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The Last Hunter #7

Shield of Humanity

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With time, plan and build contingencies.

Admiral Jack Romanoff and his ragtag crew had paid in blood for breathing room to repair their ship and resupply. With that done, they could track down the Poseidon Group conspirators and kick the Locusts out of the cluster. Their fortunes seemed to be on the rise.

With enemies all around, seek to maneuver.

Only after examining the intelligence gathered during the invasion, it became clear a fresh storm was brewing on the horizon, and his ancient battleship would be battered like never before. In a battle of titans, there were only the victors and the dead, so triumph they would, no matter the cost.

When backed into a corner, always come out fighting.

369 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 19, 2023

695 people are currently reading
96 people want to read

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J.N. Chaney

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5 stars
931 (56%)
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545 (33%)
3 stars
143 (8%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for C.T. Phipps.
Author 93 books670 followers
April 27, 2023
I really enjoy this book series. The Last Hunter series is very much about the last star destroyer sized battleship of the Earth's navy being the only defense against a horde of aliens and a conspiracy to overthrow Earth's democracies. THE SHIELD OF HUMANITY is another good entry in the book, though I really wanted to see some resolutions to a couple of the plots.
Profile Image for Leather.
564 reviews12 followers
March 5, 2024
The book starts with a very boring meeting. After the awful sixth part, I asked myself whether to stop there.
The recurring flaws are still very present: the absurd use of meetings prior to action, the endless dialogues, and the conclusions of the chapters which are systematically the synthesis of the few preceding pages. Without forgetting the splitting of the story into multiple points of view, with more and more protagonists as the series progresses. (Recurring fault of this type of Space opera, but relatively contained here)
However, the plot is relaunched in this 7th volume, and the overall story regains the suspense and rhythm lost in the previous part. And part of the book takes place... in space.
Not perfect, far from it, but the desire to continue the series has returned.
14 reviews
May 27, 2024
recommend

I highly recommend this series. I’ve really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to get to reading the next one
Profile Image for Jim.
1,229 reviews50 followers
June 18, 2023
Admiral Jack Romanoff has his hands full. He’s not only looking for a huge Locust fleet, but also the dangerous Novarites and the militant branch of the Tardans, each he will have to meet and defeat if he is to save the Confederation. Right now he’s just saved Argent, another Confederation planet who can and will help his cause.

He’s sent his former XO (Executive Officer) Vice Admiral MacKinnon back to Confederation HQ in hopes of finding them still functioning although cut-off from everyone due to the gates being blown. Jack has two exploratory ships that he found abandon and put them to good use. The other ship is doing a scouting mission attempting to find the Locust fleet before it finds him.

Romanoff with his battleship, the *Hunter*, a.k.a. the *Delta Orionis* looking for the Novarites and if necessary, defeat them in battle freeing another human planet. Right now he’s heading to the Vesuvius system where he believes some of the Novarites have fled. If they are there, he’s going to have a battle taking that system back away from the Novarites. Still, it’s a battle that he thinks he and his ship can win if the numbers stacked against him aren’t too great.

Meanwhile on the planet Argent, David Chen and his wife Tina are attempting to gain information on what the Poseidon Group was up to and specifically where they had built their secret spaceship building facilities. It was known that these space docks had been in operation for many, many years using the money that was supposed to go towards maintaining the mothballed fleet of battleships to build their own fleet of cruisers. Romanoff estimated that the Poseidon Group probably had built some where around nine-hundred ships and that was a number he couldn’t defeat. He also knew that the entire Confederation Navy back at the HQ wasn’t also able to defeat that fleet!

While David Chen was concentrating on his work a mysterious message was delivered to him by someone he didn’t recognize or pay much attention to. Come to find out, this guy was a paid assassin that was on contract to kill all the leadership of the Hunter as well as David, Tina and Lisa! He told David in the message that while he could kill everyone of them proven by the fact he just faced David in a supposedly secure facility, he wasn’t going to do that. He, instead, offered to help David and his group to find the Poseidon Group and eradicate it from the Confederation. He wasn’t necessarily part of the Poseidon Group, but was acting on his own while not a necessarily a friend of the Confederation either.

