From the Bookshelf of Q&A with Josh Lanyon…

Gyrfalcon (Taking Shield, #1)

Anna Butler

Start date: September 1, 2018

Finish date: October 1, 2018

Discussion: Book of the Month Club

Discussion leader: Jordan Lombard

Why we're reading this: This is our September 2018 read!
[close] This is our September 2018 read!

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 2 topics — 4,118 comments total

Book of the Month Club

* Candidates for Next Month's Read
By Josh · 3043 posts · 623 views

last updated Feb 21, 2024 10:37PM

February 2025: The Lemon Drop Kid
By Karen · 15 posts · 20 views

last updated Jun 14, 2025 04:47PM

showing 5 of 5 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Sep 19, 2018 Steelwhisper rated it did not like it

Shelves: boring, all-tell-no-show, all-the-beautiful-people, caution-hype, m-m, 1-bad, dnf, cover-love, freebie, science-fiction

This is one of these classic cases where I wonder why the hell everybody is giving this such high rates, when I am bored out of my skin by this, it being so a dime a dozen.

...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Oct 30, 2016 Alison rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-e-things, queer, sff, lgbtq, favorites

This is a spectacularly good queer sci-fi series, and this is the first book. I absolutely loved it. This series has captured me like few do. It's the story of Bennet, a special forces military officer, and his adventures, professional and personal, over the years. This book is completely engaging and so full of depth and life and emotion, and of course, being badass in space. The writing is sharp and clean and lovely. The world-building and level of detail here is spectacular and never overbear This is a spectacularly good queer sci-fi series, and this is the first book. I absolutely loved it. This series has captured me like few do. It's the story of Bennet, a special forces military officer, and his adventures, professional and personal, over the years. This book is completely engaging and so full of depth and life and emotion, and of course, being badass in space. The writing is sharp and clean and lovely. The world-building and level of detail here is spectacular and never overbearing. This book and the others in the series are riveting and so well done. This is not a romance series and the love story is definitely not the focus, saving the world is, but the slowly-building romance is key to the characters and plays a big part in the background.

Humanity in the future is having a lengthy war with an alien race and Bennet is one of those soldiers who goes behind the enemy lines (in space) and does very dangerous and heroic things and tries not to get killed--he's very good at his job and he mostly succeeds. He is a fascinating and complex character--he's very reserved, extremely bright, very pragmatic, a lauded scholar of history, and he feels everything very deeply while acting like he doesn't. He's also arrogant and privileged and beautifully flawed and he makes a few truly boneheaded choices along the way. He's absolutely delightful and becoming immersed in his life is a wonderful experience. He's the heart of this series and he's so full of heart and it's absolutely riveting to follow along as journeys through new love and old love and his relationship with his father and the strain of his job and really, just figuring out who he is and what he wants, all while dealing with the endless alien war. Flynn, the other main character, is the hotshot fighter pilot and he's charming and awesome and such a bright spark. There's an amazing emotional depth here in between battling aliens and being badass in space. This series has a large and diverse cast of characters, and they're all full of depth and nuance and are all very distinct. Both main characters are bisexual, which is great, and it's not a big deal, which is also great. These characters are so relatable and I found myself caring so deeply.

This is a series about queer folk saving the world and being heroes and I wish there were more books like that. It's an excellent mainstream-style space opera and I wish it got a bit more attention. This is a book that lingers and stays with you and I look forward to re-reading it. It's completely enthralling. And there's so much more to come!
...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 17, 2015 Lila rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mm, military-scifi

3,5 stars

I didn't really plan to do that, but I read three scifi mm in row: Chaos Station, Gyrfalcon and Song of the Navigator.
Of all three, Gyrfalcon in stands out simply because 1) it's all about the world building and 2)it doesn't follow the romance formula so faithfully.

1) I'll put this first out there: this book is written with sequels in mind. It's military scifi story with romance potential and that means that Gyrfalcon is heavy on setting and author paid A LOT of attention to details. It 3,5 stars

I didn't really plan to do that, but I read three scifi mm in row: Chaos Station, Gyrfalcon and Song of the Navigator.
Of all three, Gyrfalcon in stands out simply because 1) it's all about the world building and 2)it doesn't follow the romance formula so faithfully.

