Narrated by Noelle
Bridges & John Masterson

When I was browsing at Audible recently I came across a new release in Elin Peer’s Men of the North series. I thought it best to start from book 1, so I requested The Protector, which was released in March 2018. The book is fairly highly rated at Goodreads, ranking at just under 4 stars so clearly it worked for a lot of people. Unfortunately, it did not work for me.

The idea behind
the series was fascinating to me; in a dystopian future (circa 2437) 400 years after
the “Toxic War”, much of humanity was wiped out and large swathes of the planet
rendered uninhabitable. One main society (the Motherland) was formed out of all
of those who survived, with the exception of the Men of the North (or “N-Men”)
who rejected the pacifist and matriarchal ways of the Motherland.

The N-Men moved
into what was Alaska and Canada, now called “the Northlands”. There are very
few women in the Northlands – only those who descended from the original
inhabitants who stayed when all the N-Men moved in. The N-Men are descended
from the manly men who like to fight and make war and be violent and all the
things which led to the Toxic War. The N-Men used to raid across the border to
kidnap women from the Motherland so the two countries made a treaty after some
11 years of fighting; the Motherland would supply them with male children and
the raids would stop. Travel is forbidden to the Northlands from the
Motherland; even pictures of the N-Men are not allowed except for educational
purposes, but there is some trade between the two nations – only by men or old
crones though.

Christina
Sanders is an archaeologist for the Motherland and gains permission to travel
to the Northlands to assist in excavating what is believed to be a library. So
much information and knowledge was lost in the Toxic War that much of what our
current society is like is unknown and fiction has morphed with fact. I was
amused to find that Christina models herself on historical archaeologists from
the 19th Century – Lara Croft and Indiana Jones.

As a young
woman, Christina would not ordinarily have been allowed to go into the
Northlands but she is desperate to go on another dig and the N-Men have
guaranteed the safety of the archaeologist so the Council, albeit reluctantly,
agree.

Alexander Boulder (yes, that’s really his name) is tasked by the ruler of the N-Men, Khan Aurelius (yes, that’s really his name) to protect the archaeologist from the south – someone they believe to be Christian Sanders, due to a glitch with the communication. When Christina arrives, they quickly decide to “keep” her.

While I knew that the N-Men were born out of violent alpha types, I had hoped that over the course of 400 years there would be some development to them. I was expecting that Christina would go north and teach the men a thing or two and it’s likely that’s what actually happens. I didn’t stick around to listen though.

The thing is, I
need to like the hero and heroine enough to care they get a HEA. I guess I
Iiked Christina okay even though she was unbelievably naïve to the point of foolishness.
But Alexander was not my idea of hero material. I expected that 400 years of a
largely all-male society might result in same sex relationships being
commonplace and all the various types of personalities still showing up
regardless of gender identity because, at heart people are people. Instead, the
basis of the story was gender essentialism of the bluntest kind.

For N-Men, the worst insult possible is “pussy” or “f**got” (these are words that Boulder uses – definitely not what I want from my heroes). Conversely, women, “weak and fragile” though they are, are revered and protected – so protected they’re basically not allowed to go out on their own. Without a protector they are walking targets to the various N-Men who might happen by. In the north, the men fight to the death for the right to be the protector of the rare woman who turns up.

The Motherland
isn’t great either. For instance, boys “bred” in the Motherlands for the N-Men
are shipped up north at the age of 3; their mothers never see them again.
Honestly it sounded just as barbaric as the gladiatorial combats the N-Men
engaged in.

The gender
stereotypes and lack of sexual diversity bothered me, as did the sexist and
homophobic language casually dropped by the supposed hero. Maybe it got better
but I wasn’t prepared to go along for the ride for another 5+ hours.

The story was
well written enough; it certainly wasn’t all bad. There were some amusing
sections. And, for all Alexander’s boorish ways, he at least didn’t sneer at
reading romance novels (although it is beyond belief to me that a 400+ year old
MMP would be in a condition where it could be read without special
equipment, but whatever).

The narration
was good and I’d happily listen to both Noelle Bridges and John Masterson again.
They kept me listening far after my doubts about whether the story was for me
began.

Mr. Masterson
has a pleasingly deep voice and fairly good expression (considering that
Boulder wasn’t big on emoting) and Ms. Bridges had a nice vocal range, with
believable male character voices. She also instilled in Christina that naïve
curiosity which was a big part of her character – but even she could not make
me believe that Christina could not see what the whole protector thing was
about. I mean, come on now Christina!!

As I get older,
my feminism gets stronger and I have less time for alpha-holes (even if they do
– possibly – get redeemed later on). Maybe it was my bad for expecting
something else but The Protector was not my jam.

Editor’s Note: DNF is reader lingo for Did Not Finish.