Customer Reviews

Out of the Ashes (Ashes Series #1)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

As the author of "Strike Hard", I continually read books that piqued my interest. "Out of the Ashes", the first of the Ashes Series, was one of the most enjoyable that I have ever read. Ben Raines seems to be a reflection of William Johnstone, thus adding a lot of depth to the character. Johnstone manages to put the reader right in the middle of the war, and its aftermath, plunging the reader into a world where chaos exists. However, there is a desire to see things set right, and Ben Raines is the man for the job. From punks to outlaws, Ben manages to strive victoriously to clear the way for the rebirth of the country, in the way it was meant to be. First of a series, "Out of the Ashes" is a terrific stand-alone novel, as well as an enticing beginning to a wonderful series. It is a book that I never tire of reading.

America after a nuclear apocalypse? What a great idea! Not many writers are brave enough to tackle a subject matter like that, much less do it well. Sounds like an idea too big for one book? Have no fear, this is just book one in an ongoing series with continuing characters (currently 25 books and going strong!) If you don't agree with the author's political stance (an eye for an eye, let me live in complete freedom - the less government, the better), you might get annoyed with it. I rather enjoyed imagining a world where you truly get what you deserve. The book is chock-full of spys, action, twists, sex, humor, and moves very quickly. The simplicity of the writing didn't bother me, allowing me to finish it in 3 days. It also helps move it along.

As for the reviewer from Chicago, I'm surprised (and confused) that even though you didn't like the book, you read "seven other books" in the series. I would think that (giving it a rating of 1) would have you staying far away from them... but 7 others !? I guess you are hooked - whether you like it or not - like the thousands of other "Ashes" fans around the world! As for your comments on people not joining the militia if they had problems with the government... it's already (and has been for a while) happening in the south, with certain groups having hundreds of members. Knowing about some of the battles in history, it is not unrealistic for a few thousand people to die on one side and only lose a few hundred on the other... great leaders win great battles.

If you are tired of government and big business controlling 90% of everything in society, and would like to see what could happen without them, give this series a try. It's only in theory, of course, but it's a damn good one.

I like the post-apocalyptic genre. Like reading, watching, and writing in it. Unfortunately, a lot of it is pap. After hearing much word-of-mouth about Johnstone and his "tri-states philosophy," I hoped this would be one of the better flagships for the genre.

The nuclear war is triggered by a coup-gone-wrong involving rogue military hawks (think Jack T. Ripper with scads of accomplices). Ben Raines survives the dirty bomb holocaust, as do many others...inexplicably (at first I thought it might have something to do with the wasp stings). He begins touring the ravaged southeastern region, intending to document the nuclear devastation for a memoir, but is unwittingly crowned the leader of a new resistance movement. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming become his empire. But he and his followers are headed for a showdown with the other 47 states.

The opening act was rather tedious to wade through. I suppose the convoluted, improbable conspiracy plot was supposed to rivet me to the pages with suspenseful intrigue as it unfolded, but I really wanted to just skim. Once the missiles struck home, and we got into Ben Raines' point-of-view, it was smoother going.

If Johnstone ever explained why some people survived the radiation and some didn't, I missed it. I thought it rather unrealistic that electricity was still on for so long after a nuclear strike, and that Raines never had trouble finding gas for his vehicles. There is some mention of looting, I think, but our hero never had any trouble finding weapons, ammo, gear, food or clean water. Also, just like Captain Kirk, women throw themselves at him pretty much everywhere he goes. Nubile, supermodel-looking women, of course who "don't like sleeping alone." All but twice, though, Raines and his current squeeze intuitively sensed that their affair would only be casual and temporary...and that was just okie-dokie with both parties. Such is to be expected from the genre, I suppose.

I can go on nit-picking for a while, but I'll try to limit my exclamations of disbelief to just two more elements:

1) His dialog is just outright painful in many places. I have come to expect this problem with inexperienced/immature (yet passionate) writers, but am REALLY annoyed when I see a successful, traditionally published author...of a popular series, no less...getting away with it. How did this ever get published as is?

