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The Ancient Guardians #4
Warden's Vengeance
The rebellion has been crushed.
Lord Anakreon and his crew are fleeing for their lives.
Now, as the survivors are hunted throughout the Empire, he conceives one last, desperate plan.
Winning is impossible.
Survival is unlikely.
But he will have his vengeance. And might just take some of the enemy with him.
For his apprentice Tristan, time is running out. All his life has been leading up to this point: he must step through the ancient alien Portal that killed his father.
What lies beyond it, no-one knows…
Because no-one has ever survived the journey.
But he has to try – the Black Ships are consuming planet after planet, utterly unstoppable in their bid to wipe out all life as we know it.
What he stands to learn could save the entire galaxy…
Or destroy it.
A pulse-pounding burst of action and adventure with a cast of powerful Wardens, quirky robots and seductive assassins. If you love Firefly and Star Wars, jump on board now for the ride of your life!
- GenresScience Fiction
419 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2019
93 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Tony James Slater
22 books238 followersTony James Slater is a very, very strange man. He believes himself to be indestructible, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. He sometimes makes strange faces whilst pretending to be attacked by inanimate objects. But perhaps his single biggest problem is this; he has a mouth so big he is in danger of swallowing his own head. As a result he often ends up far from mainstream civilization, tackling ridiculous challenges and subjecting himself to constant danger. He gets hurt quite a lot.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 29, 2020
Rip-roaring adventure, tearful tragedy, tummy-wobbling humour. This book, and the entire series, has them all. Fantastic stuff. So glad I found it.
January 8, 2020
The new year’s first review and, again, it’s a difficult one to write. In part because I did somewhat enjoy this latest instalment of “Ancient Guardians”. On the other hand, though, in spite of being a page-turner, I was constantly shifting between liking and hating this book.
First of all, it’s more of pretty much exactly the same as in the previous books - Tris is fighting for peace in the universe, tagging along are Kreon, Kyra and the others. There’s a new babysitter as well who remains pretty bleak and shallow, though.
The gore is back as well - not quite as annoying as in the third book but it’s still there, it’s still annoying and completely superfluous. I’m convinced it’s included for the kick some guys get out of such stuff.
Back in force as well are the typos, ungrammatical sentences, bad formatting, etc.; while I really think self-publishing is a great thing, one should at least make better use (or try to engage better) beta readers:
“One the one hand, a man like Gerian would demand the best when it came to his guards;”
Mistakes like that are just annoying and you’ll find lots of them - much more than in the previous books.
Exactly the same is also Tony’s tendency not to miss any cliché:
- Blood-thirsty monsters with razors on their hands? Check!
- Killer robots? Check!
- Murderous emperors & their clones? Check!
We’ve seen all of that before in science fiction films or read it in other books - just usually in a more original way. The way Tony works with his material more and more feels like he has simply reached the limits of his writing skills.
Tony writes hilariously brilliant travel literature but I grow weary of his juvenile kind of story-telling. Once the novelty had worn off, the mediocrity began to shine through.
Tony very, very clumsily tries to address issues of morality when he makes Tristan kill someone but it doesn’t get beyond the most trivial observations:
“ had seen the darkness in him, and had called him out on it. And Tris had killed him for it. ”
Another huge issue for me was that our heroes - as likeable as they may be - seem to have no real discernible talents beyond very specific “attributes” - Kreon is pretty much “bullet-proof”, Kyra is a great pilot, Ella’s talents as actually witnessed seem to be mostly restricted to the bedroom - in spite of her claim to be an assassin priestess - and Tris acts first and thinks afterwards. But at least he has his glaive and now a brain implant.
While they’re supposed to be high and mighty, what actually saves them is mostly dumb luck or the author’s liberal use of deus-ex-machina moments which Tony is at least not shy to acknowledge:
“Luckily, he had a miracle on speed-dial.”
There are tons of minor issues like the practically indistinguishable formatting mess that telepathic conversations are or stating the obvious: ““Guess we’re going that way,” Kyra said. And they did.”
And, still, “Warden’s Vengeance” with all its faults is a suspenseful, exciting book that I both loathe and like. Thus, I’m going to finish this series and will avoid any further fiction by Tony.
I suggest you simply pretend Tony never wrote anything but his wonderful travel memoirs which I can only highly recommend (especially Kamikaze Kangaroos!: A trip around Oz in a van called Rusty).
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First of all, it’s more of pretty much exactly the same as in the previous books - Tris is fighting for peace in the universe, tagging along are Kreon, Kyra and the others. There’s a new babysitter as well who remains pretty bleak and shallow, though.
The gore is back as well - not quite as annoying as in the third book but it’s still there, it’s still annoying and completely superfluous. I’m convinced it’s included for the kick some guys get out of such stuff.
