Defiance of the Fall 14

Defiance of the Fall #14

by TheFirstDefier, J.F. Brink

Book 14 of the hit Defiance of the Fall LitRPG Series is here. Preorder your copy today!

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Action, Adventure

571 pages, Paperback

First published December 18, 2024

Reviews

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

A large amount of words with very little actual story progression.

While I still read and enjoy the books, it's clear to me that the overall pacing and focus of the book has moved away from what initially drew me into the story. Spending almost half the book describing breakthroughs and random powerups is pretty heavy-handed and honestly the series has suffered because of it. The large scope battles/war is far less interesting to read then his personal stories/adventures and I am hoping that things will go back to smaller interactions rather then scaling up further.

[Andy Klein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I continue to be amazed by the imagination and the scope of this series. But I find the entire series, particularly after it expanded to world’s beyond earth to be very difficult to follow. I think I followed about 20% of this book. Too many characters. Too much detail. And way too much minutiae of leveling up and gaining more skills, titles, and techniques. It’s simply impossible to follow everything and to have any clue about what exactly Zac is doing to win every fight/battle. I have absolutely no idea who all the players, factions, worlds, empires are and what precisely is going on and I’ve now read all 14 books. I also think that the author gets paid by the chapter basically. He’s got a bunch of Patreon members who pay him to read each chapter as they are written and as soon as enough chapters are written, the author releases another volume. This one left off with Zac swallowing the souls of a bunch of statues of saints and being given a training regimen from some entity. I think this is my last go around with this series.

[Ry · Rating 1 out of 5]

worse and worse

These books keep getting harder and harder to read. The lack of just a brief recap of the previous book made it difficult to digest as well. Only the last 20-30% of the book was enjoyable.

[Zebulon Griggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its book 14 of a series. If you made it this far, just kniw that it continues to deliver onall the aspects that brought you this far.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have somehow listened to about 350 hours of Defiance of the fall, but only because I am a completist. I liked the story, characters, litrpg system and narrator, the writing though has serious issues, probably because of its webstory background. It doesn't effect the early story too much, but when the earth incursions are stopped, the series falls off a writing cliff. The main issue is that the author cannot write 20 words when 2000 will do, and most of those words are redundant, confusing, boring and useless metaphysical word salad. Big fights and major progressions can take 3-5 chapters or 1-2 hours of listening. The MC also spends much of the time spouting internal dialogue, and not so much interacting with other characters, which are the highlights of the series, if fact most of the best characters are removed for multiple books (25 hours each) at a time. I fell asleep multiple times and had no idea how much I missed, but felt i missed nothing. The last two books, which I have just listened to, I literally cannot remember a single thing that happened.

An example of Defiance of the Fall:

From a normal author: Zac checked his watch.

From TheFirstDefier: Zac pondered his unusual situation as the chronomic golem stood proudly and defiantly before him, casually letting the cosmic energy flow though his pathways, knowing that the situation was extremely time sensitive, he glanced through his spacial space ring that was gifted to him from defeating the semi-corrupted litch king that poisioned his cosmic core, to find the spirit chronometer. The chronometer, the one Zac recieved from climing Buddha's personal Left Hand Flapdoodle Kumquat, was surrounded my a mist of antiquity and a force of inexorble truths that pierced his third peak dao branch of sanguine bumflaps. The dao, and a force of untangeble vastness that flowed to his specialy core gave Zac an unflinching warning that time was essential, but he held back, knowing that if he took the chronometer out, that a overbearing cosmic storm would flood his already weakened body with tribulation lighning, the system, the inexorable ruthless heavens held back nothing when forcing cultivators away from boundless truths. Then Zac frowned, sensing time was coming near, the runes all over his over-taxed body igniting with void energy new that the punishments would just haved to be persevered, like he had many times before onhis own personal unorthedox boundless path. He had to use the watch. With pain and trepedation he searched again his spatial ring for the device that could be his savior or his downfall, the magic imbued technocrat device hummed with the dao, why had he not noticed this before? The dao? He just automatically assumed any technocrat device would be a corruption of the system, and he would have to force his bloodline to use the device, but now it just hummed with a mystical spirituality, a cosmic vastness, a sense of calmness that only one hundred years of cultivation meditation could emit. He removed the timepiece from its position and released it into the real world, it attaching itself to his left wrist, and an unexpected pain surged through is already damaged pathways and through his twin soul apertures, burning away skill runes that could not handle the power flowing through the clearly c-grade item now permanantly attached to his d-grade arm, the golem moved towards the dais holding the crystal of twilight indomitable truths and strangly smelt of growing death, miasma pouring from every crack in its shining carapace, he had to move fast, his danger perception screamed for him to check the time, and with agonising slowness he moved the hard won timepiece in from of his black abyssal eyes and nervously glanced at it. He could not believe it, the ruthless heavens clearly had a sense of humor. It was just a slightly worn Rolex Oyster perpetual. Three seconds had passed.

