Embers of War
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4.1 • 160 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
THE FIRST IN A SCI-FI TRILOGY: This “smart, funny, tragic” space opera puts a fresh spin on genre tropes with Firefly vibes, “gosh-wow ideation, and thriller-style action” (Locus).
“Fast-paced and fun and full of adventure.” —Ann Leckie, Hugo Award-winning author of Ancillary Justice
The sentient warship Trouble Dog was built for violence, yet following a brutal war, she is disgusted by her role in a genocide. Stripped of her weaponry and seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organization dedicated to rescuing ships in distress. When a civilian ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, are sent on a rescue mission.
Meanwhile, light years away, intelligence officer Ashton Childe is tasked with locating the poet, Ona Sudak, who was aboard the missing spaceship. What Childe doesn't know is that Sudak is not the person she appears to be. A straightforward rescue turns into something far more dangerous, as Trouble Dog, Konstanz and Childe find themselves at the center of a conflict that could engulf the entire galaxy. If she is to save her crew, Trouble Dog is going to have to remember how to fight . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Powell (the Ack-Ack Macaque trilogy) delivers an emotionally wrenching take on life in a war-torn far future. Sal Konstanz captained a medical vessel in the wake of the bombing that destroyed a sentient jungle, ending an interstellar war. In the aftermath, she joins the House of Reclamation, a neutral humanitarian group, as she tries to recover from witnessing the horrors of war. As they go about their rescue work, it's clear that she and her small crew and even Trouble Dog, their sentient ship suffer from severe trauma. Nevertheless, they display courage and resilience when they stumble into covert operations that threaten to reignite the war and must find a way to stop the conspirators. Though the story is a little ponderous at first, the pace picks up as the threads begin to come together, leading to an explosive finale with strong series potential.
Customer Reviews
Great read!
I really loved the story, the characters, the creative ideas.
Well developed characters and enough action to keep it moving.
Well done!
I tried…
I was hoping to find a new series to sink my teeth into and spent several nights reading and rereading the same pages because I felt like I kept missing something important. I didn’t miss anything. It just wasn’t there.
Double sin- woke AND boring
Book has standard woke fare when it comes to the characters- all the women are hyper-competent, brave, and smart; while all the men are cowards, weak, or incompetent.
Only a single male character does anything of consequence at the end of the book, when he is allowed to save the life of one of the female characters.
Worse, its the double sin of being woke AND boring. Starts of slow, middle is actually pretty good, and then the ending fizzled out into a Deus Ex Machina. Wouldn’t be surprised if the author helped write the final season of game of thrones.