To Serve and Protect

Onset, Book 1

By: Glynn Stewart

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

A small town cop with an unexpected gift. A shadowy government agency on the side of justice. A call no good man could turn away.

When vampires attack David White's small town, only luck, firepower, and the intervention of an elite government task force saves his life. The aftermath of the attack leaves him in the middle of the world's biggest secret: the existence of government agencies that regulate the supernatural.

They insist that David's "luck" is actually a supernatural gift, and he's immediately recruited into ONSET, the most shadowy part of America's thin blue line of police protectors.

Questioning both his gifts and the agency he now serves, David is drawn into an escalating battle that threatens all of humanity. If he isn't what ONSET thinks he is, the entire world may pay the price.

©2016 Glynn Stewart (P)2017 Podium Publishing

Started out promising...and devolved....quickly...

The author started with an interesting premise....but then...

The main character was annoying -
The magic system - well, there wasn't one -
The storyline was - disjointed and wrung out -
The women - were all somehow magically attracted to the main character -
Any information given - repeated....excessively - it didn't matter if it wasn't key to the story....
Action - lacking....based on the suggested premise of this book - there was an expectation of fully fleshed out action scenes.

If this book was edited - properly and ruthlessly - it could have been finished in about 50 pages.

I can't recommend this book - and I seriously want my credit back.

Excellent multi genre story with plenty of action!

I ran out of "Joe Ledger" , "Mitch Rapp", "Court Gentry" and "John Clark" novels. I prefer the present day /near future to past or far future (alien beings and space ships). I'm not necessarily Tom Clancy fan but rather a "John Clark" fan. I went on to "Bob Lee Swagger" novels next, then on to the author who should be the inspiration for all other authors in the spy/thriller/action/black-ops genre, the late Vince Flynn (he is greatly missed)! Vince Flynn writes about "Mitch Rapp" as most of you know. Once I finished the entire series, I read about Jonathan Maberry in a forum, he's generally a horror writer (vampires, werewolves, zombies). He had branched out into the Spec-Ops/Shadowy world of spies fighting terrorists or "James Bond" type villains with world altering objectives. The main character, "Joe Ledger" is a cop recruited by the "DMS" (Department of Military Science). He meets all sorts of people throughout the series including a vampire ex-terrorist/all female team who he works with from time to time. Joe ends up battling people who can't die, zombie-virus, mutants, killer drones and even bad guys with alien type technology. The "Joe Ledger" novels are uniquely written with excellent moments of comic relief. They are action/thrillers and move very fast but as audiobooks you receive the added bonus of having Ray Porter as the narrator.
This is how I learned of "ONSET", Ray Porter. I haven't been able to find any books that come close to my favorites. So I decided to base my search on narrators (Ray Porter).
Touchdown!!! I land on Glynn Stewart's "To Protect and Serve: Onset Series Book 1"!
Fantastic! it's very similar to "Joe Ledger" stories but there is more of a fantasy angle and quite a lot of nods to "Lord of The Rings". Glynn Stewart does an excellent job of blending magic, Elves, Mages, Werewolves, Vampires, Demons, etc with present day military equipment.

Okay-ish

As long as you know nothing about guns, helicopters, police procedures, etc and don't pay too much attention to the rules of the magic system it's a decent read. If you can jam with a made for SyFy movie, you'll rock this. The premise was fun and it rolled along decently (though there were certainly plenty of dead ends in the plot). You just have to invest as little thought as the author did to enjoy it fully. The narration was at times confusing with character voices being swapped at random.

I'm probably judging it too harshly because there were just enough good bits to get glimpses of what it could have been with a bit more effort.

Drilled the title way too much...

The book is ok. That's about as nice as I can put it. The main character stresses to serve and protect at least 3 times each chapter. With over 40 chapters it got annoying real quick. Main character is very unrealistic. I can deal with the powers that just seem to keep coming at random. But, his daddy issues accompanied by his not wanting to be a freak made it hard to like the main character. The supporting characters just had no development at all. They're stories would probably be more interesting over the goody two shoes. Again the book is ok. Debating on giving the second book a try.

Fast paced, progressive urban fantasy

I ended up loving this book and the series as a whole. If you like urban fantasy books where the main character is suddenly discovering his powers and growing powerful pretty quickly, this is something you'd like. It's most similar to Demon Accords and it was my searching for something similar to that that caused me to find and read this book and boy, was I happy I did.

The series is about a man, David, who is a cop in a smaller town, who finds himself being attacked by vampires. Something happens and he discovers that he's an 'empowered', which is a human who is, well, empowered. Imbued with new powers, strengths, abilities, and now knowing about the supernatural world, he's informed and asked to join a government organization that keeps the peace in face of various supernatural threats, ranging from newly turned creatures like vampires or werewolves, to awakened trolls or summoned demons.

There's lots of action and very little romance. There's a decent bit of diplomacy and politics thrown in, which I especially like when you get to see how the actual government works both within itself and when it comes to interacting with other governments, organizations, and supernatural communities.

The story wasn't perfect by any means, but it was interesting enough to keep me engaged all the way through. The best way to describe it would be very entertaining, but still fairly simplistic.

Narration was perfect. I've nothing to complain about there and Ray Porter always delivers. After seeing the interesting description, it was seeing Ray Porter as narrator that made me pull the trigger and as always, he delivers.

