I grabbed Peter Jones’ post-apocalyptic, military sci-fi novel, The Shield, off of the Amazon KDP list.
Description from Goodreads:
As a Shield, William Grayson’s entire life centered around combat training for the sole purpose of protecting the Circle. To him there was nothing else in life, no other temptations, no goals, no dreams of family. He and the other Shields were trained warriors; a tolerated, necessary evil in a world where the only religion was peace. Aside from them, hundreds of years had passed since humans had engaged in any type of war, aggression, or even self-defense. The Last War had consumed the entire planet, destroying nearly everyone and everything. The fleeting remains of humanity had managed to rebuild the Twelve Cities focused entirely on establishing a peaceful people and a peaceful planet.
When the aliens came, they had no intention on participating in this utopia humans had spent centuries perfecting.
Grayson and the few remaining Shields must train and lead the very society that before had considered them a nuisance. Forced to reconcile new emotions he was forever immune to, and to engage those who hated what he stood for, Grayson must learn to go beyond his training as he slowly realizes that he is now responsible for not only the liberation of his planet, but to bring a new definition of life to every last human.
Review:
This book has an interesting premise. I love the ironic social implications of a group of elite soldiers defending the peaceful ways of a society they can obviously never be part of. Some of the most moving lines of the book come from Grayson (usually just referred to as The Shield) in reference to his role. I have to be honest though, I had a hard time believing humans could ever be so peaceful. It just seems to go against our very nature and, of course, the existence of the Shields speaks to that fact. I’m willing to accept for the sake of fiction, however, that such a society was established in the wake of a devastating world war and as such would be wholly unprepared to face a hostile invading force.
But in the end I simply expected more from the book than I got. It’s not that it’s short on action. It isn’t. The aliens invade and Grayson moves from one problem to the next until the book ends. I don’t think the man ever slept. But I kept looking for an underlying moral to the story, or something other than just the day to day travails of one group of people left behind. The closest I could come would be the dangers all encompassing peace or the importance of the military establishment. Neither of which I think were intended messages, which left the book feeling a little hollow to me. All of the soldiering was interesting enough and I really like Grayson, but so what? That really wasn’t enough to really grab me. Perhaps the sequel, The Shield: Redemption, will bring it all together.
My main disappointment was the ending. It ends on a cliffhanger, which is another way of saying it doesn’t in fact end. There is also no real crescendo. It is well written though. There are a few abrupt changes in POV and I found it a little repetitive. (Each time a new character was introduced we needed to be told what they thought of the Shields, which essentially rehashed the same old same old.) But all-in-all I found it enjoyable.