Sara Nastasi, acting on behalf of the Navy, but not as a Commodore, was getting ready to take a trip back to Port Royal with an Engineering team to explore the possibility of getting the other ten battleships up to speed. She briefly described what she thought needed done to executives of the Ringwald Engineering firm and they decided to send their two senior engineers back to Port Royal with her. It was hoped that with the huge stash of spare parts at Port Royal that the engineers would be able bring at least one or more of the ancient battleships back to life. Their assessment could mean the difference between humanity living a free life or becoming slaves to the Novarites or even worse, their unknown enemy.

As you can read, there is a lot going on. Not sure how they are keeping everything on track, but they all seem to be doing a pretty good job. They are going to need a lot more people if they are going to operate one or more battleships not counting on the vast number of engineers they will have to hire to get them ready. Additionally, the *Hunter* cannot be defeated in any battle right now or that would be disastrous for the Confederation.

It will be very interesting to read the next book 8, “Fog of War”, which I have on my reading list and will get to shortly.
Profile Image for Beau.
311 reviews7 followers
February 21, 2023
Seven books in, I'm really enjoying this series. The battleships are huge asteroids. The Hunter has several different kinds of FTL drives and weapons and is finding more all the time. Admiral Jack Romanoff is trying to prevent humanity from defeat by the Locusts, the Tardem, the Novarites, and other humans!

In this installment, several storylines progress in parallel. Jack makes progress against the Posiedon group, but runs into obstacles with the Novarites. There are some opportunities for Novarite prisoners to give valuable information in future releases. We do learn that they are basically copying / stealing technology from others, and not advancing it. That might be a viewpoint that leads to better ways to fight them.

The Tardem military are pretty much out of the picture whenever they run into the Novarites. The future of the Tardem colonists in Novarite hands are not known.

There are still enough Locusts in the cluster to defeat 12 battleships. Jack has lots of problems to deal with, sure enough.

Meanwhile, David and Tina are working on two issues: Poseidon and a new player ... the mysterious Patrick. They're on Argent and trying to give Jack the intel he needs to go forward.

Sara has been going back and forth to Port Royal in an effort to jumpstart the repair of the other 11 battleships in that system. The task is huge, but it brings up a question in my mind.

If the Poseidon Group had 150 years of battleship fleet maintenance money, why didn't they just crew and maintain the battleship fleet? It would have been much stronger than the cruiser fleet they built, and their dreams of a coup might have happened 50 or even 100 years earlier. It's like when the villain has to monologue - they made it a lot harder on themselves.

And Lisa/Regex are working along with the Chens to figure out who and what Patrick is.

Every story line moves forward. It's a great addition to the series. So much fun to see how they grow.

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for Per Gunnar.
1,313 reviews74 followers
March 3, 2023
This, the 7th book in The Last Hunter series, is a good piece of military science fiction. It does not really match up to the Empire Rising series of, which I recently read the last instalment in that series, but it is still a good book.

The story continues from the last book, no surprise there, and there is plenty of challenges for Romanoff & Co. The one I care the most about is of course whether they are finally going to get the battleship squadron in fighting state. Unfortunately the author drags this out in every book which I am starting to get a bit annoyed about.

Another thing that makes this book, to me at least, not be the best one in the series is the fact that there is not much ship action in it. The action in this book is more marine action with stealth boarding parties and such things. Good action but not my favorite.

Then there are the usual conspiracies, the Poseidon group, aliens and so on and so forth. All of which glues the story together although I would really have preferred if the author had left these Poseidon asshats out of the story. As usual, assholes conspiring against humanity itself is pretty low on my list of likes.

All in all this instalment in the series is more of another preparatory lull in the fighting before the real combat starts up again. Or at least I hope that this is the direction the author is going in.

