Raven’s Wrath

Task Force Raven Origins Novella

Task Force Raven, #0.5

by

Sam Stone

Unrelenting action and pulse-pounding excitement as a Green Beret mountain warfare specialization team engages deadly Haqqani fighters in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley.

Raven’s Wrath by Sam Stone is a pulse-pounding military thriller about a Green Beret mountain warfare specialization team on a recon assignment in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley. The novella lays the groundwork for the relationships and shared experiences of the team members for the author’s upcoming Texas-set Task Force Raven series. 

Captain Jake Baylor and his brothers-in-arms are ambushed by a large, organized force of Haqqani fighters while on recon, traversing the mountainous passages of the Shok Valley. While gravely outnumbered and not in the best defensive position, the team is holding its own, but in order to make it out alive, they must somehow turn the tables, making their hunters the ones who are hunted.

Jake Baylor is a born warrior and leader whose natural skills are honed by intense training. He’s also a true son of Texas with generational roots in the state going back to Sam Houston himself. I liked how Houston’s history is woven into Baylor’s with the hand-me-down war tomahawk and the use of Houston’s Cherokee moniker of “The Raven” for his present-day descendant. Jake is all business and keeps the welfare of his command in mind, even as he must make life-and-death assignments.

While action-packed and heart-poundingly exciting, the descriptions of each man on the team to the cinematically envisioned desert-to-mountain settings are amazingly detailed and realistic without slowing the story down one iota. I could almost feel their surroundings and smell the fumes of destruction and the results of their fighting. 

The foreshadowing of the danger ahead on the team’s mission gave me eerie prickles on the back of my neck as Jake and Turner both sensed something was “off.” Their nighttime trek on foot toward the Haqqani stronghold was riveting, edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. The Special Forces team is absolutely resolute in the face of the onslaught by opponents who are persistent but with ill-placed determination. Sergeant Joe Garza comes by his nickname of “Joker’ honestly and has some stellar quips to alleviate a little of the tension throughout their ordeal. Considering this is just the introduction, I can hardly wait for the meat of the series to get underway. 

I recommend RAVEN’S WRATH to readers of military thrillers. 

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.