Obrońca

The Voices #1

by G.X. Todd

Siedem lat temu świat jaki znamy uległ zagładzie. W zrujnowanym pustkowiu, znanym dotąd jako Stany Zjednoczone, resztki ludzkości za wszelką cenę próbują jakoś przetrwać. Formują się w grupy, wyżynają się nawzajem i wśród gruzów miast i stert ludzkich zwłok szukają zapasów broni i pożywienia.

W tym świecie, gdzie zaufanie jest towarem deficytowym, pewien mężczyzna postanawia posłuchać głosu w swojej głowie, który każe mu na środku pustej drogi zatrzymać motocykl obok młodej dziewczyny. Ten moment splata ze sobą ich losy – Pielgrzym spotyka Lacey nie bez powodu. Razem wybierają się przez postapokaliptyczną pustynię w podróż pełną niewyobrażalnych niebezpieczeństw.

Pielgrzym obiecuje dziewczynie, że pomoże jej dotrzeć do zgliszcz Vicksburga, w którym przed tajemniczą katastrofą mieszkała jej starsza siostra. Po drodze przekonają się na własnej skórze, do jakich okrucieństw jest zdolny człowiek w obliczu końca świata, i zrobią wszystko, by przeżyć.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Thriller, Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Fantasy

538 pages, Paperback

Published April 18, 2017

About the author

Average age.
Average height.
Average intelligence.
Excellent imagination.

Twitter/X: www.twitter.com/gemtodd
Website: www.gxtodd.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/g.x.todd
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gxtodd

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley & Headline Publishing for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review*

'The Road Trip From Hell' is the best way to describe what takes place within the pages of Defender.

The novel is set in a post- apocalyptic world, where 'normal' is a thing of the past. Something has taken over most of the population's minds and many of them experience auditory hallucinations, along with suicidal tendencies, with many taking those tendencies that step further. The 'voices' also turn many of those people into killers!

Pilgrim is very much a loner until he comes across Lacey selling lemonade outside the old farmhouse, where she lives alone since the death of her grandmother. Lacey exchanges the lemonade for a ride with Pilgrim to find her sister who lives some hundreds of miles away, and who she's not heard from since this madness overtook the world.

It's a dog eat dog world, where gratuitous violence is the order of the day. A word of warning here, if blood and gore upset you then this might not be for you. However, this was a really well written debut novel, and surprisingly, given the theme of the book, there are still characters that you will be rooting for and caring about their future.

Though I found the violence hard to stomach, I was gripped wanting to know how the main protagonists, (Pilgrim and Lacey) would find their way through this madness, and whether they would manage to survive the evil surrounding them. Though we never find out how or why this strange phenomenon of 'the voices' happened to people, it was easy to see how society would disintegrate in this way, and it was scary to witness just how certain people would take advantage of this situation. A very scary scenario indeed!

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real thrill ride of a novel that kept me reading through the night determined to finish it. It is an intelligent, story with strong elements of horror. It is tugging at your worst nightmares as it moves through a post apocalyptic future. It is never clear what exactly occurred. We are aware of what society thinks if you were to start hearing voices in your head, it is a case of bring out the strait jacket. This is exactly what Pilgrim experiences, he has that voice in his head and so do many other people. It tells him to buy a lemonade from a girl. This is no random event although Pilgrim is yet to be aware of this. Teenage Lacey is frantic in wanting to locate members of her family. She is convinced that they are still alive despite the fact that it is unlikely.

A reluctant Pilgrim and Lacey set off on what turns out to be a dangerous road trip on a bike through a desolate and treacherous landscape. They are to experience such adventures and horrors. The age old battle of good vs evil is taking place. There is an atmosphere of menace and violence throughout. Society has splintered apart with a huge number of deaths taking place. Mental health issues are overflowing and it seems as if inhumane actions are dominating the world. The voices are a remnant of what happened and many people are struggling to handle them. The relationship between Pilgrim and Lacey develops as a great one infused with humour and wit, and they are going to need that to survive their terrifying experiences. There is a brilliant twist in the novel.

This is a well written, hard hitting story with a superb narrative. The characters are so real and larger than life, and in your face in the impression they make. I found the book very difficult to put down as the suspense and tension kept me reading till I reached the end. In terms of structure, there is no explanation of what happens that leads society to break apart and no sense of an ending. what you have is the present and what is happening in it. A brilliant book which I highly recommend. Thanks to Headline for an ARC.

[Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in a spectacular page-turning series by GX Todd that has a different take on the post-apocalyptic genre, where people hear voices and act on certain things that cause havoc, murder and other horrible things.

I think it would make an excellent (The Walking Dead-type) TV series but I don't think it's that popular, yet.

GX Todd, please keep writing after this series is over; you're very talented at creating intense and interesting storylines with unforgettable characters.

I recommend this series to people who like reading post-apocalyptic fiction packed with action.

[Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catch up review with this one that was the first book in an absolutely brilliant trilogy, I highly recommend; especially to anyone who likes to read post-apocalyptic fiction.

Set seven years after the population started to hear voices that encouraged them to either kill themselves or kill others, America is destroyed. Gangs of survivors have made the world their own, if you are not one of theirs, you are prey.  Fearful of strangers who might have the Voice and desperate for food and water, they will take what they want without compassion.   

The dynamics and interplay between the two characters are the heart and soul of the book. They're complete opposites, yet intertwined through a sense of mutual respect and a need for companionship, their journey through the story is the real strength of this book.

The author uses the narrative to explore some deep themes. Such as the consequences of violence, loneliness and psychology of survival.

I'm really looking forward to re-reading this trilogy.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sold as a thriller with an imaginative plot to rival any Stephen King or Clive Barker book, I went into this skeptical that it could fill the big boots it claimed it could. Almost immediately I found that these weren't just false claims.

Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland of our world we meet the individuals that have managed to survive through the last six years of humanity's demise. They have also survived the voices that have descended into individual's minds and plagued them until suicide, murder or madness. One such survivor is sheltered teen, Lacey, and another is the hardened traveler, Pilgrim. An unlikely duo that circumstances see navigating this new world together.

Living up to this innovative synopsis was the captivating writing. I was literally hooked on every word and this book threw me from feeling choked with emotion to heaving with disgust and reeling in horror from page to page.

Due to this, I struggled to categorize this book after reading it. It is far more than the straight up thriller I was expecting. The unexplained voices add either a science fiction or fantastical element and the aftermath of humanity's descent leads this into the boundaries of horror. The only genre it lacked was romance, which was refreshing after reading a slew of books that sold themselves as firmly one thing but were really romance masked in a thin veil of fantasy or sci-fi! This, however, delivered exactly as promised, and then some!

As the first in a four-part series, this has brilliantly set up the coming volumes. This has provided enough to intrigue and captivate and yet not given enough, so that my ocean of unexplained questions will see my biding my time until I can re-enter this world. With over a year until the next installment, I have a long wait ahead of me.

I received this in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Thank you to the author, G.X. Todd, and the publisher, Headline, for this opportunity.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure where I got it from but I had in my mind that this was a YA novel. VERY quickly disabused by the novel's dark and violent themes. Which are what make this book a winner. Apocalyptic fiction deserves to have an adult rating, it's the best way to get inside the human mind when all the rules are gone. In this story, the 'mind' of the characters is even more in play- what happens when a different voice turns up in there? Do you listen?

It's excellently written, the silence and emptiness of this new world overturned with moments of fear and brutal violence. If you don't like things bloody, this may not be for you. In fact, I have still not forgiven the author for the thing with the cat (yeah, I bet you thought I was going to say the other thing, right fellow readers???) I was so disturbed that I put the book down, tweeted the author, and couldn't pick it back up for 24 hours. Like the Voices, the book steals into your mind and doesn't let go.


Many thanks to G. X. Todd, Headline, and Netgalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

*2021 reread - yep still superb. Moving onto a reread of Hunted now. This story is complex and intricate so rereading the first 3 before reading the finale seems wise. And it turns out hugely enjoyable. I got so much more from this by knowing what's coming*

2017 is shaping up nicely for reading fanatics and if you are a post apocalyptic Stephen King loving reader with a rebellious streak and a penchant for a DARN good story then Defender is the book for you. Even if you are just the last of those things this will hit the spot.

I blew through this one and by about 30 pages in I was loving it with the fervour of a true fanatic, my conversion to the world of Pilgrim and the girl he meets by the side of the road (aka Lacey) was complete. I didn’t then put it down until I was done. And done for. Seriously. Book trauma alert.

Anyway what Ms Todd has done in Defender is pay homage to old school King and given it her own twist, with a touch of almost drug like addictive prose, a set of characters to die for and a sprawling, clever often heartstopping tale where humanity for the most part has turned on itself and all that are left are the fated few all struggling to make sense of it all. And to quite simply survive. Underneath it all though something is brewing…

Enter Pilgrim – he has a voice in his head. “Voice” is dry, often funny, always present. Lacey wants desperately to find her sister and her niece, determined that against all odds they will have survived. So off the pair of them set (Pilgrim somewhat reluctantly) on a bit of a post apocalyptic road trip. And thats all I’ll say.

The world building is brilliant because you see all of it, sense it as you read and there is a terrific haunting feel to the entire novel, that little sense of something building, something you can’t quite see but somehow dread anyway. This author isnt pulling punches, some of this is hard hitting, the vagaries of human nature at its very worst but also at its very best, in a highly imaginative setting that allows for the exploration of it.

There were some points in Defender where I was quite literally on the edge of whatever seat I was sitting on. I’m not even exaggerating.

I was not at all sure what to expect going in – Defender surprised me with its sheer presence, stamping its authority all over my reading brain and this is yet another novel I came out of slightly dazed and with a strong emotional charge that did not dissipate for a while. I LOVE those books! Right?

Defender is insane, intelligent, beautifully plotted, intensely absorbing and will enfold you in a vice like grip from the first page until that very last sentence. Banging!

Highly Recommended

[Figgy · Rating 2 out of 5]

LINKS UPDATED

Actual rating 2.5

The premise of Defender is a fascinating one, there’s no denying that.

It sounds like it might have some of the same elements as Bird Box, with, of course, a decent helping of The Stand, and supposedly a little Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman. The blurb talks a mean game.

And sadly the book doesn’t live up to it.

What the blurb doesn’t tell you is that the story takes place seven years after the voices started making people kill themselves en masse, so the world we enter is more akin to reading part two of The Passage, without first having read part one, picking up when the country is largely deserted, rather than while there are still enough people for there to really be any kind of battle between those who can hear voices and those who cannot. The bicameral concept is there as background more than anything, rather than something central to the plot. It features, and adds value to some characters, it’s the catalyst for the world of Defender being the way it is, but essentially this is a book about a world gone mad, and the reader has missed all the fun stuff.

The rest of this review can be found HERE!

[Gillian McAllister · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do I start to review Defender?

I've read quite a lot of dystopia, but none quite as smart and as erudite as this: the apocalypse has come not from external forces (disease, climate change, etc) but internal. Have you ever heard such a fantastic hook? The human race, mostly decimated because people have started to hear voices (of varying degrees - from benign to sinister) in their minds.

This is a pacey, enthralling and assured read; I felt in safe hands for the entire novel, never once noticing the writer stepping in, or indeed coming up for air (I read it in a mere handful of sittings, and it's quite a long novel!), as though I was reading a ninth or tenth novel from a veteran, not a debut. The plot races along - really it's a sort of exciting road trip fiction, set in an infinitely interesting America - with twists that will excite and break hearts, but what strikes me most about Todd is the prose: it's to die for. Some examples are below:

'The reflections from the lemon slice dapples a dancing yellow over her fingers, her skin seeming to absorb the colour until her fingertips glowed with it.'