I wrote that in about 10 minutes. I can now think like Brink

[Ali Haji · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great entry that I devoured in like 3-4 days. There were some boring sections that I powered through using the audiobook though, which stops me from rating it 5 stars.

Cool moments:

-Middle D grade finally
-Immense faction points reward
-Upgrading the earth to middle D grade
-Saving Emily
-Ogras reunion
-Sap Trang’s death :(
-Kars and Laondiao dynamic
-Elysium and the Echelon class
-Shipyard upgrade
-Lore drops of technocrats
-Tribulation throne

Excited for the customized training regiment

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The series is starting to feel Robert Jordanesqe, not in a good way. The storyline feel like it is going on so many tangents and adding in new unnecessary ways to power level Zac I find myself skimming the book. I feel like the series has lost its way an instead of getting to it just adds in more s=random crap.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm passing on the rest of the series.

There were so many details and purple prose about breakthroughs and power-ups that I just didn't care about, and all the abstract concepts were quite confusing and difficult to comprehend. I had no idea what the difference between Dao, Fate, Karma, and Laws, Cosmic Destiny vs. Imperial Destiny, and the System vs. Heavens were and why I was supposed to care. What's the distinction between classes like Hegemony and Monarch vs. D-grade and levels that are mentioned here and there? What do killing intent and Killing Arrays have to do with anything? I didn't realize there was a contrast between "cultivators" and "mortals", and apparently Zac was still considered a mortal due to being human??? I didn't understand the importance of sealbearers, the Left Imperial Palace (is there a Right?), and the purpose of Ultom after multiple books about it. The lack of recap didn't help, especially with soooo many characters, factions, abilities, and items. I mainly stuck around hoping for more action and Ogras, but I'm so lost, and it took me forever to finish this release.

Ultimately, 1) I had no idea what was going on for most of the book, especially since I didn't re-read the previous 13 books to refresh myself, and 2) there were way too many open-ended plot points that were never resolved. I honestly don't know how I managed to stick around and finish this -- I definitely don't want to put myself through this again...

[Mylene · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually I decided not to finish. Lost nearly all understanding of the myriad story lines, didn't remember half (or more) of the people, and didn't read anything on the people I do remember....
Just got too complicated and alien for me.

Actually that happened some books ago, tried to struggle through - even tried to start over, but even in the first books were too many cringy moments I didn't want to hear again (although overall then I really did like the series).

This was regrettably the end of defiance of the fall for me.

[Randy Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

14 and still going strong!

This has truly been an excellent series, but it time goes on the story becomes more and more complicated so many different aspects and open storylines. There was nothing wrong with this, but it starting to become complicated to follow all the different moving components. The story is still very strong and has excellent writing, but each time a new book like this comes out you kinda have to look back just to refresh your memory of the different things going on.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much to say about this one. It’s a good entry in the series, but like all the recent entries, things are happening without it really changing much overall. Still fun.

[Harry Whinnery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good

[Per Erik Løff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how people manage the "torture" of waiting every week when reading this at RR (if I understand how that works right..). I can barely manage to wait between books, and in alot of books I read are often finished by my choice. However I think I never would get the opportunity to read alot of the LitRpg/progression fantasy series.

This was my first of "the newer" generation (for me) of these books (like Primal Hunter, Dungeon Crawler Carl,Chrysalis and others). I really appreciate when I read 12 and 13 before this came on audio, that there are only like 2 3 times in the books we get a full statsheet. I really like this, regarding to listen to distribution of stats every other chapter. He has leveled about 40 levels last 2 books (including this)and as I said max 3 times with stats in each book. It really makes it more "smooth" especially when you read several series. (Some is living on the edge, will probably cull atleast one or two of them if next book doesn't change much)

But Zack still continues to reak havoc and even if you know he will make it out, the author makes fights and "scenarios/dungeons/opportunities" are varied and entertaining, not so extremely OP as I find some MCs (ofcourse he is OP in the frontiers, but he is obviously not on the big stages.)

I would appreciate some more updates on the other characters, like the Draugr woman have a chapter after not hearing from her last book at all. I also wonder if I missed Joannas reaction after going through the trial? Kinda strange if no follow up to the "build up" towards her Seal. I can't remember it was mentioned regarding her trial except she got a spear and maybe mention that she has it (seal).

