Defenders

by Will McIntosh

A new epic of alien invasion and human resistance by Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntosh.The invaders came to claim earth as their own, overwhelming us with superior weapons and the ability to read our minds like open books. Our only chance for survival was to engineer a new race of perfect soldiers to combat them. Seventeen feet tall, knowing and loving nothing but war, their minds closed to the aliens. But these saviors could never be our servants. And what is done cannot be undone.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Aliens, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic, War

497 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Will McIntosh is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction author, and a winner or finalist of many other awards. His alien invasion novel Defenders, is currently optioned for a feature film, while his Middle Grades novel The Classmate has been optioned for a TV series by Disney/ABC.

Along with ten novels that have been translated into nine different languages, Will has published over sixty short stories in magazines such as Asimov's Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and Lightspeed.

Will was a psychology professor before turning to writing full time. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, and is the father of twins. You can follow him on Twitter @willmcintoshSF.

Reviews

[Terence · Rating 1 out of 5]

In Defenders, aliens come to the Earth that humanity can't defeat because for an 8 mile radius they can read our minds.



My problem with this, beyond the writing that made me feel like I was being punished for something I didn't do, is even Fry from Futurama found out from a Hobo that when an alien is trying to read your mind you have to wear a tinfoil hat.


I mean come on, even Weird Al Yankovic knows to go with the tinfoil hat.


I want to see battles and the unstoppable alien forces instead I got a guy doing a job he's not qualified for, two kids, and a dead soldier prologue. The story was so disappointing and frustrating that I was not about to force myself to finish it.

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...

Last year, I read an incredibly moving book called Love Minus Eighty. As I closed the cover on the last page and settled back with a roiling mind and warmed heart, I knew right there and then that any future novels written by Will McIntosh will be going straight onto my to-read list. Someone who can write such a magnificent story (not to mention give me all these feels) certainly belongs on my list of favorite authors. And so that is how I came to review Defenders, and I don't have to tell you how excited I was.

On the surface, the two books I've read by Will McIntosh could not be any more different. Love Minus Eighty explores love in a future caught up in a tangled web of digital information and social media. Defenders, on the other hand, is about war and an alien invasion. Taking place over a period of twenty years, the book is divided into three parts. First, it details humanity’s losing battle against the Luyten, a race of giant, starfish-like aliens whose greatest advantage over us is their species’ telepathic ability. How do you fight an enemy who can read your every thought and know your actions even before you do?

Enter the defenders, humanity’s answer to that question. Tactically-minded and highly intelligent, they are a new race of warriors genetically engineered to be immune to Luyten mind-reading. Needless to say, they summarily wiped the floor with the dastardly starfish. But what happens after the war is won? What on earth do you do with millions of seventeen-foot tall, three-legged extraordinary warriors now that there are no more aliens to fight? They were our saviors, our own beloved creations, and yet they might as well be as foreign to us as the Luyten. The rest of the book covers the tumultuous two decades that follow, exploring the idea of sharing the world with the defenders.

Like I said, superficially there appears to be very little in common between Love Minus Eighty and Defenders. But dig a little deeper, and a couple similarities come to light.

For one thing, thematically different as they are, both novels pack a powerful punch. Will McIntosh has a remarkable ability to write stories that reach deep into your mind and heart, raising questions about ourselves both individually and as a society. I enjoy his tightly woven plots and multiple narratives, but it’s the messages in them that transcend the content and that's what ultimately makes reading his work so rewarding.

When you read Defenders, look for the forest, not the trees. Just as you weren’t supposed to pick apart the minutiae of cryogenics in Love Minus Eighty, I realized very early on that I shouldn’t get too hung up on the logistics of an alien invasion or the ins-and-outs of bio-engineering a whole new warrior race. This science fiction novel isn’t so much about the “science” than it is a thought-provoking social fiction piece exploring how humanity might approach an “us vs. them” situation. Needless to say, if you enjoy “what if” stories, this would be the ideal book for you. But even in the face of implausible circumstances, Defenders was an enthralling and sometimes terrifying read, given how the speculation always remained grounded in human nature. Humanity has essentially created an army of living, breathing killing machines with only a swift and decisive victory against the Luyten in mind, and now they must live with the consequences of their actions.

What makes someone a friend or foe? Who can put a price on the cost of freedom? As ever, the scenarios in McIntosh’s stories are enhanced by his characters; they are the ones who help expand our understanding of the dire things happening in the world, very important in books such as these. And in Defenders, that’s no exception. Through the narratives of only a handful of characters – Oliver, Kai, Lila and Dominque – we are able to get a well-rounded sense of the culture and climate of the situation. It’s interesting to watch their relationships evolve over the years, and to see how the events of the war has influenced their individual beliefs and perspectives.

Of the two novels from McIntosh I have read now, I think Love Minus Eighty still remains closer to my heart, but Defenders isn’t far behind. Both are eye-opening works, and are simply excellent books. I’ve said this many times before, but this author deserves A LOT more attention!

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating and really ambitious. I'm giving this a 4.5 stars for a few weird moments but the rest was like War of the Worlds. Times three.