'A small smile visited the corners of the boy's mouth, then solemnness stole over his face again.'

'Hari had said he got lonely sometimes, and Pilgrim had replied that loneliness could also be peaceful. Now, looking over at the girl and appreciating how the sun bathed her in its golden light, how it bleached the fine hairs on her arms, how the lowered sun visor stamped a strip of shade across her face from mid-nose up, he thought that maybe peace could be found not only in solitude but also in company.'

Five of the biggest, fattest stars from me. A story to remember, to eagerly await the second instalment of, and a story to break your heart.

[G.X. Todd]

If anyone has two minutes to spare, could you paste your Goodreads reviews of DEFENDER, HUNTED, SURVIVORS and GHOSTS over to Amazon UK, please? Not only will it make me eternally grateful, but it will also help Amazon algorithms place the books in more visible places so that new readers can find them!

Big thanks to those who've already done this 👍

http://bit.ly/DefenderVoices1

http://bit.ly/HuntedVoices2

http://bit.ly/SurvivorsVoices3


EDIT (2022): Just a note but I've had a fair few guys point out that the mention of a Triumph TR7 in DEFENDER is incorrect as it's a car. It was also a motorbike in the Tiger family in the '70s. (See here for more details: https://www.webbikeworld.com/?s=Trium....) I'm a motorbike owner (one of which is a Triumph) and I enjoy doing research on them, especially the classics 🙂

[The Tattooed Book Geek (Drew). · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

As always this review can also be found on my blog The Tattooed Book Geek: https://thetattooedbookgeek.wordpress...

I received a free copy of the book courtesy of the publisher through bookbridgr in exchange for an honest review.

Defender tells the story of Lacey, a young girl and Pilgrim, a drifter and is set in the aftermath of the world going to hell in the wake of people starting to hear voices several years before. It’s a post-apocalyptic book that’s a part Road movie and adds a hint of the supernatural with the ‘voices‘ aspect.

Travelling along a road, Pilgrim sees a lone young girl outside a house, sitting at a lemonade stand, enter Lacey. Finding the sight of a lone girl to be weird, Pilgrim stops and pulls up. Lacey offers him a glass of cold lemonade, Pilgrim accepts and then payment is due. Lacey wants a ride to Vicksburg to check on her sister, her sister’s husband and their child, her niece who she hasn’t seen since the voices started appearing. Grudgingly, Pilgrim agrees and so their journey starts.

The ‘voices‘ heard by people are a core component of Defender, after all, it is the first book in the ‘The Voices‘ trilogy! 😉 I found them to be a really interesting aspect adding a touch of uniqueness to the genre. Not everyone hears the voices but those that do are told by them to do evil things, to commit crime, murder, suicide and if your voice doesn’t tell you to kill yourself, well, you end up descending into madness. But are the voices all bad? Should they all be feared? We are tantalised with some snippets and understanding about them but Todd still leaves plenty left unanswered and there is far more to be discovered about their origins.

At the heart of Defender are its characters Lacey, Pilgrim, Voice and Alex and the dynamics and relationships between them. It’s a very character driven read and luckily they are all stellar characters (Voice is particularly awesome with his occasional sardonic musings) that you can get behind and root for. Particularly, Lacey, she’s tough, full of gumption and has hints of Maddy Ross from True Grit and Elka from The Wolf Road (a great book that I also highly recommend). Along their journey to Vicksburg, there are also villains to hate, Doc and Charles Dumont are both sinister and evil with menacing personalities.

The landscape in Defender is desolate and bleak with the survivors trying to get by and endure with dwindling amenities and scarce resources available. It’s the standard post-apocalyptic landscape but it’s well realised and Todd brings the barren yet wild land to life.

I like to feel immersed in the story being told in a book and Todd manages that with Defender, drawing you into the story she is telling. I really liked Todd’s writing, with her words she easily manages to convey emotion, brutality and humour and I found that, for me, she had the perfect balance between pacing, storytelling and characterisation to keep everything moving forward in the book.

Defender is the first part in The Voices trilogy and as such, the ending isn’t entirely self-contained and closed. Todd, however, does a splendid job of finishing the book in what feels like the perfect way that is organic to the story told in Defender whilst simultaneously setting things up for what’s to come in the next book.

At around 450 pages in length, Defender is half the size of The Stand, Swan Song and The Passage a trio of the best (in my opinion) post-apocalyptic tomes around. And, as such, it removes the padding, occasional bloat and more sedate pacing of those three aforementioned classic books and is a more streamlined and fast paced read.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent reading Defender and I’m looking forward to continuing the trilogy with Hunted releasing next year. For fans of the post-apocalyptic genre, I definitely urge you to give Todd and Defender a read. I feel that it should be firmly placed in the upper echelons of the genre and you won’t be disappointed.👌

And now, the highly quotable bit:

Defender is a fantastic debut, an accomplished book and an outstanding addition to the post-apocalyptic genre. Simply put, it deserves to take its place next to the genre greats and is a modern classic.

[Joni Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished reading Defender, by G X Todd, given the opportunity by NetGalley.

A few words about the plot:
the novel takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, in which self-aware voices have manifested inside most of the population's heads, causing the vast majority of humans to go insane and to commit suicide. This world is one of anarchy and chaos: no government, no electricity, no facilities and no gas, just relics of old cities in ruins and the occasional vehicle or food scavenged. Literally the end of human civilization as we know it.
In this world, a stranger called Pilgrim agrees to give a young girl a ride, Lacey, set out to try and find her sister and her daughter, in Vicksburg.
They will be passing through the remnant of the world as we know it, in which the game is ‘survival of the fittest’. They face a gang led by vicious man, in the shadow of an urban myth of a flitting man who's rounding up the remaining people "who hear". Oh, and the mysterious biker Pilgrim hears one of these voices, who he refers to as "Voice" himself.