Anyway. New wait for the next audio release.. I wonder if we get to the start (of the Flamebearer trial stuff in the Imperial palace)in the next book. Probably will end with everyone getting summoned. I really have high expectations for how that will work....

[Zack Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!

What an amazing book! I absolutely loved this book and such wonderful characters! I can not wait for the next book to come!

[Jurgen Deagle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read and enjoyed this series from the beginning. I like the main character and supporting cast. When there is action it is great and the politics are engaging. Not without flaws, but an enjoyable series. I struggled to get through this latest instalment. In my view 1/3 of the book was about focussing power internally to develop his bloodline, skills and other abilities. In moderation sure, but page after page was too much. Thinking that’s enough for me.

If you wonder what I am talking about, here’s a quick excerpt. If it’s your thing, great, just not feeling it.

… streams of the Branches of the Pale Seal and War Axe flowed through his body along the pathways of his [Thousand Lights Avatar]. There was no resistance and no loss through mutual destruction when Void and Dao intersected. This didn’t change when he passed through the barrier again, though Zac noticed the drain on his body’s Void Vigor was substantially greater. Activating skills didn’t cause any complications either, proving how marvelous his transformation was. Until now, he was generally forced to choose between Void and Dao, since using abilities like [Void Zone] restrained his energy as much as his opponent’s. This issue was incredibly pronounced when he tried to infuse the Void into his technique…

x now multiply that by 50-100.

Off to find my next binge

[Christopher Hernandez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose the fans will throw up 5 stars to keep the fandom. However, if you do not consider some criticism then you reward mediocrity and encourage more of it. As a fan of the series, I know this book is mediocre. I am clearly 13 books in on this long adventurist voyage, but book 14 took the wind out of the sails and we seem to be taking on water.

The BLUF is that not much is going on in this book. The author hints at potential but then bogs things down with numerous chapters solely dedicated to protagonist Zac's cultivation breakthroughs and insights. Even if you are an RPG fan breaking out spreadsheets or a fan of Buddhism an Dao, there is only so much core polishing you can take before you start making your own euphemisms. It's all about padding and filler here. Maybe break things up by highlighting some of those great characters you created? Hmm.. Emily gets some minor showcase time before she plays second fiddle to a Zac's break thru. Iz Tayn? Oh yeah..she is out there with a brief mention. Same for Thea, Alea, Catheya ...(is there a pattern here?). Ogras is back! Now we are talking... and he is headed back to the Azh’Rezak Clan. This should be good right? ....right?!?! What a waste of potential ability showcase and development time. Wow...Ole Billy King of Bonk is forgotten. What about my man OG Sap Trang? He what? WTF...

J.F. Brink...the ship is on the brink of sinking. Padding can pad pockets till the readers start realizing we are getting less for the money (shrinkflation)

[Murphies_law · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite beimg astounded by the amount of work and detail put into the series, unfortunately, i didn't enjoy most of the book. The sheer endless time spent on obscure cultivation, where the MC keeps having either excessive luck or is saved by interventions or god-like entities got quite tiresome by now. I didn't care much about the other POV 's , except Ogras, which was way too short, either. I liked the last part of the book best after struggling through the rest of the book.

The plot got a rather convoluted mess by now. There are so many characters, factions and intrigues that it is hard to remember them all. Not to mention all the skills the protagonist has collected by now.

It is sad that the author is not the writer of game of theones. With his phantasy and work ethic we would have a legendary completed epos by now..

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's losing it's way a bit. Overcomplicated.

[Gareth Otton · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's been a week between finishing this book and finding the time to write a review, and in that week, I have forgotten everything that happened. The whole novel is a blank void in my mind, and while I might normally be inclined to chalk this up to being in the wrong headspace for book reading, this time, I have to place the blame entirely on this book.

I mentioned in my review of the last novel that this series is starting to collapse under its own weight. For thirteen books, it has constantly opened up new story arcs, expanded the world-building, and piled increasingly more information on the reader without including significant climaxes to give the reader a much-needed break.

Unfortunately, this book is no different.

A good way of explaining this problem is to compare closing out story arcs in a series with save points in a video game. They are points in the narrative where you can take a brief pause to jettison the information that is no longer important to the story going forward, move the remaining information that is important to long-term memory, and to create a clear milestone in the series that you can refer back to when revisiting the series at a later date.

