With rebel leader Darian free at last, the humans and outsiders on Ixeos must find a way to join forces and defeat the Firsts. The problem? All slaves are tracked with GPS, the Firsts are the only ones with power, and roving gangs hate the rebels just as much as they hate the aliens. As Darian and the outsiders from Earth travel the globe through the mysterious tunnels in Paris, they learn that the Firsts are preparing to launch another wave of biological warfare. With a transporter that will allow the aliens to target any city, anywhere on the planet, the rebels know they must stop them at all costs. As things get more dangerous on Ixeos, the outsiders find that they're pushed to their limit. Will they fight for freedom, no matter the price?I was really excited to read IXEOS: Rebellion by Jennings Wright which is the second book in the IXEOS Trilogy. I'd loved the first one. I was being introduced to a brand new world that was actually parallel to our own with one hitch. Firsts. Those were the group of aliens that had claimed Ixeos as their own and were using humans as slaves. The ones they'd captured anyway. The rest were either part of the resistance/rebellion, in gangs, or just trying to stay as far under the radar as possible. The goal of the resistance in book one was to free their leader, Darian. All of the action came to a head at the end of the book and just exploded and was an awesome read.
It was a little different starting this one. It was quiet and somber and a bit slow at the beginning. Which I suppose was appropriate given the last book. You need a chance to kind of gather your wits about you and take a few breaths before diving back in to the action. The imagery portrayed in the very first paragraph of this book just kind of grabbed me by the arm and said "You WILL read me. Now." It was amazing and sucked me right in. I love that in a story.
I liked coming back to Neahle and Clay and Marty. It's been a while since they'd followed those darn ducks through that tunnel and in to the underground of Ixeos. They've integrated pretty well and seem to be set in their own respective tasks now that the big raid is over. Only now, there's a whole new set of problems. The Firsts are "raising" children for some unknown purpose and seem to have started using bio-chemical agents on the streets of the cities and are taking out ANY living human within the limits.
For a while I found myself wondering when it was going to pick up. I didn't mind the pace of the story, but throw a lot of information at me and I start kind of tuning out. It picked up REAL quick when I least expected it. Which is good in a sense, but bad for the characters in the book. The resistance took some real hits and it was so sad to have to keep reading once I thought I'd figured out what was going to happen.
I loved the reference to A Bug's Life. It's pretty true after all. But scary when you think about the fact that, like Darian and so many other people say, it's going to get worse before it gets better. In the words of Urgl from the movie Neverending Story, "It has to hurt if it's to heal." And the rebellion is hurting. But, on the other hand, they are also taking great strides in moving forward and attempting to take back the planet and defeat the firsts.
There are a lot of new characters introduced in this installment. New arrivals to Ixeos and new outsiders. I like getting to see a little glimpse of all the people that make the machine that is the rebellion work. And they do. They all work together pretty cohesively. No one seems to try and take leadership from anyone else and everyone operates as a unit. Each person knows what they're good at and they do it.
I think Rod ended up being one of my favorite characters in this one. Surprisingly enough given what I knew about him from the last one. He really threw himself in to redeeming himself with the rebellion and with Hannah. And I really liked that I got to see more of Marty this time. He played a HUGE part in this particular novel.
The story is a pretty twisty roller coaster. Like I said it started out slow but picked up quickly. There were some definite high points for our characters. Points where hope seemed to be restored and everyone was ready and raring to go. Those points, however, were followed by the crashing lows that made them wonder if anything was going to work at all. Because, let's face it, if you let characters in a story like this stay happy for too long it would just kill the book wouldn't it? Haha.
I'd recommend this for anyone who read the first book in the series. For anyone who likes dystopian novels and sci - fi. If you HAVEN'T read book one yet, I highly suggest you do, or you'll be kind of lost. But it was a great read. Kudos again to our author, Jennings Wright, for a wonderful and suspenseful tale.
About the Author:
Born and raised in Rockledge, Florida, Jennings spent her early years reading anything she could get her hands on, when she wasn't spending time in and on the water. She won a prize in the 6th grade for her science fiction stories.
Jennings attended the University of the South and the University of Tampa, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science, and almost enough credits for B.A.s in both English and History. She spent time over the years doing various kinds of script doctoring, business writing, editing, and teaching writing, but mostly having and raising her family, homeschooling her children, owning and running a business with her husband, and starting a non-profit to Uganda.
Thanks to a crazy idea called NaNoWriMo Jennings got back into creative writing in 2011 and hasn't stopped since. She's written four novels and a screenplay in less than a year, with more ideas on the drawing board. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband, also a writer, and two children, and travels extensively.