I enjoyed "Defender". For starts it’s not another "zombie book" but portrays a truly different take on the apocalypse. Second, behind the gory scenes, the characters are believable and their interrelations are sincere and interesting. I especially liked the relationship between Pilgrim and witty 'Voice'
The book painted a universe that would raise many more questions, which were not answered throughout the story line, heck - half way through you realize that these questions will never be answered in the limits of this novel's length, and for me that somewhat diminished the experience. The story is good, but the loose ends are being tied up in a hurry, and the plot line is left with an elaborated groundwork for a second book and possible a saga. That's not necessarily a bad thing - but I craved more from the current novel. Practice what you preach and worry about the future later ;-)

A rightful 4 stars though, with a nice and accurate writing, not too heavy on the gory descriptions, and an overall good scene-setting. Very good job for a debut novel.

[Stephen Clynes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pilgrim meets Lacey in this post apocalyptic thriller where some people can hear a voice in their head.

This novel is a little odd as we all kind of talk to ourselves in our heads. So here we have two central characters, Pilgrim and Lacey plus a “contributor” called Voice. So the format of this novel can be rather frustrating.

I found Defender to be a SLOW novel with nothing much happening. It took ages to discover what had happened 7 years ago. Then Pilgrim and Lacey go on a journey with little planning and everything they encounter appears to be unknown. It was a case of the blind, leading the blind. This goes against the reader learning about a story as it unfolds.

As a reader I felt all at sea and lost, in a bad way, as this story bumbled along. I could not fathom what was going on and did not engage with Pilgrim or Lacey. I found the plot very lacking indeed. I thought the whole book was a dull and depressing read.

This novel was not an entertaining read for me. Nothing really sparked my interest. G X Todd went to great depths in describing the scenes but I found the detailed scene setting rather tiresome. The dialogue between characters was basic and the story lacked humour.

Defender was a big disappointment for me and when I got to the poor ending, I thought why did I bother? It is nice to be rewarded by reading a novel but Defender simply bored me. I did not enjoy reading this book, I think it is a POOR read and only gets 2 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Headline for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

[Tanninsandtales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Defender is a post-apocalyptic novel with an unique premise and likeable characters, making the first half of the book thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately, the latter half ended up being a bit repetitive (road trip through a devastated America, in which the MCs encounter several bloody and unpleasant obstacles). As the first installment of a 4 book series there is not much in the way of resolution of the mysteries presented. I was happy to find an excerpt of Hunted in the end of the ARC - that got me excited to continue with the series.


(Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy!)

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully dark and menacing.

[Christoffer Ladstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do love most postapocalypse stories, and This one was just brilliant. Hard to not like personalities like Pilgrim, Lacey or Voice. Fastpaced and lighter/shorter than its "cousin" The Stand, but all books don't have to be "bricks😅. Besides, there is 2 more books in this series, which I now have to order. You know That feeling, right😂?

[Rob Twinem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors comments at the end of Defender add some interesting footnotes to what was a very enjoyable post-apocalyptic story. She explains that "bicameral" man is essentially a human who has two chambers. To you and me that simply means an inner voice within your head and in the context of this novel it is this inner voice that has caused the societal disruption by imploring you to kill. Although to add to the intrigue an "inner voice" can also work for the good as Pilgrim aka scout boy, Lacey, and Alex discover as the story progresses. This inner voice is not as strange a concept as might first appear and most of us would surely admit to having conversations with our conscience. (or maybe it's just me going mad!) "The voices are whispers, murmurings, whatever you want to call them. They were inside us. They're what talked so many people into hurting themselves and others."
 
The best post-apocalyptic  stories (The Road by Cormac McCarthy being a great example) follow certain set patterns. As society has been destroyed then the human race, or what remains, take on the mantle of nomadic travellers and restlessly move from place to place in the hope of finding sustenance and companionship. Within this world devoid of all leadership and direction the evil that man is capable of is soon unveiled...."Fairness and justice had lost their place in the world. If they'd ever had a place in it to begin with."..... Pilgrim has agreed to transport his new companion Lacey to her family home in Vicksburg in search of her niece Addison. They are soon to be joined in their quest by a young lady called Alex. "Defender" is the story of this journey the hardships of the trip and their encounter with Charles Dumont the personification of everything evil. This is a novel that is filled with wonderful colourful characters that come alive under the penmanship of the author GX Todd. The pace is relentless with some excellent descriptive prose.."This time it held no beauty, there was not buttery sun to soften its rough, crumbling edges, no warm, orange brush-strokes to paint it in a kinder light...."He had seen his fair share of half-eaten corpses and was familiar with most of the organs of the human body, in all their states of putridity." A great debut novel and I look forward to reading "Hunted" the second in the series due for release in early 2018.

[Kirsty ❤️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been an interesting book to read. It's taken from netgalley as a free ARC. On there, Amazon and Goodreads they all compare it to Stephen King's The Stand. A dangerous comparison being one of my all time favourite books. That's a big hype to live up to. And for me it didn't.

The premise is similar: dystopian society after the worlds population went mad and killed each other thanks to the voices in their head (closer to Cell I would say than The Stand) leaving just a select few wondering their purpose in this new world. We have the mysterious wandering bad guy (albeit unseen in book 1) and the hero that is here only to serve a purpose (no spoilers!). Oh and while we're at it how about a guy with learning difficulties that's key to the plot as well except Posey is a bad guy (or is he - I think further books will muddy the waters on that one) to Tom Cullen's good guy.

