Defiance
#10773.75 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2012–2014 Reading commitment Medium C. J. Redwine Last reviewed 2026-11-05
Overview
C. J. Redwine's Defiance trilogy (2012-2014) is a post-apocalyptic young adult fantasy. Rachel Adams lives in Baalboden, a walled city-state where girls are expected to learn domestic skills and accept a male protector, but she trains to track, hunt and fight. When her father, a courier, is declared dead, she is assigned his apprentice Logan McEntire as protector and sets out into the Wasteland to find him. The Wasteland holds a monster that cannot be killed, and the conflict spreads to rival city-states and a ruler called the Commander. The trilogy is complete in three novels; a prequel novella is not counted.
Dark fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
Defiance C. J. Redwine
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Defiance | 2012 | 1 | core | 3.67 (29,151 ratings) |
 | Deception | 2013 | 2 | core | 3.91 (8,771 ratings) |
 | Deliverance | 2014 | 3 | core | 3.96 (5,065 ratings) |
Rachel Adams and Logan McEntire face a monster, rival city-states and a tyrannical Commander in a post-apocalyptic world.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Defiance? Defiance's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for Defiance? Publication order, starting with Defiance. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Defiance finished? Complete (2012–2014).
- How much reading does Defiance take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is Defiance ranked? #1077 in this site's official ranking, based on 42,987 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #1077?
Ranked #1077 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.75 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (42,987 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #1076, The Stress of Her Regard (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.46.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 43k ratings · Ranks #1077 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length dark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- Defiance (2012)
- Deception (2013)
- Deliverance (2014)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.75 across 42,987 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon Extension: 22 universes from the candidate register; Cursed Bunny ruled out; open synopses for Anna Strong, Allie Beckstrom and Alex Craft accepted 2026-11-05
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia - C. J. Redwine Tier 2
- C. J. Redwine (author site) Tier 2
- AbeBooks - Defiance Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-11-05
Rule: Core Canon = the Defiance trilogy (Defiance, 2012, to Deliverance, 2014); excludes the prequel novella Outcast (2014).