In the following email interview, author Cameron Johnston says his new novel The Last Shield (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) is a “gender-flipped Die Hard.”
But while that might conjure images of Zendaya or Sydney Sweeny or some other actress of the moment crawling through a skyscraper’s air vents, Johnston says Shield actually takes place in a “mysterious castle” and is a “heroic fantasy [story], with shadings of grimdark thrown in.”
To start, what is The Last Shield about, and what kind of a world is it set in?
A gender-flipped Die Hard in a mysterious castle inspired by Bronze Age Scotland — that’s the quick pitch.
The story is about Briar, the commander of Sunweald’s elite Shields protecting regent and realm. During an assassination attempt on the Summer Solstice, she is seriously wounded and her mobility permanently impaired. After trying and failing to recapture what she once was, she faces retirement, but on the eve of her departure from the Sunweald Palace it is invaded by a band of vicious brigands aided by traitors, and in a night of red slaughter, many are killed and others taken prisoner. The invaders are trying to breach the Wyrm Vault, a repository for terrifyingly powerful arcane artefacts. All that stands in their way is Briar, the last loyal Shield left in the palace.
You can expect thrilling fights, crawling through secret tunnels, vicious brigands, dark sorcery, and a magically protected vault made from the fossilised remains of a dragon.
Where did you get the idea for The Last Shield?
With some stories, the idea has been bubbling away in the back of my mind for a while, but not with The Last Shield. This one came from a specific day climbing up a narrow, wet, stone staircase onto the windy ramparts of a Scottish castle. It was awkward even for an able bodied, relatively fit person. That got me thinking about all the fantasy battles I’ve read, and the lack of focus on the wounded, medical care and the disabled warriors left to deal with their battles. That then led to the character of Briar bursting forth from my imagination, an aging warrior dealing with the aftermath of her wound…and still being her people’s last hope.
And is there a significance to Sunweald being a forest realm as opposed to a jungle or desert or a coastal place?
There is indeed. It’s very much based on my love of forest walks in Scotland, winding through stands of pine and oak and silver birch, through craggy river valleys, past mossy standing stones and sipping steaming hot tea by the side of picturesque lochs. There is a particular oppressive atmosphere found in pine forests especially, with the close trunks and canopy cover casting everything into gloom, that paired well with the narrow tunnels and close confines of the Sunweald palace.
It sounds like The Last Shield is an epic medieval fantasy story in the vein of The Lord Of The Rings…
Genre-wise I would place this firmly in the category of heroic fantasy, with shadings of grimdark thrown in. It is about good people caught in in horrific circumstances fighting to save those that they love.
The Last Shield is not your first novel. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Shield, but not on anything else you’ve written?
You know, I don’t think there is. I believe every writer that has influenced me in some way is present in every one of my books.
That said, there is probably an awful lot of David Gemmell in this book, specifically my feeling around his book Legend.
How about such non-literary influences as movies, TV shows, or games? Did any of those things have a big influence on The Last Shield? Because calling it “gender-flipped Die Hard” makes me think of that Rick & Morty episode…
You can’t go wrong with that episode.
This book wears its influence on its sleeve when it comes to Die Hard. It’s more than just that of course, and different in many ways, but the love of the action genre is most definitely in there.
You have written stand-alone novels (The Maleficent Seven) and ones that are part of a series (The Age Of Tyranny duology: The Traitor God and God Of Broken Things). Is Shield the first book in a series or a stand-alone story?
The Last Shield is a stand-alone novel, so no need to wait for book two or three coming out to enjoy the complete tale. Sometimes I feel like a lot of good stories are unnecessarily stretched out until they get saggy in the middle (the notorious middle book of a trilogy problem), or the writer packs in some filler to pad it out into multiple books. With this stand-alone novel, I knew exactly where it was beginning, and exactly where it would end, and this left me to write a tight and self-contained, immensely satisfying story.
I asked earlier if The Last Shield was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think The Last Shield could work as a movie, show, or game?
Oooh yeah, The Last Shield is 100% ripe for a movie adaption if you ask me. An older character kicking ass in the vein of Ripley, Xena, or Sarah Connor? Yes please, we need more of those. I would absolutely love to see that.
And then who would you want to play the Ripley-, Xena-, Sarah Conner-ish main character?
That’s an incredibly tricky one. Gwendoline Christie [Game Of Thrones] or [Xena‘s] Lucy Lawless playing the role of Briar would be a dream. The actor would need to have the gravitas and action chops to pull off the role, and they could both do it very well. I would love to know other people’s suggestions; please do let me know who you could see playing Briar.
So, is there anything else someone might need to know about The Last Shield?
I should definitely mention all the research into history, archaeology, folklore, and ancient crafts that went into this book. Those are all huge interests of mine, and getting to write a fantasy novel including all of those elements was a great joy to me.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Last Shield, and it’s the first book of yours they’ve read, which of your other novels would you suggest they check out next?
I would recommend The Maleficent Seven. It’s a novel starring seven thoroughly villainous characters trying to defend a town from a fanatical army of light lead by so-called “holy” knights. It plays around with fantasy archetypes and tropes, and while it is dark, there is also light and humor. It’s also a whole heap of fun!
