Raining Fire

Ben Gold #3

by Rajan Khanna

Ben Gold, former airship pilot has lost his airship, his friends, and Miranda, the woman he loves. All that he has left is a thirst for revenge, a reckless plan to sate it, and some journal entries from Miranda to help ground him in the chaos. As he spirals out of control, he must survive old friends, new enemies, and of course Ferals, the mindless, violent victims of the global pandemic that shattered the world. Meanwhile, the Cabal, a group of scientists on the floating city of Valhalla, are using the disease as a weapon while the militant Valhallans continue their raiding and destruction across the continent. When raiders from Valhalla massacre a town of innocents, Ben finds a new purpose in doing anything he can to undermine their power. Ben must reunite with old friends and find new ones if he is to succeed. Can he overcome the forces arrayed against him in time to save himself—and maybe the world? From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Science Fiction

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2017

About the author

Rajan Khanna is a fiction writer, blogger, reviewer and narrator. His first novel, Falling Sky, a post-apocalyptic adventure with airships, was released in October 2014. It was followed by Rising Tide in 2015 and Raining Fire in 2017. His short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and several anthologies. His articles and reviews have appeared at Tor.com and LitReactor.com and his podcast narrations can be heard at Podcastle, Escape Pod, PseudoPod, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Lightspeed Magazine. Rajan lives in Brooklyn, NY where he's a member of the Altered Fluid writing group. His personal website is http://www.rajankhanna.com and he tweets, @rajanyk.

Reviews

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this for the most part, and was happy to see the attempts at giving Ben a bit more depth of character, but ultimately this was just a satisfactory read for me. I think the author is fairly adept at plotting and writing action sequences, but emotional engagement was where things were lacking slightly for me.

That showed up most in this last book because this was supposed to be where Ben showed the most emotional growth, and I can see the effort was made, but it just felt a bit flat to me. Part of the difficulty may have been that while I was reading this I also read Taste of Marrow, and it turns out that Sarah Gailey is a master of emotional engagement when it comes to characters. I know this book suffered by comparison while I was reading it.

While for the most part the main story is sort of tied up, at the same time it felt unfinished. Enough so that I needed the author to confirm in the end notes that this was indeed the last book of the series.

While I enjoyed the series overall, I was left feeling somewhat unsatisfied at the end.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.
I try hard to avoid entering a series already under way, because you never know if the story can stand on its own or if you need the previous books to understand what's happening. This novel is able to stand on its own while giving you just enough of the previous series to keep you in the know.
The dystopian world presented has mankind devastated by a virus that turns a person feral. It's the take on zombies that doesn't have them dying before they become killing machines.
This new landscape brings out the best & worst in mankind. Various groups are vying for control while others seek to help people, find a cure and live peaceably. Within this context, we find our protagonist (let's not call him a hero) fighting against everyone including himself.
Had I begun with book #1, I may have enjoyed this more as the characters develop and the storyline comes to a conclusion. If you want a dystopian that is set in the real world rather than relying upon prophecies and the mystical to push the plot along, this series would be a good fit.
Definitely beyond YA with foul language, adult content and violence one would expect from a world filled with feral & evil humans. Put this in the adults section.

* I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads giveaways *

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Lots of action, though I was not that engaged with Ben and his pain over Miranda. In fact, I wanted to smack Ben many times for his self-involvement and self-destructiveness. Of the two characters, I always felt more interested in Miranda and what she was doing and feeling. Through her journal entries in this book, the author lets us in to Miranda's thoughts, which was a welcome change over Ben's. By the end of this book, I was relieved that Ben was actually reflecting on how his behaviour and actions had repercussions, though Ben remained kind of flat as a character throughout the series. Miranda was my favourite over the series, and in this book continued to be intriguing and where my mind kept going during this final instalment of this series.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm all over the place with the reviews of this series, and after marking the second one up as compared to the first, this one I'm marking way down. It's competent enough, but I'm just out of interest in this world and its characters, and the story completely fails to recapture it. There is a sequence about half-way through that sets up a sort of homage to Mad Max 3 (save the children!) but it doesn't follow through.

That's actually the main problem with this book in my opinion. The follow through isn't really there and the setup was so shallow to begin with that the resolutions just aren't very satisfying. They're certainly not enough to overcome the main character moping through the first half of the book.

[Seizure Romero · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mild spoilers, but I don't care because this book is crap. It's everything I wrote about here multiplied.

Khanna needs an editor. This story is 20-50 pages too long. The masturbatory self-flagellation takes up much of it. Describing fight scenes in slo-mo (still bucking for that movie option?) takes up some of it. Too-stupid-to-live hero ramblings take up the rest.

For some reason, Khanna decided to add a second POV in the form of someone's journal entries. It does not enhance the story. Near the end of the book, there's a second first-person POV. It also does not enhance the story, but by this point I was way past done with the non-stop ridiculous, so it only generated an eyeroll and a muttered, "oh for fuck's sake...."

Not that I need more reasons, but I will admit a partial bias because Gold starts burning books in a library as a distraction in order to fulfill his revenge on another character. If you feature large scale book destruction (especially in a post-apocalyptic setting), I pretty much hate your character and you for using it as a plot point.* Gold walks into an obvious trap, has a shitty plan, but yet again manages to survive because he is the hero and the author can't kill him.

This entire series should be titled "Deus ex Machina: the Ben Gold Story" because there is no situation too ridiculous that Ben Gold can't survive. Because he's the hero.

I guess this was my hate-read for the year. I absolve myself of having to finish crappy books.





*The only book I can think of that manages to successfully violate this standard is The Club Dumas. You should read that instead. There aren't any airships, but then airships don't make this book any better, so....

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't handle the self pitying, suicidal, drunken protagonist, I quit after 75 pages.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced, gripping end to a wonderful saga with some truly unforgettable characters!

After finishing the second book in this series, Rising Tide, I couldn't wait for this one to come out to see where the story would go next. The world is all-too realistic and grim, but the cast of individuals making up the story are complex, multi-layered, with their own histories and reasons for dealing with life in different and sometimes contradictory ways. Totally believable, which draws you into the story and brings you along for the action-packed ride.

In this final volume of the trilogy, Ben Gold's narration is alternated with chapters from Miranda's diary, and the contrast between his dark wit and brusque style with her lyrical optimism mirrors the push and pull between their different viewpoints about what the world has become. Beyond being just a great adventure story with a breathtaking pace and a million great fight scenes, there's a depth to the meaning that the characters are seeking in surviving their world that is really affecting.

Despite this being the end of the trilogy, I hope this isn't the last we hear from Ben, in one form or another!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I jumped in and read this book without reading the first two in the series. I think it would have added more insight into the story to read the first two, but I felt like there was enough information in this book to follow what was going on. I enjoyed following Ben Gold throughout this book as he fought his way here, there, and back again. He had several scores to settle and he jumped right in to take care of business without much planning or forethought. It seemed pretty implausible that he would have had enough energy and blood to make it through all these fights but somehow he persevered. The story had several cool fight scenes and a few love interests to keep things interesting. Good book!

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven't started this series what are you waiting for? I found the whole series a fairly wild ride. My only main complaint is the ending. Satisfying yet un. There is so much more that the author could do with this world.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book, and a good ending to the series.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought about giving this four stars, but then I was not happy with the ending of this book and apparently the series.
To me this series was just building, but now it's over.

[David Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great conclusion to the Ben Gold steampunk series. Loved every page of it!