I mean, it starts out pretty awesome as a beleaguered humanity is dying from a starfish invasion. They have excellent telepathy and they use it against us perfectly. The action and multiple viewpoints work very well. It's not an easy situation. They are herding us into the cities and several billion have died by the time we MAKE our defenders. Giant, genetically modified humans without serotonin, three robot legs, and they're all sociopaths, much smarter than us, and they were made to destroy.

OF COURSE, NO ONE ASKS IF THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA.

At least the cheering and the parades were nice. The Defenders couldn't be read by the starfish, but now that humanity won? Oh, they didn't want to be integrated into our society. lol But since several billion people died, why not give them Australia?

Yes, the key idea is clear and it should come to no surprise that the Defenders, knowing nothing but war and broken on the inside, unable to procreate, but definitely able to build up a huge arsenal and adapt the alien starfish technology, brutal enough to take all the treaty-survivor aliens to turn them all into slaves, it was only a matter of time before they asked for something the rest of the weakened humanity couldn't give. Large tracts of land, integration on the Defenders' terms, and the labs that made them.

Uh, oh.

No spoilers, but THREE more wars later, or four total over 20 years, and we've got one hell of a MilSF epic on our hands.

And strangely enough, it actually has a really well-done theme. :) Is it EVEN POSSIBLE to communicate with the Other? I mean, the telepathic aliens KNEW we wouldn't take them in as refugees. The Defenders are slightly more alien than the aliens, and we MADE them.

Very cool book. Will McIntosh continues to amaze me with the style and variety and hardcore stories. :)

[A.G. Riddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fresh take on Alien invasion. I loved it.

[Timothy Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed at Adventures in SciFi Publishing
Podcast + giveaway with Will, discussing writing, Defenders and Love Minus Eighty.

Will McIntosh’s Defenders is unlike any alien invasion book I’ve read. It starts off with introductions to characters you immediately care for, revealing the strangeness and borderline horror of the world they live in. The Luyten are an alien species that has already almost won the war, combining their ability to read human minds with heat ray guns to decimate humanity into living in the shadows. Their victory is inevitable, and yet we experience their dominance, initially, through young minds, adding to the sense of vulnerability and hope.

Into this situation, we meet a very likable cast of characters:

The sole captured alien, Five, is being interrogated by Oliver in a secret compound far enough away to be out of range from the other Luyten’s telepathic reading. Without spoiling anything about Oliver’s circumstance, I’ll say that he has marriage problems, trust issues, and is on the verge of losing everything for this war. He is very smart, but lacks charisma and self-confidence. He will be vital to humanity’s attempted survival, though, so don’t expect him to catch any breaks any time soon.

Kai is a young teenager when we first meet him. He’s left his only friend and has no family, and is struggling to find food and warmth in the narrowing space humanity has left. His only means of survival will be following Five’s instructions.

Another young teenager, Lila, is on the run with her father. Her moments with him are as emotionally engaging as if I'd been there with her, needing my father to make the broken world around me somehow right--and yet also recognizing that I'm strong enough to be valuable in that change.

As the title reveals, the Luyten are not the only force to reckon with. Defenders are Goliath-type soldiers created without serotonin so that the aliens can’t read their minds.

There are lots of twists in Defenders, so I’ll leave the plot alone at that. As I mentioned above, this book was a unique experience. When I see a book about invasion, I think I’m getting ready for a sprawling series of give and take. This book isn’t small, but it does complete the story in time jumps that unfortunately made me feel like it was progressing too quickly. Will is an incredible writer, and one could argue that the book is tightly edited to only include the necessary scenes. His father is a Brigadier General, and Will acknowledges that he provided a good deal of advice on military tactics. I don’t know much about tactics, and while this book displays believable scenarios, it doesn’t get bogged down in the details. Maybe I should be thankful he didn’t spend chapter after chapter of waiting in the months between major events. On the other hand, skipping time sort of took me out of their experience, as though I were reading a documentary after the fact instead of living with them during. I’m conflicted making that statement because he does place us in their daily lives during key moments, with battles that are fresh and intense and in dramatic conflicts where death is imminent, such as while the bad guy is trying to be a friend.

In order to keep the main cast central to the narrative, Will sometimes jumped ahead when I would have liked to have seen more of the effects of major events. We see how they affected our main cast, but I guess my preference would be to have seen this story expanded to multiple books. Relationships formed off the page, for example, but then had strong emotional moments on the page, so it was a give and take between wanting more and getting what I hoped for. While I had moments of strong emotional responses to their conflict, I wonder if I could have had more had the off page moments been included. The result was loving the first stage of the characters' lives, but only having a so-so enjoyment and engagement with the middle and end of their stories.

While I didn’t predict many of the plot twists exactly, there was kind of a predicted pattern to the conflict that played out about as I thought it would, leaving the ending less surprising and fulfilling than I would have liked.

In spite of being conflicted about the style of storytelling in Defenders, I recommend it. For alien invasion stories, it has one of the strongest casts I’ve read or seen. The action is visceral and unrestrained, evoking a real sense of danger that shined just as much as the character moments. I just wish it would have taken more time with the characters and had more surprising plot twists.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books where even though it may not be the deepest book you've ever read and sometimes your suspension of disbelief wobbles, you just keep reading because you have to know what happens next, and the shift between multiple POVs actually works to increase the tension and invest you in the story. I believe this is what we refer to as a "page-turner."

