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The Ashen Orb Bounty
Cowboy Bebop meets the Witcher
In a land torn asunder by a monstrous invasion, the only thing protecting the enclaves of thinking
people in Southern Holm are high walls and the valiant warrior troops that strive to beat back the
hordes, one troll at a time. When Saria and her Shadow Blades are asked to take on a secret
bounty to retrieve a magical artifact from a forgotten temple, Saria’s suspicions aren’t aroused.
She’s too busy hiring an archer and preparing their new mage to worry about anything but the
job ahead of them.
At least not until another troop attempts to collect a bounty—on the Shadow Blades’ heads.
Saria should have known better than to accept a mission to recover this Ashen Orb for the
notorious sorceress Brar Opalback. After surviving the assassination attempt, she and her fellow
warriors—Lithia, the shadow fae archer, Perric, the human paladin, Ayre, the elven thief, and
Jileli, the half succubus blood mage—must outwit wild and deadly forests, ingenious traps, and
undead armies if they hope to get any answers.
It would be a shame to die without ever finding out who wanted you dead.
In a land torn asunder by a monstrous invasion, the only thing protecting the enclaves of thinking
people in Southern Holm are high walls and the valiant warrior troops that strive to beat back the
hordes, one troll at a time. When Saria and her Shadow Blades are asked to take on a secret
bounty to retrieve a magical artifact from a forgotten temple, Saria’s suspicions aren’t aroused.
She’s too busy hiring an archer and preparing their new mage to worry about anything but the
job ahead of them.
At least not until another troop attempts to collect a bounty—on the Shadow Blades’ heads.
Saria should have known better than to accept a mission to recover this Ashen Orb for the
notorious sorceress Brar Opalback. After surviving the assassination attempt, she and her fellow
warriors—Lithia, the shadow fae archer, Perric, the human paladin, Ayre, the elven thief, and
Jileli, the half succubus blood mage—must outwit wild and deadly forests, ingenious traps, and
undead armies if they hope to get any answers.
It would be a shame to die without ever finding out who wanted you dead.
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 5, 2023
3 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Dugan
14 books49 followersPatrick Dugan was born in the far north of New York, where the cold winds blow. This meant lots of time for reading over the long winters. His parents didn’t care what he read as long as he did. This started with a steady diet of comics and science fiction novels, Heinlein being his favorite in those days.
After two degrees and lots of odd jobs ranging from Blockbuster Video manager to Lab Researcher to running a video game arcade, Charlotte, North Carolina beckoned. Packing up his dog sled he headed for warmer climes and a lot less snow. Still a voracious reader, he read all sorts of great books. Rothfuss, Butcher, Duncan, Sanderson, Hobb, Farland and Feist sparked his imagination and he started writing horribly. Bad short stories and worse novels would follow. Thankfully these are nowhere to be found.
A husband and father of two great kids and one opinionated dog, Patrick works as a software engineer by day before his author shifts on nights and weekends. When he’s not writing Patrick enjoys brewing and drinking craft beers, playing anything Blizzard puts out on the PC, watching Science Fiction and Fantasy movies/shows and building things out of wood and metal for use around the house. Patrick’s first novel “Storm Forged” was released by Falstaff Books in May of 2018.
After two degrees and lots of odd jobs ranging from Blockbuster Video manager to Lab Researcher to running a video game arcade, Charlotte, North Carolina beckoned. Packing up his dog sled he headed for warmer climes and a lot less snow. Still a voracious reader, he read all sorts of great books. Rothfuss, Butcher, Duncan, Sanderson, Hobb, Farland and Feist sparked his imagination and he started writing horribly. Bad short stories and worse novels would follow. Thankfully these are nowhere to be found.
