Customer Reviews

Defiance: A New Helmsman Adventure

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many of you, i have despaired being able to continue the tales of Wilf Brim. I have read these 7 books repeatedly, and basically haunted Bill Baldwin's website to get moe news. Recently, it was announced in his website that Timberwolf Press will be releasing the next book, Turning Tide, as well as re-releasing the earlier 7 books again. I cannot wait for it to be available here.

Baldwin continues the saga of the Helmsman (now Admiral) Wilf Brim as he fights against the Evil Empire of the League and its stooges in the Torond. Baldwin has again crafted a 'space opera' that carries the reader into another place and time. Though the battle scenes and some pages of discription were lifted directly from previous Helmsman's books, the story is plausible. I especially like seeing an aging Brim coming to grips with the changes of mid-life.
A good read and good escapist literature

Bill Baldwin keeps getting better. I really enjoy this series: I've read every one of the books many times. The books keep growing on me: each time I re-read them I find more details that I missed the previous times through. The publisher is insane not to be encouraging Baldwin to write the next six books in the series. Hopefully enough fan support will cause them to rethink this foolish decision. This series is great Space Opera: far better then the vast majority of the military sci-fi that gets published.
Other readers have complained about the change in writing style: I get so engrossed in the story that I don't even notice.
The change of technologies over the course of the stories has been particularly interesting: as a military history buff and particularly a navy buff I really enjoy this aspect of the books. I like the fact that while the big ships are no longer dominant the smaller units are still much more substantial than mere fighters: there is no carrier dominance in this universe.
I like the way Baldwin set up the character for more adventures: he's dealing with the same problem David Weber is starting to have with Honor Harrington (too much rank!) in a creative way.
I'd really like to see a Role Playing Game supplement for this universe with pictures of the ships and equipment (and maps): I've thought of running my own campaign in this universe since there's such a tremendous amount of detail in these books, but more information can't hurt (hint,hint)!

Plenty of action and a couple of new characters you will really, really, REALLY hate. A lot. Wilf, like usual, does his job and does it well - but gets back-stabbed. Read it - you'll see.

This was the first book in the series I read, and hunted up the previous 6. All are well worth the read. One warning - the publisher has no plans to renew the series, even though Bill Baldwin wants to - maybe a little pressure from fans would help!

I've been a Helmsman fan for several years, and I did enjoy this story very much but only because it continued to tell about the character. I found the shift from Baldwin's regular third person to the first person bothersome, and I also found that when he was recalling the past, the writing would slip back into the third person. The story was good, but I think it could have been developed a little bit more.

Wilf is at it again ! I really didn't like the writing style of this the 7th book in the series. I also thought that some of the facts as remembered by Wilf had not been covered in the previous books. Overall it's not a bad read and I can't wait for book 8 !!

Although at times Wilf Brim became somewhat maudlin about his romantic relationships. I still enjoyed the book "The Defiance" very much. I do think Bill Baldwin has left fans of the series hanging long enough. I have read the series at least five times. I am very ready for the next chapter.

This book was well written. It used previous details and accomplishments as well as other characters previously introduced well. The plot was a continuation of an on-going conflict and seemed to transition Admiral Brim into a new phase of more responsibility and a posssible end to his overt career as a line commander. I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.

This book was well written. It used previous details and accomplishments as well as other characters previously introduced well. The plot was a continuation of an on-going conflict and seemed to transition Admiral Brim into a new phase of more responsibility and a posssible end to his overt career as a line commander. I'm looking forward to the next book in this series.

This series is one of my favorites so I was more than a little disappointed with this one...seemed almost rushed. There just wasn't as much depth to the writing. The level of detail and explaination for the characters actions was not up to standards set by previous books in this series