Hi guys! We have Anna Butler stopping by today with the tour for her new release the Taking Shield Box Set, we have a a fantastic guest post, a great excerpt, Shorty’s review and a brilliant $20 Amazon GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤️ ~Pixie~

Taking Shield Box Set

Anna Butler

Hate buying books in a series until the whole thing is done? Then check out the Rainbow Award-winning Taking Shield series, just released as an e-book boxed set. Not only do you get the entire series, there’s a very nice saving on the cost of the individual books! Anna’s dropped in today to tell us more.

About Taking Shield

Earth’s a dead planet, dark for thousands of years; lost for so long no one even knows where the solar system is. Her last known colony, Albion, has grown to be regional galactic power in its own right. But its drive to expand and found colonies of its own has threatened an alien race, the Maess, against whom Albion is now fighting a last-ditch battle for survival in a war that’s dragged on for generations.

Taking Shield charts the missions and adventures of Shield Captain Bennet, scion of a prominent military family. Bennet, also an analyst with the Military Strategy Unit, uncovers crucial data about the Maess to help with the war effort. Against the demands of his family’s ‘triple goddess’ of Duty, Honour and Service, is set Bennet’s relationships with lovers and family—his difficult relationship with his long term partner, Joss; his estrangement from his father, Caeden, the commander of Fleet’s First Flotilla; and Fleet Lieutenant Flynn, who, over the course of the series, develops into Bennet’s main love interest.

Over the Taking Shield arc, Bennet will see the extremes to which humanity’s enemies, and his own people, will go to win the war. Some days he isn’t able to tell friend from foe. Some days he doubts everything, including himself, as he strives to ensure Albion’s victory. And some days he isn’t sure, any longer, what victory looks like.

More information and background on the Shield Universe here

Taking the King’s Shilling

by Anna Butler

Sometimes I wonder at my own chutzpah, writing over half a million words of military science fiction when I’ve never served a day in the military in my life. Not one day. I’ve only ever fired a gun once—a modern Colt, out in the Arizona desert near Tombstone, aiming at a tin can set up on a large rock. I didn’t hit the tin can. I didn’t hit the rock. In fact, I was so wide of the target, I’m not even sure the bullet ended up in the state of Arizona.

I am lamentably unqualified to write about soldiers. I’m not sure that an obsessive passion for military type Sci Fi shows – BSG, Babylon 5 – counts well enough to redress the balance. But it’s all I’ve got.

When the pundits say “Write what you know”, I’ve always taken that as writing about the themes and issues that move you, not the external trappings. Those can be researched and learned, and if you’re very lucky, beta read by someone who’s from that particular milieu. At the same time, I’m pretty sure I would hesitate long and hard before writing contemporary military novels… the prospect just scares the heck out of me. I’d be spending months in research and I’d need to co-opt an entire regiment of expert readers to help and advise me. The thought of being savaged (metaphorically speaking) on my lack of detailed knowledge and experience is rather daunting.

The one saving grace I have in writing Taking Shield, is that setting it in space gives me a bit of leeway. This isn’t about a real military force. It isn’t a UK SAS unit or the US Marines lifted into space. It’s one I made up.

So yeah. Leeway.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t thought hard about how Shield, Fleet and Infantry are organised and set up. Or that I haven’t been careful to try and keep a sense of it being a real military, with the duties and scope of the separate services delineated, chains of command set out – that sort of thing. I kept a large ‘bible’ that helped me keep the story more or less under control with notes from items such as the name of every dreadnought and destroyer in Fleet to a list of medals for valour, to a detailed essay on Albion’s political structure and governance.

I built up a spreadsheet that sets out how Albion’s Defence Forces are governed, setting out the chain of command from the Supreme Commander downwards, listing all 9 Fleet Flotillas, the 9 Infantry regiments (under Field Marshal Klara), the Shield Regiment (headed by General Martens), Transport Fleet, Demeter Transfer Station and the three fixed space-defence bases. The idea was simply so I had it clear in my head how everything interlocks, even if every detail never makes it into the books.

In Shield, for example, ships are brigaded into a battlegroup, headed by a major. Every three battlegroups are headed up by a colonel. So Bennet has a clear career path to get him to the point he’s aiming for – he *really* wants to command the regiment one day!

