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The Protectors
Some residents of an isolated mountain community survive the alien conquest of Earth. In constant danger, they learn to survive and fight back.
- GenresScience Fiction
237 pages, Paperback
First published February 7, 2025
2 people are currently reading
3732 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 27, 2025
This review contains spoilers.
The Protectors by Larry Botkins is about aliens laying siege to the Earth and the remaining people resisting them. The main characters in this book are very calm and practical about the situations they find themselves in. When major cities are destroyed and necessities like food and water become a problem, the characters make rational decisions about conserving their resources and try to be optimistic. In a way, this makes the characters likeable because they don’t whine and they don't make dumb decisions. In other books where regular people are thrust into emergencies, they often react in the same emotional way that has been done before in other stories. The characters in this book react to their lives being flipped upside down in a uniquely competent way. The setback to this is that I was left wondering why everyone is coping so well? People didn’t seem to react the way people would in real life.
In Part One, I was interested in the way the aliens took over and I wondered what they were going to do next. It was interesting that they bombed big cities and chose to spare smaller communities. Then they sent a message to the remaining humans explaining that they were taking over because humans had caused environmental damage and had backwards governments and societies. I was fascinated that the aliens justified their actions by stating that humans had done wrong and needed to be freed from government, police, and corporate entities. It was also interesting that the aliens were going to provide rations to the remaining humans and laid out rules for people to follow.
Since the story is short, it would’ve been easy for the ending to feel sudden or unearned, but Burl’s resistance leader hints throughout the last third of the book that their war with aliens is close to ending, which helps mitigate the sudden conclusion. Also, Burl is the reason the war ended when it did because he secured the radio. This detail makes the sudden ending feel less convenient. It’s interesting that other aliens stepped in to save humans from the aliens who attacked. There’s nuance in the idea that the aliens form factions with different opinions.
The two narrators in The Protectors, Tom and Burl, both know their way around guns and machinery, so their interactions with them were detailed and felt authentic. At the end of Part One, Tom is killed and Part Two opens with Burl. In my opinion, the main benefit to killing off a narrator and starting with a new one is that the new narrator can be different from the first, offering a new perspective. Tom and Burl are oddly similar, though. They interact with their significant others, Sheila and Sandra, in similar ways (Sheila and Sandra are pretty much the same person). Tom and Burl are also quick-thinkers who take risks in emergencies. Both are good with guns, both have strong leadership instincts, and both are good at resisting emotions like panic or hopelessness. I think the opportunity to reveal a different perspective and approach to the situation was missed in the killing and replacing of the narrator.
Another potential missed opportunity is that there isn’t any character development in either Tom or Burl. By the time we’re at the end of their stories, neither has changed. Burl has a very black and white view of the world: he murders those in cold blood that he suspects of working for the aliens. He doesn’t take factors such as involuntary servitude or ignorance into account, he just kills people immediately, even if they beg. When he goes on a scouting mission and encounters hostile people, he kills them in self defense and flees. Later, the people track him down and burn his camp because they believe he’s in there. At this point, his attackers believe Burl is dead and it would make more sense for Burl to let them believe that in order to throw the group off his trail, but he kills them anyway. Burl attacks and kills people who haven’t threatened him first, too. He once invaded a house and shot everyone in it. I would’ve liked to see Burl show some humanity, remorse, or restraint. Maybe he could’ve learned that the world and people are more complicated than he thought. Most of what Burl does is lead, take drastic measures, and save his companions. He doesn’t seem to have any flaws to make him interesting; he’s just the best at what he does the whole way through the story.
Tom seems to know more than he should given the situation. When Tom encounters the strange trucks, he somehow deduces that aliens are up to something. I think someone in real life would need more evidence before they started believing in aliens. Tom is always calm and composed. He bosses Sheila around endlessly and is always explaining things to her even though she is an adult and his equal. The portrayal of women and men in this book is a bit strange. Both Tom and Burl leave the house while their female significant others stay at home. The leadership positions in this story are filled by men (there just aren’t as many female characters as male characters in The Protectors). The community organizes classes where people can teach each other practical things. Women mostly go to the classes about plants, soapmaking, clothing repair, and gardening while men go to classes on meat preservation, using traps, tool repair, and fire starting. There’s no reason these activities should be gendered because they’re all useful.
The prose in The Protectors isn’t particularly artful. Most of the sentences are short and lacking in description. The dialogue often feels clunky and unrealistic as well. Overall, this book was an easy read and interesting enough; I didn’t have to fight to get through it.