A series like He Who Fights with Monsters (HWFWM) has released almost as many books as this series with a similar word count, yet I have no problem keeping that series straight in my mind. Each arc of HWFWM is distinct, I know what happens overall, and when revisiting the series, I only need to catch up on the current arc as a reminder before reading the next installment. The information is clear, ordered, and doesn't get in the way of the story being told.

Here, I had to re-read the entire series in preparation for reading this book, and I still ended up lost/uninterested. Because I haven't had a chance to jettison unneeded information in this series, I am trying to remember everything at once as I don't know what's important and what isn't. Add that issue to a series that is moving forward so slowly that it never seems to get anywhere despite its mammoth word count, and an overabundance of meaningless events, and I am utterly lost.

Ultimately, I think this book is the collapse point of this series for this reader. I am still relatively invested in Zac's journey to be a powerhouse, I want to see what eventually happens with his sister and Thea, I want to see how the Earth integrates into the wider universe and so much more. But all that is getting buried under so much noise that I can no longer enjoy the books as I read them.

My advice to the author is to start closing out storylines so you can deliver on their promises and get this series focused on a unified forward path. Like with multi-tasking in real life, there's only so much you can do before you become horribly inefficient and start making mistakes or failing outright. You're much better off picking a task and seeing it through to completion before starting the next. That way, you can consistently move forward while maintaining focus and quality.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Defiance of the Fall 14 by JF Brink is an interesting, if somewhat unmoored continuation of the series. The first quarter of the book is quite exciting in its own way, but the battle with the Seventh Heaven scion felt a bit rushed given how it was resolved. I'd almost want to have him stick around to be an actual antagonist instead of swapping him out after just a handful of chapters, especially since I actually bought into his menace at the end of book 13. The conclusion with the ruins turned templar training spot was also quite enthralling, though I partially blame that on the return of Ogras - who does a lot to elevate the chapters he's in. Where I'm a bit more frustrated is the long middle. It meanders for a while, and then it rushes. I'm almost convinced that my version of the book is missing a few pages of material because I feel lost about how the relationship with the technocrat faction progressed, what the story behind the Atwood Empire bowing out of direct battles was really about (not the handwavy - "its now too dangerous" bit), or the suicide mission he's soon be on perhaps a quarter or a third into the next book. Meandering and then rushing feels at odds with Brink's usual writing style, and I'm not too sure I like it. Give me some more world building and characters, have discussions and dialogue be the way the plot and the schemes progress, and play to this story's strengths. Spending a quarter of the book on cultivation and resource/treasure hunting is barely noticeable when the rest of the novel stands up. But when it starts to come undone, the cultivation and resources side of the story really starts to wear away at the reader.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit I get excited when returning to TheFirstDefier's work. It's not that the core story is brilliant or all that unusual in any particulars, but when the actual ADDITIVE nature of all that came before gets thrown into this particular spotlight, it shines. It shines hard.

An explanation: it begun as Zach's denying fate, the System's rules, and thanks to his nature, he set about breaking everything, getting stronger and stronger and incorporating just about everything he broke into his body, his soul, and his mind. 14 books in, we've fully graduated from Earth domination to star systems to hegemony mental domains to a whole star sector war complete with massive battleships and individuals, like Zach, who can tear through them with overwhelming power. And yet, he's still just C grade. There's always bigger fish.

The scaling is absolutely enormous. And to think he started with just a loincloth and a camp axe.

I'm just having a great time with the huge amount of time spent on purifying soul bits and Tao idealisms and faith arrays right alongside a technocratic theocracy and ancient gods exerting their undead influence across the multiverse. And it's still, strangely enough, focused and character-based to remain relatable.

Sweet. :)

My synesthesia smells cake and tastes sweet cream.


Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

Arctunn.com

[Steve Naylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 3.5 stars

This is still a good series but there have been some books that are just kind of meh, and this one is one of those. I harp on the term balance a lot in my reviews. There should be a balance between story, characters, magic, world building, etc. The best stories for me are the ones that have a little bit of everything. When I start getting tired of one topic, the author moves on to another aspect of the story. This one was lacking that balance. I think my favorite part of the series is the interaction between Zack and Agros. Zack does something crazy insane and Agros sits back and complains about Zacks luck. I like the training, the world building, the cultivation. I just like it when there is a balance between those topics in the story. This one was just kind of boring. The first 8 hours of the audiobook was pretty much nonstop fighting. It was also very hard for me to visual what was being described. At no point did it feel like Zack was OP. He was constantly on the back foot and barely surviving. Again, this goes back to my balance comment. Zack is insanely powerful, so there should be times where things are easy for him and then there also should be periods of him in extreme danger. Having the OP MC be constantly pushes to his limits kind of takes away the feeling that he is OP. The war in the Zekia sector is not going well. Overall, I still enjoy the series, but this was one of the weaker books in the series.