A husband and father of two great kids and one opinionated dog, Patrick works as a software engineer by day before his author shifts on nights and weekends. When he’s not writing Patrick enjoys brewing and drinking craft beers, playing anything Blizzard puts out on the PC, watching Science Fiction and Fantasy movies/shows and building things out of wood and metal for use around the house. Patrick’s first novel “Storm Forged” was released by Falstaff Books in May of 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 10, 2024
Read for SPFBO, this is only my personal opinion, group verdict might differ widely. 🔥
The Ashen Orb Bounty by Patrick Dugan was a super fun romp, reminiscent of D&S adventures.
If you're looking for something deep and unique, this is not it at all. If you're looking for something quick easy, fun and due to plenty beloved tropes comfy, then this is a great choice!
There's a few things I found annoying, but mostly I enjoyed the banter, the group dynamics, the quest for a relic, and the world built around different groups vying for the best jobs.
The end is pretty open, which wasn't a let down for me, but rather made me curious about what will happen in book two, so for me it worked well.
The Ashen Orb Bounty by Patrick Dugan was a super fun romp, reminiscent of D&S adventures.
If you're looking for something deep and unique, this is not it at all. If you're looking for something quick easy, fun and due to plenty beloved tropes comfy, then this is a great choice!
There's a few things I found annoying, but mostly I enjoyed the banter, the group dynamics, the quest for a relic, and the world built around different groups vying for the best jobs.
The end is pretty open, which wasn't a let down for me, but rather made me curious about what will happen in book two, so for me it worked well.
June 10, 2025
A fun and fast adventure novella that scratches that fantasy itch fairly well. Can be a tad repetitive in some of the action segments, but I really enjoyed this overall and look forward to picking up the next book in the series.
Want to read
October 9, 2024This is not a full review. I read through the beginning of all 300 SPFBOX contest entries. This was a book I wanted to read more of.
A party of mercenaries encounter trouble along the road amidst tension about their newest, magic wielding part succubus member in this DnD style fantasy.
This 3rd person fantasy starts as an ensemble piece, introducing us to each of our party members in medias res. They’ve just killed a bunch of kobolds on the road. It doesn’t spend too long on each character, but begins to give us a sense of each of them.
The dialogue feels natural, and the details are well constrained as the narrative introduces some limited setting information. We know what we need to know for now to appreciate the story. And there IS a story here.
Specifically, there is a small mystery. A group of travelers were killed and their goods stolen, but not by the kobolds. There’s no sign of who did kill them or where they went tho. I can only assume the weapons that did in our travelers were common enough.
This creates a nice feeling of anticipation. I expect the next shoe of this little mystery will be dropping. However, I don’t understand why this development isn’t happening in ch1.
There is no meaningful reason for ch1 to end. There is no significant break in the action, and yet a stop to camp is inserted for no apparent reason.
We are just being introduced to the characters and beginning to develop a story. Don’t stop. Keep going and tell me what happens next. If the author cut these few -and then they camped- paragraphs between chapters, no one would notice.
Because I’m reading openings, usually limited to a prologue and ch1’s unless they are very short, I’ve only gotten the introduction of the story here, but not quite the full opening.
At under 200 pgs printed, I hope this will continue to be a tight narrative. It’s the first in a series, but feels like a fun read already.
But this is focused, has what begins to feel like a good ensemble of characters on the page, and promises action, and maybe even some more character conflict. I’m engaged and want to know what happens next. I’m in!
A party of mercenaries encounter trouble along the road amidst tension about their newest, magic wielding part succubus member in this DnD style fantasy.
This 3rd person fantasy starts as an ensemble piece, introducing us to each of our party members in medias res. They’ve just killed a bunch of kobolds on the road. It doesn’t spend too long on each character, but begins to give us a sense of each of them.
The dialogue feels natural, and the details are well constrained as the narrative introduces some limited setting information. We know what we need to know for now to appreciate the story. And there IS a story here.
Specifically, there is a small mystery. A group of travelers were killed and their goods stolen, but not by the kobolds. There’s no sign of who did kill them or where they went tho. I can only assume the weapons that did in our travelers were common enough.
This creates a nice feeling of anticipation. I expect the next shoe of this little mystery will be dropping. However, I don’t understand why this development isn’t happening in ch1.
