The Shield

by Peter Evan Jones

***Part Two is now available***Download The Redemption now!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.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Aliens

248 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 8, 2012

Reviews

[Bill Gunville · Rating 5 out of 5]

World invasion struggles of survival

First Shield main character interesting hard ass military man. Very elite organization. Story line keeps you in suspense. Kept me reading so I knew what was next.

[Luis Montalvo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Very spellbinding, hard to put down!! Lots of action to keep You on your toes. Kidos to the author, looking forward to reading more!!

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good mix of science fiction, thriller and action.

The story line is fast moving with well developed characters and it certainly kept me gripped until the last page.

[Sadie Forsythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Shield are a group of elite body guards meant to protect the few men who now lead a world based on peaceful co-existence. A world meant to be free of violence but educated enough to know the impossibility of that ideal. The Shield are trained to find threats and dispose of them. An unidentified alien ship is heading towards Europa and the Prime Minister heads out to great it. Safe to say, The Shields are put to work! It’s like Jack Reecher in space people!

Sci-Fi is not usually my thing, but this is an alternate history that is not only viable, but is interesting and outrageously fun to read. There is a new world with a totally different military, weapons, and ships. There are military outposts, space ships, fighter planes, flight suits, body armor, guns, and all sorts of other gadgets; all described in detail, and in a bit of a nerdy way (but in a wonderfully nerdy and enthusiastic way!)

This is not new science fiction terrain, but every time I made an assumption about where the plot was headed, I was wrong. Also, he manages to describe a whole new world, its history and functionality, while maintaining a taught and compulsively readable action story. I had a hard time putting it down at night, and dreamt of alien invaders once I did.

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Way better than i expected

I got this book on my Kindle either free it for 99p so I did noir have great hopes but it was really good. Interesting characters, great plot and plenty of action. The world Peter Jones has created is complex, well I organised and well thought through. And while its good to have some reflection on motives and philosophy there is not too much because people who read this book will be reading it for the action and it dies not disappoint. I've already bought book 2.

[Doreen Dalesandro]

Kindle freebie, 07/23/12