In the beginning, Defenders is your basic alien invasion story. A race of telepathic giant starfish-like aliens called the Luyten land on Earth and in a long campaign of escalating attacks, eventually have humanity on the ropes and facing apparent extinction. Besides their superior technology, the Luytens' telepathy makes them almost impossible to defeat. When they begin wiping out entire cities, driving humans out and then slaughtering them with heat rays, the President of the United States, as Commander in Chief of the improbable Global Alliance that has formed to fight the Luyten, is preparing to offer mankind's surrender.

Then humanity unleashes their Hail Mary superweapon: a genetically-engineered race of giant three-legged supersoldiers who are immune to the Luytens' telepathy. The Defenders, in a matter of months, turn the tables on the Luyten, and soon it is the aliens who are surrendering.

Unfortunately, the scientists who created the Defenders didn't really think about what they'd do after the Luyten were defeated.

I liked this book a lot, mostly because it just kept ramping up the tension, but also because all of the characters — human, Luyten, and Defender — managed to be fascinating in their own ways. The Luyten initially appear to be genocidal monsters bent on humanity's extermination, yet through conversations some of the humans have with Five, a captured Luyten, it's evident that they are much more complex and their motives may not be so clear-cut. The Defenders, for their part, were created to be weapons against a specific enemy, and are left without a purpose once that enemy is defeated. Despite being based on humans, their psychology is nearly as alien as the Luytens', and unfortunately, they turn out to have just as much difficulty coexisting with mankind.

The multi-layered characters and the constant shifts in the fortunes of war (there being several wars during the course of the book) made this one of my best reads this year. It's almost a 5-star book, but it gets dinged for three things. First, the writing at times almost seemed aimed at juveniles, with very simple, repetitive sentences that made me wonder if the author got told in some writing workshop that long sentences and big words are bad. Second, there were several big suspensions of disbelief — one or two I could handle (like human scientists being able to whip up a genetically engineered race of giants and mass-produce them in factories around the world, in response to an alien invasion that is wiping out every country's infrastructure - or mankind then ceding Australia to those giants once the war is over) - but after a while the big ideas plus some of the smaller ones became so cinematic I just nodded along without buying any of it. Lastly, there were so many questions I really wanted answered. The Luyten spend years not communicating with humans at all, and then suddenly are rallying them as a species. They go from exterminating invaders to sympathetic and almost admirable, but there is never really an adequate explanation of why their initial attack on Earth was so bloodthirsty, with no attempt at more peaceful negotiations. And much is left unanswered in the epilogue.

Maybe some of the questions are meant to be unanswered - one of the crucial ones, echoed by the characters over and over, is whether one can ever truly trust the Other. Luytens mistrust humans, humans mistrust Luyten, both hate the Defenders who hated the Luyten and admired but felt inferior to humans, that inferiority complex turning to rage when they felt betrayed because humans reacted with paranoia to what seemed to be Defender aggression... multiple devastating global wars started because two races couldn't just talk to each other. Although this book is very much a comic bookish sort of epic, something that would look good on screen with a big enough special effects budget, these themes make it perhaps deeper than it was intended to be.

Thus, Defenders gets 4.5 stars - not a perfect book, and the writing could use some polish, but it's one of the best alien invasion stories I've read in a while.

[Patremagne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. That was a powerful novel.
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http://abitterdraft.com/2014/04/defen...


Last year, Will McIntosh’s social science novel Love Minus Eighty took many genre readers by surprise in its exploration of human feelings. McIntosh changed things up this time around with Defenders, a novel about an alien invasion of Earth.

An alien race known as the Luyten have invaded Earth, wreaking havoc throughout the planet with their heat guns, melting people, cars, and buildings alike. The Luyten have a distinct and incredible advantage over humanity – they’re telepathic. They can read minds. How unfair is that? Turns out it’s extremely unfair, and humanity is on the brink of destruction; thousands are dying whenever a group of Luyten – often called “Starfish” by the protagonists – attack. Nothing Earth’s generals can come up with works because the Starfish know it’s coming. In a last-ditch effort, Earth’s most brilliant minds create the defenders – seventeen foot-tall beings who know nothing but war. They’re missing serotonin, the chemical in the brain that controls feelings, therefore the Luyten can’t use telepathy on them.

The blurb is fairly misleading in that upon reading it, you’d think that the war is over and the issue of what to do with the defenders is the main plot. Nearly half of the story is actually prior to the engineering of the defenders, while humanity is getting its ass kicked by the Luyten. We’re brought through the brutality of the war through the eyes of Lila, Oliver, and Kai, and no punches are held. McIntosh’s prose is elegant, but also simple – something I’d liken to Mark Lawrence. They both write beautifully, but succinctly – not flowery, overbearing, or “purple” as some call it. The structure of Defenders is strange in that, as mentioned before, the blurb doesn’t describe the novel’s full plot, and thus it’s difficult to talk about without spoiling.

Defenders is a deceptively deep novel. On the surface, it reads fast, but beneath it, McIntosh continues his exploration of human nature and what it is to be human. One scene in particular stood out:

"Humans made defenders with three legs, because you see us as valuable, but not as valuable as humans. Mammals have four legs, insects six, and Luyten either six or seven. So killing a Luyten means nothing, but you should only kill a dog if you intend to eat it. Do you think that makes sense?"

