too darn close to them and intense about them to actually tell the story well.
Too many characters are introduced throughout (even in the very last pages of the book) who she has important feelings about but who have no purpose in the current story. I don't need names and backgrounds of people who will just walk in the door and then out of it. You have to have a good reason to draw a reader's attention to a particular background character.
Also the pacing is off - in particular during the entire battle sequence near the start of the book. It slows to a crawl, and we see the same action duplicated from multiple characters' points of view, without any insight being added. It's just repetitive and kills momentum.
The child/plot muppet is handled badly. A five year old who has not seen his parent since he was two would not rush out to hug her in the street the second she showed up. That parent would be a close to a complete stranger to him! Later we hear how important being a parent is to the heroine...but we never see her act on it or interact with her child. It doesn't feel real. I also don't understand why we are told multiple times that the child's grandmother is his key caretaker - his grandfather is retired as well! Why is the female grandparent the only one considered in the equation? This becomes even odder when the female grandparent returns to active duty but her husband does not....
The bad guys also don't feel real, in large part because they are so very unmitigatedly bad, evil, corrupt and cowardly. They are stick figures, there for the heroine to snarl at.
Overall the world building is a mix of overwrought details (we learn a lot about the bland-sounding architecture of a residential building in the national capital), the non-existent (we learn absolutely nothing about the "enemy" who the heroine has dedicated her life to fighting. Are they aliens? Are they another human empire? Why are they the enemy? Etc.), and the decidedly unimaginative. In this case, the military are close to identical to a zillion other fictional militaries, as well as good old American marines, who the heroine's unit are clearly modeled on.
Sometimes the plot is not believable - the heroine is so famous that her personal tribulations caused an entire multi-planet government to fall? Really? But, um, she's just a marine, and not the head marine or anything. Also, after being massively betrayed by her government, she has no compunction or a micro-seconds' concern about rejoining the military and serving her nation again. Really?
The book doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, but none of the mysteries the plot brings up have been solved. We don't know who the bad guys are or why they are doing what they are doing or anything really. We are left with nothing but unresolved plot. Which makes this all feel more like an introduction to a book, than an entire book.
Physically, the print version of this book is annoying as well. The typeface is ENORMOUS. It's that large print size. Which made it harder for me to read. And, although the heroine is described as having short black hair with a white bit, the cover shows a blonde.
So in summary - passionate amateur author mess.
Here's the thing - the author's passion for this story and her characters is evident in every single page. Which should be celebrated. She also clearly has been living with all of these characters and places in her head for a long time. But she doesn't have the story telling skill -yet -to realize that she's way too darn close to them and intense about them to actually tell the story well.
Too many characters are introduced throughout (even in the very last pages of the book) who she has important feelings about but who have no purpose in the current story. I don't need names and backgrounds of people who will just walk in the door and then out of it. You have to have a good reason to draw a reader's attention to a particular background character.
Also the pacing is off - in particular during the entire battle sequence near the start of the book. It slows to a crawl, and we see the same action duplicated from multiple characters' points of view, without any insight being added. It's just repetitive and kills momentum.
The child/plot muppet is handled badly. A five year old who has not seen his parent since he was two would not rush out to hug her in the street the second she showed up. That parent would be a close to a complete stranger to him! Later we hear how important being a parent is to the heroine...but we never see her act on it or interact with her child. It doesn't feel real. I also don't understand why we are told multiple times that the child's grandmother is his key caretaker - his grandfather is retired as well! Why is the female grandparent the only one considered in the equation? This becomes even odder when the female grandparent returns to active duty but her husband does not....
The bad guys also don't feel real, in large part because they are so very unmitigatedly bad, evil, corrupt and cowardly. They are stick figures, there for the heroine to snarl at.
Overall the world building is a mix of overwrought details (we learn a lot about the bland-sounding architecture of a residential building in the national capital), the non-existent (we learn absolutely nothing about the "enemy" who the heroine has dedicated her life to fighting. Are they aliens? Are they another human empire? Why are they the enemy? Etc.), and the decidedly unimaginative. In this case, the military are close to identical to a zillion other fictional militaries, as well as good old American marines, who the heroine's unit are clearly modeled on.
Sometimes the plot is not believable - the heroine is so famous that her personal tribulations caused an entire multi-planet government to fall? Really? But, um, she's just a marine, and not the head marine or anything. Also, after being massively betrayed by her government, she has no compunction or a micro-seconds' concern about rejoining the military and serving her nation again. Really?
The book doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger, but none of the mysteries the plot brings up have been solved. We don't know who the bad guys are or why they are doing what they are doing or anything really. We are left with nothing but unresolved plot. Which makes this all feel more like an introduction to a book, than an entire book.
Physically, the print version of this book is annoying as well. The typeface is ENORMOUS. It's that large print size. Which made it harder for me to read. And, although the heroine is described as having short black hair with a white bit, the cover shows a blonde.
So in summary - passionate amateur author mess.
July 29, 2014
I especially liked the first half of this book. The second half slowed down a little bit and I was left feeling a little unsatisfied that the main character did not get any form of revenge. At least yet. I'm looking forward to the next in the series and hope that it offers some of the same grit and action as the first half of this book. I enjoyed the character but was a little dissapointed how she seemed to soften so quickly. I was expecting more outbursts of anger and violence considering all she'd been through. I was also a little taken aback to find out she had a child. It seemed at odds somehow with her implied youth (everyone keeps referring to her as "kid") and the tough marine image portrayed at the beginning of the book. I had a hard time reconciling the two roles (mother and marine) for some reason.
April 15, 2015
Not a perfect book - too much repetition of basic themes sometimes - but very interesting, good story, liked the main character. Looking forward to the next one coming out.
September 8, 2019
A SYFY. Military Action Adventure (VFA.) (HADB - 1)
Ss/ASH have penned a SYFY novel about a company of Marines who were sent to prison for obeying irders. After two years the Marine Officers above those people who were not responsible for the problems they encountered. The Devil Dogs in prison were released. The home planet has been attacked twice and now the Marines are back in full force. This is an excellent read for the genre....DEHS
Ss/ASH have penned a SYFY novel about a company of Marines who were sent to prison for obeying irders. After two years the Marine Officers above those people who were not responsible for the problems they encountered. The Devil Dogs in prison were released. The home planet has been attacked twice and now the Marines are back in full force. This is an excellent read for the genre....DEHS
August 27, 2023
Not an amazing book, but I enjoyed reading it. My biggest complaint is I can't tell if it takes PTSD seriously or not. There's constant talk of the main character facing it and slowly moving on... But often in ways that I personally think have an equal chance to do more damage. It's more of a "just face it and you'll be fine". It doesn't fall into the problem of just ignoring it or a single incident that fixes her though, which I appreciate.
September 16, 2018
Great start to this military sci-fi series, with interesting characters and villians. A little cheesy in parts, but not to distraction and similar to many Baen publications. If you like those, you'll like this series too.
October 2, 2018
2 stars. Couldn't finish. Unrealistic plot, story, and characters
June 7, 2014
WOW!
I discovered this book by accident and decided to buy it as it was reputed to be just like David Weber and oh boy, were they ever right a la "In Fury Born." An adrenaline-charged thrill ride from start to finish, this military sci fi book is the first in a series starring a female marine officer wrongly sentenced to a penal colony with her people. This book details her odyssey, with help from friends, family, and the Corps, to rescue her marines and to discover all those in the conspiracy who betrayed them and their motives for doing so, all amid renewal of intergalactic war. Although short, I really didn't notice as I might otherwise because I was so enthralled. The author tells us he was inspired by "Starship Troopers." To me, the book is more reminiscent of Jean Johnson's books, beginning with "A Soldier's Duty." One way in which this author is exactly like early David Weber works is the author's use of changing points of view to switch from the good guys to the bad guys, a literary device I do not like, but a minor quibble as thankfully he doesn't spend much time on it except at the beginning. I hope he publishes book two tomorrow so he get on book three ASAP.
I discovered this book by accident and decided to buy it as it was reputed to be just like David Weber and oh boy, were they ever right a la "In Fury Born." An adrenaline-charged thrill ride from start to finish, this military sci fi book is the first in a series starring a female marine officer wrongly sentenced to a penal colony with her people. This book details her odyssey, with help from friends, family, and the Corps, to rescue her marines and to discover all those in the conspiracy who betrayed them and their motives for doing so, all amid renewal of intergalactic war. Although short, I really didn't notice as I might otherwise because I was so enthralled. The author tells us he was inspired by "Starship Troopers." To me, the book is more reminiscent of Jean Johnson's books, beginning with "A Soldier's Duty." One way in which this author is exactly like early David Weber works is the author's use of changing points of view to switch from the good guys to the bad guys, a literary device I do not like, but a minor quibble as thankfully he doesn't spend much time on it except at the beginning. I hope he publishes book two tomorrow so he get on book three ASAP.
March 5, 2017
This was a mediocre novel at best. A Marine Captain (Furconese Marines) got the A-Team treatment and was stuck in Shawshank Penal Colony for 2 years until her friends on the outside could change the political system to get her out. Then everything got all better. The end.
No, really, that's kind of how it goes. The story plot had the potential to be a good one, but the climactic points were distinctly lackluster. The main character was hyped to be an essential and awesome military hero with distinguished prowess, but it was never - not even once - shown in the book. Nothing happened. The story would build up to a point where the SHTF was supposed to be, then nothing happened. The story just fell flat. It was supposed to be about vengeance, but no vengeance was ever taken by the main character. She always backed out of taking any action. All the things that ever happened in the story happened TO the character, rather than being done BY the character. In short, it was as boring as watching paint dry.
