Silver Medal Winner, 2015 Independent Publisher Awards (Best Scifi/Fantasy/Horror Ebook)
"Defiance is an excellent book. It's classic science fiction, written with skill and panache. Good as it is, I think that Lucas Bale is only just getting into his stride, and that the best of this series is still to come."
Alex Roddie, Pinnacle Editorial
"I greatly enjoyed Lucas Bale's The Heretic when it released earlier this year, finding it to be the beginning of an ambitious science-fiction series with a heck of a lot of promise. Book Two in his Beyond The Wall series, Defiance, struck me as even better in nearly every way."
Michael Patrick Hicks, author of the DRMR Series
The darkness in the human heart is infinite.
Earth is gone. Centuries have passed since life ended on the blue planet. Humanity's survivors are now dispersed among distant colonies, thousands of light years from the barren, frozen rock that was once their home.
At a time when power means everything, the ultimate power, the imperium, rests with the Consulate Magistratus. In return for its protection, citizens must concede their rights absolutely. The Magistratus controls interstellar travel, access to technology, even procreation. Every citizen is implanted with a device to monitor their location, health and emotions. Freedom, religion and self-determination are anachronisms.
The murder of a man in the lowest caste is seen as inconsequential, but Weaver, one of the few Caesteri lawmen who still believes in justice, refuses to ignore it. Fighting his own indoctrination, and the voice inside his mind that forces him to ignore his conscience, he follows the trail of evidence all the while struggling to hang on to the thin thread of his humanity.
The killer he hunts is violent and unstable, and haunted by her own callous ghosts. A woman who sells her body to fuel her drug addiction. She possesses an almost supernatural ability navigate the wormholes which connect humanity's distant colonies - an ability the Magistratus fears and must eradicate. Weaver will follow her to a planet the Magistratus has abandoned, where the only law is that of criminals. And then to the furthest reaches of space, where the truth that awaits them leads to the corrupt heart of the Republic - a truth the Magistratus will do anything to conceal.
The war to control humanity's future is about to begin.
Defiance is the award-winning second book in a longer tale spanning four volumes. The bestselling Beyond the Wall series is gripping, epic space opera, written as hard science-fiction. It is the story of humanity's future and the discovery of the truth of its past.
**
Review
"Defiance is an excellent book. It's classic science fiction, written with skill and panache. Good as it is, I think that Lucas Bale is only just getting into his stride, and that the best of this series is still to come."
Alex Roddie, Author of The Atholl Expedition and The Only Genuine Jones
"I greatly enjoyed Lucas Bale's The Heretic when it released earlier this year, finding it to be the beginning of an ambitious science-fiction series with a heck of a lot of promise. Book Two in his Beyond The Wall series, Defiance, struck me as even better in nearly every way."
Michael Patrick Hicks, author of Convergence
From the Author
Like most kids, I was inspired by Star Wars. Perhaps that's where my love of science fiction first came from, but it never really stopped growing after that. The stars fascinated me and I could think of nothing more exciting than being up there among them. There are too many books and classic cult shows to name, but when Firefly came along, I was one of those who was bitter as hell about it being canned. I can't say how much of an influence Firefly was when I wrote the initial notes for the world in which The Heretic was set, but I know it was in there. I know I wanted to write something for myself and for the people who still felt there was a chasm that needed filling - the sort of character-driven space opera that had a hard science fiction edge to it. There certainly are a few nods to Firefly in The Heretic, but the series takes on its own character in Defiance and beyond. I think Beyond the Wall is for anyone who watched Firefly, and shows like it, or read classic science fiction and loved it. I hope that fans of John Scalzi, James S. A. Corey and Iain M. Banks will find something to love in here too.
Description:
Silver Medal Winner, 2015 Independent Publisher Awards (Best Scifi/Fantasy/Horror Ebook)
"Defiance is an excellent book. It's classic science fiction, written with skill and panache. Good as it is, I think that Lucas Bale is only just getting into his stride, and that the best of this series is still to come."
Alex Roddie, Pinnacle Editorial
"I greatly enjoyed Lucas Bale's The Heretic when it released earlier this year, finding it to be the beginning of an ambitious science-fiction series with a heck of a lot of promise. Book Two in his Beyond The Wall series, Defiance, struck me as even better in nearly every way."
Michael Patrick Hicks, author of the DRMR Series
The darkness in the human heart is infinite.
Earth is gone. Centuries have passed since life ended on the blue planet. Humanity's survivors are now dispersed among distant colonies, thousands of light years from the barren, frozen rock that was once their home.
At a time when power means everything, the ultimate power, the imperium, rests with the Consulate Magistratus. In return for its protection, citizens must concede their rights absolutely. The Magistratus controls interstellar travel, access to technology, even procreation. Every citizen is implanted with a device to monitor their location, health and emotions. Freedom, religion and self-determination are anachronisms.
The murder of a man in the lowest caste is seen as inconsequential, but Weaver, one of the few Caesteri lawmen who still believes in justice, refuses to ignore it. Fighting his own indoctrination, and the voice inside his mind that forces him to ignore his conscience, he follows the trail of evidence all the while struggling to hang on to the thin thread of his humanity.
The killer he hunts is violent and unstable, and haunted by her own callous ghosts. A woman who sells her body to fuel her drug addiction. She possesses an almost supernatural ability navigate the wormholes which connect humanity's distant colonies - an ability the Magistratus fears and must eradicate. Weaver will follow her to a planet the Magistratus has abandoned, where the only law is that of criminals. And then to the furthest reaches of space, where the truth that awaits them leads to the corrupt heart of the Republic - a truth the Magistratus will do anything to conceal.
The war to control humanity's future is about to begin.
Defiance is the award-winning second book in a longer tale spanning four volumes. The bestselling Beyond the Wall series is gripping, epic space opera, written as hard science-fiction. It is the story of humanity's future and the discovery of the truth of its past.
**
Review
"Defiance is an excellent book. It's classic science fiction, written with skill and panache. Good as it is, I think that Lucas Bale is only just getting into his stride, and that the best of this series is still to come."
Alex Roddie, Author of The Atholl Expedition and The Only Genuine Jones
"I greatly enjoyed Lucas Bale's The Heretic when it released earlier this year, finding it to be the beginning of an ambitious science-fiction series with a heck of a lot of promise. Book Two in his Beyond The Wall series, Defiance, struck me as even better in nearly every way."
Michael Patrick Hicks, author of Convergence
From the Author
Like most kids, I was inspired by Star Wars. Perhaps that's where my love of science fiction first came from, but it never really stopped growing after that. The stars fascinated me and I could think of nothing more exciting than being up there among them. There are too many books and classic cult shows to name, but when Firefly came along, I was one of those who was bitter as hell about it being canned. I can't say how much of an influence Firefly was when I wrote the initial notes for the world in which The Heretic was set, but I know it was in there. I know I wanted to write something for myself and for the people who still felt there was a chasm that needed filling - the sort of character-driven space opera that had a hard science fiction edge to it. There certainly are a few nods to Firefly in The Heretic, but the series takes on its own character in Defiance and beyond. I think Beyond the Wall is for anyone who watched Firefly, and shows like it, or read classic science fiction and loved it. I hope that fans of John Scalzi, James S. A. Corey and Iain M. Banks will find something to love in here too.