On a distant colony world, the aliens have already killed hundreds. The colonists, who have never known war and despise the very idea of it, call the only soldier left to defend them 'Soldier Boy' as an insult. Captain Dylan is caught between a population that views him with suspicion and an enemy that has been watching, waiting, and infiltrating their homes through robotic eyes. The aliens are patient, methodical, and utterly alien in their thinking, forcing Dylan to become something he'd never expected: a leader who must convince a people who reject violence that survival requires it. This is first contact at its most visceral, stripped of glory and easy answers, asking what it truly means to defend something when the cost is everything you believed about yourself. Shaara builds tension like a slow fuse, each chapter tightening the noose around the colony until the final, devastating reckoning.