It’s very thought-provoking stuff. The interactions with the defenders are where it really stands out. Lacking serotonin and therefore emotion, they try to do things that they see humans do in their warlike manner, but the effect isn’t the same as it would be if a human did it. The inability of the defenders to properly interact with their creators leads them to distance defender society from that of the humans, and that’s when the conflict mentioned in the blurb begins.

Will McIntosh’s Defenders is definitely one of the best science fiction novels I’ve read in recent time. The characters are deep enough that you’ll feel various things for them, ranging from annoyance, to hatred, to love, and that’s where McIntosh thrives – in his characters. Orbit continues to earn its reputation as one of the top publishers in the business.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I accidentally recommended this book before I finished it. I should know better than that.

The first 1/3 of the book was phenomenal. The action was intense. The overall premise was new and exciting. Hard to predict. Definite page turner. Then twist #1 hit, and it all fell apart for me. I feel like with stronger character development and much stronger dialog, this could have been incredible. Unfortunately I found myself uncomfortable reading the cheesy, clunky, unbelievable dialog, even given the circumstances. The reactions of the main characters started getting more and more ridiculous and irrational. I understand that this story is attempting to display the different ways humans cope with extreme situations, but it just didn't deliver for me.

I'm a details guy. You give me a ton of consistent details about the world and its inhabitants and I will be fully absorbed into that Story. The contradictions scattered throughout this plot were distracting. Not many facts were shared on either of the two new races, yet they were easily thrown to the side when convenient. Again, I understand that this was used to further push the plot along to the end goal, but it took me out of the story, questioning if I misunderstood these few basic facts, or wondering 'why the hell did they just do that?!', never to receive a satisfying answer.

Part 1 of the story (the first 1/3) gets 4 stars. I would have been happy if it were a novella and ended there. The second and third parts were rough reading, and by the end I just wanted the book over with, earning 2 stars... All balancing out to 3 in the end. I'm glad I got this for only $1.99; I woulda kicked myself in the ass if I bought the hardcover for full price. I won't recommend this to others. Another missed opportunity... I seem to be reading a lot of those lately.

[Banner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humans sure have it ruff in science fiction and they really take a beating in this one. But never underestimate our survival instinct! That's the mistake the Luyten (i.e. alien invaders) make as they arrive and systematically take control of our plant. While the aliens are physically and technologically advanced, their real strength lies in their ability to read our minds.

At this stage in human technology we have come a long way in genetics. We develop a genetic species which is not really human but share many of our traits. They are smarter (higher I.Q.) stronger and faster (they have three legs) than humans but they are missing that part of the brain which is necessary for the Luyten's to be able to read their thoughts. Thus was born the Defenders.

The problem is the cure maybe worse than the sickness.

This is a character driven, action intense, good old fashion science fiction story. I enjoyed the fast pace, but there were a couple of times I would have like to have explored the character or event a little more. The aliens were well conceived and believable. Some of the mental pictures were so well drawn that I could really visualize the aliens and Defenders (however I confess the third leg was a little difficult to picture). This is not great literature, but it is great entertainment for all of us science fiction buffs.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this as a "Blind Date With A Book"
All I know about it is four bullet points:
•Science Fiction
•Invasion
•Telepathic Aliens
•A Cure Worse Than The Disease
Excited to read this some time this year!

Thoughts after reading it:
Completely loved it and definitely worth the purchase!

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm completely baffled by the high ratings and reviews I've seen for this book (i09.com called it "a strong, excellent book"). While there is a kernel of a good idea, overall, this book was sloppily executed and filled with amateur, banal dialogue and a completely predictable story arc. The clumsy, erratic transitions between plot points lacked any kind of sophistication and for an author who has several books under his belt and has been getting more attention lately. I doubt I'll ever read anything else he writes again. Do not recommend.

[Kelly]

A few of my reviewing friends had very good things to say about Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh. So when Orbit dropped the price of McIntosh’s newest release, ‘Defenders’, to $1.99 (ebook only, courtesy of the Orbital Drop newsletter), I figured it was a good time to take the author for a test drive. It was an exhilarating ride.

Defenders is a near-future, near-apocalypse science fiction novel. The aliens have landed and they look like big, killer starfish. They call themselves Luyten. Employing weapons of gruesome destruction, they run rampant across our planet, melting ground troops into horrific lumps of gore and searing air support from the sky. If the Luyten seem to always be one step ahead of the allied forces of humanity, that’s because they are. They can read minds, which proves to be their most insidious weapon of all.

How does one fight an enemy who knows the plan in advance, who can sense the hidden and hidden agendas and can trounce any ambush? One creates a soldier with a mind that cannot be read, of course.

It is determined that the lack of serotonin in a human mind would render our thoughts inscrutable to the Luyten and so the Defenders are created. Seventeen feet tall, with three legs and detachable limbs bristling with armaments, the Defenders are engineered for one purpose: to kill. They are highly intelligent, but lack human emotional response. Apparently, that’s the cost of no serotonin. No one considers the implications of a soldier without emotions until after the Defenders win the war…and teach humanity an extreme lesson in humility.