When it comes to the Gyrfalcon, I have organization charts for the squadrons and more spreadsheets showing how they work a shift system across a 25 hour duty period as well as others showing the organisation when they were actively brigaded into the two flight wings in battle.

Yes, all this helped. But still, I’m sure that any serving military person would be aghast at the book and it’s probably full of howlers.

But. But.

A little bit of me is with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle here: “It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?”

I’m not saying he’s entirely right. But in the sense in which he is right, is that what matters is the story. Because I’m not writing a treatise on military life, or aiming for a space version of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. I’m writing fiction. Made up stuff. A science fiction yarn. If I end up being less than militarily rigid, but the reader just thinks “Cool action!”, then job done. I got away with it.

I hope…

Excerpt!

from Day of Wrath 

As Bennet angled over to starboard, Flynn gave his own Hornet a metaphorical boot in the backside, and tagged along faithfully at Bennet’s port wing. He stayed close and tight. Pity the ensigns weren’t there to see how it was done. With finesse. Panache. And sheer, mind-boggling talent.

The Hornet’s navigational computer helpfully overlaid a representation of Aglaia with the usual spherical latitude-longitude grid, pulling the planetary data from the database. At least they had the figures for known planets logged and stored and the nav-com didn’t have to make it up. Which it could, of course, by designating the poles with an arbitrary north and south label, locating the equator, and inventing an arbitrary prime meridian to work with. According to legend, the system originated on Earth before humankind took to the skies, so old it was invented for sailing ships. Given Earth was ten thousand years gone, Flynn put a lot of emphasis on ‘legend’. Their flight navigation systems were built on bloody folklore.

Madness.

Still, at least he couldn’t get lost.

He followed Bennet into a high orbit along Aglaia’s equator, skimming along for a moment before going down into the atmosphere. And by skimming, he meant they bounced along like stones skipping over water before they burst through into a storm system. A big storm system. The air roiled in great waves and billows, buffeting the Hornets, and lightning cracked and sizzled off their hulls. The flow of the clouds was fierce, the turbulence greatest at the boundaries between cloud layers. And the winds! More than fierce. They were a howling, raging, relentless savagery that threatened to overwhelm even the Hornet’s engines. The Hornet bucked and balked against the winds, and it took every ounce of skill Flynn possessed to fight her into obedience, to keep her flying in the direction he wanted. He couldn’t rely on relaxed experience here. This was active, constant readjustment to make her respond. He dropped back a trifle, giving Bennet and himself room to ride out the bucking and bouncing. He wasn’t so much flying through Aglaia’s skies, as cavorting through them.

Gods, it was fun!

About Anna!

Anna was a communications specialist for many years, working in various UK government departments on everything from marketing employment schemes to organizing conferences for 10,000 civil servants to running an internal TV service. These days, though, she is writing full time. She lives with her husband in a quiet village tucked deep in the Nottinghamshire countryside. She’s supported there by the Deputy Editor, aka Molly the cockerpoo, who is assisted by the lovely Mavis, a Yorkie-Bichon cross with a bark several sizes larger than she is but no opinion whatsoever on the placement of semi-colons.

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Review

Title: Taking Shield Boxset

Series: Taking Shield 01 – 05

Author: Anna Butler

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 5 x Novels ( pages)

Publisher: Glass House Press (3rd November 2019)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts (Combined rating)

Blurb: Earth’s a dead planet, dark for thousands of years; lost for so long no one even knows where the solar system is. Her last known colony, Albion, has grown to be regional galactic power in its own right. But its drive to expand and found colonies of its own has threatened an alien race, the Maess, against whom Albion is now fighting a last-ditch battle for survival in a war that’s dragged on for generations.

Taking Shield charts the missions and adventures of Shield Captain Bennet, scion of a prominent military family. Bennet, also an analyst with the Military Strategy Unit, uncovers crucial data about the Maess to help with the war effort. Against the demands of his family’s ‘triple goddess’ of Duty, Honour and Service, is set Bennet’s relationships with lovers and family—his difficult relationship with his long term partner, Joss; his estrangement from his father, Caeden, the commander of Fleet’s First Flotilla; and Fleet Lieutenant Flynn, who, over the course of the series, develops into Bennet’s main love interest.

