The Last Stand

The Guardian Covenant, Book 1

By: Kevin Ikenberry, Chris Kennedy

Narrated by: James R. Cheatham

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

One last chance to save the world!

When the first asteroid was spotted heading toward Earth, no one thought much about it. But then a second one was found, and then a whole string. One might have been happenstance...but thirteen was enemy action!

But who was responsible for them? With asteroids bearing down on the US, China, and Russia, all the nations that could have done it were unlikely to have been the ones who actually caused the apocalypse headed toward Earth.

It was bad when the asteroids began hitting the planet, devastating the areas where they fell...but when 35-meter-tall monsters began climbing out of the impact craters, things quickly became far, far worse. And when they were found to be immune to most conventional weapons, everything went completely into the toilet.

With the alien hordes dominating the land and sky, though, humanity did what it did best—it created the Guardians, massive mecha that were able to take the battle to the aliens, and rushed them into production. But with four continents already about to fall, there was just one question—would they make a difference?

©2023 Chris Kennedy & Kevin Ikenberry (P)2023 Chris Kennedy & Kevin Ikenberry

Decent read

The book overall is a decent read; It's a bit shocking to see our main forces get shrugged off, and the aliens seem to absolutely seem to have this in the bag. - but at times the book's a little bland and drags on a bit, some characters/story arcs seem to just vanish and get forgotten for the rest of the book and some get tied off. All in all though it was a good read. It's always awesome to see the spirit of adversity in the face of overwhelming odds. - and even though we lost Earth, humans never gave up and in true human fashion they fought to the last man!

The "Goodbye" at the end as Tom looked into the sky seeing them escape sent shivers down my spine, truly a heartfelt "We lost the battle, but not the war" feel.

The Dawn of Giant Stompy Robots!

When aliens come a-knockin', the military has to knock back. Earth's mightiest war machines are put to the test when giant aliens emerge from meteors launched from unknown origins, and ravage the countryside. Soon they will learn that standard tactics won't work against such a foe in this worst case scenario of first contact.

When there's no end in sight for this alien invasion, creative minds bring forth new weapons to combat the menace. This may not be the origin story for Gundam or Battletech, it could definitely serve as an alternate. Watch as mankind's final stand brings out the best in the cast of characters.

Military jargon is plentiful. A wide cast of characters fleshes out the story with the help of a narrator who brings the characters to life. He has a warm tone that carries the already compelling story along nicely.

Steady story line

The story moved a long pretty well. A couple places where it went into characters for no apparent reason, but I guess it was to show a human connection to the soldiers.
Overall I liked it and can't wait to hear the next book.