The novel follows a handful of interrelated characters over the course of twenty years, from the depths of the Human-Luyten war forward. Scientists and soldiers, both, all caught in the tumble of events. It is the experience of each of these characters that tells the story. Lila Easterlin’s affinity and affection for the Defenders actually shows more clearly than any other perspective just how monstrous are these creations. Being the first to engage in two-way telepathic communication with the Luyten, Kai Zhou has a unique understanding of their purpose and motivations. Oliver Bowen is one of those characters who is plucked from obscurity and thrust through heroics. Dominique Wiewall created the Defenders.

Like most apocalyptic novels, Defenders is a cautionary tale and it’s not subtle in the telling, but it is extremely enjoyable in its exploration of an interesting set of ‘what ifs’. There are some obvious messages, such as a two-time examination of humanity’s tendency to shoot first and ask questions later (kill them all and let God sort them out!) and a more disturbing suggestion that even while we might ally against a superior (alien) force, we’re still a bunch of racists. The Defenders and the Luyten are both given (exiled) to Australia. Out of sight, out of mind?

As a native Australian, I did take humorous exception to the use of my country as place to put undesirables. But, as my husband pointed out, it’s not as if it hasn’t happened before. I would like to note that the displaced Australians would NOT be happy in North Dakota, however. That would be like putting a lizard in Antarctica. Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t revolt. Then again, we can be a lazy bunch.

Then there is the examination of the Defenders, themselves, who are ultimately more alien than even the race from beyond the stars. Yet, we designed and built them. This is the heart of the story and at times shockingly brutal. I liked that McIntosh pulled no punches when it came to demonstrating our folly. At times, he managed to draw an extremely thin line between absurdity and horror and I wasn’t sure which side of the line I was on.

Defenders isn’t really an ‘All’s well that ends well’ novel, neither. By the end, the tally of losses is significant. But I don’t think the story could have been told any other way, not with the same impact. My only complaint would be that while McIntosh managed to pack a lot of story into the novel, he did skim of the more human aspects, such as the relationships between Lila and Kai and other pairings. Considering his subject, that might have been on purpose. Either way, he certainly managed to convey the fact the Defenders were not at all human. Highly recommended for fans of Science Fiction – military, near-future and otherwise and readers with a super-soldier fetish and those who enjoy a good apocalypse.

The version I reviewed had an excerpt of Love Minus Eighty at the end, which has only whet my appetite for more Will McIntosh. I’ve already bought it and plan to read it over the summer. Consider that review pending.

Written for SFCrowsnest.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. This book just catapulted to the top of my recommend-to-others list.

The two non-human races in this book--one alien, the other created by humans to fight the aliens--are perfectly drawn, with clear racial traits and yet with strengths and flaws as individuals. They aren't heroes or villains, just people, driven by fear or love or ambition to fight against those who threaten them.

My personal favorites were the Luyten, a race of starfish-shaped creatures the size of elephants. McIntosh does telepathic aliens like nobody's ever done them before. They use their telepathy in war to tremendous effect: perfect communication that can't be intercepted, and perfect knowledge of their enemy's movements. They're smart and frightening, and yet sympathetic, too, backed into a corner where they must fight or die. The conversations between Luyten and humans were some of the best parts of the books.

The defenders are less sympathetic, their actions motivated by ambition and hatred more than self-preservation, but they still inspire some degree of pity, since they were, after all, made to be the way they are. As with the Luyten, the individual characters are where the sympathy comes from, when you see how childlike and insecure they are, despite their power and violence.

In fact, the difference between the individual and the group is almost a theme of the book. As a group, any of the three races (humans included) can be threatening, unknowable, evil. As individuals, however, each is understandable and sympathetic, acting only to protect what they love.

You can tell McIntosh is a master storyteller, and it's no wonder he won the Hugo Award. The plot is never predictable, but each event seems inevitable, perfectly caused by what came before. Each character's actions is consistent with their personality and their situation, each conflict required by who they are and what they need.

I can't imagine the movie being as good, but I hope Warner Brothers goes ahead and makes it (they've already optioned it for film), if only because it will encourage more people to read this marvelous book.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 4.5 than a straight 5, but still a very good book and it comes highly recommended. Review coming soon - the backend of the Founding Fields is currently down meaning that I can't post reviews, but they'll go up when the problem is resolved.

[Jacqie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still haven't read Love Minus Eighty, which got good reviews all over the place last year, by this same author. I thought the premise of Defenders sounded interesting, so started here. I was thinking about it for our science fiction book club, but in the end I think it won't make the cut.

The basic concept is pretty interesting. Humans are getting the crap kicked out of them by invading aliens who can read minds when they are within eight miles of a given person. This obviously plays havoc with any strategy, since the aliens know what the humans are doing as soon as the humans make a decision. To me, the obvious solution would be drones- they can be controlled remotely and are quite effective. Or maybe some kind of VR-controlled robots or something?

Instead, a clever contingent of people located on Easter Island figure out that since serotonin is what allows the aliens access to human thoughts (somehow) that the best thing to do is to genetically design semi-human supersoldiers that function without serotonin. Still intelligent, designed to be self-sufficient, just with a completely different type of brain. The author is a psychologist, which is why I think he went this way- he wanted to play around with the idea of an altered human brain and what it might be like.