Over the Taking Shield arc, Bennet will see the extremes to which humanity’s enemies, and his own people, will go to win the war. Some days he isn’t able to tell friend from foe. Some days he doubts everything, including himself, as he strives to ensure Albion’s victory. And some days he isn’t sure, any longer, what victory looks like.

ISBN: 9780463260869

Product Link: Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords

Reviewer: Shorty

Gryfalcon Review 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts:

The first thing about this boxset you should know is that it is not a romance book. Yes there is a couple in it but because of Bennet’s work they are apart for the most part.

This story is about a colony fighting against an alien whose sole purpose is to wipe out humanity, one world at a time.

The aliens themselves are called Maess. By the descriptions of them they sound like cyborgs. Very deadly with means of protecting itself and the bases they have put up in different worlds.

Shield Captain Bennet’s job is to infiltrate a main base of the Maess and destroy it. Without being detected. There are many characters introduced throughout that help Bennet during his mission.

Intense at times, fast paced and well written. The descriptions of space and the battles were amazing. I found myself on the edge of my seat the further the story progressed. Too many things happen in this book to put them all in this review but all in all it’s a great read.

Heart Scarab Review 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts:

This is the second book in the Taking Shield series. I loved the entire book. It was heart stopping at times and yet heartbreaking at others.

Bennet is sent on a mission that goes horribly wrong. But before that Joss, his longtime partner wants him to quit the military. I really felt for Jose, understanding his need for his partner but at the same time I understood Bennet’s position.

This book provides plenty of action and adventure among a well written story that takes the reader on a deadly mission. I was on the edge of my seat reading this book and holding my breath at times. It’s truly a wonderful story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Tough some things were confusing I still figured out what the author was trying to say.

I really liked the detailed descriptions of Telnos, even though it did not sound like a good place to be I imagined what it actually looked like. One of the things I did not like was the possibility of a relationship with a woman in a future. I sincerely hope this is not the case as I only read m/m.

Overall it was really good tale of adventure and danger set in a sci-fi world, though there was not much sci-fi.

Great read.

Makepeace Review 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts: Captain Bennet is on a mission to rescue humans that are being held against their will. The problem is all the political red tape that comes with it. I gotta say this was a fascinating story. 

You have Bennet and his problems; on top of that you have unrest and upheaval thrown in the mix. So much is going on that at times I was confused but it all came together nicely as the story progressed.

Stunning battles scenes, harrowing confrontations and a well-balanced array of other things in the mix. This book will have you on the edge of your seat, holding your breath. It captures you from the start and does not let go until the end. 

The ending seems to be setting up for the next book. I loved how the setting was in this book. This is a greatly detailed and invigorating story.

This was truly an amazing read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Chains of Their Sins Review 💖💖💖💖 4 Hearts: There was a lot of tension in this book from Bennet and Flynn. It was thick enough at times to suffocate. Though they planned to be just friends considering Bennet is Flynn’s superior and only the captain for a year, that didn’t mean the feelings were not there. I felt sorry for them.

Bennet had his plate full dealing with memories from all sides. The Maess were quiet for the most part but that did not mean their end result was gone, as in case with the colony of those saved from the Maess. It broke my heart at what had been done to them.

There is a lot going on in this story from political unrest to trying to figure out what the Maess is up to. It was a lot to take in and absorb. I’m still trying to make sense of some of it as I felt at times it was way too drawn out considering the book is over 300 pages long. 

I was not impressed with the fact that so much time was spent on Bennet’s sister. I mean I thought this was an m/m book. Yet she is all throughout. I realize she plays a role but I felt her part was overdone. There were no sex scenes in this book and there was no end as it ends on a cliffhanger of sorts.

Day of Wrath Review 💖💖💖💖💖 4 1/2 Hearts: I love an author who is not afraid to take out characters. Sometimes that is called for in a story. The author does a wonderful job in this story as the fate of everyone rests in their hands. The story was wonderful. Edge of your seat battles and twists and turns that took me by surprise. The betrayal, I never saw coming so was pleasantly blindsided.

It was a perfect blend of chaos, harmony, betrayal and suspense all woven into one exciting book.

The overall feel is one of completeness. I loved everything about the descriptions and backgrounds as the story progressed. The series has no shortage of information given as to why certain things happened and why.

Flynn and Bennet have come so far together in this series. I loved their characters and trials they have been through to get to this exciting conclusion. I am sad to see this end but that is just the way it is with a good series.

Great read.