The Protectors by Larry Botkins is about aliens laying siege to the Earth and the remaining people resisting them. The main characters in this book are very calm and practical about the situations they find themselves in. When major cities are destroyed and necessities like food and water become a problem, the characters make rational decisions about conserving their resources and try to be optimistic. In a way, this makes the characters likeable because they don’t whine and they don't make dumb decisions. In other books where regular people are thrust into emergencies, they often react in the same emotional way that has been done before in other stories. The characters in this book react to their lives being flipped upside down in a uniquely competent way. The setback to this is that I was left wondering why everyone is coping so well? People didn’t seem to react the way people would in real life.
In Part One, I was interested in the way the aliens took over and I wondered what they were going to do next. It was interesting that they bombed big cities and chose to spare smaller communities. Then they sent a message to the remaining humans explaining that they were taking over because humans had caused environmental damage and had backwards governments and societies. I was fascinated that the aliens justified their actions by stating that humans had done wrong and needed to be freed from government, police, and corporate entities. It was also interesting that the aliens were going to provide rations to the remaining humans and laid out rules for people to follow.
Since the story is short, it would’ve been easy for the ending to feel sudden or unearned, but Burl’s resistance leader hints throughout the last third of the book that their war with aliens is close to ending, which helps mitigate the sudden conclusion. Also, Burl is the reason the war ended when it did because he secured the radio. This detail makes the sudden ending feel less convenient. It’s interesting that other aliens stepped in to save humans from the aliens who attacked. There’s nuance in the idea that the aliens form factions with different opinions.
The two narrators in The Protectors, Tom and Burl, both know their way around guns and machinery, so their interactions with them were detailed and felt authentic. At the end of Part One, Tom is killed and Part Two opens with Burl. In my opinion, the main benefit to killing off a narrator and starting with a new one is that the new narrator can be different from the first, offering a new perspective. Tom and Burl are oddly similar, though. They interact with their significant others, Sheila and Sandra, in similar ways (Sheila and Sandra are pretty much the same person). Tom and Burl are also quick-thinkers who take risks in emergencies. Both are good with guns, both have strong leadership instincts, and both are good at resisting emotions like panic or hopelessness. I think the opportunity to reveal a different perspective and approach to the situation was missed in the killing and replacing of the narrator.
Another potential missed opportunity is that there isn’t any character development in either Tom or Burl. By the time we’re at the end of their stories, neither has changed. Burl has a very black and white view of the world: he murders those in cold blood that he suspects of working for the aliens. He doesn’t take factors such as involuntary servitude or ignorance into account, he just kills people immediately, even if they beg. When he goes on a scouting mission and encounters hostile people, he kills them in self defense and flees. Later, the people track him down and burn his camp because they believe he’s in there. At this point, his attackers believe Burl is dead and it would make more sense for Burl to let them believe that in order to throw the group off his trail, but he kills them anyway. Burl attacks and kills people who haven’t threatened him first, too. He once invaded a house and shot everyone in it. I would’ve liked to see Burl show some humanity, remorse, or restraint. Maybe he could’ve learned that the world and people are more complicated than he thought. Most of what Burl does is lead, take drastic measures, and save his companions. He doesn’t seem to have any flaws to make him interesting; he’s just the best at what he does the whole way through the story.
Tom seems to know more than he should given the situation. When Tom encounters the strange trucks, he somehow deduces that aliens are up to something. I think someone in real life would need more evidence before they started believing in aliens. Tom is always calm and composed. He bosses Sheila around endlessly and is always explaining things to her even though she is an adult and his equal. The portrayal of women and men in this book is a bit strange. Both Tom and Burl leave the house while their female significant others stay at home. The leadership positions in this story are filled by men (there just aren’t as many female characters as male characters in The Protectors). The community organizes classes where people can teach each other practical things. Women mostly go to the classes about plants, soapmaking, clothing repair, and gardening while men go to classes on meat preservation, using traps, tool repair, and fire starting. There’s no reason these activities should be gendered because they’re all useful.
The prose in The Protectors isn’t particularly artful. Most of the sentences are short and lacking in description. The dialogue often feels clunky and unrealistic as well. Overall, this book was an easy read and interesting enough; I didn’t have to fight to get through it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 18, 2025
I liked the storyline. It held my interest and I couldn't put it down. If you like stories about aliens and survival, I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews