PUBLISHED TODAY!
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Day of Wrath, the fifth and final Shield book, is published today by Glass Hat Press (aka: me!)
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About the Taking Shield Series
About Day of Wrath and an excerpt
Buy Links
Payhip – pays me the most in royalties! Available in epub and mobi (Kindle) formats
Universal link to digital bookstores (Amazon, Kobo, iTunes etc)
Paperbacks are available from Amazon/Createspace or you can get a signed copy direct from me. I sell at a discount against Amazon prices, but as I’m in the UK, the postage will be higher.
Early Reviews
I’m sad I can only give 5 stars…. – Love Bytes Reviews
This is the most gripping story in the series. With everything, space battles, destruction, and death, at its heart this is still the epic love story of Bennet and Flynn.– OMGReads
…this series is predominantly a military sci-fi book with a strong m/m romance element. Romance is not uncommon in military scifi, but it is rarely written well. Here it is… I LOVE that this combined both almost seamlessly. THIS is the kind of romance I like in my science fiction!… Ms Butler – well done! Bravo! (golf clap! golf clap!)… Highly recommended if you like plot and character driven science fiction. An intense, unconventional plot that will leave you wrung out and content. – Gay Book Reviews
I was not a fan of science fiction books. Ms. Anna Butler changed that. …brilliant writing drew me in… Ms. Butler has touched every possible human emotion and motivation. She has taken us ten thousand years in the future and shown us the resiliency, drive and determination of the human race…the loyalty and love in the human spirit. And despair. And hope. Kudos to the author for this stunningly brilliant series. – ChezShay
Launch Giveaway
– 25$ (or equivalent) Amazon gift card
– a signed copy of Gyrfalcon, the first Taking Shield book
– your pick of an eBook from my back catalogue
About the Taking Shield series
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. Against the demands of his family’s ‘triple goddess’ of Duty, Honour and Service, is set Bennet’s relationships with lovers and family. When the series opens, Bennet is at odds with his long-term partner, Joss, who wants him out of the military and back in an academic, archaeological career. He’s estranged from his father, Caeden, who is the commander of Fleet’s First Flotilla. Events of the first book, in which he is sent to his father’s ship to carry out an infiltration mission behind Maess lines, improve his relationship with Caeden, but bring with them the catalyst that will destroy the one with Joss: one Fleet Lieutenant Flynn, who, over the course of the series, develops into Bennet’s main love interest.
Over the Taking Shield story 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.
Taking Shield 02: Heart Scarab
Taking Shield 04: The Chains of Their Sins
About Day of Wrath and an excerpt
Shield Captain Bennet arrives on the Gyrfalcon to take up his final year’s posting before returning to the Shield Regiment after his rotation out.
On the Gyrfalcon he faces up to the fallout from Makepeace—ethical, political and above all, personal. Will he be able to accept necessity: that knowing what the Maess are up to outweighs the humanitarian issues surrounding the prisoners he rescued from Makepeace? Can he ride out the political furore that follows the loss of the dreadnought Caliban? How will he cope with an entire year of serving under his father, Caeden? And worst of all, how in the name of every god in the Pantheon can he stand to see Flynn every single day, with the Fraternisation Regs standing between them and keeping them apart?
It will be an interesting year. Bennet can hardly wait for it to be over. Of course, things never really do go to plan…
Book Title: Day of Wrath
Series: Taking Shield 05
Publisher: Glass Hat Press
Cover Artist: Adrian Nicholas
Wordcount: c 106,300
Category: Sci Fi, Gay mainstream
A laser bolt sizzled past him. Shit! They were after him. The scanner was still suffering from Maess jamming, but Flynn could make out four Maess fighters behind him. Another laser bolt flashed past, his scanners showing it blood scarlet against the blackness of space.
Flynn’s scanner picked up Bennet rolling his Hornet to one side. A laser bolt missed him by only a few feet. Close. Too close. There had been all too many of them in the last hour. They’d done nothing but dogfight Maess fighters since they found Jilly and Bennet took back command for their share of the battle.
“Wingover loop,” Bennet ordered. “Best chance we’ve got.”
Good call. They had to get the bastards off their afterburners.
Flynn flung his Hornet up into a vertical curving quarter loop, still at top sub-light speed. He flat-turned at the top and dived down into another quarter loop to flatten out. They were facing the Maess full on, now. The abrupt change caught the Maess by surprise. The four Maess fighters scattered as Bennet and Flynn zoomed at them.
Flynn pressed his thumb onto the firing button and kept it there. Clipped one of the Maess and sent it spinning off to one side, but Bennet got another one head on as they flew through, the lucky bastard.
“Wingover to give chase,” Bennet said.
Flynn repeated the wingover, flat turning to change direction through 180 degrees again, only a few hundred yards from Bennet’s left wing. They were bloody smooth, moving as if they were connected by wires, coming up on the Maess from behind. Best pilots in Fleet, they were. Had to be. Along with Cruz who, as Flynn had expected, was out there with her pilots on Bennet’s starboard flank. He hadn’t had time to do more than greet her on their arrival and try to keep as much of an eye on her as he could spare from watching Bennet’s back.
Flynn centred a Maess fighter on the targeting screen and fired. Hit it. Damaged it enough to bleed its shields, not enough to kill it. Another second to be sure of his aim, and then again, the weapons array had the target centred. Another shot, and Flynn was suddenly flying through a miniature asteroid belt of Maess fighter parts, all bouncing off his shields and making the Hornet rattle.
Best bloody noise in the world, that.
Spreading The Word
One of the lovely people who preordered Day of Wrath told me she’d started reading Shield because of a “glowing recommendation from a co-worker”. More than anything else, that kind of personal recommendation is pure gold to an author. If you’re enjoying the Shield series and you feel comfortable about recommending it to fellow-sci-fi readers, please do spread the word. You can reblog this post or use one of the sharing buttons below to send it to Twitter and Facebook. Share the cover on Instagram with a link to this post. Word of mouth to all your mates down the pub… it all helps enormously and anything you do will be much appreciated.
In the meantime, I’m visiting various blogs over the next few days where you’ll have other chances to enter the Rafflecoptor Giveaway above:
| June 28 | Gay Book Reviews |
| June 28 | Drops of Ink |
| June 28 | MM Good Book Reviews |
| June 28 | OMGReads |
| June 28 | Tangents and Tissues |
| June 28 | Valerie Ullmer | Romance Author |
| June 28 | Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings |
| June 28 | Stories That Make You Smile |
| June 28 | Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words |
| June 28 | The Blogger Girls |
| June 28 | MJ’s Book Blog and Reviews |
| June 28 | Louise Lyons |
| June 29 | RAM PA Group |
| June 29 | Unquietly Me |
| June 29 | Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews |
| June 29 | Padme’s Library |
| Jun-29 | Antonia Aquilante |
| June 29 | My Fiction Nook |
| June 30 | Jim’s Reading Room |
| June 30 | book review virginia lee |
| June 30 | velvetpanic |
| June 30 | Dawn’s Reading Nook |
| June 30 | Elin Gregory |
| Love Bytes | |
| Dates tbc | Angel Martinez |
| Parker Williams | |
| Sarah Madison | |
| Megan Reddaway | |
| Eyes on Books | |
| Marie Brown |
PUBLISHED TODAY!
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Anna Butler 
Congratulations! Dan at Love Bytes gave it 7 stars!! Can’t wait to read it …on my Kindle today!
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I know! I was thrilled!
Hope you enjoy it!
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Loved it. Only series I’d even dream of preordering months ahead. Please tell me this isn’t the last book?
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I’m delighted you liked it! I’m afraid it is indeed the end. That last line was actually the first thing planned, all those years ago when I started thinking about Shield. That overarching story has driven it so far, and without that, it would just be episodic adventures with no real ending in sight. I’ll admit though that it’s very flattering that more might be welcome!
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Loved it! So much. Please tell me this wasn’t the last book in the series?
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Hello! I’ve just answered a similar question above, and the sad answer is that is indeed the end of the series. I planned to end with that last line, and I don’t have plans to take the story beyond it. Never say never, and all that, but without the driving overarching story of the Maess war, anything more wouldn’t have the same focus, and would end up being very episodic adventuring. Because if the Maess catch up with them…. 😦
But I’m delighted you liked the book. Thank you for letting me know!
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