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Ravens From the Ashes
Fiona Bishop, celebrated supermodel and recent pariah of the entertainment news after stabbing a paparazzi photographer in the mouth with a penknife, welcomed the end of the world after the week she had.The apocalypse started on a Saturday and for better or worse, Las Vegas survived. The Extinction War might have wiped Las Vegas from the face of the planet were it not for a former pole-dancer from Louisiana, a single mother straight off a commune, and a mafia widow. And Fiona might have fulfilled her plan of living fast, dying young, and leaving a beautiful, redheaded corpse if she hadn’t discovered the joys of big guns, hot women, and high explosives. In the wake of the first wave of the invasion, when Las Vegas was supposed to shrivel in the desert, choked by the smoke of war, three bloody queens collected survivors and waged their own war for survival. Rather than submit to alien invaders, ruthless drug cartels, and bloodthirsty bikers, lady ravens rose from the ashes, just in time for a second apocalypse.
341 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2014
6 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Cassandra Duffy
14 books84 followersCassandra Duffy spent most of her childhood being precocious, which stopped being entertaining or impressive when she grew into an adult, at which point she had to start being precious. After being an outcast child prodigy it was no surprise when she graduated from one of the many fine University of California schools a year early to follow her girlfriend in a cross country move.
She writes a free-lance sex advice column found in various lesbian magazines and dating websites. Her short story collections and novels can be found on her website.
Two of her greatest prides are being a true California girl and author of some truly naughty things. She is a dutiful partially-Asian daughter who is beloved by her fairly traditional Korean father who thinks having a gay daughter is just fine as long as she keeps playing coed flag football. She is a stereotypical younger sister, and an adoring aunt of a hilarious little boy. Being a modern techno-freak, gamer-girl, she spent most of her childhood dreaming of being a video game designer, but changed her mind and brought her dreams of world building and story-weaving to writing unique romance novels.
Cassandra is a gleefully monogamous girlfriend to an earthbound goddess who was once her high school bully, but has done a magnificent job of making up for all the school girl nastiness ever since. When she isn't being an avid fang girl (vampire fan girl) or tormenting people in online gaming, she lives and writes in Winter Park, Florida with her partner and soul mate Nichole and their two cats: Dragon and Josephine.
She writes a free-lance sex advice column found in various lesbian magazines and dating websites. Her short story collections and novels can be found on her website.
Two of her greatest prides are being a true California girl and author of some truly naughty things. She is a dutiful partially-Asian daughter who is beloved by her fairly traditional Korean father who thinks having a gay daughter is just fine as long as she keeps playing coed flag football. She is a stereotypical younger sister, and an adoring aunt of a hilarious little boy. Being a modern techno-freak, gamer-girl, she spent most of her childhood dreaming of being a video game designer, but changed her mind and brought her dreams of world building and story-weaving to writing unique romance novels.
Cassandra is a gleefully monogamous girlfriend to an earthbound goddess who was once her high school bully, but has done a magnificent job of making up for all the school girl nastiness ever since. When she isn't being an avid fang girl (vampire fan girl) or tormenting people in online gaming, she lives and writes in Winter Park, Florida with her partner and soul mate Nichole and their two cats: Dragon and Josephine.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 26, 2015
When civilization falls, the Ravens build a new one in Duffy's best book yet. Wow, this book was worth the wait! I've said for awhile now that Duffy is one of my favorite new authors and this book only strengthens that.She continues to grow as a writer and world-builder, transporting you from the first page into a evocative and fully believable take on an Alien invasion story. Though starting out showing Fiona's lazy, complacent life of self-destruction and excess, once the crap hits the fan the tension rarely lets up and I found myself unable to put it down. Worry for the safety of the characters you come to love is overpowering at times and the stakes feel every bit as high as they should in such a scenario. The alien invasion is terrifying and the shock and confusion of the people caught up in it is vividly illustrated. Part of Duffy's cleverness in her world building comes later when you learn the aliens aren't what you'd expect once you finally learn a bit about them.