So, the Defenders (as they are called) are a smashing success. But then the question comes- what do you do with a supersoldier when there's no war on? These creatures are designed to be competitive and violent, they are intelligent, and there's quite the ethical dilemma there. Especially since the genetic engineer really hadn't thought that far ahead when designing the Defenders. This drove me nuts- you've got the technological know-how to build a non-human sentient being, but never thought through any of the repercussions of that creation or how to perhaps make sure that they would be able to interact with humanity? A brain-fart of truly astronomic proportions. Also, the Defenders have been built to be extra-large (about 12 feet tall) with three legs, and with faces that echo the Easter Island statues. None of these things make for easy assimilation. Jeff Goldblum's character from Jurassic Park needed to be here to tell these idiot scientists that just because they can do something, doesn't mean the should do something.

So, the Defenders get Austalia (I'm sure this pissed off Australia, but what can you do?). They live there, with the last of the aliens as slaves to punish and use as entertainment. For years, in isolation. Finally a collection of delegates is invited to visit. Things go downhill rapidly from there, and humans and aliens suddenly find that they need to work together against a threat that can annihilate both of them.

So, there are a lot of interesting ethical conundrums that are just never explored properly. The writing could be a bit clunky at times, but that didn't really bother me as much as the thought that the author opened a very interesting door and then just didn't go through it.

[Jae · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was certainly interesting and I quite enjoyed the long-term implications of the novel, but found the characterizations so minimal as to be nonexistent. I didn't particularly care if anyone lived or died, with the exception of one or two characters. Every time a character started becoming real to me, the action took over. So I didn't get any of their motivations beyond the most obvious.

So, obvs, an alien invasion would totally suck, and then creating a weapon to repel the alien invasion only to have that weapon turn on you would likewise suck. And some people would die and some people would live and the people who lived would be sad about the people who died, and Earth would be changed forever and stuff. That's basically the whole novel with about the same level of emotional attachment I felt. This is not to say it wasn't entertaining, because it was, but it was the book equivalent of a popcorn movie.

[M Tat · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a big idea here, yet it's crammed into too few pages. Peter K. Hamilton's Night Trilogy represents what McIntosh _should_ have done: expand this into three, well fleshed-out novels that provide a greater sense of 'war is hell' and that there are shifting sides. It would allow the characters to be more relatable, as well.

At the same time, given that I was looking for a rapid, brief read, this worked. I chewed through the book in less than 4 hours.

The imagery associated with the battles is brief, fresh, succinct, and reads a great deal like a movie script. Nowhere near as bad a movie script as the Nightwatch/Daywatch/Twilightwatch series or as stunted, but it does read like a move script in its simplicity.

It also seems odd--and by odd I mean 'poorly thought out'--that the other lifeforms/organisms in this novel have such anthropomorphism. Couldn't they have actually been legitimately diverse instead of just humanoid behavior in different types of bodies?

[Stefan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s 2029, and things aren’t looking good for the human race. Ever since the alien race known as the Luyten invaded Earth a few years ago, humanity has been fighting a losing war. Billions of people have died. The scattered survivors try to fight back, but their efforts are doomed from the start because the Luyten are telepathic: they always know when, where and how the next attack will happen. They use their electrocution and heating weapons with ruthless, impassive efficiency. The giant, starfish-shaped mind-readers appear to be an unstoppable foe.

It will take a miracle for the human race to survive and recapture their own planet. A miracle—or the Defenders…

Read the entire review on my site Far Beyond Reality!

[Chris Sachnik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of silly

I expected war in this book. I got that, but not in the way I was expecting. There was a lot of downtime, and I think if it had been filled with more mindless fighting I would have enjoyed it more. Instead I had to struggle with races of people making increasingly bewildering and disastrous decisions, culminating in the most predictable ending I've read in a while. The characters were ok, but normally I don't read military sci fi for characters. The battles were abstract; there were no heroic last stands, no detailed weapon specs, just general fighting. The science was pretty silly too. Overall, a very pedestrian effort.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

When you think about alien invasion plot, you don't really expect to open a book and be thrown right into action so far progressed. Usually we read how aliens came and first contact. Well, McIntosh doesn't do that with Defenders. Opening scene shows us Earth well under Lythen siege and humans losing the war against them with great casualties. Borders are forgotten as countries are joining forces and resources and when we open the book, they are already in desperate stage. Another thing that we are used to read in books with similar theme are aliens with far superior technology. Well, Lythen don't have technological advantage- they have telepathic abilities and it's basically impossible to plan attack against them since they will know it's coming. So, humans had to come up with something else and this is how project Defenders was born.
Defenders are bio-engineered warriors who fought Lythen off and imprisoned them. They are heroes. Entire world is grateful to them.
But, let's face it, 17ft tall humanoids build for war with autonomy running loose? It's a ticking bomb; disaster waiting to happen.
And of course, it did.

