REVIEW: The Advance Guard by Don A Martinez

Title: The Advance Guard
Series: Phantom Squadron #1
Author: Don A Martinez
Published Date: May 25th, 2011
Publisher: Desert Coyote Productions
Format: ebook
Pages: 212
ISBN: 0012924180
Copy provided by: author
Genre: mythological fantasy
Add to: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: Over the course of history, a team of four supernatural agents has been assembled for a Black Ops team unlike any other. 
The Guardsman : ageless paladin knight. 
Cyrus Salem: immortal shrinking wizard. 
Kitty Lazarus: woman warrior in a cat's body. 
Ariel Vibria: modern dragon with a tortured soul. 
Both separately and together, these agents will face down an enemy of immense evil, with the fate of the world itself possibly in the balance, rising above their differences and individual traumas and coming together to face Sheol, a demonic matriarch hiding within one of the holiest sites in Europe. 
Each agent has his own concerns. Is being the Guardsman worth the sacrifice of childhood Ken Sharpe made to be the paladin? Will Cyrus continue to shrink throughout history? What purpose does the Hindu god Durga have for Kitty? What will happen if the secretive government project that produced Ariel comes to search for their missing experiment? 
Do they have a chance against Sheol?

Review: Something was just missing here, and I think it was background. There's more than enough background on Ken, but unless I read the blurb, I couldn't understand that he was really a Paladin. Just a knight with a really cool sword. Cyrus, there's no background on him. I'm hoping I get more background on him in the future books. He's just a weird magical guy who shrinks (which begs the question, when will he shrink to nothing?). Kitty and Ariel were the best characters. I felt most for Ariel, and while in the beginning I started to really like Kitty, I got no real feel for her afterwards. 
I'm holding out hope there's more character development in the next books.