Disclaimer: I read the advanced reader's copy (ARC) of this book; this book will be released on December 23, 2014. Undoubtedly, there will be minor changes between the version I read and the published version. I picked up the ARC at the 2014 ALA Conference.
This is the second book in the series. I reviewed the first book, These Broken Stars, HERE.
In my review of These Broken Stars, I mentioned they were a lot of survival elements to the book and it really seemed to struggle to get through anything. In the sequel, the book is changed up a bit to have two new narrators; Lee and Flynn who are on the planet Avon. It was a refreshing change of pace. I also think that you don't need to read the first one to get things that happened in the second book (even with the ending being a little wiggy).
...I'll just go to the amazon summary, "Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.
Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.
Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. His sister died in the original uprising against the powerful corporate conglomerate that rules Avon with an iron fist. These corporations make their fortune by terraforming uninhabitable planets across the universe and recruiting colonists to make the planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.
Desperate for any advantage against the military occupying his home, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape base together, caught between two sides in a senseless war." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
At the beginning of the book we're introduced to Lee and Flynn who are on opposite sides of a struggle. They live on a planet called Avon where the planet is slowly being terraformed to support human life. The planet is behind for how far along it should be in the terraforming process; they still have swamps everywhere with little animal life (if any).
This has sparked an uprising from the people who were sent to colonize the planet. Mainly, Flynn's people.
Which brought the military in, Lee's people.
The book is also set up so the narrators alternate every chapter and they have the odd, half-page snippets in the beginning of each chapter that slowly begin to make more sense as the book goes on.
ANYWHO.
So Lee is a very tough soldier; she has remained unaffected by the fury for her stay on Avon. Most soldiers fall victim to the fury within one to six months of being on Avon. The fury is where they start to have dreams, get a little high strung/tense/twitchy, and then eventually seem to lose control as they commit an act of violence they wouldn't normally be capable of. The fury has a tell when it's about to happen; the victim's pupils dilate as they lose control. Lee is a captain in the military and takes care of her crew; making sure to ship them off Avon when they show signs that they'll succumb to the fury.
Flynn was raised on Avon; he lives in the swamps with the rebels (the Fianna). They're trying to usurp the military on Avon as they believe that someone is preventing the planet from terraforming at the rate it's supposed to. Flynn is the brother of the leader who last led the uprising; his sister. The Fianna look to Flynn to lead them in their next uprising, but Flynn would rather seek peace through conversation so he can better the lives of his people.
One night Lee is at the bar trying to enjoy a drink and not think about the war. She spots a young guy in military garb enter and she starts analyzing him, figuring he's a new recruit. When he doesn't act like a new recruit, she gets suspicious. The guy gets a little flirty with her before subtlety pulling a gun on her and kidnapping her in public. He whisks her off to the swamps. One guess who her kidnapper is....SURPRISE! IT'S FLYNN!
The story kicks off with a bang and doesn't drag hardly anywhere. The story seems to be very high strung at all times (like most rebellion situations I suppose) and seems very undaunted by everything it accomplishes.
The only thing that kind of irked me about this book, is they tied Traver and Lilac in from the first book in a way that I still have trouble being okay with.
Other than that, it was just a bit of a dense read. It was very methodical to show all the details it could about a situation (which was cool) but at the same time I got annoyed about hearing how the clouds on Avon never cleared and the weather was always wet. I suppose the more mundane details got really repetitive (like anytime they went into the swamp, 'These swamps are so damp and wet', 'I wish I could use the pole sticks to guide the boat because driving through swamps is hard', etc). I understand that was the constant conditions that the characters were dealing with but I feel a little brow beat with the setting.
It was good that the narrators were different enough that I could tell who was who even if I skipped the chapter title.
All in all, I'm going to be picking up the third book in the series.
Happy reading!
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