Defiant

Kris Longknife, Book 3

By: Mike Shepherd

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Nice uncomplicated story,

I wished it had ended a little differently. I am looking forward to the next part of the story

Plenty of Pew Pew Space Battles

With this third book in the series, we finally get the payoff on the science fiction aspect of the story as most of the book is a long space battle. Plenty of pew pew and ship-to-ship fighting as a ragtag fleet takes on several mysterious destroyers bent on taking out Wardhaven.

Story: The navy still has no idea what to do with "One of THOSE Longknifes" and so gives Kris captaincy of a small patrol boat - PF109. It is where the navy puts all the 'brats' of wealthy Wardhaven scions - the ones who cannot be controlled and a place where they can do the least amount of damage. The problem is, Kris actually wants to do something with the small but surprisingly maneuverable patrol boats other than fly them around on test runs. Turns out, things will become deadly serious as Greenwald eyes Wardhaven itself as their next target.

I really enjoyed the space battles and soap opera action. It was a welcome change from the grounded assignments of the previous two missions. As well, we got more than the 'monster of the week' and instead had direct overarching series plot points materialize and jeopardize more than just outwater planets. The events of the next book are set up nicely in this volume.

In all, I am enjoying the series now this third book in. Much better writing than Moon's Vatta's War but of course, nothing compares with the Huff Confederation novels. But it has a charm all of its own.

Note: I listened to the audio version and Dina does an excellent job with the narration.

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.

Good story, bad reader

Good Space opera, but the reader really detracts. Should have taken a course in naval terms. Lots of miss pronunciations.

A page turner

This is book three in the Longknife series. In this episode Kris faces the imminent threat to her planet. Kris is accused of stealing fund that were to go to farmers, while on leave awaiting a hearing her great grandfather King Al sends her to see an old friend of his dying on a different plant. She returns to Wardhaven as an invasion is pending. She skirts the law and organizes a flotilla to defend Wardhaven against a force of hostile warships.

In this book we see Kris develop her command skills as she takes command of a large force of her own. The humorous prose adds delight to a fast pace, action packed suspenseful story. On the negative side I am getting tired of Shepherd’s constantly repeating the phrase “one of those Longknife’s.” I am beginning to enjoy “Nelly” Kris’s computer. I find Nelly’s development fascinating. Dina Pearlman narrated the story.

Still hooked

Continues to be fast paced with unique problem solutions and exhibiting the dedication that can be found in the human race when the pressure is on.