1) I'll put this first out there: this book is written with sequels in mind. It's military scifi story with romance potential and that means that Gyrfalcon is heavy on setting and author paid A LOT of attention to details. It's kind of a weird for me to say just how much because it's definitely developed more than average mm romance demands, but, again, if you read scifi regularly you see that author didn't stray too far from ordinary, already-seen quirks and tricks. You have drones, photon-pistol,plasma bolts and laser rifle on first page. You will have technology, military operation and structure and mission objective explained to you in details so if this is not your jam, you have been warned.
Premise: Humanity is in war with alien race. Technically, we are following Bennet, who is part of infiltrating, covert unit. They are called Shield and they act mainly as spies, gathering information on enemy planets. They don't work so well with other branches of military because they are very secretive and they don't get attached since they risk their lives all the time. As it happens, Bennet has to work with Fleet unit for his next mission. He boards on dreadnaught Gyrfalcon where he meets ambitious pilot Flynn, who may be just what he needs. Majority of novel is happening on Gyrfalcon as Bennet and rest of pilot squadron prepare for his task that may be decisive for war. On one side, stories that are confined to space ship are not offering the large scope you would expect for scifi genre and various new planets, alien race and such. On the other hand, I love military scifi on ships because they are good for getting to know all characters, not just MCs. They give the strong sense of brotherhood-people interact more and they rely on each other all the time, so when the big fight comes- and it always does- you can see it's a not an individual effort, but a team work.

2) Romance part is tricky one. I'll start with something that may be deal-breaker for some readers. Bennet is in long relationship with Joss who is older than him and what's more important, who is not military. He is a college professor who basically sits home and waits for Bennet to come from his secret missions and their relationship suffers from it since Joss wants more and shows his resentment where Bennet just wants to rest and relax when he gets home. They have an arrangement to see/sleep with other men when Bennet is away and won't come home soon. This is the situation with them when Bennet comes to dreadnaught and if this is issue for you- you have been warned. There is instant attraction to Flynn and a lot of UST, but they don't act on it right away. Bennet's first concern is his mission and he NEVER forgets that and certainly won't risk anything jumping in bed with one of the pilots. Personally, I liked that-Bennet is a professional and damn good at what he does, so it's not a statement only told to reader, but you can conclude it yourself. Attraction between Flynn and Bennet is genuine and it doesn't affect development of their friendship- they like each other before they are friends, but they are friends before they become more. I really don't like insta-love/insta-sex so it worked for me, but it was mostly due to Bennet's character. Romance is not as much in the background as dependable on circumstances- they work for different military branches, they may never meet again and they are in war- they don't really have a lot of time to dwell on this. Again, I repeat that this book is written with sequels in mind, so don't expect hea nor resolution of any kind when it comes to their relationship.

This type of books is like catnip for me, so being heavy on military scifi elements and (not)romance didn't bother me at all, but the reason for my rating is structure of this series. At certain points I have feeling I am reading fanfic- and I don't mean it because it badly written or anything, but because you will get every minute of every day Bennet spends on Gyrfalcon described. It's like, main plot is his mission, but it's easy to forget that because you are reading what's his day like on dreadnaught. It moves slow as molasses. It's not boring, but it's not necessary for moving the plot.

Another thing (and I am aware this may be issue only for me) is the same thing I hated when it comes to Spy vs. Spook series by Tinnean*. I really, really don't like when authors describe same event from point of view of both main characters in two separate chapters. I read what happened already, I don't need to read it from other pov especially when it's not moving the plot forward at all. This book is already long and detailed and with sequels in mind- it doesn't need to be dragged down more.

All in all, it has potential but it needs tweaking with whole structure. There is a story that seems interesting, but I am not really liking the way it is told right now. Setting is important part of novel but it can't BE the novel. Pace and plot progression are what I hope to see done better in future novel(s).

*Originally online fiction under "Man of My Dreams" name. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

May 26, 2017 karlakolumna rated it really liked it

Shelves: freebie, mm-paranormal-scifi-fantasy, soldiers-military

3.5 stars rounded up.

Maybe not good enough to achieve an even 4 stars, but certainly intriguing enough to make me wanna buy & read the sequel! Can't wait to find out how Bennet and Flynn's story will continue.. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2015 Susan Laine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: joyfully-jay-reviews

4.5 stars. First and foremost, this is less a gay romance or even a ménage a trois than this is an epic science fiction story. In fact, if I were to classify this into one genre, I’d choose sci fi epic where the main characters just happen to be gay. Also of important note is that this ends in a cliffhanger, as this is only the first in a series.

There’s plenty of action and intrigue in the storyline. The plot twists revolve around Bennet’s mission. The first part of the story is a kind of an inf ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 06, 2020 Ng rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended, 2020-reads

This is one of the series I revisit every year. One of my comfort reads.
Lots of action, lovable MCs, star-crossed-lovers, family dynamics and best of all takes place outer space.

This book does a great job of setting up the players and the scene. I read all the books in the series right one after another. The first few pages were difficult to get into. Once that was crossed it was a riveting read.

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2017 K. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: m-m, hard-to-put-down-before-finishing, for-a-challenge, new-author, zz2017, kindle, zzz2018, tbr-knockout

Really enjoyed this book. I wasn't so sure about it, but once I started reading it, I had hard time putting it down before finishing. This book is very light on romance, but for me that worked. A very interesting space opera type of book :) Definetly want to read the next book. ...more

Like · see review