Back in force as well are the typos, ungrammatical sentences, bad formatting, etc.; while I really think self-publishing is a great thing, one should at least make better use (or try to engage better) beta readers:
“One the one hand, a man like Gerian would demand the best when it came to his guards;”
Mistakes like that are just annoying and you’ll find lots of them - much more than in the previous books.
Exactly the same is also Tony’s tendency not to miss any cliché:
- Blood-thirsty monsters with razors on their hands? Check!
- Killer robots? Check!
- Murderous emperors & their clones? Check!
We’ve seen all of that before in science fiction films or read it in other books - just usually in a more original way. The way Tony works with his material more and more feels like he has simply reached the limits of his writing skills.
Tony writes hilariously brilliant travel literature but I grow weary of his juvenile kind of story-telling. Once the novelty had worn off, the mediocrity began to shine through.
Tony very, very clumsily tries to address issues of morality when he makes Tristan kill someone but it doesn’t get beyond the most trivial observations:
“ had seen the darkness in him, and had called him out on it. And Tris had killed him for it. ”
Another huge issue for me was that our heroes - as likeable as they may be - seem to have no real discernible talents beyond very specific “attributes” - Kreon is pretty much “bullet-proof”, Kyra is a great pilot, Ella’s talents as actually witnessed seem to be mostly restricted to the bedroom - in spite of her claim to be an assassin priestess - and Tris acts first and thinks afterwards. But at least he has his glaive and now a brain implant.
While they’re supposed to be high and mighty, what actually saves them is mostly dumb luck or the author’s liberal use of deus-ex-machina moments which Tony is at least not shy to acknowledge:
“Luckily, he had a miracle on speed-dial.”
There are tons of minor issues like the practically indistinguishable formatting mess that telepathic conversations are or stating the obvious: ““Guess we’re going that way,” Kyra said. And they did.”
And, still, “Warden’s Vengeance” with all its faults is a suspenseful, exciting book that I both loathe and like. Thus, I’m going to finish this series and will avoid any further fiction by Tony.
I suggest you simply pretend Tony never wrote anything but his wonderful travel memoirs which I can only highly recommend (especially Kamikaze Kangaroos!: A trip around Oz in a van called Rusty).
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November 11, 2019
‘Another day, another victory…another tragic loss’
Everything about Tony James Slater invites you to enter his life – at least as a voyeur. He seems to be from Australia (or at least someplace British with all the ’whilst’ and substituting s for z in verbs, jocular nicknames and terms we don’t hear often in the US). He describes himself as a ‘very, very strange man. He believes himself to be indestructible, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. He is often to be found making strange faces whilst pretending to be attacked by inanimate objects. It is for this reason (amongst others) that he chooses to spend his life far from mainstream civilization, tackling ridiculous challenges and subjecting himself to constant danger. He gets hurt quite a lot.’ That, by the way, is a fine example of his writing style – infectious is too benign an adjective. Tony also is an inordinately handsome man of movie star/model quality. But that is all peripheral information. Tony (and his wife Roo) are adventurers, and that is usually what his thunderously wonderful books are all about – travelling, science fiction, and howling with anecdotes.
Now that Tony has entered the realm of Science Fiction, he feels very at home there. He opens his Book 4 of The Ancient Guardians series novel with a fine Prologue – ‘The harsh wail of sirens was driving Lukas mad. It’s not like they were needed; in the first few seconds of their sounding, everyone in the Pit knew they were under attack. Lukas had been expecting it for days. Hell, everyone in the Ingumend resistance had been expecting it – ever since being forced to watch their leader savagely decapitated in a live broadcast…’
The synopsis helps seduce you into his very strange world - ‘The rebellion has been crushed. Lord Anakreon and his crew are fleeing for their lives. Now, as the survivors are hunted throughout the Empire, he conceives one last, desperate plan. Winning is impossible. Survival is unlikely. But he will have his vengeance. And might just take some of the enemy with him. For his apprentice Tristan, time is running out. All his life has been leading up to this point: he must step through the ancient alien Portal that killed his father. What lies beyond it, no-one knows… Because no one has ever survived the journey. But he has to try – the Black Ships are consuming planet after planet, utterly unstoppable in their bid to wipe out all life as we know it. What he stands to learn could save the entire galaxy…Or destroy it.’
Do you need to have read the first three volumes before tackling this one? No, but do yourself a favor and read the entire set. Book 4 in the series is the best one yet – and there is another volume on the way! A winner, here.
Everything about Tony James Slater invites you to enter his life – at least as a voyeur. He seems to be from Australia (or at least someplace British with all the ’whilst’ and substituting s for z in verbs, jocular nicknames and terms we don’t hear often in the US). He describes himself as a ‘very, very strange man. He believes himself to be indestructible, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. He is often to be found making strange faces whilst pretending to be attacked by inanimate objects. It is for this reason (amongst others) that he chooses to spend his life far from mainstream civilization, tackling ridiculous challenges and subjecting himself to constant danger. He gets hurt quite a lot.’ That, by the way, is a fine example of his writing style – infectious is too benign an adjective. Tony also is an inordinately handsome man of movie star/model quality. But that is all peripheral information. Tony (and his wife Roo) are adventurers, and that is usually what his thunderously wonderful books are all about – travelling, science fiction, and howling with anecdotes.
