Brimstone (Ascendant Wars Book 2)
The Ascendant Wars • Book 2
by Rhett C. Bruno, M.B. Vance
Why You'll Love This
Humanity is the entertainment — and the aliens running the tournament don't care who survives.
- Great if you want: military sci-fi with political intrigue and brutal stakes
- The experience: fast and relentless — multiple POVs keep tension constantly shifting
- The writing: Bruno and Vance alternate action and espionage threads with clean precision
- Skip if: you haven't read book one — context here is non-negotiable
About This Book
The stakes couldn't be higher in Brimstone, the second installment of the Ascendant Wars series, where humanity's fragile resistance faces an enemy that treats survival itself as sport. Scott Carrick and his crew are thrust into a brutal tournament engineered by their alien overlords, while Intelligence Chief Rylan Shaw and Combat Nurse Aila Okuma race against a ticking clock to extract critical secrets from a prisoner facing execution. The novel captures something genuinely unsettling: the horror of fighting not just for freedom, but for the amusement of beings who view human suffering as entertainment.
Bruno and Vance write with the kind of propulsive momentum that makes 400-plus pages disappear faster than expected, juggling multiple POVs without losing tension or coherence. Each storyline carries its own distinct rhythm — the visceral urgency of the tournament contrasting sharply with the quieter, more psychological chess match happening behind the scenes. The co-authorship feels seamless rather than fractured, producing a voice that's both disciplined and cinematic. Readers who appreciate military science fiction grounded in character consequence rather than spectacle alone will find this a worthy, darker continuation.