[Book Review] The Last Shield — Cameron Johnston
Fantasy “Die Hard”?
Cameron Johnston’s latest offering comes to us in the form of the standalone The Last Shield, with the enticing blurb “Fantasy gender-swapped Die Hard!”. It was enough to get me roped in!
The Last Shield is a straightforward no-nonsense action fantasy story focusing on the titular Shield Briar, veteran bodyguard and elite warrior tasked with protecting the Lord Regent Alaric against evil forces both without and within. Following the Die Hard influences pretty closely, The Last Shield is Briar’s harrowing tale as she faces down an entire host of warriors led by an evil sorceress, with nothing but her wit and grit.
The tale leads with Briar getting grievously injured by a poisoned arrow as she foils an assassination attempt upon the Lord Regent whom she is sworn to protect. Much of the first act of the book deals with her physical, mental, and emotional recovery as she comes to terms with her new limitations as she deals with the inane hindrances and her internal struggle to accept that she cannot serve as an elite guard to her charge anymore.
Just when she is about to give up the goat and retire to a quiet life away from her duties as Shield, her life is turned upside down as she finds herself in the midst of a plot within her own ranks as she and the Lord Regent are betrayed by many of her fellow Shields in a plot to take down the Lord Regent and steal several sacred magical artifacts that the royal line was sworn to protect from falling in the wrong hands.
Briar finds herself down on her luck, with no help from the outside world, with only her bum leg and internal fire of vengeance to drive her to take down all the evil henchmen to get to the big bad sorceress who has kidnapped Alaric as it is his blood that would open the vault that houses the magical treasures.
The Last Shield comes off as a pulpy action blockbuster flick-esque novel with a focus on Briar taking down goon after goon as she ninjas her away around the castle. Much like Die Hard, she spends most of her internal conversation musing on her own situation while spewing stereotypical lines of avowed vengeance upon her enemies in a bog standard narrative. To expect any kind of depth to this standalone will only lead you to a bad time, as it did me. I expected a wee bit more nuance, even in a tale obviously focused on being an action-forward romp. The setting of The Last Shield has Celtic influences with mention of druids and forest-magic, along with various Irish and Celtic folklore elements that added a little flavor to the worldbuilding, but felt like mere wall-hanging that Johnston placed to give the tale some kind of geographic face.
The characters are wooden and one-dimensional. The main protagonists are Briar, your classic Jane McClane, down on her luck hyper competent warrior, the wooden Lord Alaric, and the heir apparent, the snot-nosed Kester. Kester is the only one with even a smidge of character development, moving from spoiled child-heir to someone who attempts to become a mature leader as he is dragged into the plot. Sadly, the constraints of The Last Shield being a standalone doesn’t give nearly enough page space to develop his (or anyone else’s) character or motivations, as we move from one action set-piece to the next.
The motivations of the main antagonist are flimsy at best, and she is nothing more than a “mustache” twirling (what’s the female equivalent here?) villain as she also goes from one trope to another, with tired played-out dialog that adds no weight nor threat to the narrative. Even the “sub bosses” like Hardgrim and Maddox are beige in their mannerisms and characterization, coming off as cardboard placeholders that the author inserted in his list of checkboxes.
At the end of the tale, as well as through most of my time with this book, I got an overwhelming feeling of “sure, fine, why not?!”. The narrative forces you into several instances of suspending your disbelief as Briar goes from one deus-ex-machina-y instance to another. By the fifth instance of her escaping into a hidden tunnel or crawlspace that was conveniently placed to further the plot, I felt myself rolling my eyes and wished Johnston flexed his creativity even a bit more to come up with a less lazy plot driver. Though, this also reeks of his Die Hard brief.
I picked up The Last Shield, purely because I rather enjoyed another one of Johnston’s grimdark standalone The Malevolent Seven which told a much more robust and nuanced tale with plenty of violent action as well. Sadly, The Last Shield is a lackluster followup to that book. Even though the influence is clear, The Last Shield is held back by the author trying too hard to stick to the brief he set out for himself, taking away the potential of telling a different, more rewarding tale.