There is no meaningful reason for ch1 to end. There is no significant break in the action, and yet a stop to camp is inserted for no apparent reason.
We are just being introduced to the characters and beginning to develop a story. Don’t stop. Keep going and tell me what happens next. If the author cut these few -and then they camped- paragraphs between chapters, no one would notice.
Because I’m reading openings, usually limited to a prologue and ch1’s unless they are very short, I’ve only gotten the introduction of the story here, but not quite the full opening.
At under 200 pgs printed, I hope this will continue to be a tight narrative. It’s the first in a series, but feels like a fun read already.
But this is focused, has what begins to feel like a good ensemble of characters on the page, and promises action, and maybe even some more character conflict. I’m engaged and want to know what happens next. I’m in!
July 6, 2024
Disclaimer - read for #SPFBOX for Fantasy Faction. I'm only one judge and this is my own opinion/rating.
Saria is the leader of a group of mercenaries called the Shadow Blades, vying with other groups for bounties to keep the monstrous hordes away from their city.
Whilst trying to find a new archer to replace a team member, the Bounty mistress issues a bounty for teams to find a lost dagger. However not is all as it seems; the Bounty Mistress is also the woman who raised Saria and lets her know it's not a dagger she's to look for, but an Orb and a sorcerer called Brar has asked Sara's team to be the one to find it.
This book reminded me of old video games or a basic D&D game but written as a story. We have the Swords woman, Paladin, Elf, Archer and Mage (albeit the mage is a succubus blood Mage and the Archer is a Shadow Fae, both of whom are despised by many people, especially by the Paladin).
There are some comedic moments as the Paladin tends to visit a lot of brothels and the Elf is an incorrigable kleptomaniac.
After fighting off a hated rival mercenary group they find the temple that contains the Orb.
Here is where it really falls into the D&D genre
fighting off Zombies, falling into traps and solving puzzles.
The Ashen Orb started off okay but the writing seemed to get rougher and prose suffered as the adventurers got into more trouble.
It was also obvious that everyone was going to miraculously survive even if at deaths door, which was rather disappointing. The ending too was very abrupt. They saved the orb but what does it do? What was the point of going to all that trouble? 4/10 - I did like the succubus blood mage
Saria is the leader of a group of mercenaries called the Shadow Blades, vying with other groups for bounties to keep the monstrous hordes away from their city.
Whilst trying to find a new archer to replace a team member, the Bounty mistress issues a bounty for teams to find a lost dagger. However not is all as it seems; the Bounty Mistress is also the woman who raised Saria and lets her know it's not a dagger she's to look for, but an Orb and a sorcerer called Brar has asked Sara's team to be the one to find it.
This book reminded me of old video games or a basic D&D game but written as a story. We have the Swords woman, Paladin, Elf, Archer and Mage (albeit the mage is a succubus blood Mage and the Archer is a Shadow Fae, both of whom are despised by many people, especially by the Paladin).
There are some comedic moments as the Paladin tends to visit a lot of brothels and the Elf is an incorrigable kleptomaniac.
After fighting off a hated rival mercenary group they find the temple that contains the Orb.
Here is where it really falls into the D&D genre
fighting off Zombies, falling into traps and solving puzzles.
The Ashen Orb started off okay but the writing seemed to get rougher and prose suffered as the adventurers got into more trouble.
It was also obvious that everyone was going to miraculously survive even if at deaths door, which was rather disappointing. The ending too was very abrupt. They saved the orb but what does it do? What was the point of going to all that trouble? 4/10 - I did like the succubus blood mage
December 26, 2023
The author provided this book to me in exchange for an unbiased review. First, I was given the ability to choose which books I would like to receive and review. Cowboy Bebop meets the Witcher? Sold.