It's a bit of a road trip book set over just a few weeks and can be summed up as Pilgrim meets a young girl and agrees to give her a lift to Vicksburg; they meet Alex who has been tied up and tortured; rescue Alex and go to the library. They lose Alex and Pilgrim is shot in the head. Then they go rescue Alex who is being tied up and tortured again and that's about it. There is a bit more to it obviously but to me things happened but yet not an awful lot happened. I kept waiting for more and didn't get it. I wonder if Book 2 will have a bit more to it. Or even if book 1 & 2 could have been combined to make it a bit more zingy.

My other issue was with Lacey, the girl in the story. She was 7 at the time the Voices came and has been closeted away from the troubles by her grandma for the last 9 years. Now gran is dead and Lacey has to fend for herself. It isn't until about half way in the book that the author stops writing her as a 7 year old girl. I get that she is naive but she's meant to be 16. I found it very difficult to imagine her as anything other than a small child. It got better half way through and I could eventually see a 16 year old with a rifle but it took a while.

Taking away the comparisons to The Stand it's an ok dystopian novel. I've read better but I've also read far worse. As a comparison to The Stand it falls short in a big way.

I did like the premise of voices in our heads eventually controlling our actions and whether it automatically makes for evil. I'd like to meet Flitting Man and see who and what he is and what he is up to. I hate not finishing a series so will no doubt look for Book 2 when it's available.

Thumbs firmly in the middle with this.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

People have always heard voices in their heads, but these voices in this dystopian future are deadly. They have forced people to kill themselves and the few people left that have either not heard the voices or have resisted them are all that are left in this hollowed-out society. Pilgrim is one of the few who has a voice within and has resisted the taunting and almost has a working relationship with it.

Lacey is a girl who misses her sister, and since her gran died, she has been very much alone. Somehow she has survived the anarchy that is all that is left of her society, She sets up a stall selling lemonade and the first person to stop for a drink is Pilgrim; he has been told to by his voice. Her price for the drink is not money, but rather a lift to the city where her sister lives.

He reluctantly agrees, and after she has shut the house up, they set off. A brief stop in a motel demonstrates the danger that they are into Lacey, but they do manage to acquire another companion, Alex. As they approach the city where Karey lives, they start to come across members of a lawless gang who are on the search for a person who managed to escape from them. She was another with a voice in her head and they are always on the lookout for other people with voices within. Pilgrim hasn’t mentioned anything to Lacey about his, so she doesn’t realise just how much danger they are in. The encounter with the gang splits the three up and they know that they have to get back together to survive this cruel world.

This is a very fast-paced dystopian science fiction book that grabs you and runs relentlessly towards the ending. It is a brutal future too, the violence in this world Todd has created does not stop and yet within it all, is this paternal relationship that is developing between Pilgrim and Lacey as they look out for each other. I had the odd thing that I wasn’t sure about, I still don’t understand what the Voices are and I don’t think we are supposed to know until much later on. It reminded me a little of Host by Stephanie Meyer, combined with large dollops of American Gods and Mad Max. Whilst the plot is self-contained in this book, there is enough, that is left open for the next in the series, Hunted.

[Sublimacia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Toto bola kktina jak rampa. Sprostejšie jak Kotlebovolič. Moja gumená kačička je nápaditejšia než táto kniha.
Väčšinou sa vyhýbam ženským autorkám v rámci žánru, ale bolo mi blbé ísť z knihkupectva s prázdnymi rukami. Opäť sa mi, ale potvrdilo, že to proste nemám robiť. Celé stredozemné more, na ktoré som cez dovolenku kukal je len rybníček, jazierko, mláčka oproti moru zbytočných opisov, ktoré autorka naplácala do tejto knihy. To je tak keď nemáte silný dej. Dal by som nejaký ako ukážku, ale je toho 400 strán na výber. Opisy každého posraného stebla trávy, každej somarinky čo postava niekde videla. Ona opisuje ešte aj myšlienky a tých je tam tiež požehnane. Krpatá myslí neustále na niekoho/niečo. Má 16 rokov, mentálne 6, skúseností a prežitého jak 60 ročná.
Postavy sú blbé. Zbytočné a netuším čo ich vedie k ich činom. Nemajú charakter, nemajú hĺbku, nemajú motiváciu, nemajú osobnosť. Majú len veľmi zlé dialógy (rozhovory ako zo stretávky špecialnej autistickej triedy) a zrejme sebevražedné sklony (žena, ktorú dva dni znásilňovali a rezali si to ide s úsmevom zopáknuť).
Autorka tam dala pár nezmyselných morbídností, aby to nebolo úplne YA, ale iba to posrala na ďalších úrovniach lebo toto by neprešlo ani u Dobšinského.
Sci-fi prvok hlasov sa vyskytuje tak sporadicky, že by som to možno ako scifi prvok nerátal. A prostredie má byť postapo, ale nejak nerobí atmosféru, ktorú by som od toho čakal.
Všetko sa deje náhodou, náhodné stretnutie dvoch špeciálnych protagonistov, by sa ešte dalo čakať, ale kua USA sú veľká krajina, a aby sa dialo všetko v priebehu tých pár dní na jednom mieste je proste BLBOOOOSŤ.
Jediná dobrá vec na tej knihe bude keď sa mi ju podarí predať aspoň za 5 eur :-/
Nečítajte to! Nikto! Na svete je príliš veľa dobrých kníh ... aj priemerných kníh, než aby ste strácali čas s týmto.

[Michelle Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of this quite a while ago, but I've struggled with how to review it. Not because it's not good.. I actually bought myself a signed special edition hardback because I liked it so much.. but because it's a difficult one to put into words.

The author puts you straight into the middle of her world.. a world where the majority have died, due to the voices in their head.. voices which have caused suicide or murder. This is information is fed to the reader gradually, so we're not entirely sure at the outset what has happened, and yet the world still feels realistic and believable.

The main character is Pilgrim, a complex loner who hears a voice in his head, but isn't controlled by it. It's a great pairing, Pilgrim works his way into your head (sorry!), and his voice adds a dry wit which kept me smiling, despite the darker parts of the book.

