Torvalin

Shepherd Security Services #4

by Robert M. Kerns

Some missions start with a firefight. Others begin with a message that changes everything.

When a private protection team finds themselves cornered and outnumbered, their last call for help gets picked up by Alex Hawke and his team. The message is bleak—cut off from support, no chance of evacuation.

Guardian and her crew have a new prevent a desperate rescue from becoming a tragedy… or worse. And this is one fight Shepherd Security Services won’t back away from.

But just as the smoke clears, another order comes down the line—this one from the top. Alex is to report to Ninhar Confederation Navy Headquarters on Torvalin. Immediately.

For the first time, he’ll step into the beating heart of the Confederation’s power. And whatever awaits him there… wasn’t in the briefing.

Old loyalties. New politics. And a summons that could rewrite everything.
Torvalin is the turning point for Shepherd Security Services—a tale of duty, diplomacy, and the consequences of becoming a symbol.

Genres: Science Fiction

380 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2025

About the author

Robert M. Kerns (or Rob if you ever meet him in person) is a geek, and he claims that label proudly. Most of his geekiness revolves around Information Technology (IT), having over fifteen years in the industry; within IT, he especially prefers Servers and Networks, and he often makes the claim that his residence has a better data infrastructure than some businesses.

Beyond IT, Rob enjoys Science Fiction and Fantasy of (almost) all stripes. He is a voracious reader, with his favorite books too numerous to list.

Rob has been writing for over twenty years, and "Awakening" is his debut novel.

Reviews

[Matt Cory]

SUCH a series!

I bought the initial book “The Shepherd” quite some time ago, and it sat in my Kindle queue unread & forgotten until this last this last week while I dove into many other books that claimed my attention.

Well, at last, I saw it again in my queue and decided to read it - and, wow was I glad I finally picked it up! It was such an excellent novel with truly wonderful characters that once I finished it, I wanted more!

I bought the next book in the series “Colfyr” - read through that as quickly as I possibly could, then bought the third book “Lynxeen.” I ripped through that one too because it was just as excellent as The Shepherd and Colfyr!

Torvalin (though it had more than its share of typos and missing articles!), I bought yesterday, and it continued to be populated by many of the same compelling characters, new characters, and great story action! Just like the three stories before it in this series, it was outstanding!

I’ve read a number of series by Robert Kerns, and oh my! has that made me lucky! He is a wonderful science fiction/fantasy writer, and I’ve gotten many hours of incredible entertainment from his imagination!

I just bought book 5 “Vorcalix”, though I haven’t started it yet, and I understand book 6 in this series is coming out in mid-June (a few weeks from now), and oh boy , I can’t wait!

[William S.]

More shopping

We're not happy with our corvette we're going to buy a battleship. We're given the task of escorting the arresting team to get that rogue leader who's violating all confederation rules at Elionde. We not only escort, we do the capturing. All this happens between Elionde and Torvalin which are about four months apart, leaving plenty of opportunity for various bad actors to interdict, and cause trouble. No matter how many, and how powerful, they all fail. Alex is so wonderful and ingenious. He's always thinking of his crew. They all adore him, and let him know they adore him. They are amazed at his inventiveness as he alters standard munitions to overcome tactical disadvantages. I'm tired of hearing it.

[Mike Hanford]

Not as good as the preceding books in this series. The author seems to be a bit thin on this storyline; and instead uses some incidents at variance with the characters and practices from previous books. For example, calling at a major fleet base with a major prisoner, and not using his rank and staus to assemble a Navy escort. Risking his ship and crew going it alone? Someone “slipping” aboard with no guards or monitors on an open ramp? The ship intelligence blind to a spy device being attached? So many authors try to parlay a one or two volume success into multiple dull encores. DNF.

[Ken]

Enjoyable addition

This was definitely a pleasure and enjoyable reading time. Mr Kerns spins a great reading time in his books. If you have the books before then this is an expansion of storylines and more world building. I would say as well as further building ground for the finding of MC way back to earth. Will be looking for next book and books in this series. Along with other series. I am truly grateful and happy that books come out regularly. Mr Kerns is a true professional writer. I sincerely appreciate his writing professionalism or writing crafting!!!

[Tony Hisgett]

I quite enjoyed the book, even though it had several problems. The most irritating one, was the main story to arrest the ‘Vhol’ of Elionde, it didn’t really make sense from beginning to end. Right from the start the plan was ‘doomed’, how could they not realise just taking away the ‘Vhol’ would create many more problems. Then there were the plans by the new ‘Elionde leader’ to destroy the ’Guardian’, the timings and logistics really didn’t add up. It all made me feel the author hadn’t really thought through this storyline.

[Beach Bum]

Sum is greater than its parts

Read the first 4 books back to back and from the start it's obvious I was going to enjoy this series
Whilst I gave each book up to this one 4*, the overall rating is higher, because the way the books hang together and the story develops, deserve it
There are a lot of similarities to this series and the Omega force books, just on a grander scale for these.
I rarely give 5*, but his series deserves everyone of them
If you enjoy sci-fi and how a human integrates in an alien culture, you'll love this

[CHARLES WALKER BOWSER]

Calling this series a furry fever dream would he wrong. While the aliens are all humanoid versions of mostly furry animals, there is no sex or sexual tension or hint at furry on furry action. The main character is still too lich of a superman and the quips fly fast and furious throigh the book.

Still...its a fun series.

It's interesting that fir all this is about combat adventure the McDuffie is a serious satire of President Cheeto.

[Deadra Markijohn]

AND once more!

I said it before and I'll say it again, I love this series! I'm no space afficionado- this series checks all the boxes for originality, character development, setting, and color. Kerns really gives you a feel for the breadth of space travel and it's special society of up lifted aliens.

[Laura Bury]

Excellent series.

It started with your average earthling abducted by aliens, and continued on with his spaceefaring coming of age. there are a lot of different star systems, which I hope translates into an adventure sequel for each one. :)

[Jon]

Do it right

Kernel continues to do it right. The only nitpicking that I have is an author is he doesn't proofread his copy before he sends it out. I would be happy to take a nickel for every error that I saw.

[DENIS TODD]

good read

Very good read.kept me awake reading it n n n n n n n n n n n n n

[2percentright]

don't know what happened to the author to change him fun space adventure to an entire novel that's just an anti-trump screed, but here we are

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

I really liked it.