Still, it is a good book so the eight one, scheduled to be released end of April, is already on pre-order.
308 reviews4 followers
April 18, 2023
Great read

The excitement does not let up! The secret Poseidon Group over the past century have infiltrated all levels and aspects of the Confederation. Their plan to takeover the Confederation as the new leadership is imminent. Admiral Jack Romanoff with the sole battleship HUNTER has a new lead on where the Poseidon Group’s secret shipyards are that have been building hundreds of cruiser with advance weapons. One Battleship can’t stand up to hundreds of cruisers, but he must protect the Confederation at all costs, even if that means sacrificing his ship and crew to reduce the sizable illegal force to a more manageable number. Hopefully the Confederation will be able to get one or two of the other old battleships back into a usable condition to fill the void. There are still two large concentrations of alien forces in the cluster determined to wipe out humanity and each other! Stand by for heavy rolls!
348 reviews4 followers
February 27, 2023
Can they take out the conspirators and 3 sets of aliens before someone takes over?

The hunt for the shipyards of the Poseidon Group continue as a warning is sent to the Confederation of the imminent coup. Sara attempts to get more of the battleships online by hiring an engineering firm. Lisa gets her team of computer geniuses together to go over the Novarite computers and find out what she can about the aliens as well attempting to track down Poseidon group conspirators still on Argent. An assassin who appears to be against the Poseidon group also enters the fray, but there is more to him than there seems....
Intrigue, mystery, surprises, space battles and multiple uses of the marines both in space and planet bound pepper this novel. The stakes are raised and further complications are revealed in this highly entertaining novel.
28 reviews
March 16, 2023
Admiral Romanoff and his crew pursue the Novarites and the Poseidon Group. They also re-establish contact with the rest of the Confederation which promises to thicken the plot and bring old allies and enemies back into focus. A fulfilling military sci-fi read. I enjoyed this book more than the previous book in this series because the characters made more concrete advances to the plot and there was a more detailed description of combat. The heroes face realistic problems and have to work for their victories more than in the average military science fiction novel. Character development was about average for the genre, but I don't feel like that detracted from my enjoyment of Shield of Humanity I'm looking forward to reading the next installment! I received a free advanced review copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.
Profile Image for Tony Hisgett.
2,999 reviews36 followers
February 25, 2023
An interesting and mainly enjoyable story, but I did find it quite hard work to read more than one chapter in one go. Part of the reason for this, is the number of different storylines and the way the story keeps jumping from one to another. There were several occasions when a chapter ends on an interesting incident and then its ages before the author comes back to it again. Also there is often a lot of unnecessary repetitive dialogue.

There is enough in the main story to make an interesting series, but the authors can’t seem to help just adding more and more. There are already several different protagonists, but then in this book they threw in a ridiculous mysterious assassin and the possibility of yet another participant race in the mix.
391 reviews1 follower
July 18, 2024
Reviewed by Beth

Ok, each book I have read has me on the edge of my seat. I mean you have a war with aliens; then you have political war coming out of the blue. You are trying to figure out whose who.

Backing up a bit, there is a character that has been changed (I haven't figured out if that's a good thing)

Lets not forget a new character that is humanoid. This character just has me questioning almost everything.

Then there is a possible romance (which I am rooting for).

I am reading this series back to back.

I honestly don't know what I will do when I get to the last book and the authors leaves a cliffhanger. Which I'm half and half with wanting to know the end of the story.

The only way I want a ending is if all the good guys win.
47 reviews1 follower
January 1, 2025
Quite the tale! (No spoilers here!)

This is an interesting series. Seven books in and it's still getting more complicated. The characters are likeable and are developing nicely over time with interrelationships and motivations not not always obvious. The action I feel, is nicely paced, not too sparce, but not frenetic either! With some nice nods to Greek mythology.