I've loved the previous three books in this universe and they did a terrific job of giving you a sense of the characters shared histories and adventures prior to where they find themselves now. So I was extremely interested to find out how the Raven Ladies came into being and what Fiona's relationship with Veronica was like in the good (bad) old days. Being the first part of a prequel trilogy this doesn't fill in all those blanks but it puts everything in motion perfectly and you can see that exciting and dangerous times are ahead.
All the main characters are awesome women with believable arcs, wants and conflicts. Fiona surprisingly, seeing as how she's a main character later, is the least filled in as a person, but then she's someone who never really knew herself or what she wanted out of life so it feels right that it would take her some time. It's startling to see her fumble and fail on the battlefield here after being used to her cool deadliness in the later books, but again it's understandable and handled well. Veronica was a charismatic force for the short time we knew her in her previous appearance and she pretty much conquers this book with her nigh indomitable will and presence. We also spend time with a few other women and all of them are human, distinct and enjoyable.
Duffy really feels engaged and excited while creating this world and I can't stress enough how refreshing it is to read. I've mentioned the tension, but there's always a wicked humor present as well as a strong sense of outrage at the infuriating, violent and benign sexism of our modern life. And now these woman can do something about it! It's heady stuff and there are several moments when you'll want to cheer our ladies on!
I've loved the previous three books in this universe and they did a terrific job of giving you a sense of the characters shared histories and adventures prior to where they find themselves now. So I was extremely interested to find out how the Raven Ladies came into being and what Fiona's relationship with Veronica was like in the good (bad) old days. Being the first part of a prequel trilogy this doesn't fill in all those blanks but it puts everything in motion perfectly and you can see that exciting and dangerous times are ahead.
All the main characters are awesome women with believable arcs, wants and conflicts. Fiona surprisingly, seeing as how she's a main character later, is the least filled in as a person, but then she's someone who never really knew herself or what she wanted out of life so it feels right that it would take her some time. It's startling to see her fumble and fail on the battlefield here after being used to her cool deadliness in the later books, but again it's understandable and handled well. Veronica was a charismatic force for the short time we knew her in her previous appearance and she pretty much conquers this book with her nigh indomitable will and presence. We also spend time with a few other women and all of them are human, distinct and enjoyable.
Duffy really feels engaged and excited while creating this world and I can't stress enough how refreshing it is to read. I've mentioned the tension, but there's always a wicked humor present as well as a strong sense of outrage at the infuriating, violent and benign sexism of our modern life. And now these woman can do something about it! It's heady stuff and there are several moments when you'll want to cheer our ladies on!
May 20, 2017
All told, this is probably the best written book in the on-going Raven Ladies Saga. The problem though, is that it's a prequel.
The first half of this book is really good. The initial destruction of the world. The coming together of several key characters. Their cobbling together of a new community. Them fighting to protect it. Really good stuff.
Duffy is excellent at action, and her characters are great. Veronica - who was a side character in the first book - is now essentially the lead in this book (Just edging out Fiona as the other of the two primary perspective characters), and she's great. Cool, capable, sexy, and badass.
Fiona I found to be more of an issue. To start with it's great. We meet her before the destruction of the world as a detached, nihilistic shell who's just floating through her glamorous life as a model on a cloud of drugs and empty sexual encounters. Totally fits.
And as the story goes on she develops and comes more into her own, discovering more about herself and becoming more human, and so on. The problem is that Duffy tries to have it both ways. The Fiona that we met in the original trilogy - set years later - is a cold blooded psychopath who slowly gets her shell cracked by the woman who grows to love her. But even so, she remains hard as nails - And I fucking loved her for it.
Now in this book, she's already being softened right down in order to give her an arc - which for me, lessens her status.
That along with the second half of the story is what let things down for me, because the second half is where you're truly reminded that this is a prequel, and are basically left waiting for all the events that you already know the outcomes to, to play themselves out. All of it eventually leading to the finish we all knew had to come.
I recon this would have been a far more interesting book if Duffy had chosen to write it first, because then the construction of the Lazy Ravens as a Criminal Empire/modern Government would have probably taken center stage - and then the growths and fractures within could have been its focus. Rather than us having to meander through some love triangle full of petty back stabbing bullshit (All of which we were already totally familiar with) between Veronica, Fiona, and Carolyn.