2) Raines is a Vietnam veteran from a super-secret elite unit which, I guess, would supposedly surpass Delta Force. But at the story's inception he is an alcoholic novelist. Almost everyone he encounters has heard of him, and read his books. And everyone is convinced he is destined to be the savior who unites freedom-loving folks and builds a utopia out of the ashes. Evidently his greatness is plain for everyone to see--everyone but his humble self. He ignores the pleas for his elevation to leadership, but is finally drug to his destiny, kicking and screaming (OK, perhaps I exagerate a wee bit). His greatness is so powerful as to inspire slavish, blind devotion in all the good guys he encounters. Apparently his alcohol-heavy diet and lethargic lifestyle have kept him in supreme fighting condition, too. I don't have a PHD in Group Dynamics or anything like that, but I've studied history, observed the surrounding culture, and worked in/with conglomerations of human beings both in military and civilian contexts. Unless God himself elevated someone like Ben Raines to power (as He did with King Saul and David), that person would never reach the top of any leadership ladder. People who rise to power...even in regulated structures...are shameless self-promoters; supremely confident in their own abilities (no matter how undeserved that confidence is); "type A" personalities; charismatic; ambitious; control freaks; opportunistic; remorseless; proactive and outgoing. They usually aren't the best choice for leadership, and many times are the worst. But they will beat somebody like Ben Raines in an election, mob takeover or popularity contest (which is what such things turn out to be, beneath the surface, anyway) every single time. It doesn't matter how many dead military officers have endorsed you, or even if the majority of the mob thinks you're the smartest guy with the perfect plan. The guy with the magic mouth and the zealous conviction that he is the best possible man for the job will climb higher and faster. I've taken pains so far not to be harsh or personally insulting to Mr. Johnstone, but this Reluctant Savior routine reeks of a misfit writer's closet egomania.

Up to now, I've also avoided commenting on the author's political ideas, which he unabashedly rams down the reader's throat throughout the novel. I won't discuss them in detail, because they're at least as convoluted as his expository chapters. But even while preaching racial equality, Johnstone strikes me as a bigot. He also takes periodic jabs at his Religious Right Boogeymen, denouncing the cult of personality embraced by their respective sycophants (kinda like what I touched on above). Meanwhile, his own cult of personality is the driving force behind the Tri-States kingdom. Hypocritical IMO. And while pontificating on his love of freedom, Johnstone/Raines build a utopia which is, in most respects, a totalitarian regime. So while I see all the problems in the USA that Johnstone saw, our viewpoint on feasible solutions are often radically different.

Plot, character(s), dialog, realism and (IMO) political savvy in Out of the Ashes is seriously flawed.

Henry Brown is the author of TEOTWAWKI aviation adventure The Delayed Blitz(Krieg), as well as the military thriller Hell and Gone. He is the columns editor at New Pulp Fiction, and does some blogging of his own at the Two-Fisted Blogger.

I'm usually a romance book reader, but I was curious & read the back cover & decided to give it a try, something different...

I found the storyline & the dialogue to be very easy-to-read & the story rolled as if written by a 'real' person (if a bit preachy, but the guy sure knows what he believes in!). It's a great 'what-if' story of the ever-popular 'end of the world as we know it by nuclear war'. What if some of the people who are left want to band together, rebuild, create a society that enforces law-abiding, the right to defend yourself & your family, & live in peace ? No racism, no sexism, everyone works somehow, no free-loaders, everyone votes on the basic laws & majority is 90%, not 51%. Anyone who doesn't want to live there, can leave. Must leave. The main character hates 'scum, thugs & slime' of humanity, rape & murder are not tolerated, for any reason, justice is swift, & everyone learns, & carries, firearms, everyone from childhood is taught self-defense. Strong emphasis on Education: if your raise children to be productive, law-abiding citizens, they won't grow up to be 'racists' or 'thugs', or will know the consequences in advance. Age-old question: Would you rob someone or try to hurt someone, if you knew that they & all their family are armed ? Parents are required to teach their children clear right from wrong, so that they are not in doubt, anyone who doesn't do that, are kicked out. These people just want to live in peace & rebuild, health care for all, everyone pulls their share, only wants people who WANT to live there, they don't 'recruit' or 'force' citizenship, they just kick out anyone who doesn't want to follow the rules. No crime, no poverty, no slums...interesting concept.