[Frank Castle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book of this series had things happen. Likewise for the second book. But the more the writer does in the later series the less happens. Actually that is wrong- so many internal metaphysical things happen in this book that it would make a magic new age stone clutcher clinch her lucky jade rock and start chanting: “Rama Harry Rammy Bammy Alabamia my channel rock makes me a new age fanny.”

So much deep inner stuff about the main character struggling with his amazingly boring inner turmoil. I skimmed most all of the book. I seriously am not sure why I keep reading them. I think I will stop reading them and check in a few years and see if the author finished them. Then I will get the last four or ten and super skim them in an afternoon- well ok maybe two afternoons.

I wonder if people actually like the tripe fluff writing or are like me and get the books free from internet libraries and just skim it thinking, “It was kind of fun in the 1st book and it must have some more fun parts.” Well it really is not worth it unless you love esoteric new age mumbo jumbo nonesense about improving your inner strength. Or are like me and don’t mind taking a few hours to skim the book and read in detail a few happenings and conversations.

[Horia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find #14 to be one of the weaker entries in the series.

Overall Zack is growing his empire, upgrading his cores, planets, and buildings, while overall progressing, evolving, and pushing his path towards the Terminus.

A lot of stuff happening, lots of details, lots of history unearthed, yet I feel I haven't been left with almost anything after the entire book. I need a wiki to explain the timeline, the skills, the foes and in general everything that's happening..

Maybe it's also because of the timeline, jumping at various speeds multiple times throughout the chapters. None of the battles felt in any kind epic, while the struggle is somewhat lost through the kaleidoscope of details.

Onwards!

[Eric_R · Rating 5 out of 5]

lots of discoveries

Really liked this book, though it seemed too short. Some real nice reveals in this book. Didn’t like some of the time jumps, they just weren’t handled or written as well as they could have. I felt I had to fill in gaps with my imagination, which has positives and negatives. The flow of the story could have been smoother, but I think this was due to how the time jumps were written.

Still one of my favorite series! No regrets reading this edition of the saga, and definitely looking forward to book 15. It’s the first time since starting the series, that I have to wait for the next book, so I feel a bit spoiled and cheated 😂.

Good Reading

Peace ✌🏾 and Love ❤️
E.L.R.

[Hardwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author has completely given up on the plot. It is insane to tease the next part of the story for longer than most series run in their entirety. The degree to which nothing happens in these books is staggering. We just get page after page after hundreds of pages of meaningless, esoteric cultivation nonsense. And when something does happen it is an uninteresting side quest that takes hundreds of pages in order to shoe horn in more esoteric cultivation.

Zac will spend multiple chapters just talking about what he plans on doing and then we get multiple books of cultivation before he actually does it.

[Charles Bush · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much cultivation, lacking storyline.

This one was a real disappointment. Aside from a small advancement of the storyline early with the finding of Galaou and the Peaks company.. It took till past 70% of the book to get to advancement of the storyline. The cultivation should be a mean to progress the storyline, instead its the main focus with the storyline being 2nd. We don't need endless pages of the same cultivation stated in 30 different ways... We need story progression like we saw in the early books! Please fix this in the coming books!

[Nicholas Gagne · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed both this book and the 13th, I feel like the cultivating aspect of these books is starting to put a drain on me. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs at a time when it was 2-3 chapters of just cultivating, which happens quite a few times in the last couple of books. Might just be a personal preference and maybe it's only because I'm now on book 14 that I'm noticing it more and/or that I'm just bored of it but that would be my only complaint. Still a great series overall, I could just do without that aspect.

[Tiruvalluri Prasad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievably top class writing. There are some issues with editing in the versions I read as they have grammar mistakes. The books are detail oriented. Most of the actions are clearly thought out and the rationale behind the actions are clearly explained. Even though made up, there is clear discussion about the philosophy behind the actions of almost all the characters. High quality writing. I finished all the 14 books in one go. I hope there are more than 15 books.

[Shaft · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I was reluctant to give it a 3 but I will talk about what I did so. Things just feel like they are repeating endlessly on a theme in a way that just isn't satisfying. Zack just bulldozes ahead like a car without wheels, we constantly see him underestimating what he needs for a breakthrough in his cultivation, yet everyone around him seems to easily understand what will happen. Like breaking through during the war and on a mission is the dumbest idea ever and it just becomes annoying.