Defiance

The Spiral Wars, Book 4

By: Joel Shepherd

Narrated by: John Lee

The UFS Phoenix is hunting for the long-lost drysine data-core. Within it lie the secrets to saving humanity from the resurgent deepynine machine-race. To recover it, Captain Erik Debogande must work together with the man who holds his sister hostage - the power-hungry parren leader Aristan. Aristan has sworn he will return Lisbeth Debogande once Phoenix grants him equal access to its prize. But now from the direction of hostile space comes word of a dark force hunting humans and parren alike, determined at all costs that the store of the lost Drysine Empire's knowledge should be possessed by neither....

©2017 Joel Shepherd (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Drifting further from humanity and back in time

Defiance is Joel Shepherd's 4th installment in his Spiral Wars series. After successfully recovering the diary that can lead them to the Drysine datacore, this episode focuses on the recovery of the datacore itself requiring heading deeper into Parren space and dealing with the Parren societal and governmental structure.

While much of the sci-fi elements are in line with earlier installments, there is much attention to the organization of the Parren society with a complex interaction of the 5 overall houses, each with internal, oppositional contingents, vying for dominance. One bit of new is the revelation of Drysine technology toying with fundamental aspects of the laws of physics with some interesting results. Much of the presumed history with Parrens and Drysine is revealed as incomplete at best and contrived at worst. More background on Styx is revealed although whether her nature is benign or malevolent is still undecided. What is clear is that the Deepynine / Allo alliance is serious about preventing Styx and Phoenix from playing any future role. Lizbeth emerges as a major player in holding together the shaky alliances Phoenix needs to maintain. The tale ends with the emerging standard of Phoenix heading off further away from known (at least to humans) space hunting for clues that go back further in time to understand the true nature and origin of the Deepynine threat.

John Lee's outstanding narration is an added plus to an otherwise excellent, engaging story. Character discrimination is exceptional, especially given the wide assortment of ethnicities and alien races.

Another solid listen

While I thought the story was not as good as the other books in the series I did still really enjoy the audio book. The performance was rock solid and I plan to look for othr books he has done. The main issue I felt was that you get to a point in the book and then it was like the auther said to himself....'I have to hurry up and finish" which left the last quarter of the book rushed in my opinion. With that said I will be lookiing for more. The character development was really good.

Racing thru

This series is so captivating, it's a shame the next in the series haven't been recorded yet. I just can't find the time to sit down and read, but commuting by car I can listen to books. Love this series, and can't wait for the next ones.

Outstanding Battle

I'm a huge fan of John Lee after listening to his performances in the Spellmonger series - he's the best audiobook performer, hands down. I got into the Spiral series looking for more sci-fi performances by John Lee. While not as enraptured by Spiral as by Spellmonger, I've got to say that I am thoroughly entertained by Spiral and increasingly so with every book. The final battle in this book was incredibly written and instilled some tension and emotion. I highly recommend this series to any sci-fi fan and I look forward to continuing my journey through the spiral!

somewhat tedious but still interested in the saga

All of the books in this series tend to be too slow for my tastes. There are interesting ideas and multiple action interludes, but mostly it's a lot of description and tired dialog. Still, I am interested in the story arc. I just hope the conclusion comes in the next volume instead of one ten volumes further down the spiral. John Lee is great as always, though in a few cases he was inconsistent in the pronunciations of names.