& in the end, the 'NEW' government after the 'big bomb' that starts back up can't handle an independant society, living separately, prosperous, & in peace. The other side of humanity: the people who want to dominate & control, destroy for their own purposes....

If you believe in the death penalty for murder, rape & child molestation; the right to bear arms; & that governments usually tend towards corruption, then you will LOVE this book. If you are a bleeding-heart that thinks that violent criminals should be 'rehabilitated' & kept in comfortable prisons with cable & access to law libraries to find a loophole to get out, then you will HATE this book. or you will cheer for the 'bad' guys in it.....

The descriptions of the landscape afterwards, the effects of the germ warfare on the survivors, & how the people that are left behind interact are interesting....(it is fiction & what-if, but you never know -- possible)

The weapons talk/descriptions was not as 'cumbersome' as I thought it would be, if you LIKE guns, you will like all their talk & comparisons on which is best for which situation, but if you are like me & not very knowledgable about guns in particular, you can still read without getting lost.
The places that he visits in his travels have interesting back-stories.
One cheesy point -- the phrase 'out of the ashes' occurs ALOT in the story...will make you roll your eyes a few times....

The girl in me found alot of the parts very sad & depressing, especially the parts that are very common among people, even in this 'advanced' day & age. i.e. it's EASY to be racist & HARD to be open-minded & fair. & when some people will work hard to rebuild & help others, there are always other people who will want to kill & destroy & ruin all their hard work & good efforts.....stuff like that....

Definitely worth reading, but I don't think I will attempt all 34 of them....(well, maybe #2, & remember, I'm a GIRL, ha ha !!) :)

Premise was good. But the thing that bothered me the most was the stupid "sexual" conquests. I was just put off with his hands "going down the tangle of her pubic hair" or "into her wetness". Heck this guy was the Terminator and Hugh Hefner rolled into Francis Marion and Thomas Jefferson. Then the stilted conservative speeches that passed for conversations and background made me cringe. As a believer in the free market and 2nd amendment I found this 7th grade writing project an embarrassment for "my side". I've read Lucifer's Hammer, Alas Babylon, Earth Abides... and many others. This was pathetic. I've finished half the book and can't get past the hand grenade trick in a Georgia roadblock. I haven't read it but I can guess that he's going to screw the liberal "ACLU" supporter over to the Libertarian side of life. I'll sell my copy and the two following books that were given to be as gifts when I mistakenly put this book on my wish list. How did this guy sell so many books like this? This is a great country. The author is a genius realizing that there is a market for this juvenile written cartoon.

Book 1 of the Ashes series

Plot kernel - Rouge elements in the US Military cause world-wide nuclear and biological war - with absolutely no significant lasting health effects whatsoever for those that survive: the nukes were "clean" and the biological danger diffuses with the wind and time - any areas "permanently affected" are only briefly mentioned and then dropped from the story. It is said that 2/3 the population has perished.

A writer of paperback action adventure novels, himself ex military special forces, survives the collapse of civilization. He travels about the states east of the Mississippi, meets many violent racists (he himself is not one) and generally very bad people, usually groups of men looking to rape women. He also meets the occasional woman, herself a victim of gang rape or a witness to it, who quickly and eagerly decides to sleep with him and stay, temporarily and with affection, in his company. (Rape and racism are referred to and talked about a lot in this story.)

He eventually heads west and becomes the leader (the setup for this role is provided) of a break away, racially diverse, government comprising Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming: the Tri-States. Despite the (one would think) devastation of nuclear and biological war, both the Tri-States and the reconstituted US government now under the control of a radical left wing senator seem to enjoy all the conveniences of the modern world. (This is not a story about a survivalist or survivors of a world-wide war coping with physical hardship.)