I kept thinking that Defenders was all about Quick Fix and consequences of. They were rather ad hoc solution, created for one purpose in mind. Hell, they are named Defenders- so what to do with them when they have nothing to defend? When you take their purpose out of equation? And this is the twist of this story- their transition from human salvation to enemies.
For me the most striking thing about this novel is the fact that Defenders can't be considered really evil. Humans created them not to feel, so their minds would be closed to Lythen I had some troubles with science behind this. Bare basics: they designed them without serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter (it's like "chemical messenger", they transmit signals from one neuron to other). Serotonin is commonly associated with feelings of happiness and it's believed that lack of it may lead to depression and I guess this was author was going for. Serotonin has a role as receptor for aggression, pain relief, anxiety, but it also regulate appetite, aging, memory, learning, reproduction, etc. I just can't wrap my head around a working organism without serotonin. I know, this is fiction, but I would buy it if they didn't made them extremely fast learners and brilliant. . Defenders are truly scary, they don't understand compassion, they are prone to violence and mood swings, they kill often and for reasons so small it certainly not justified. Of course, they are nothing but what they are created to be- perfect killing, war machines. They are capable of thinking, make conclusion- they are logical, after all they are highly trained in military strategy and what is that if not applying logic in its finest, they are fast learners, fast planners, they are progressive and in 15y they made a society. And, yet.. I couldn't think of them as evil, because the most interesting thing about Defenders is that they are aware there is something wrong with them. They know they are lacking something on a fundamental level. They didn't plan to attack humans, they don't have imagination to do it, but they wanted to imitate and in their fashion it couldn't be experienced as anything else but threat. It's easy to root against something that is unquestionably there to do wrong, but Defenders are so...defective it's not so easy to put everything in black and white boundaries. This is what I liked the most.
Defenders reads like blockbuster movie. Every chapter is something happening, there are large action scenes and everything is straightforward. As much as this style adds to pace- you are gobbling pages- it also left me hanging for few reactive scenes I was expecting to read- like, one event left severe consequences, but author never visits them just skips right ahead to action. That resulted in some time gaps and narrators behaved in a way you couldn't really understand- you just have to accept them as such.
Story is told from several pov's. I would say 3, because fourth joins in last third of the book and imo, it didn't give that important insight into whole situation. I guess for majority of readers Oliver's or Lila's pov stuck- they are written to be important players, both brilliant scientists, quirky and in the center of the plot. But I personally liked Kai the most. He doesn't have that much page time, but every scene with him is somehow pivotal, and frankly, he can summarize everything far better and more accurate. He is such a normal guy and I think he balanced great with others.
You can see I didn't mention Lythen after their initial attack. Oh, they are here for entirety of novel and they play a big role at the end. They are really interesting because of their telepathy, since they know everything about humans before they even open their mouth. They are also manipulative, patient and intelligent. In a way, they remained a mystery to me. Oh, I know the ending, I understand- it was written to be a happy one. But, if Defenders learned me anything is the fact that status quo can't stand for long...and Lythen lie. I am still not sure if it was joined effort or if they used each other. And humans made so many mistakes. Through aliens and humanoids author told so much about human nature.
This is a great work, begging to be transferred to big screen, but my rating was greatly affected by the fact this is not my first McIntosh read. I missed emotional connection he delivered in Love Minus Eighty. Still, highly recommended.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good SF novel by a good writer. The review to read here is Tom Hicks', https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... "Flawed but interesting," he says, which pretty much nails it. 3.5 stars.

Based on an earlier short story, http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...
-- which is a good preview for the novel.

[Stephine · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

When earth is invaded by telepathic aliens, the Luyten, humanity is left with few options. It isn’t easy fighting an enemy who can read a soldier’s mind before he pulls the trigger. Our only option comes in the form of what we can create. One of the Luyten, the captured Five, haphazardly gives mankind the clues of how the create a super soldier, the Defenders: three legged sexless giants who hate the Luyten. But what will the Defenders do once the war is over? Like most things, it’s only a problem after it’s too late.

Defenders is the second novel I’ve read from Will McIntosh. After his novel from last year, Love Minus Eighty, he’s been on my automatic read list. I’ve also read a great deal of his short fiction, in other words: He’s quickly climbing the scales to my favorite author charts. He has a simplistic style that deals with complicated relationships that are hard hitting and harder to put down. There is also interesting news about Defenders: This book was first a short story published by Lightspeed, link to the story here. It was also optioned for a film before it hit book shelves.
 
The novel starts with a prologue that may be one of my only big issues with the novel as a whole. It’s drab, and while it’s an intense scene, it doesn’t work to grab my attention the way McIntosh has in the past. The novel starts in the Luyten war. Most of the scenes are from Kai, Lila, and Oliver. Kai will later be known as the boy who betrayed the world. He is a refugee who is too hungry and cold. A voice in his head leads him to food and shelter. This voice is a Luyten, Five. I spent a lot of the novel wishing some of the points of view were from Five.
 
Lila is in Georgia, Savannah to be exact, during the war. The Luyten are slowly closing in, forcing her family to flee towards Atlanta. Lila’s teenage years are full of horror and chaos that will haunt her and shape her future. When the Defenders came she idolized these giants as saviors. Later she develops a relationship with Kai, which is the only part of the novel I don’t actually understand. Considering the differences in background I feel very uncertain how a relationship worked out at the start.
 
Then there is the person who kind of brings them together, the mild mannered Oliver. Oliver was moved up the government ranks when the Luyten, Five, was captured. He was put in charge of getting the alien to talk, and became Kai’s father. Oliver is my favorite character in the novel. His relationship with Five is one of my favorite thing about Defenders.
 
Defenders takes place over a span of years. After the war is won with the Luyten’s, the Defenders demand Australia. Later human ambassadors travel to the island country and discover that the Defenders are too violent to integrate with humanity. Instead of killing the Luyten, the Defenders have turned them into slaves. It isn’t long until the Defenders need war, and look to the rest of the world.
 
Defenders is an easy to read novel. It’s gripping, insightful, and interesting. It did lack some of the emotional punch that McIntosh’s Love Minus Eighty provided, but it was still really good work. I firmly enjoyed the characters and situations. The fact that humanity creates its own monsters says plenty. I look forward to discovering what McIntosh create next.
- Elizabeth

[K.Z. Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are books which I have reviewed so far for which I "argue" that nothing happens. I wish to explain again as I did in those reviews, that things do in fact happen, but are not even remotely close to what I would like to happen in a book that is over 400 pages long. I don't want to read about someone going to a university and doing exams at said university. (I still ended up reading about it, but shut up, okay?)

In this book, things happen. And then some other things happen which are not expected. Then others which are slightly more expected, but still very spacious (?) in the oh shit that just happened department.

[Here ends the part of the review where I try to use the word happen as many times as possible for no particular reason.]

This is without doubt an existentially rich book examining some of the most profoundly disturbing yet singularly realistic questions. The questions aren't actually in the book, which is how good scifi does things anyway, instead the questions appear by themselves in the heads of those who tend to contemplate the nature of things and stuff. The answers you get in this book are sort of nihilistic in a way and kind of lame when you think about them. Yet not lame because the author is lame or managed to represent the answers in a lame way (although the Lutyen are some of the most meh aliens purely by aspect of countenance), but because, well, the answers themselves are quite lame. But also true.

One answer is simply this: Humans are and will for the foreseeable future remain a bunch of unremitting idiots.

The second answer a bit comforting. Only not very. And it is that we can't really help it. Unless we try really really hard.

You cannot help but be pissed at times at the pure idiocrity of the people in this book. And by extension - when you realize the book is pretty legit when it comes to accurately describing real-world situations (albeit in a warped and situationaly different manner) - you kind of become frustrated with humans in general. But then again, you should be a tad frustrated with us if you managed to look outside your window in the last couple of centuries, or within yourself. I mean really look.

If you pause to think (and you should, god dammit) that what is happening in this book is something that may very well occur, and actually has already numerous times - just not with aliens from outer space (or has it) - you may come to the startling conclusions you were already aware of, but tried not to consider because they can bring you to fucking tears.

"Suppress that shit," seems to be the consensus upon which we frivolously operate in our current global society.

But what if you can't? Well I suppose then you damn well try harder.

The science in this book is never actually explained and the book itself remains one of the least detailed books I have read in a while. The details are in other places, centered around characters and things that actually matter.

Which is good.


The only problem was I couldn't for the life of me imagine a starfish-shaped alien that didn't appear positively goofy in my mind's eye... And I tried.

[Anissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. This is the third book by Will McIntosh that I've read and he's quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. I'm the one who always wondered what the hell the Republic was going to do with all those clones should they win. The humans in Battlestar Galactica got far more than they bargained for when they created the Cylons. Jurassic Park was less exciting and fun for humans once the exhibits sought to dine on the visitors. The scientists in the show Manhattan are racing Heisenberg in creation of an atomic weapon in hopes of ending war but having no idea of the actual consequences & impact on humanity it will make long after they're gone. I love stories where humans set out to create something and are faced with realizing that they never had control of their creations to begin with and now have to devise a way to deal with the consequences or more simply, survive them. Defenders was a great story that delved deeply into that and turned on its head the idea of friend, ally, foe and enemy. In the resolution none are wholly good or evil and there's a good measure of fear and distrust held by Luyten and human. I'd recommend this to fans of such scifi stories and fans of McIntosh. I'll surely read his next offering.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book and the premise was great. The rock-paper-scissors balance between humans, defenders, and Luyten was well conceived and really made the story work. However, I was hoping for a clever, elegant solution given the hole the humans had dug themselves into and was disappointed in the end. I also kept expecting Lila to figure out a way to work with the defenders and their built-in limitations, but that little plot breadcrumb never led anywhere either. It became just a slow grind to the end and even the epilogue failed to bring enough closure and resolution. Maybe it's my fault for expecting humans to learn from the experience and be smarter about accommodating their new world.

[Tudor Ciocarlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This the most powerful alien invasion story I've ever read. A story about what makes us human and a story about the other. A story about what we all have in common and a story about what makes us different from one another. A story about the alien in the humans and the human in the aliens. A story about the beautiful things that we share and a story about the marvelous things that make us alien.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end of chapter 39 had me in tears. Like the best of Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Moon and Octavia Butler, this book gets under your skin and exposes the brutality of the universe with just a glimmer of hope.

[Beth Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book totally engrossing. The aliens were strange and believable. The characters felt real. The action was intense and scary. I'm going to have to read some more of Will McIntosh's books.

[Sarah]

review will post closer to publication date. Wow. what an important, absolutely thought provoking book.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely sensational!