I would much prefer to see this as a standalone prequel (rather than the start of a new trilogy) and have the story crack on from the original.
Still, really well written and a lot of fun. I'm almost inclined to give it a full four stars because of that, but I just found the second half to be too damn redundant.
***1/2
The first half of this book is really good. The initial destruction of the world. The coming together of several key characters. Their cobbling together of a new community. Them fighting to protect it. Really good stuff.
Duffy is excellent at action, and her characters are great. Veronica - who was a side character in the first book - is now essentially the lead in this book (Just edging out Fiona as the other of the two primary perspective characters), and she's great. Cool, capable, sexy, and badass.
Fiona I found to be more of an issue. To start with it's great. We meet her before the destruction of the world as a detached, nihilistic shell who's just floating through her glamorous life as a model on a cloud of drugs and empty sexual encounters. Totally fits.
And as the story goes on she develops and comes more into her own, discovering more about herself and becoming more human, and so on. The problem is that Duffy tries to have it both ways. The Fiona that we met in the original trilogy - set years later - is a cold blooded psychopath who slowly gets her shell cracked by the woman who grows to love her. But even so, she remains hard as nails - And I fucking loved her for it.
Now in this book, she's already being softened right down in order to give her an arc - which for me, lessens her status.
That along with the second half of the story is what let things down for me, because the second half is where you're truly reminded that this is a prequel, and are basically left waiting for all the events that you already know the outcomes to, to play themselves out. All of it eventually leading to the finish we all knew had to come.
I recon this would have been a far more interesting book if Duffy had chosen to write it first, because then the construction of the Lazy Ravens as a Criminal Empire/modern Government would have probably taken center stage - and then the growths and fractures within could have been its focus. Rather than us having to meander through some love triangle full of petty back stabbing bullshit (All of which we were already totally familiar with) between Veronica, Fiona, and Carolyn.
I would much prefer to see this as a standalone prequel (rather than the start of a new trilogy) and have the story crack on from the original.
Still, really well written and a lot of fun. I'm almost inclined to give it a full four stars because of that, but I just found the second half to be too damn redundant.
***1/2
December 6, 2015
I read this in part due to the really good story that was told in the Gunfighter and the Gearhead, the first book in this author's series. First, I want to state upfront that I'm a male consumer of a lot of urban paranormal books, who really enjoys snarky, kick butt women as lead protagonists. My favorite authors include Kim Harrison, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, Jennifer Estep, Faith Hunter and SM Stein (except for Stein I've read all of their books). So I'm no stranger to strong independent women as my main protagonist. I also have no problem with gay or lesbian lead characters. Gunfighter featured a compelling lead character that was interesting and just happened to be lesbian. I gave it 5 stars.
Though there is some good storytelling in Ravens and it has some good moments, some excellent world building, and a credible alien threat, it suffers from two problems: 1) The book is supposed to be a prequel to Gunfighter, and the relationships that are created and torn asunder in this book do not track with the state of those relationships in Gunfighter, or the portrayals of some of the characters. How Fiona and the other women got from here to there doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me?
My favorite character still remains Fiona, who is plausibly presented as a flawed person with just the right temperament to flourish in this dystopian future. Sadly, the author frequently shifted narratives, focusing on some of the other characters that were presented less sympathetically in Gunfighter. This creates an emotional dissonance, since the characters are unrecognizable from one book to the other, and the reasons for Fiona's distrust of them is altogether absent.
2) Too often the author has an agenda. Men are overwhelmingly evil, cruel and incapable. So the only thing they're really good for is cannon fodder. In most cases, the main female protagonists that become leaders don't fully exploit the capabilities of the men in her command in service of this belief. In only one case was the man portrayed as even remotely capable.
It's pretty typical for writers in this genre--dystopian futures--to depict a Hobbesian future where "only the strong survive." This usually means the antagonists abandon civility, not only to survive, but also to gain power and satisfy their base desires. All of the main antagonists fall victim to this cruel vision of the future, and the victims tend to be too weak, too stupid or too naive to understand that this is the world you live in. Meanwhile, the main protagonists become more aggressive, though they do not abandon their humanity altogether.
