I asked for sci-fi recommendations on Twitter, and book-blog/writer Twitter being as awesome as it is, it didn’t let me down. I had a ton of suggestions, and read through a couple of the synopsis and decided to start here, and I’m definitely not disappointed I did!

The Plot

Embers of War only spanned a few days, overall, but they were definitely a dramatic couple of days. The introduction is strong, and surprising, featuring death almost immediately. And not a small number of deaths either, I’m talking planetary annihilation. That definitely awakens the reader to the brutalities of war, and war in a science fiction perspective can be totally brutal. These futuristic weapons don’t play around. This introduction is the basis for this whole book, and it’s used so well throughout. Me being the idiot I am didn’t even think up or imagine one of the links the characters had to the war, and I applaud the author for that.

This book is technically part of a series, and I didn’t realise that going into it, but it works pretty well as a standalone if you didn’t want to go on and read the rest. The ending wraps up the main arc nicely, and we’re only left with a few threads and wonders of what is going to happen next.

The World

Yay for awesome sci-fi world-building. Powell manages to build a complex world, far in the future, but not drown us in too much information most of the time. There were a few sections where we do get a little bogged down in information, mostly from the AI spaceship. One that sticks with me is when it starts comparing one side of the war, the “Conglomeration” to various things from history, such as the Anglo-American culture and the classical Greco-Roman empires. This only lasts for a paragraph or two, but about two sentences in, I was horribly bored and skipped to the end of that section. Most of the time, it’s awesome, but there is the odd area where we veer a little close to info-dump, and not even interesting info dump.

Beyond that, we’ve got an interesting clash between the Conglomeration and the Outward, but not much else going on with regards to species. There’s mention of other species, and there is something non-human on the main ship, but it’s not mentioned too often, and aliens definitely aren’t the focus of this. It’s very much about humanity and what humans are capable of, with a fascinating dash of ship AI.

The Characters

Trouble Dog

Trouble Dog is our main AI spaceship. She’s a person, basically, just in the form of a massive warship, who regrets her past, so joins an organisation that rescues people, rather than kills them. She battles with emotion, as AIs often do, and still battles with that side of her that was built to be a warship, and sorely misses the massive guns that being a rescue ship, rather than a warship, means she no longer has. Trouble Dog was probably my favourite character, who made me smile and cheer with some of her comments and actions.

“The Trouble Dog gave a credible impression of an indignant sniff. If she had been a child, she would have been pouting. “I told the idiot to give me back my guns.””

Sal Konstanz

The Captain of the Trouble Dog, responsible for deciding where the ship goes and what it does, most of the time. She takes no crap, but inside, hidden under her hard exterior, is a soft, caring person. I enjoyed her relationship with Preston, a newbie medic, with deep-seated issues of his own. There’s some great character growth throughout, but by the end of it, she’s still ultimately a strong, albeit scarred Captain on a ship with a whole load of responsibility.

Ona Sudak

The novel jumps POVs throughout. Mostly between Trouble Dog, Sal and Ona. Ona is a war poet with a hidden past, who finds herself in the middle of something she’d much rather have avoided, but thought was coming. As a character, I didn’t like her all that much, but I don’t think I was supposed to. She’s self-entitled but earns back a little respect by showing her caring side, eventually. It takes a while though, and she’d already annoyed me, almost to the point of no return, by the time she did show she had a heart.

Would I read it again? Yes. I’ll probably reread if it takes me too long to pick up the next one.

Will I be picking up the next in the series? Yes. I’ve heard its sequel might be even better, which is the opposite of what usually happens, so I’m intrigued.

Would I recommend it? I’d recommend this purely for Trouble Dog, and her pack. The way the ship AIs work is fascinating to me, and that’s one of the reasons I want to read more, just because I want to know and read more about Trouble Dog and ships like it.

Is it going on my favourites shelf? It gets a strong rating from me, but I’m not sure it’s quite Favourites territory. It’s close, though.

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Created Jul 23, 2019 at 10:14am • Submit your own review...