There is certainly is plenty of darkness - imagine a world where most are dead, and there are no longer any rules.. there's a lot of violence and cruelty. Despite this though, the brightness shines through, especially in Lacey, a teenage girl who has been sheltered on her grandmother's farm.. and also through Alex, a woman who has been through, and goes through, so much.. and yet keeps an amazing strength.

This is the first book in the 'Voices' series, in which I assume we will find out more about past events, and the world we now find ourselves in. I was pulled in by the author's writing, and her characters, and I can't wait to find out what's next!

[Janel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What if the voice in your head didn’t belong to you?
‘On the cusp of sleep, have we not all heard a voice call out our name?’”

Defender is an action-packed, adventure novel; Pilgrim and Lacey travel through the wastelands, everyone they meet is a potential threat – who hears a voice that isn’t their own and who can be trusted?

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and was caught up in the adventure of it all. This novel had shades of Bird Box, in the sense that the majority of civilisation had been wiped out due to hearing voices that made them kill others and themselves. But Defender is not a horror novel, it’s very much a post-apocalyptic thriller with some fantastic action scenes.

The main protagonists are extremely likeable and you root for them from the very beginning. Lacey is a wonderful character, still a teenager but her bravery and strength is second to none. All she wants is a ride to another town to find her sister; she hasn’t left her house in years and is about to get the shock of her life when she sees how the world is now. Pilgrim is very much the protector of the group, although he doesn’t share much about himself, you can see his kind and caring nature under his ‘loner’ persona and you warm to him very quickly. He and Lacey had a very endearing relationship, a chance meeting in a dangerous world where a glass of lemonade is shared, quickly becomes a heart-warming friendship, where one never leaves the other behind. Voice, as in a voice that lives inside your head, is very much its own character – even declaring that its happy to be called Voice – a great character who injected some much appreciated dark humour into this novel.

“His eyes were unflinching. The guy would make a good poker player.
Or serial killer, Voice said faintly”

Along the way, Alex, joins the trio on their journey and very quickly becomes a staple part of the group. For some reason, I never really took to her character the way I suspect I was meant to. I just didn’t trust her; it turned out to be a good thing because it added an extra level of tension to the read because I was always second-guessing her, wondering if she would betray the group.

I really liked the descriptive detail in this novel, Todd created a wasteland you can visualise, with some great enemies for the quartet to encounter. There were a few shocking moments along the way that left me never knowing where this plot was going, thus making it a wild ride indeed.

Defender is the first novel in a four-part series, so while the book clearly ends, the story is not over but Todd chose a good point to end the novel, wrapping up one adventure and starting another – enough to leave me eagerly awaiting book 2: Hunted. As this is the first book in a series, there are more questions than answers, which I’m sure will be addressed in future books. However, I would have liked a little bit more information about the enemy the quartet are facing, I wasn’t entirely sure of the enemy’s end goal. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this novel and will for sure be reading book two!

*My thanks to the publisher (Headline) for providing me with a copy of this book via Book Bridgr*

[Lynn Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://lynns-books.com/2017/01/12/de...
I thought that Defender was an engrossing read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Set in a post apocalyptic world the story here was sufficiently different and well written to keep me totally absorbed.

You may notice from the book synopsis that this is a book of voices – voices inside peoples’ heads that incite them to ‘do’ things. As the story unfolds we learn that a number of years ago these voices caused some sort of mass induced suicide, people taking their own lives and more often than not those of their family too. Of course there was a massive reduction in population and as a result the world in which we currently live was changed beyond recognition and services and amenities that we take for granted on a daily basis came to a complete stop. The world now is focused into small pockets. Many people choose a lonely and remote life rather than braving the cities where larger and quite often more morally questionable groups choose to exist. Cities can be scary places full of scavengers.

As the story begins we meet Pilgrim, alone on his motorbike on a dusty highway, miles from anywhere, when he spots a sign advertising ‘fresh lemonade’ and, literally, the voice inside his head persuades him it would be a good idea to pull over. This opening is just so surreal that I was completely hooked from the get go! I was totally picturing this remote highway with a lonely farmhouse gradually developing from a dot on the horizon to, for me, the farm from the Wizard of Oz (all in glorious sepia) – I know that’s just plain strange but I thought if we could have fresh lemonade during the apocalypse why not a Kansas farm with a bubbly young girl looking for the Emerald City. Okay, so this wasn’t Dorothy! Instead we meet Lacey. Lacey was in fact living with her gran. We discover fairly quickly that she’s now alone and her plan is to leave her home and try and find her sister and her niece who she hasn’t seen since the original voices/deaths began around 8 years ago. Against his better judgement Pilgrim (or Boy Scout as Lacey baptises him) agrees to give Lacey a ride into the nearest town at which point they will part company. ‘Something, something, something’, about the best laid plans!

Now I’m not going to go too much into detail about the plot. Put basically this is a story about Lacey wanting to find her family. A quest that will put her in the way of a few of the more nasty characters out there and perhaps unsurprisingly a number of these have grown into rather wild gangs. At the same time it appears that somebody out there is trying to round up all those people that hear ‘voices’ – for what purpose, we don’t quite know. Only that this person is talked about in hushed whispers around camp fires late at night. Is this ‘pied piper’ real or urban myth? What I will say is that as soon as Lacey hitched herself a ride off her remote little farm, well, I had a bad feeling.

