A deeper dive into Pride of Ashna

With the launch of Pride of Ashna right around the corner (May 4th), I wanted to spend a blog post talking more about the novel. For any who have yet to read the first novel, there will be a few spoilers ahead.

Pride of Ashna starts shortly after the events of Foundra, the first book in the series and kicks off with an introduction of the new main protagonist, Serah’Elax Rez Ashfalen, a Das’Vin. For those of you who recognize that alien species, you’ll remember them to be pacifists who only fight when all other options are exhausted. Well, Serah’Elax isn’t like other Das’Vin. She’s been through some traumatic events and has grown up with a deep seeded hatred for the pirates who destroyed her family. This leads to her becoming a Scion in the Ashna Maidens, a type of battlefield commander who utilizes dual blades with sickening efficiency (see epic character art for her below). The Ashna Maidens are a faction mentioned briefly during the first novel consisting of an all-female fighting force who police the poverty-stricken Outer Rim.

The Ashna Maidens encounter a hostile alien armada that has encroached onto their space with a terrifying force. That force belongs to Jughent, one of the Overlords who reported to Sagren during the first novel. He was defeated by LL (Lady Luck) and the unified forces of the Huzien Alliance after Sagren was destroyed. He’s fled Huzien Alliance space with the remnants of his fleet and the Alliance has not followed him. Now in the Outer Rim, Jughent’s forces engage with the Ashna Maidens and it doesn’t go well for the holy warriors. Additionally, Sephan, an Eshgren introduced toward the end of Foundra is still around and no longer obligated to Sagren for procuring it a human shell (character art for Sephan below).

Almost halfway across the galaxy, the Founder’s Elites are taking a much-needed vacation in the aftermath of the war with Sagren. Several of the Elites decide to go on a space cruise and their story picks up shortly before the ship is hijacked by pirates who have wandered deep into Huzien Alliance space on an ambitious raid. For those of you who have read the first novel, you can probably guess that this causes quite a few problems for the pirates as they aren’t expecting an elite highly trained force of military specialists on a pleasure cruise. Either way, it’s a bad situation for all involved.

This is the setup for Pride of Ashna and you’ll have to pick up the book to see how the story evolves. If you’ve gotten this far and you haven’t read the first novel, don’t worry, you can still enjoy Pride of Ashna without having to read Foundra, although I highly recommend you do so!

To help with that, I’m launching a promotion for Foundra to coincide with the launch of Pride of Ashna. For a limited time (until May 10th) the kindle version of Foundra will be on sale for $1.99. This is a great opportunity to grab both books at a discount, as $2.99 is the promotional launch pricing for Pride of Ashna and the book will increase to $7.99 at the end of the promotion window (~2 months from launch). Check out the awesome book trailer for the novel below!