The Tri-States government is utopian, militant, communitarian (it seems), and judicially very severe, yet with a slight mixture of libertarian principles (prostitution, for example, is legal). Education, however, is state controlled, Biblical (the implication seems to be that evolution is out, creationism is in, although there is no explicit suggestion of anti-science) and compulsory. Those who refuse to work are deported, their children confiscated by the state, and adopted. The laws of the Tri-States are determined by an approximately 90 percent majority, and so regarded as the true will of the people. Anyone who disapproves is free to leave. Anyone who stays is required to obey or suffer the unbending consequences.

The US government, now at its worst as a tyranny, will not allow the Tri-States to exist separately from the 47 other states. Complications arise.

(The novel preaches against bad politics and the government which bad politics creates and then presents an alternative, utopian, society, which is not laid out well enough to really understand. The nuclear war occurs within the story merely to allow the author to clear some land, create conclaves of lawlessness to show human nature at its worst, institute a US tyranny, and set up this preferred alternative society. It is a story about tyranny and freedom fighters. This book is the first in a series that is currently 30 novels long.)

A modern day retired Special Forces Soldier, Ben Raines, is certainly Smoke Jensen reborn. He certainly feels that his is the only one type of justice for evil people and that justice needs to be handed out swift and hard. In this story, after a germ and nuclear war, Ben gets to defend a Tri-State conservative area of the Rocky Mountains against the corrupt and liberal Remnants of what is left of the East Coast United States goverment.

Good vs. Evil; right vs. wrong; it's all here with violence and romance. But the action really drags and the story slows with the describing of the "perfect" Tri-State government. If you don't mind skim reading, the ending is OK and good enough to get me to read the next story in the series; someday. "Preacher" is still my favorite Johnstone character with the early Smoke Jensen next.

Johnstone is clearly a very talented and imaginative man. These books are truely invigorating. WWJ takes a single man from his imagination and turns him into a Legend. Ben Raines would be a true American Hero; strong, forceful, attractive and very sexy. Raines and his Rebels face danger at every turn and come out victorious almost every time. I am currently reading #9 "Valor in The Ashes" and I can't put it down. The excitement jumps at you from every page. And although it is something that may never happen, it is also very real. The way America thinks needs to change and Johnstone announces this in a very bold and caragious way. These books can be frightening to the left wing Americans because they don't want violence and guns in this world. But people need to wake up and smell the Willie Peter because we already have violence and guns!!!! Now all we need is Ben Raines and his Rebels to come to the rescue!!! Keep up the good work Johnstone. I'm on your side.

I am not an atheist fundamentalist, or a political correctness freak. I wanted to preface with that. I also tried hard to view the book through the lens of the time it was written.

It proved impossible. I like post-apoc fiction, but this book is easily among the worst I've read. It was a long Gary Stu projection by the author, where he gets laid every third page, all the women get raped and all the people besides him are immoral freaks. It was basically tired cliches from front to end, and I suppose that is to be expected when an author is a prolific in pulp as this guy is ... but if you want anything resembling a "real" fiction book, don't get this.

It doesn't even hold up to mainstream stuff on the NYT bestseller list. Never mind actual "good" books. It seems very much like reading something I would have written in 8th grade in the 80's. which is fine, if you want your stories dictated through the eyes of a 15 year old boy in heat and whose literary experience entails reading reading fanfic on the imageboards. Not so great if you are over 18 and have half a brain.

The book is among the worst I've ever read ... by far. How daft was I to buy the second one in the series as well before reading the first? Pretty daft I'd say. :(

After reading this book and several others in the series, I have learned to treasure the rights I "still" have. The government is trying to take away our basic rights that the constitution gives us and there is not too many people who will speak up against this. However, William Johnstone is one of these people. In "Out of the Ashes", Johnstone describes how the government's increasing control over us eventually leads to a revolution. Johnstone's main character, Ben Raines, is given the job of restoring america and he creates a new nation within a nation called the Tri-States. In this new nation, people make all of the laws, there is virtually no crime, and there is a plentiful supply of jobs for people who are willing to work.One thing I especially like is the fact that Ben Raines does not put up with crime or those people who are able to work but don't. The laws are straight-forward and easy to understand. The trails are quick and to the point, but fair. These are just some of the points that William Johnstone makes in this book. All in all, it will make you think twice about your rights and it will motivate you to defend the freedom's that we still have.