What did I really like about this? A number of things. I’ll start out by saying that in terms of apocalyptic books Todd isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel here. If you’ve read stories like this in the past you’ll be familiar with the broken and ghostlike setting, the survivors who constantly forage, beg, steal or worse in order to eat or survive, the fact that people have pretty quickly lost that thin veneer of civility that holds their more basic instincts in check and the grim reality of a world that has been reinvented from a very harsh mould. However, firstly, there are no zombies – I’m just saying that upfront. Secondly, although the story has a number of grim and more violent aspects to it the fact that Lacey is so incredibly naïve gives it something of a different edge. I don’t know how but Lacey’s grandmother seems to have been able to protect Lacey and keep her innocent from the outside world. It’s almost like they lived in a bubble and whilst they were aware of certain realities they managed to take a step away and carry on their own existence without too much horror touching on their little world. What this actually does is make Lacey into a character that is definitely quite unusual in this type of story. She still has a sense of humour for a start, she hasn’t witnessed any real atrocities as the book begins and she’s managed to keep relatively well fed, even though supplies were finally becoming dangerously low. Quite honestly, you can’t help but want to protect her and this is clearly how Pilgrim starts to feel too but, and I’m not saying that she minds a bit of help, but she’s also quite resourceful herself. Pilgrim. He’s a character that has looked after himself and survived alone. His instincts are sharp and he’s quite useful in a fight or tricky situation. More than this though he has his very own ‘voice’ talking inside his head making suggestions and seemingly trying to help. The banter between Pilgrim and ‘Voice’ is really quite entertaining to read. Aside from that there is the doubt that you can’t help wondering about how come Pilgrim hasn’t been ‘talked’ to death. Is this a ploy? Will there be a twist along the way? But, again, in spite of concerns about why Pilgrim seems to be getting along with his ‘voice’ you can’t help liking him. He’s one of those characters that has had to deal in bad but underneath he is still good – which is probably why he keeps himself at a distance.

Obviously we meet other characters along the way – some of them the epitome of evil, some of them just attracted to the evil in order to serve their own base needs. Others who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

On top of this there is the underlying mystery of what is actually happening. Not everything is given an explanation here and a number of threads are touched upon but not finalised. I’m not complaining about this as I’m hoping it’s because there’s more in the series.

In terms of criticisms. Well, this isn’t the first time that I’ve read books with a similar idea in terms of voices (or something) being inside a person’s head – but, even so, this still holds its own. And, I feel that I must mention that this is not a YA book. There are strong scenes of violence and torture and although they’re not gratuitous I just wanted to point that out.

Overall, this was a really good read and I’m not sure this review is doing it justice to be honest, partly because I don’t want to give too much away. To recap, an apocalyptic book with a difference, mysterious voices and plenty of signs that are leading to something a lot bigger. Characters that intrigue – one in particular that I have strong ponderings over and that I’ve been thinking about since I finished reading. I look forward to Voices #2.

I received a copy through Netgalley courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

[Mieneke · Rating 5 out of 5]

G X Todd’s debut novel Defender, the first in a four-part series called The Voices, was an unexpected surprised when it arrived in the mail. The accompanying information was intriguing, but didn’t reveal much, so going in to the book I didn’t really know what to expect. I certainly hadn’t expected to find a gripping, post-apocalyptic adventure that wasn’t just engrossing in its own right, but also made me think a lot about how we regard mental illness, specifically conditions that include auditory hallucinations, such as schizophrenia.

Hearing voices is at the core of the novel’s apocalypse. At some point in the near-future, humanity starts hearing voices, voices that tell them to kill–others and themselves. As a result most of the population of the United States died — unfortunately, no mention is made of the rest of the globe, but you have to assume the same happened there — and the remnants that are left are isolated, scared, and in some cases retreating into violence. While I’d shelve this book as a post-apocalyptic story, it is in these violent encounters and communes that the book shows why I’ve also seen it classified as dystopian as the organisation of the large band of survivors our hero’s encounter is very much in that vein.

The central mystery of the book is the nature of the voices. What or who are they? In this first book we learn something of their nature and abilities, but not their origin or their intentions. We do however learn that not all of them are intent on humanity’s destruction. Most of this we discover through Voice, who lives in Pilgrim’s head and maintains a lively commentary on Pilgrim’s actions, both scolding and guiding him, more like a friend than an adversary. I loved Voice, especially as he becomes more prominent in the second half of the book. He is the one providing most of the explanations on the voices and he does so in a wonderfully dry tone. I also loved that Voice isn’t all-knowing and unflappable—indeed there are some situations where he is genuinely taken aback by the reactions and questions he gets from his carrier.

The fact that hearing voices (and interacting with them out loud) has become not just a reason to be looked askance at, or even with fear, but is an active reason for others to harm and kill those with a voice made me think a lot about real world mental illnesses and the way we treat those who have them. While in the book people become literally isolated from one another, trying to avoid interactions as much as possible, in our reality we isolate people with mental illness figuratively; even if they live in our midst, we often avoid and ignore them. The constant paranoia with which strangers in the narrative regard each other until they know whether they Hear and the constant self-doubt the characters suffer wondering whether their inner monologue is actually a dialogue, created a lot of strain on the characters in the book, which upped the tension another notch.

While I adored Pilgrim’s gruff, reserved attitude and his grudging affection for Lacey, it is the latter who shines the brightest in this book and whose desire to find her sister and niece becomes the central quest in the book. Lacey is a curious mixture of innocence and wariness, with a youthful resilience and courage that is hard to resist. It is through her eyes that we are confronted with the most horrendous acts of violence in the book, yet it is an unflinching look at violence and trauma, to which Lacey reacts with surprising compassion. Throughout the novel Lacey from numerous relationships and I loved that none of these was actually romantic. In fact, the most important bonds she forms are those of friendship, or perhaps even of found family, with Pilgrim becoming a big brother/father figure and Alex most definitely being like a big sister.

Defender isn’t an easy book to read. There is a lot of violence and death in the book, including sexual violence on and off the page, so it is good to be aware of that if that is something that might trigger you. Todd also almost gave me heart attacks at numerous points because I feared for the safety of the characters. She really didn’t pull any punches. I like Todd’s writing style, which was gripping, smooth, and well-paced. I’m glad Defender is the first of four books as I’m happy to know we’ll be able to return to Lacey and her posse and spend more time with them. G X Todd’s debut is impressive and promises a lot for the future.

