Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Gyrfalcon
SERIES: Taking Shield #1
AUTHOR: Anna Butler
PUBLISHER: Wilde City Press
LENGTH: 284 Pages
BLURB:
Earth’s last known colony, Albion, is fighting an alien enemy. In the first of the Taking Shield series, Shield Captain Bennet is dropped behind the lines to steal priceless intelligence. A dangerous job, and Bennet doesn’t need the distractions of changing relationships with his long-term partner, Joss, or with his father—and with Flynn, the new lover who will turn his world upside-down. He expects to risk his life. He expects the data will alter the course of the war. What he doesn’t expect is that it will change his life or that Flynn will be impossible to forget.
REVIEW:
I’m always happy to see a sci-fi book hit our review list, and grab them as quick as I can before someone else gets them! In the case of this book, knowing I took not only this one, but its sequel as well, the pressure was on to like it.
Honestly the first few pages of the book had me thinking I might have made a mistake, due to trying to figure who and where everyone was, the strange dates, the very complex world building, and the very complex character building. From the first page we are dropped directly into a battle, and we don’t get the background immediately. Before I knew it though, I was past that and realized I hadn’t moved in hours, except to flip to the next page on my Kindle! I was enthralled.
The book is centered around the colony of Albion. There is a little background on Albion being settled by Earth in the far distant past, and some folks questioning of whether or not Earth actually ever existed. It is the far distant future, and humankind is embroiled in a space war with a species known as the Maess. No one from Albion has actually every seen a Maess, instead only seeing and fighting mindless metal drones and fighter ships, that it seems the Maess have in endless supply.
Shield Captain Bennett is an up and coming officer in one section of Albion’s military. Shield is a very select, very secret military group that operates behind military lines, spying out and destroying enemy automated spy bases. He is involved with a man much older than him Joss, who to me sounds like a totally whiney pain in the ass. There is a history of seven years though, and Bennett broke off relations with his family to be with Joss. Personal note…I strongly disliked Joss, and I’m seriously hoping some sort of “accident” takes him out in book two!
Back to the story! When a project that Bennett has been working on becomes feasible and he has orders to take his ship, the Hyperion, far behind the enemy lines to pursue the project, all seems well. However, a last minute change of plans has him having to turn his ship over to his second in command and go aboard the Gyrfalcon, one of the Fleet’s largest and best ships.
I really liked this book and would have to say it really feels like an old-time science fiction novel. We have all the components. Evil aliens, space battles, spaceships, alien planets, and a fair amount of tech. What we also have is an underlying m/m romance between Bennett and a hot fighter pilot named Flynn that he runs into on the Gyrfalcon! Joss who? (I can only hope.)
I very highly recommend “Gyrfalcon”. Having grown up reading Classic Sci-Fi and Fantasy, I’m always thrilled to read a new book that seems like it would fit right in on any sci-fi shelf in any library anywhere, right next to the works by the great sci-fi authors of the past. Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of the second book in the series “Heart Scarab”. It has a lot to live up to match this one!
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: