Review: 3.5 stars - The inspiration for Jones' new series, the seeds are sown here
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 25, 2011
Without their permission, a group of soldiers have been turned into super soldiers, their genes altered by injection with alien DNA. The change has brought the men strength, super healing ability and other incredible powers, but in a number of the men the change has also turned them evil. So it remains to those who retain their honor, the Black Knights, to protect humanity from their brethren. And Black Knight Jason has lived only for his duty, keeping himself apart from regular humans, until he finds the woman he just can't resist, genetic research scientist Holly Heart, the woman he is assigned to protect, the woman who is in the sight of his twisted former comrades.I stumbled on Underground Guardians Protector looking for Kindle cheapers, and since this story and (Healer) were the books which inspired Jones' new Zodius series (whose first book Michael was on my TBR pile) I decided to give them a shot.Having read other more recent books by Jones (and being a bit into her newest, Micheal, now) it was kind of neat to see by comparision how much Jones has refined her craft in the 7 or so years since she wrote this book. I am not saying this to be negative because even though Protector lacks some of the polish Jones has gained over the years I thought that the idea behind the Underground Guardians had potential so it will be interesting to see how Jones' has transformed her original idea in the new series.My biggest nit with the story looking at it on it's own and not as the genesis of the new series is that the hero is a bit of a coward when it comes to trusting the heroine to choose him and he hides the truth of his nature and their bond from her for way too long, only doling out a bit at a time, instead of laying his cards on the table and allowing her to choose. His rationalization that he's not trying to force her decision to accept the mating between them, and instead allowing her to accept him genetic oddities and all, didn't quite play for me. What did work for me, was the vulnerablity that inspired this behavior, Mason and his best friend and fellow Black Knight Sterling had it in spades, and Sterling has some pathos potential going on, so I am glad that he will be getting a book in the new series, since he got passed over in the old.(FYI for kindle readers, I didn't skew my rating because of this, but there are some minor formatting issues - extra page feeds - in the kindle version that make the story feel a little choppy)flag