DELIVERANCE

The post-apocalyptic romance that began with Defiance (2012) reaches its conclusion as Rachel and Logan separately work to bring down the men who have robbed them of their families and community.

In the sanctuary of Lankenshire, Logan plots to trick the Commander into helping him raise an army to lay siege to Rowansmark and save Rachel. Meanwhile, the captive Rachel plots against Logan’s long-lost brother as he takes her across the Wasteland to Rowansmark. At the center of their travails is the “tech” that controls the subterranean, dragonlike creatures that destroyed America just a few decades before. If Logan can adapt his device, he can use it to bring the Commander down; if Rachel can disable Rowansmark’s, she can render the city vulnerable to Logan and his forces. All of this is punctuated by much violence (multiple dismemberments, a protracted flogging and more exploding bodies than any book ought to contain, among other examples) and extravagant navel-gazing by the protagonists. As Rachel and Logan tell the tale in alternating, nearly identical, present-tense narrations, each returns over and over to their respective journeys through grief to festering revenge. Plotting is heavily contrived; prose is plodding. One bright spot is a new secondary character, the bookish Connor, who accompanies Logan; unfortunately, his sexual naïveté triggers an embarrassingly retrograde exchange about what girls want.

Tedious.