Review: Good Start to a New Series
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 6, 2012
3.5 stars but I am rounding up.  This book is a pre-quel to Suzanne Brockmann's new series - Fighting Destiny --, which is being advertised as a paranormal romance.  The first book will be released on March 20, 2012:  Born To Darkness.  I was nervous and kind of still am about what Brockmann will be like writing paranormal.  I am not a paranormal romance fan (generally) and I love SEAL Team 16 so much that I am sad Brockmann is leaving them behind, for now anyway.  But I enjoyed Shane's Last Stand.  It was good.  Not great, but hey - it was really short.So, the pre-quel is short and starts off the way many of Brockmann's Troubleshooter series do - with a team of Navy SEALs in Afghanistan on a mission.  The setting of this series is "the not so distant future" and there have been some changes to the US government and some laws.  I hesitate to say it is a dystopia, but it has a dystopian feel - things are not going well in the US and the world.  The hero of Shane's Last Stand and Born To Darkness is  ... well .. Shane.  He is a former Navy SEAL when Born To Darkness begins, however in Shane's Last Stand we learn why he is a "former".  Like so many of her characters, Shane has a strong moral compass about what a SEAL should and should not do and he has a strong need to protect his team.  Whatever the cost.Brockmann writes SEALs on a mission and men interacting with each other in a highly bonded way very well.  Very well.  She has the lingo down and she knows how to develop characters.  Really, I fell right into this story.  Shane's isn't as good as the best Troubleshooters, but it has all the material to be great if Brockmann hits the series right.Shane's Last Stand is very short, thus it suffers from what many short stories do but it ends with a sneak peak of the beginning of Born To Destiny.  The first chapter is good.  I had been worried if I would like this series, but it was good.  It reads like the Troubleshooters and for me, that is a very good thing.  I plan on buying Born To Destiny on the day of release.  If you like Troubleshooters, I say buy the pre-quel.  It is only .99 cents and has a sneak preview of what to expect with Born To Destiny.