But in Ravens, its only the men who really abandon their humanity, not the women. And when the women are overly cruel, the men were asking for it--which in some cases they were. It's just not plausible that this is the way all men are, but none of the women. It's just as unbelievable and annoying as portraying all women as weak, incapable and naive.
Some women in the book want to turn the tables on men, but its presented as some Utopian vision of the future. If the author just wanted to turn the tables on the patriarchal society, that's one thing, but her characters kept spouted women are just as capable as men rhetoric, even as they treated the men as if they were overwhelmingly incapable, cruel and evil. It distracts from the narrative, which does have a lot to offer.
Despite my frustration with these two issues, the book is not dominated by these flaws, just often enough to lower my rating to a 2.5 or 3. I likely won't be reading future installments, though, which is a shame. The flaws are distracting enough that I kept being thrown out of the narrative flow. I thought some of the characters and situations were well presented and Fiona is a well structured, interesting character, whose exploits I enjoyed reading about.
Though there is some good storytelling in Ravens and it has some good moments, some excellent world building, and a credible alien threat, it suffers from two problems: 1) The book is supposed to be a prequel to Gunfighter, and the relationships that are created and torn asunder in this book do not track with the state of those relationships in Gunfighter, or the portrayals of some of the characters. How Fiona and the other women got from here to there doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me?
My favorite character still remains Fiona, who is plausibly presented as a flawed person with just the right temperament to flourish in this dystopian future. Sadly, the author frequently shifted narratives, focusing on some of the other characters that were presented less sympathetically in Gunfighter. This creates an emotional dissonance, since the characters are unrecognizable from one book to the other, and the reasons for Fiona's distrust of them is altogether absent.
2) Too often the author has an agenda. Men are overwhelmingly evil, cruel and incapable. So the only thing they're really good for is cannon fodder. In most cases, the main female protagonists that become leaders don't fully exploit the capabilities of the men in her command in service of this belief. In only one case was the man portrayed as even remotely capable.
It's pretty typical for writers in this genre--dystopian futures--to depict a Hobbesian future where "only the strong survive." This usually means the antagonists abandon civility, not only to survive, but also to gain power and satisfy their base desires. All of the main antagonists fall victim to this cruel vision of the future, and the victims tend to be too weak, too stupid or too naive to understand that this is the world you live in. Meanwhile, the main protagonists become more aggressive, though they do not abandon their humanity altogether.
But in Ravens, its only the men who really abandon their humanity, not the women. And when the women are overly cruel, the men were asking for it--which in some cases they were. It's just not plausible that this is the way all men are, but none of the women. It's just as unbelievable and annoying as portraying all women as weak, incapable and naive.
Some women in the book want to turn the tables on men, but its presented as some Utopian vision of the future. If the author just wanted to turn the tables on the patriarchal society, that's one thing, but her characters kept spouted women are just as capable as men rhetoric, even as they treated the men as if they were overwhelmingly incapable, cruel and evil. It distracts from the narrative, which does have a lot to offer.
Despite my frustration with these two issues, the book is not dominated by these flaws, just often enough to lower my rating to a 2.5 or 3. I likely won't be reading future installments, though, which is a shame. The flaws are distracting enough that I kept being thrown out of the narrative flow. I thought some of the characters and situations were well presented and Fiona is a well structured, interesting character, whose exploits I enjoyed reading about.
February 28, 2015
Shit has hit the fan. And from the ashes rise the woman??
The world as we know it are changing. Fast! Who'll take the lead in the new era.
This is the first book in Cassandra Duffy's new trilogy. And I must say it's interesting enough that I'll buy the sequel. (3+ from me)
Hans Erik
The world as we know it are changing. Fast! Who'll take the lead in the new era.
This is the first book in Cassandra Duffy's new trilogy. And I must say it's interesting enough that I'll buy the sequel. (3+ from me)
Hans Erik
July 16, 2016
I really enjoyed the lazy ravens trilogy and was so glad to see that a prequel was out. I'm really looking forward to the next one
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews