Defender

League of Independent Operatives #5

by Kate Sheeran Swed

Mary O'Sullivan is out of her depth, and out for blood.

With her headquarters buried in rock, her resources are scarce. But Mary needs to stop the vengeful alien demi-god, Sever, before he murders the man she loves -- and before his prison of a forcefield spreads around the globe.

But saving the world isn't a solo business, and Mary -- along with the whole league -- will need to let go of her past grudges if she wants to rescue the future.

Defender is the concluding volume in the League of Independent Operatives superhero saga.

300 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 11, 2022

About the author

Kate Sheeran Swed loves hot chocolate, plastic dinosaurs, and airplane tickets. She has trekked along the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, hiked on the Mýrdalsjökull glacier in Iceland, and climbed the ruins of Masada to watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea. She holds degrees in music from the University of Maine and Ithaca College, as well as an MFA in Fiction from Pacific University. Her stories are forthcoming or have appeared in the Young Explorer's Adventure Guide Volume 5, Daily Science Fiction, Electric Spec, and Andromeda Spaceways. You can find her on Twitter @katesheeranswed.

Reviews

[Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! We get to see our heroes doing something other than bickering. As hoped, Sever's invasion and destruction of LIO HQ spurs them into action. Admittedly, that action is initially to go and hide out with Wave. But once they regroup, we finally get our Avengers moment, as the combined force goes on the offensive.

There's some nice character beats here, especially with Mary, who has matured an awful lot in the course of these books. She finds herself consoling one of the new recruits, and eventually moves into more of a mentoring role. We get plenty of Nathan as well, but, slightly disappointingly, no Jeff Hayes, who helped out a lot in the last book. He only gets a mention in passing here. I'd started to become quite fond of his sardonic humour.

Dolly has been quite an interesting character throughout. She's a perfect example of everybody being the hero of their own story. Despite everything she's done, she thinks she's done nothing wrong and that if only she can get the Pearl Knife back, the world will worship her as a hero (and she's willing to make them, if they don't). I'm glad that Eloise got more of her dad's personality than her mum's!

I enjoyed this series quite a lot, despite some frustration with earlier books and characters making some really bad decisions. It was nice to get the big climax and have everyone play a role in that and see the lead up to that climax. I do enjoy a good superhero story, and Swed has created a very enjoyable world with the League of Independent Operatives.

[mo • lesmotsdemo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cette série est définitivement l’une de mes favorites, désormais. Et c’est un chapitre de mon année de lecture qui s’est achevé avec ce tome final. Ce cinquième tome ne m’a pas déçu; l’intrigue m’a apporté les réponses que je voulais. Le problème concernant l’aspect du tome précédent qui m’avait laissé sceptique se résout de la meilleure façon possible. Et ce tome ne manque pas d’action ni de rebondissements; il n’est pas radin en scènes de combat.

Les personnages se retrouvent en pleine difficulté, et certains se révèlent. Je me dois de parler une fois encore de Mary, une jeune femme comme aucune autre. Elle ne baisse pas les bras, et se bat constamment pour celles/ceux qu’elle aime. Dans ce tome, elle est encore plus impulsive et impatiente. Mais elle est tout simplement extraordinaire. Eloise fait aussi face à de nombreux obstacles mais fait preuve de ténacité. Et Nathan est toujours aussi naïf, mais il est d’une loyauté sans faille envers Eloise et Mary. Les autres personnages ne sont pas abandonnés, ils ont tous une importance capitale. Depuis quelques tomes, Steve se dévoile et il m’a vraiment plu dans ce tome.

La fin est plutôt intéressante. Je ne l’ai pas trouvé too much, ce qui est un très bon point. C’est plutôt un happy ending, mais il ne m’a pas semblé forcé. Cette série (et Mary) va me manquer, mais j’ai passé d’excellents moments de lecture avec ces cinq tomes d’une qualité exemplaire. Et je pense bien me pencher sur d’autres romans de l’auteure.

[Marie Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great finale to the series! Everyone is rushing to figure out how to defeat Sever knowing that the world could be destroyed at any given moment. I loved seeing it all come together and so many questions answered.

And there's more Sloane coming in a new series? Yay!

[GREGG CORDELL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read.

This whole series was great and I'm off to read more of Kate's books. The series had a great storyline and the whole series just wet together like it was one book . I love it and am already reading more of her work.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - Good ending to the story line. Good don't have to think too much lose yourself in a story book.