Overall, I loved the series. To me, there's something special about this series when it comes to that straight forwardness that, for some reason, most other fantasy series' just don't do, and I appreciate it here. The ending, without spoiling anything, left me totally satisfied and only left me wanting more. That's a win in my book.

Decent enough setup but the MC needs work

Any additional comments?

I really wanted to like this book, but ultimately i cant give it a higher rating than a three star. The world he built was interesting, particularly the idea of WHY supernatural stuff isn't that prevalent, if maybe it has a few holes. (Admittedly holes that might be filled in books 2 and 3) but really the problem i feel the book overall has is the main character. First off he is far, far too obsessed with the whole serve and protect thing. I'm not going to say its an unrealistic personality trait, but its the way the author hammers it home like every other chapter. And he doesn't just mention it in passing he will have like, entire pages full of him basically just repeating "I SERVE AND PROTECT. I MUST PROTECT THOSE I SERVE. IT IS A SERVICE TO PROTECT THOSE WHO'S PROTECTION I SERVE" and it goes rapidly from "ok thats his drive" to "ive heard this before" to painfully intense eye rolling by the 7th or 8th time he starts going on about it.

The other issue is the main character is kind of a huge Mary Sue. I've had this argument with a lot of other writers that you can't have an all powerful main character and then call minor emotional issues as a balance to being basically god. "I can single handedly kill the entire bad guy's forces with one hand but I'm a balanced character because i have minor confidence issues" does not a good character make. Not to mention they keep adding more and more powers without every explaining what he is. every other "empowered" They introduce only has 1 specific power, like a mutant from X-men. But with him every 5 minutes hes got a new ability like hes a swiss army knife of superpowers that just coincidentally happens to have the exact power he needs exactly when he needs it. The character probably would have clicked better if he had softened that blow a bit but he just kinda barrels past "my character is unstoppable, moving on"

Overall its a decent story that could very easily get better in the second or third book. but this one stand alone the main character just is too unbelievable, annoying at times, and too Mary Sue to like.

Excellent

A very good story. Glynn does show his lack of knowledge of firearms. He has been educated on this, a .45 ACP does not blow off chunks. The story does remind me of the law enforcement actions, and personal in some of H. Beam Piper’s Paratime story’s. A great read keep it up Glynn you have another good series started.

Very good start to a series!

I was quite impressed with this first book. The main character, story line and supporting character development was almost on par with the Joe Ledger series and I am a Ledger fanatic.
I am looking forward to the next installments and hoping that the story continues to grow.

Waiting for Book 2

A seamless blend of military action, magic and human nature. Too often the magic component of a story gets too fluffy and ruins the entire book. Not so here. The occasional emotional moment but in a believable way. Likeable characters with strengths and flaws and enough baddies to keep them on the hop. A great narrator and r-e-a-l-i-s-t-i-c dialogue! Just when I thought the plot was starting to veer toward ordinary there was another surprise and I wanted to hear more. One of the rare occasions where I listened to every word - (yep, right up until the end). I find that most stories run out of puff before the end of the book or worse, involve an unsatisfying ending. I'm looking forward to book 2.

Awesome book

Just get the book it's a great book. If you enjoy Johnathan Maberrys work you will probably like onset. There are a few slow spots but, all around a great book.

Great universe, room to grow.

My summary of this book is that it is a great universe, well realised and really interesting. I think people who like military fiction, sci-fi, fantasy etc will be glad that they read it.

Also, Ray Porter does heroic work (Irish accent aside). He's great, one of the best in fact.

The only thing to complain about boils down an apparent inexperience on the part of the author when it comes to creating characters. To be clear, the writing shows great potential, the world building alone should be enough to prove that (and indeed the nuts and bolts of the characters gets better as the series progresses) but while it's easy to like the main character, it's hard to 'root' for them, because of how their story progresses.

Please don't let that deter you though, this is an enjoyable read and a good entry to an excellent fictional world. I honestly think most people will be glad they gave it a shot.

brilliant

this was fantastic, loved the tech/magic theme. its like lord of the rings crossed with call of duty. so much cool stuff and so many interesting concepts.
narrator made me try it, hes awesome

more more more

great book made better by Mr Ray Porter. going straight to buy the second one.

Would make a good TV show

The performance was fine but although I nearly made it to the very end I couldn't manage to force myself through the bad writing. The dialogue is poor and the prose not much better. Usually I can ignore it because of the story (Dresden books are great imo) but this was just too much at times. Yes Sir! seemed to be the most important dialogue in the book and some of the repetitive use of words was just jarring. The worst thing though was the story. There's no antagonist of interest, just a series of let's go here and now let's go there, flying around the world fighting monsters. Honestly, it reads like an author who has spent more time watching Netflix than reading novels and tbh it would make a good sci fi series.

At Last

A supernatural novel that's not a romance,but still a great read.Not all people want the sex and relationship angle in a novel.

Superbly emersive

Overall a great story and truly emersive. a large part of that is down to Ray Porters narration (always excellent). Bring on book 2!!

Really Enjoyed It

Great story, great narrator, sucked me right in. I was looking for things to do so I could finish it.

Great read

Really enjoyed listening to this production, I will look out for more of this series.

good book

I really enjoyed this book and the narrator. lots of action. I will be buying the next.

Great book excellent narration.

First time reader of Glynn Stewart but once started the book couldn't stop. Just finished book 1 writing this review while waiting for book 2 to download.