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Defenders

Will McIntosh (Goodreads Author)

3.61 · Rating details · 1,659 ratings · 205 reviews

A new epic of alien invasion and human resistance by Hugo Award-winning author Will McIntosh.

The invaders came to claim earth as their own, overwhelming us with superior weapons and the ability to read our minds like open books.

Our only chance for survival was to engineer a new race of perfect soldiers to combat them. Seventeen feet tall, knowing and loving nothing but wa ...more

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Paperback, 485 pages

Published May 13th 2014 by Orbit (first published January 1st 2014)

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· 1,659 ratings · 205 reviews

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Jul 01, 2014 Terence rated it did not like it

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

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My problem with this, beyond the writing that made me feel like I was being punished for something I didn't do, is even Fry from Futurama found out from a Hobo that when an alien is trying to read your mind you have to wear a tinfoil hat.
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I mean come on, even Weird Al Yankovic knows to go with the tinfoil hat.
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I want to see battles and the unstoppable alien forces instead I go ...more

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Nov 30, 2013 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs-and-galleys, review-copy, aliens, science-fiction, war

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

Last year, I read an incredibly moving book called Love Minus Eighty. As I closed the cover on the last page and settled back with a roiling mind and warmed heart, I knew right there and then that any future novels written by Will McIntosh will be going straight onto my to-read list. Someone who can write such a magnificent story (not to mention give me all these feels) certainly belongs on my list of favorite authors. And 4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.blogspot.com/201...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jul 13, 2019 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-shelf, sci-fi

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

I mean, it starts out pretty awesome as a beleaguered humanity is dying from a starfish invasion. They have excellent telepathy and they use it against us perfectly. The action and multiple viewpoints work very well. It's not an easy situation. They are herding us into the cities and several billion have died by the time we MAKE our defenders. Giant, g ...more

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Mar 01, 2017 A.G. Riddle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A fresh take on Alien invasion. I loved it.

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Jan 29, 2014 Timothy Ward rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014-may-release, 2014, science-fiction, post-apocalyptic

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

Will McIntosh’s Defenders is unlike any alien invasion book I’ve read. It starts off with introductions to characters you immediately care for, revealing the strangeness and borderline horror of the world they live in. The Luyten are an alien species that has already almost won the war, combining their ability to read human minds with heat ray guns to decimate humanity into Reviewed at Adventures in SciFi Publishing
Podcast + giveaway with Will, discussing writing, Defenders and Love Minus Eighty.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Aug 21, 2014 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: telepathic starfish, three-legged giants, Tom Cruise

Shelves: ebook, science-fiction, aliens, invasion, war, washington-dc, read-on-phone

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

In the beginning, Defenders is your basic alien invasion story. A race of telepathic giant starfish-like aliens called the Luyten l This is one of those books where even though it may not be the deepest book you've ever read and sometimes your suspension of disbelief wobbles, you just keep reading because you have to know what happens next, and the shift between multiple POVs actually works to increase the tension and invest you in the story. I believe this is what we refer to as a "page-turner."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dec 17, 2013 Patremagne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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

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

An alien race known as the Luyten have invaded Earth, wreaking havoc throughout the planet with their heat guns, melting people, cars, and buildings alike. The Luyten have a distin Wow. That was a powerful novel.
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http://abitterdraft.com/2014/04/defen...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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May 14, 2014 Banner rated it really liked it

Shelves: alien, sci-fi

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

At this stage in human technology we have come a long way in genetics. We develop a genetic species which is not really huma ...more

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Feb 11, 2016 Courtney Nicole rated it it was amazing

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

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

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Jun 01, 2014 Kelly rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, post-apocalyptic

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

Defenders is a near-future, near-apocalypse science fiction novel. The aliens have landed and they look like big, killer starfish. They call themselves Luyten. Employi ...more

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May 16, 2014 Tim rated it liked it

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

The first 1/3 of the book was phenomenal. The action was intense. The overall premise was new and exciting. Hard to predict. Definite page turner. Then twist #1 hit, and it all fell apart for me. I feel like with stronger character development and much stronger dialog, this could have been incredible. Unfortunately I found myself uncomfortable reading the cheesy, clunky, unbelievable dialog, even given the ...more

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Mar 13, 2016 Jim rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I'm completely baffled by the high ratings and reviews I've seen for this book (i09.com called it "a strong, excellent book"). While there is a kernel of a good idea, overall, this book was sloppily executed and filled with amateur, banal dialogue and a completely predictable story arc. The clumsy, erratic transitions between plot points lacked any kind of sophistication and for an author who has several books under his belt and has been getting more attention lately. I doubt I'll ever read anyt ...more

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Aug 03, 2014 Milo rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, notable-2014-releases, orbit, 2014-releases-read, 25-best-2014-releases

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

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May 08, 2014 Jacqie rated it liked it

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

The basic concept is pretty interesting. Humans are getting the crap kicked out of them by invading aliens who can read minds when they are within eight miles of a given person. This obviously plays havoc with a Still haven't read Love Minus Eighty, which got good reviews all over the place last year, by this same author. I thought the premise of Defenders sounded interesting, so started here. I was thinking about it for our science fiction book club, but in the end I think it won't make the cut.

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

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

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

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

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

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May 01, 2014 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

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

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

My personal favorites were the Luyten, a race of starfish-shaped creatures the size of elephants. McIntosh Fantastic. This book just catapulted to the top of my recommend-to-others list.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Oct 08, 2013 Jae rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-read, owned-ebook, science-fiction

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

So, obvs, an alien invasion would totally suck, and then creating a weapon to repel the alien invas ...more

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Dec 19, 2014 M Tat rated it it was ok

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

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

The imagery associated with the battles ...more

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Feb 06, 2014 Stefan rated it really liked it

Shelves: advance-reading-copy, science-fiction, far-beyond-reality-review

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

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Apr 01, 2014 Lila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: preorder, all-nighter, sci-fi, military-scifi, favorite-authors

4 stars

When you think about alien invasion plot, you don't really expect to open a book and be thrown right into action so far progressed. Usually we read how aliens came and first contact. Well, McIntosh doesn't do that with Defenders. Opening scene shows us Earth well under Lythen siege and humans losing the war against them with great casualties. Borders are forgotten as countries are joining forces and resources and when we open the book, they are already in desperate stage. Another thing th
4 stars

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

I kept thinking that Defenders was all about Quick Fix and consequences of. They were rather ad hoc solution, created for one purpose in mind. Hell, they are named Defenders- so what to do with them when they have nothing to defend? When you take their purpose out of equation? And this is the twist of this story- their transition from human salvation to enemies.
For me the most striking thing about this novel is the fact that Defenders can't be considered really evil. Humans created them not to feel, so their minds would be closed to Lythen (view spoiler). Defenders are truly scary, they don't understand compassion, they are prone to violence and mood swings, they kill often and for reasons so small it certainly not justified. Of course, they are nothing but what they are created to be- perfect killing, war machines. They are capable of thinking, make conclusion- they are logical, after all they are highly trained in military strategy and what is that if not applying logic in its finest, they are fast learners, fast planners, they are progressive and in 15y they made a society. And, yet.. I couldn't think of them as evil, because the most interesting thing about Defenders is that they are aware there is something wrong with them. They know they are lacking something on a fundamental level. They didn't plan to attack humans, they don't have imagination to do it, but they wanted to imitate and in their fashion it couldn't be experienced as anything else but threat. It's easy to root against something that is unquestionably there to do wrong, but Defenders are so...defective it's not so easy to put everything in black and white boundaries. This is what I liked the most.
Defenders reads like blockbuster movie. Every chapter is something happening, there are large action scenes and everything is straightforward. As much as this style adds to pace- you are gobbling pages- it also left me hanging for few reactive scenes I was expecting to read- like, one event left severe consequences, but author never visits them just skips right ahead to action. That resulted in some time gaps and narrators behaved in a way you couldn't really understand- you just have to accept them as such.
Story is told from several pov's. I would say 3, because fourth joins in last third of the book and imo, it didn't give that important insight into whole situation. I guess for majority of readers Oliver's or Lila's pov stuck- they are written to be important players, both brilliant scientists, quirky and in the center of the plot. But I personally liked Kai the most. He doesn't have that much page time, but every scene with him is somehow pivotal, and frankly, he can summarize everything far better and more accurate. He is such a normal guy and I think he balanced great with others.
You can see I didn't mention Lythen after their initial attack. Oh, they are here for entirety of novel and they play a big role at the end. They are really interesting because of their telepathy, since they know everything about humans before they even open their mouth. They are also manipulative, patient and intelligent. In a way, they remained a mystery to me. Oh, I know the ending, I understand- it was written to be a happy one. But, if Defenders learned me anything is the fact that status quo can't stand for long...and Lythen lie. I am still not sure if it was joined effort or if they used each other. And humans made so many mistakes. Through aliens and humanoids author told so much about human nature.
This is a great work, begging to be transferred to big screen, but my rating was greatly affected by the fact this is not my first McIntosh read. I missed emotional connection he delivered in Love Minus Eighty. Still, highly recommended. ...more

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Aug 11, 2018 Peter Tillman rated it really liked it

Shelves: own-copy, fantasy

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

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

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May 16, 2014 Stephanie G rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed-read-by-beth

4.5 Stars

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

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Sep 25, 2014 K.Z. Freeman rated it it was amazing

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

In this book, things happen. And then some other things happen which are not expe ...more

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May 01, 2014 Anissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014, library-borrowed-kindle-unlimited, science-fiction

I really enjoyed this one. This is the third book by Will McIntosh that I've read and he's quickly becoming a favorite author of mine. I'm the one who always wondered what the hell the Republic was going to do with all those clones should they win. The humans in Battlestar Galactica got far more than they bargained for when they created the Cylons. Jurassic Park was less exciting and fun for humans once the exhibits sought to dine on the visitors. The scientists in the show Manhattan are racing ...more

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May 15, 2014 Don rated it liked it

Shelves: big-idea, sci-fi

I really wanted to like this book and the premise was great. The rock-paper-scissors balance between humans, defenders, and Luyten was well conceived and really made the story work. However, I was hoping for a clever, elegant solution given the hole the humans had dug themselves into and was disappointed in the end. I also kept expecting Lila to figure out a way to work with the defenders and their built-in limitations, but that little plot breadcrumb never led anywhere either. It became just a ...more

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Sep 28, 2016 Chris rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books

Kind of silly

I expected war in this book. I got that, but not in the way I was expecting. There was a lot of downtime, and I think if it had been filled with more mindless fighting I would have enjoyed it more. Instead I had to struggle with races of people making increasingly bewildering and disastrous decisions, culminating in the most predictable ending I've read in a while. The characters were ok, but normally I don't read military sci fi for characters. The battles were abstract; there were ...more

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May 14, 2014 Tudor Ciocarlie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014-my-best-of, corina-new, hugo-2015

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

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May 28, 2014 Beth Pratt rated it it was amazing

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

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May 17, 2014 Jared rated it it was amazing

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

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Mar 25, 2014 Sarah added it

Shelves: arc-or-review-copy, dark, orbit, read-in-2014, scifi, social-issues, special-needs-in-strange-worlds

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

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Dec 23, 2013 Mitchell rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, candidate-powelsssfgroup, library, science-fiction, to-buy, published-2014, four-star, liked-reviews

Wow that was dark. And relentless. And as I expected from Will McIntosh, worth reading. This is the fourth good book in a row - though the first one I didn't five star. And I guess that's because it made Soft Apocalypse look uplifting. The aliens were creepifying, the created soldiers were were. The people who were our pov were pretty much broken, though to be fair everyone was pretty much broken. By the end of the book all you had were bad guys, less bad guys and perhaps slightly less bad guys. ...more

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Jan 04, 2014 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

Fast moving alien invasion novel with an innovative hook, situated between Social SF and Military SF. Very enjoyable. This is the kind of SF anyone can read, without fear of info dumps.

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Adventures in Sci...: AISFP Podcast 263 - Will McIntosh, DEFENDERS & LOVE MINUS EIGHTY	1	2	Jun 20, 2014 05:53AM
Adventures in Sci...: Defenders by Will McIntosh, $1.99 on Kindle	1	9	May 14, 2014 08:30AM

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About Will McIntosh

Will McIntosh

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Will McIntosh is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction author, as well as a finalist for eleven other awards. His alien invasion novel Defenders was optioned by Warner Brothers for a feature film, while Love Minus Eighty, was named the best SF novel of 2013 by the American Library Association. Coming in 2016 are his first young adult novel, Burning Midnight (Penguin Random House), about a pair of t ...more