Now that Tony has entered the realm of Science Fiction, he feels very at home there. He opens his Book 4 of The Ancient Guardians series novel with a fine Prologue – ‘The harsh wail of sirens was driving Lukas mad. It’s not like they were needed; in the first few seconds of their sounding, everyone in the Pit knew they were under attack. Lukas had been expecting it for days. Hell, everyone in the Ingumend resistance had been expecting it – ever since being forced to watch their leader savagely decapitated in a live broadcast…’
The synopsis helps seduce you into his very strange world - ‘The rebellion has been crushed. Lord Anakreon and his crew are fleeing for their lives. Now, as the survivors are hunted throughout the Empire, he conceives one last, desperate plan. Winning is impossible. Survival is unlikely. But he will have his vengeance. And might just take some of the enemy with him. For his apprentice Tristan, time is running out. All his life has been leading up to this point: he must step through the ancient alien Portal that killed his father. What lies beyond it, no-one knows… Because no one has ever survived the journey. But he has to try – the Black Ships are consuming planet after planet, utterly unstoppable in their bid to wipe out all life as we know it. What he stands to learn could save the entire galaxy…Or destroy it.’
Do you need to have read the first three volumes before tackling this one? No, but do yourself a favor and read the entire set. Book 4 in the series is the best one yet – and there is another volume on the way! A winner, here.
October 21, 2020
Very good series but ineffectual main character.
Like the series as a whole, don’t like the main protagonist Tristan. It’s for books in and he has not shown any growth or maturity. He’s weak ineffectual and in not very interesting character. Cara would be a more interesting lead character and in my opinion should’ve been the warden’s apprentice. But since I started the Siris I will finish it. Give it a shot you may like it, all readers are different.
Like the series as a whole, don’t like the main protagonist Tristan. It’s for books in and he has not shown any growth or maturity. He’s weak ineffectual and in not very interesting character. Cara would be a more interesting lead character and in my opinion should’ve been the warden’s apprentice. But since I started the Siris I will finish it. Give it a shot you may like it, all readers are different.
July 4, 2021
Warden’s Vengeance is full of action. Just when you think Tris and the others are going to get a little break something else goes wrong. A few things are tied up by the end of this book, a few things are still left to be dealt with, and a couple things are just getting started. It has a satisfactory ended, though it did leave me wanting to read the fifth book in the series. I enjoyed it a lot and recommend it to people who enjoy sci fi.
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November 9, 2019Warden's Vengeance
Did I miss something in this story, Warden's Vengeance. Should it not have been Tris's Vengeance. I guess I did miss something, even though I read the book with relish.
Good story and highly recommended. Looking forward to the next book.
Did I miss something in this story, Warden's Vengeance. Should it not have been Tris's Vengeance. I guess I did miss something, even though I read the book with relish.
Good story and highly recommended. Looking forward to the next book.
January 5, 2020
If you know about tristan then read.
If you know about tristan then read on and be prepared. I was a little surprised and enjoyed finding out. It's like the rest of his life but more.Read and enjoy I certainly did
If you know about tristan then read on and be prepared. I was a little surprised and enjoyed finding out. It's like the rest of his life but more.Read and enjoy I certainly did
March 9, 2020
Well formed story with several plot line
This story was well written with interesting characters. The author kept the action and story moving quickly. I enjoyed the entire series. Thank!
This story was well written with interesting characters. The author kept the action and story moving quickly. I enjoyed the entire series. Thank!
November 27, 2019
So good
The adventure continues with non stop actions. It was so good. Can't wait for the next book to continue the adventure of these brave folks.
The adventure continues with non stop actions. It was so good. Can't wait for the next book to continue the adventure of these brave folks.
November 30, 2019
Non stop action
From battlefield to battlefield the action just keeps coming! The scenes are so real the reader is tired as if their doing the fighting!
From battlefield to battlefield the action just keeps coming! The scenes are so real the reader is tired as if their doing the fighting!
December 4, 2019
This is the 4th in the series and the story continues to grip me. The authors writing style means I read these books in one sitting as I cannot put them down
January 31, 2021
Great storyline
Wow another great storyline with plenty of blood and guts lol.. Looking forward to seeing the next episode of the Team in action
Wow another great storyline with plenty of blood and guts lol.. Looking forward to seeing the next episode of the Team in action
April 24, 2020
WOW!!! The best yet!
Absolutely fascinating story, non-stop action( and I mean non-stop). This blows away all other sci-fi books out there! Thanks Tony you keep making the story better, can't wait for next book!
Absolutely fascinating story, non-stop action( and I mean non-stop). This blows away all other sci-fi books out there! Thanks Tony you keep making the story better, can't wait for next book!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews