Defiant

Kris Longknife, Book 3

De: Mike Shepherd

Narrado por: Dina Pearlman

Born into a family of wealth and political power, Kris Longknife turned her back on high society and followed a different family tradition by joining the Marines. But now she finds herself relieved of duty. She's gotten in the way of someone's agenda - to bring down her father, the Prime Minister of Wardhaven.

Now, with the fleet off on a propaganda mission, Wardhaven is left vulnerable to enemy warships that establish orbit around the planet demanding surrender. With the remnants of the fleet ordered to stand down, Kris declares herself Commander-in-Chief and plans a desperate gambit to defend her world.

Commandeering every spaceworthy vessel she can get her hands on and recruiting every able-bodied person willing to risk their life, Kris leads the most important mission of her career - and it may be her last.

Listen to another Kris Longknife adventure.©2005 Mike Moscoe (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

B Space Opera

Half space travelogue half average space battle. Hrumph, mediocre narration at best. Stereotypical cardboard villains.

Entertaining!

This series is developing into a really entertaining story!
A must read for fans of Honor Harrington, or the Vetta's War series.

How many of them can we make die?

Courtesy of Lost Art Audiobook Review

Defiant starts out like Down Periscope. The Navy promotes Kris to command an experimental ship full of misfits no one else wants. Things change when Kris is arrested. Mike Shepherd describes the arrest with so much feeling and emphasis, I expected the trial to be a focal point. This changes when Kris is sent on a diplomatic mission to a planet Hikila (planet Hawaii), which turns into a hostage/terrorist situation. Sadly, very little of the book is spent on Kris’s rehabilitation from the arrest. About 8 hours into the book, Kris returns from Hikila and maybe five minutes of the audiobook are dedicated to a summary recounting of how while she was away a few people from Olympia talked to the media and charges were dropped. I would have loved to hear this part in detail. Instead, we have Tom and Penny’s wedding leading right into the major conflict of the book: the invasion. Disjointedness aside, the invasion was great. Mike Shepherd uses that third-person narration to present us with the enemy sans-Kris, making him more realistic and the conflict more suspenseful. Around 5 hours to the end of the book, I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach you get when you are a few hours away from giving a big speech. About 4 hours to the end of the book, I could not stop listening. I stay up until 2 a.m., on a Tuesday night, to finish.

On Narration:
While I liked Dina Pearlman’s reading of the first two books, I had issues this one. Her reading after they land on Hikila slows down and becomes over-emphasized which makes it sound insincere. That aside, what really killed it for me was her reading of “the March of Cambreadth.” Mike Shepherd dedicates about 2 hours integrating that song to the fight. He quotes all the lyrics, and gives it a fake history. Kris and her crew screaming along to it. They even shoot on the song’s command! And Dina Pearlman reads the lyrics with the cadence you use when playing “patty cake” with a toddler.

Love the book, hate the performance.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This is one of my favorite books, which I've read several times, but Dina Pearlman reads it like she's a struggling sixth grade reader. She adds pauses in the wrong places, sometimes changing the meaning of a sentence. And she obviously hasn't heard the song that is quoted significantly throughout the last third of the book. It gets to the point that it's almost painful to listen to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Defiant?

I love reading the book, especially the last third, which is the battle.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Again, Dina Pearlman reads this like she's struggling to read, putting in pauses where none belong, sometimes changing the apparent meaning of a sentence, and the "March of Cambreath" is badly read. It's obvious she's never heard it. Also, sometimes her voice for Sandy Santiago is too close to her voice for Kris, and it's hard to tell who's saying what at times.

Was Defiant worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

Please get someone else to re-record this book. I'll be returning it until then.

Strong finisher, but poor narration

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Shepherd has a tendancy to focus more on political nuances and makes action scenes brief and unfulfilling and this certainly holds true for the first half of the book. The second half picks up a bit, however I think you could have condensed a good 4 hours of playtime out of it.

What didn’t you like about Dina Pearlman’s performance?

Dina is consistently adding inflections and additional punctuation to her narration, as some have mentioned on this series already. Additionally, it seems like half her characters have very whiny high pitched voices, which detract greatly from the enjoyment of the book. It really seems like she's trying too hard to differentiate every individual characters voice, no matter how how important they are.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The ending was quite emotional.

Any additional comments?

While I have enjoyed this series so far I find myself unsure if I want to continue it at this point, maybe with a more stable narration it wouldn't feel a bit like work to slog through the lulls.