I'm looking forward to how this all plays out, however, I do have one complaint. I've read these seven books in just over a week and the late nights are KILLING me! 😂

Seriously though, this is well written excellent fiction that I heartily recommend.
1,013 reviews4 followers
June 5, 2024
Plenty of action going on

Now that the vast conspiracy plotting to overthrow the Confederation has been discovered, they feel free to brutally attack the targets they can reach. Lisa & Regex are building their skills and are busier than ever.
A mysterious new player is emerging that is both highly capable and therefore more than concerning. Jack & the Hunter are given an opportunity to kick over the anthill to see what scurries out so they can try to stomp on it.
249 reviews2 followers
March 4, 2023
Very good!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had a number of twists in there that while they weren't utterly surprising definitely had a surprise factor that made the book exceptional! Can't wait to read Fog of War and see what happens with our favorite crew and the impossible battle they must fight.
383 reviews3 followers
April 27, 2023
Boring, too much talking

I initially liked this series and was curious about how it went but not anymore. The fighting is summarized and the talking over dramatized and over explained. I want to see action. Not the fight you’ve been looking forward to over in one page. I think the author is really drawing this out.
Profile Image for Richard.
191 reviews
May 30, 2023
Second time around

This is the second time I read this book. The first time, I read it without reading the first 6. I was good then and even better now. This story ties up a bunch of loose ends and brings us right where we need to be. Character development and story telling are excellent. Highly recommend this series and this book.
329 reviews
May 24, 2024
Another piece of the puzzle arises.

So many things still going on. Resolve one problem and two more arise. Answers are harder to come by. Yet they do come. Our band of heroes are headed in multiple directions to dig deeper for information. Or find and assure the supply of necessary parts for repairs. So much in motion!
777 reviews3 followers
February 23, 2023
Set up For Book #8

A lot going on in this one. A lot of new information on several topics . At times, the story gets complicated when you are looking for something to explain the story world. That said I will read the next book.
Profile Image for Effie Eshel.
104 reviews7 followers
February 25, 2023
The writing is good with interesting characters and story, but there are too many viewpoints and too much needless conversations and thoughts.
It feels like taking a break after each chapter/ individual view point and it became boring and slow.
Too bad.
21 reviews
March 1, 2023
Rather slow going at first

The first two-thirds of the book were really plodding. There are almost too many subplots to keep track of. Finally, things picked up in the last third and things are starting to come together.
Profile Image for Mark Baller.
612 reviews2 followers
March 6, 2023
This was a good 1 I found it fun

I Highly recommend try this book it's great military sci-fi and Has a great plot lots of action Cool technologies great battle plans It's pretty good
Profile Image for James Anderson.
113 reviews
March 15, 2023
Another awesome book

Again they keep me on the edge of my seat till the last line. There's so much going on I have to sometimes reflect on what I've read. This is an interesting story and I can't wait for the next book it'll be here in April
Profile Image for One.
264 reviews1 follower
June 10, 2023
The book suffers from the middle book syndrome. It is best from the last three in my opinion. The mixture of preparation and action is a little better, or the pathway is more clear to me. Unfortunately it stopped surprising me, maybe it will be something more about the enemy of the enemy; will see.
120 reviews
January 13, 2024
Very good addition to the series

Many threads of the story moving in parallel, including ship battles, spies, and multiple alien species. Each story threads has its own “action”. Like top expansion of the story threads, but you do have to pay attention. Looking forward to book 8!
245 reviews2 followers
February 20, 2023
Good read

Great installment in the series. Threw in a couple new twists. Finished it way to quickly lol. Can't wait to see where this goes.
68 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2023
great

Very much enjoyed this volume. I had hoped the series would have progressed a bit faster though. So many irons in the fire… hope this is all sorts out eventually.
50 reviews2 followers
February 25, 2023
epic

So much better than the last one. It advanced the story in all facets!! I cant wait for the next one. So good.
165 reviews1 follower
May 4, 2023
Interesting and entertaining!

Easy read with the continuing plot and usual characters in parallel plots that support the main plot. Enjoyable reading experience.
Profile Image for Shelee Whitaker.
80 reviews1 follower
December 31, 2023
I just want to read.

Very good, so and it was not going well is this twenty words yetthen it is what it is.
Good reads.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews

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