No, really, that's kind of how it goes. The story plot had the potential to be a good one, but the climactic points were distinctly lackluster. The main character was hyped to be an essential and awesome military hero with distinguished prowess, but it was never - not even once - shown in the book. Nothing happened. The story would build up to a point where the SHTF was supposed to be, then nothing happened. The story just fell flat. It was supposed to be about vengeance, but no vengeance was ever taken by the main character. She always backed out of taking any action. All the things that ever happened in the story happened TO the character, rather than being done BY the character. In short, it was as boring as watching paint dry.
September 8, 2015
This book had a weird information distribution. On one hand, some information was constantly repeated (by the same character, by each new character introduced, and then again chapters later). We hear over and over about the history behind Shaw's imprisonment, and while we do need that info, I don't think we needed it quite so often and from all the characters.
On the other hand, some information that would have been nice to know was never given. Why are they fighting this war? Who is the enemy? We get a name, but no other information. Why is Shaw so vital to the war effort? The only thing we're told about her past is that she's got morals and loyalty. But that's not really unique? All the other characters associated with her are likewise ethical and loyal people. Did they rescue her because they need her specific help, or because it's the right thing to do? I feel like that distinction got blurred in places and it felt off to me.
I think part of the problem is that this reads like the first half of a book rather than a complete novel. We only get the set up, but not the pay off.
On the other hand, some information that would have been nice to know was never given. Why are they fighting this war? Who is the enemy? We get a name, but no other information. Why is Shaw so vital to the war effort? The only thing we're told about her past is that she's got morals and loyalty. But that's not really unique? All the other characters associated with her are likewise ethical and loyal people. Did they rescue her because they need her specific help, or because it's the right thing to do? I feel like that distinction got blurred in places and it felt off to me.
I think part of the problem is that this reads like the first half of a book rather than a complete novel. We only get the set up, but not the pay off.
February 17, 2015
Limited action, more intrigue associated with corruption in the military and civilian government. Fourth star based on expectations for the sequels and good story line.
An infantry (marine or army) that appears to have a large minority of females stretches reality a bit. Despite power-assisted amour and similar technology, the marine or soldier would still need to be able to perform in a very physical environment without the tech assists. A genetic back story would best explain a more narrow gap in strength and endurance between the sexes (see Honor Harrington).
All that said, I enjoyed the story and look forward to the sequels.
An infantry (marine or army) that appears to have a large minority of females stretches reality a bit. Despite power-assisted amour and similar technology, the marine or soldier would still need to be able to perform in a very physical environment without the tech assists. A genetic back story would best explain a more narrow gap in strength and endurance between the sexes (see Honor Harrington).
All that said, I enjoyed the story and look forward to the sequels.
August 29, 2014
Wow! What a beginning -- and the story only gets better from there. The imprisoned heroine is set free, but the forces that betrayed her are gathering to take down the government entirely... There is a lot of action and a lot of (satisfying!) retribution for the horrible treatment that occurred mostly off-camera (thank goodness).
I liked the prickly heroine a lot, and will look forward to reading about her further adventures.
I liked the prickly heroine a lot, and will look forward to reading about her further adventures.
May 25, 2015
Very readable story with a protagonist that is impossible not to root for. My only nit is minor in that sometimes the main character's feelings are over done. The trust issues are first and foremost at all times... and understandably so, but it became too much at times and I found myself thinking... "Alright already, I get it."
Minor nit in that I never felt like it was a deal breaker and I enthusiastically read each page and fully intend to follow to the story's conclusion.
Minor nit in that I never felt like it was a deal breaker and I enthusiastically read each page and fully intend to follow to the story's conclusion.
August 14, 2014
Great Read
Great Read
Anyone who has enjoyed Norton (my first auther) , Weber, Ringo, authors who write about honor and military in space will enjoy this book and (like me) will look forward for further adventures with Captain Shaw.
Great Read
Anyone who has enjoyed Norton (my first auther) , Weber, Ringo, authors who write about honor and military in space will enjoy this book and (like me) will look forward for further adventures with Captain Shaw.
April 23, 2015
Wow. This book kicks butt. I love the heroine. I love the premise. I can't wait to read the other two in this trilogy. The writing reminds me of Mike Shepherd's Kris Longknife series, which I love. Gimme more.
October 10, 2015
I like that Ash didn't instantly recover from her incarceration. I don't think I could have trusted anyone again, but apparently Ash is made of tougher stuff than I am. Interesting enough to pick up the second book in the series - free on Kindle Unlimited.
September 20, 2015
Not a bad story, but it could use some serious editing.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews