Ash Kickers by Sean Grigsby

Ash Kickers by Sean Grigsby is another casualty of my vain attempt to tame my TBR pile. The book was out in 2019. It's 2023. Go figure. But anyhoo, better late than never, hey? In this action-packed caper we meet Tamerica Williams right in the midst of dealing with a dragon. She and her team, garbed in mech suits and armed with laser swords and other, assorted gadgets and weapons, are the thin wedge standing between humanity and certain extinction, now that the dragons have returned and weaponised human wraiths to do their bidding.

In a nut shell, I'd describe this book at Ghostbusters, by way of Reign of Fire, with light sabres. 

Tamerica is a smart mouthed, kick-ass heroine who doesn't take flak from anyone, least of all her boss, veteran fire-fighter Cole Brannigan. But even she feels way out of her depth when a new beastie arises from the ashes – an honest-to-goodness phoenix that noms on dragons. Surely that would be a good thing, right? Nope, it's not, for Reasons I'm not going to go into for fear of spoilers.

Grigsby's prose is sharp and quick, his dialogue is snappy, and he delivers a fast-paced, no-punches-pulled, high-octane race against a big bad to end all big bads. He doesn't give readers time to get too comfortable, but foregrounds teamwork, camaraderie, and doing what's right, even if it means upsetting authority figures. And might just get you killed in the process.

I did find the world building to be completely bonkers, but if you can dive into genres such as Ghostbusters and suspend disbelief, then you shouldn't have a problem with this setting. I'll admit I'm always a sucker for dangerous megafauna, and dragons, fire-breathing or not, are most certainly my jam.

I'll close by saying if you're looking for a measured, sedate story that unpacks gradually, with nuanced layers, this is probably not going to be it. This one's all about kicking scaly posteriors and slaying one heck of a nasty bird.