This book was provided for review by the publisher.

[Booniss · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lacey has a lemonade stand at the end of the world. She’s waiting for a ride, and finds one in the shape of the monosyllabic Pilgrim, a man who makes up for his lack of chit chat with the passenger in his head which he calls Voice. Together they go on a quest for Lacey’s sister and her family.

I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, and the comparison to my all-time favourite The Stand had me really excited about Defender – albeit warily, since I couldn't see how anything could live up to that hype. Sadly, even taking the marketing into account, I was left disappointed.

I did like Lacey’s relationship with Pilgrim, which I thought was developed well, and I was intrigued by the stories of the Flitting Man which is very clearly setting up a Good vs Evil smackdown…but honestly, not enough that I’d want to read any more.

Defender takes place several years after the apocalypse (brought about by people hearing voices) and frankly, I want to read THAT story. The bit where society crumbles is always the best part of any apocalyptic fiction, and here, not only do we miss out on it, we learn very little about what happened since Lacey led a sheltered life in her grandma’s farmhouse and basically missed the whole thing, and Pilgrim doesn’t even remember who he is.

I loved the voices concept, but aside from Pilgrim’s Voice, it plays a very small part in this story – in fairness, this is no doubt because this is the first of 4 books, but 450 pages of an America deserted apart from a gang and a couple of crazy loners didn't really bring anything new to the post-apocalyptic table.

For something which sets itself up as a vast, sprawling epic, there are very few characters and I felt only Lacey, Pilgrim, and arguably Voice are given any real depth. It does feel unfair to compare Defender to The Stand (although the publisher started it!), but what makes The Stand work so well is the huge cast of well rounded characters in various places, all with different attitudes and beliefs. In Defender, the few other characters they meet on their journey all fit into either Neutral Good (by virtue of not actively trying to kill them) or Bad (rapists – SO MANY RAPISTS – murderers, cannibals), and we’re left to assume this is because how hard life has been over the last 5-6 years without any other detail.

My biggest issue however was the character of Alex, who spends the entire book being rescued after gang rape and torture, captured, and then rescued after being raped and tortured all over again by a whole new set of people. This doesn't appear to affect her in any noticeable way. I assume she will have a much bigger role in later books, but the lack of any agency or apparent point for this character’s existence other than to give Lacey and Pilgrim a reason to put themselves in danger drove me bonkers.

Women generally do get the fuzzy end of the lollipop here and are mostly seen as property – raped, threatened with rape, tortured, etc. I'm sure there would be a lot of this in a post apocalypse scenario, but there would certainly be plenty of other scenarios too (The Stand demonstrates this admirably and I think realistically) and in any case I would think a world in which some people are guided by voices and others aren't would surely lead to all sorts of different hierarchies springing up rather than the bog standard “men will rule through physical/sexual violence because they are generally stronger” idea which is rather tedious and unimaginative.

Overall, very disappointing for me but if you haven’t read much post apocalyptic fic then have at it. Then check out The Stand, World War Z, The Passage, Robopocalypse, The Day of the Triffids, The Handmaid's Tale, Station Eleven.

[Maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is quite rare these days for me to abandon a book but I'm afraid Defender defeated me. I am a fan of post-apocalyptic stories & Stephen King's 'The Stand' still remains in my all time top ten reads even after thirty odd years. It was the thought of capturing some of that magic that led me to choose Defender. However I just could not seem to engage with the story and eventually decided that life was too short & there are too many other books to read.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher I am sure that this will be great read for many people but it's just not for me.

[Yana · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can find a copy of this review at:
https://thequidnuncblog.wordpress.com...

I was drawn to the novel by the synopsis, it promised to be not an average read, especially having in mind the comparisons with names like King, Barker and Gaiman. I was even being ready to disregard the mediocre cover that gave me the "Meh" vibe just because I was sure Todd had something to bring to the table.

I felt that the whole concept of hearing voices in your head could be developed very interesting almost sending the novel on the verge of postapocalyptic sci-fi, but then it lacked the span and the aim of such read. Now I don't want to be harsh, but there is one thing that makes the authors mentioned above stand out and that is their unique voice, characters and above all setting... In Defender it all felt typical... if not predictable. G X Todd is a good writer, she has all the tools and wording, I like her over-all voice, but I think she got lost somewhere in the middle of the book.

There were a lot of strong points in the novel: for instance the relationship between Pilgrim and Lacey was brilliantly developed! The connection is very real like, very detailed in its presentation. I loved it, but there are other aspects of the novel that put me off.

Often I felt that I was reading a comics, rather than a novel. Not that the narration was scarce or not wordy enough, but the plot read as an almost random sequence of events that the characters undergo without anything to come out of it. I don't know how to explain it but to call it an aimless conquest?! And also, I was lead to believe that the world was almost devoid of humans... in the same time Pilgrim and Lacey met a whole lot of characters, which I found confusing and pointless, because these encounters didn't help us learn more about the characters or their mission. Todd might have just cut them all for-all-that-matters.

I know that for a first instalment in a trilogy Defender is just supposed to set the base for the whole narration but failed to grab my attention. I struggled to remember even parts of it, what is left to continue reading further in the series. Personally, what I look for in a book is urgency and that "AHA" feeling that will leave you hungry for more... Defender disappointed me in that sense. Maybe I was expecting more grandeur and more literature out of it; maybe I set my expectations too high, but end line is it wasn't vivid enough.

[Bethany Fulks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of dystopians, so this instantly ticked the box for me. It's dark, violent and intriguing. In such a saturated genre it can be hard to stand apart, but I think this book did pretty well at doing so.

[RG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick post apocalyptic thriller with mental illness as a theme at its core. Found it paid homage to Stephen King in some regards.

[Aitch Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Pilgrim has echoes of King's gunslinger, great sci-fi horror cross over. Gritty and believeable.