Secondly, the 5-star reviews weren't wrong. Until the Shadow Blades Chronicles, I hadn't read anything by Patrick Dugan. Now that I have, though, I am a fan. One of the most challenging things about reading fantasy books is trying to keep up with the world-building and magic systems. The Ashen Orb Bounty starts immediately in the story. It builds the world and magic around the reader, making it easy to digest since you learn as you go. Why is this good? Two-fold, really, it prevents you from reading several chapters of background to get the world-building before you understand anything while eliminating the burnout you get from overly complex storylines.
The story feels like Cowboy Bebop, Witcher, and Dungeons and Dragons. I loved learning about the Shadow Blades but also learning about each of the team members, what role they played, and how they all got along (or didn't).
While this story has a fantastic amount of detail and leaves you on a quasi-cliffhanger, it is an effortless read that goes quickly. I look forward to seeing what Book 2 has for our Shadow Blades.
Secondly, the 5-star reviews weren't wrong. Until the Shadow Blades Chronicles, I hadn't read anything by Patrick Dugan. Now that I have, though, I am a fan. One of the most challenging things about reading fantasy books is trying to keep up with the world-building and magic systems. The Ashen Orb Bounty starts immediately in the story. It builds the world and magic around the reader, making it easy to digest since you learn as you go. Why is this good? Two-fold, really, it prevents you from reading several chapters of background to get the world-building before you understand anything while eliminating the burnout you get from overly complex storylines.
The story feels like Cowboy Bebop, Witcher, and Dungeons and Dragons. I loved learning about the Shadow Blades but also learning about each of the team members, what role they played, and how they all got along (or didn't).
While this story has a fantastic amount of detail and leaves you on a quasi-cliffhanger, it is an effortless read that goes quickly. I look forward to seeing what Book 2 has for our Shadow Blades.
June 20, 2024
I picked it up at a convention and man, am I upset I didn't get the others at the time. I really liked how quick it was, and I don't know if the chapter pacing was intentional but it was a pretty nice touch to feel like certain moments were fast as checkpoints kept getting crossed quickly and others had a longer wait.
There were some spots I felt were less to my taste, but that's mostly a preference thing. I really think the novella length was a major strength here, and while stitching a lot of them into an omnibus would be a common practice, this is one time when the vibe absolutely favors the small stand-alones, like the AD&D modules that likely inspired it. It was a fun, quick read; I want to give 3.5 but unfortunately have to round down because I can't say 4 solely based on my own tastes. It's one of the few times I actually feel bad about doing so, but like Perric I can be stubborn in my biases.
There were some spots I felt were less to my taste, but that's mostly a preference thing. I really think the novella length was a major strength here, and while stitching a lot of them into an omnibus would be a common practice, this is one time when the vibe absolutely favors the small stand-alones, like the AD&D modules that likely inspired it. It was a fun, quick read; I want to give 3.5 but unfortunately have to round down because I can't say 4 solely based on my own tastes. It's one of the few times I actually feel bad about doing so, but like Perric I can be stubborn in my biases.
January 12, 2024
In a world plagued by monsters Saria and her team take on a bounty that pits them against both the supernatural and human opponents. A good old S&S fantasy. Recommended reading.
June 19, 2024
Summarised: NOSTALGIC FUN!
It reminds me of the youthful lazy Sundays I spent hunting for magical relics in ancient temples, and solving puzzles in abandoned caves to fight off the final boss. Mind you, a dingy old tv with a first gen Playstation can’t compete with the real thing, I unfortunately missed my calling to become an archaeologist. Luckily, books like these make up for that.
Tomb Raider meets The Goonies… But make it The Witcher!
Ah, and Perric has my heart, thank you very much.
It reminds me of the youthful lazy Sundays I spent hunting for magical relics in ancient temples, and solving puzzles in abandoned caves to fight off the final boss. Mind you, a dingy old tv with a first gen Playstation can’t compete with the real thing, I unfortunately missed my calling to become an archaeologist. Luckily, books like these make up for that.
Tomb Raider meets The Goonies… But make it The Witcher!
Ah, and Perric has my heart, thank you very much.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews