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A review by sonaea
Rebel's Creed by Daniel B. Greene
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Okay, so most of what I have to say about this book I already wrote in the review to it's prequel. Most of what I wrote there still applies here.
Because the book was longer and because it was a sequel, I understood more of the worldbuilding, however it still could have been done better, see review to BoP.
I felt the writing style was flowing a bit better, however I didn't take the time to really compare it to BoP, so can't say much more of that, and it was still very consistent.
The characters ... oof. Okay, so we get a bunch of new characters and meet a few old ones. Uh. It was fine at first because they were interesting characters for a fantasy novel. But ... with the second book finished I gotta say they all seem kind of like they're from the same blueprint. Smoking, not-really-excited-about-anything detectives. Well, or rebels. Thescared ministry worker whose name I'm not sure how to spell even after the whole audio book was a breath of fresh air, but all the other characters that spoke more than a handful of sentences seemed very similar which I found a bit annoying because it does get boring after a bit. Especially with the reader not really being able to feel the feelings the characters must have (that's where I always tell people to read fanfiction, they do manage to get feelings across greatly a lot of times. Plus character dynamics in all its possible forms).
(additionally: There seemed to be a bit of a white-normative thinking with the descriptions of some characters. Daniel did include different (fictional) ethnicities which is good, but I feel like (I didn't count the scenes but I did get the impression of) most of the time when a character did something and was described, it was to describe the skin as that of an PoC. There were little to no (again, didn't re-check, not sure about the amount) scenes where a character was described as caucasian. Which ... okay, one could say that there are no white characters in the book. However, with regards to the cover of BoP, I highly doubt that, meaning being white is implicitly being seen as the norm, whereas everything else is straying from the norm and has to be mentioned. Which, again, in itself the mentioning isn't a problem, it just needs to be done with every character the same amount (once again, I didn't pay too much attention to character description, I just noticed it with a description a while in the book and didn't go back to check, so again, not too sure about the numbers and all))
I don't really get why the books were split in two, with the first one being really short and this one not being too long either. Especially with the audiobook going 2 1/2 hours without much happening besides telling the plot of the first book from another character's POV. I mean, it was okay, but it was a lot of time that could have been used for different things, the important parts being told more condensed into a handful of shorter scenes. For it to be a book on its own, BoP would have needed more vigour on its own. If it were up to me, I'd probably have made one book and separated it in parts, like part 1: the events of BoP, part 2: what happens afterwards, Holden's POV, part 3: Holden and the minister meeting, etc. etc.
And last but not least, uh, my thoughts about the morale here is split. I guess that Daniel meant for the good guys to be kind of grey, because - smoking all the time and then throwing the cigarettes on the ground or into the water? The rebellion (aka what we are supposed to see as the "good guys" here) having ("using") freaking su*c*de b*mbers? There's a lot of stuff going wrong on both sides ... Which, now a totally personal opinion, just isn't my cup of tea. I like complex characters, but I prefer it when I can at least like them. And they were neither complex nor did I like them. And yes, it's good that there's no good-and-bad thinking, I still wasn't a fan of that.
Because the book was longer and because it was a sequel, I understood more of the worldbuilding, however it still could have been done better, see review to BoP.
I felt the writing style was flowing a bit better, however I didn't take the time to really compare it to BoP, so can't say much more of that, and it was still very consistent.
The characters ... oof. Okay, so we get a bunch of new characters and meet a few old ones. Uh. It was fine at first because they were interesting characters for a fantasy novel. But ... with the second book finished I gotta say they all seem kind of like they're from the same blueprint. Smoking, not-really-excited-about-anything detectives. Well, or rebels. The
(additionally: There seemed to be a bit of a white-normative thinking with the descriptions of some characters. Daniel did include different (fictional) ethnicities which is good, but I feel like (I didn't count the scenes but I did get the impression of) most of the time when a character did something and was described, it was to describe the skin as that of an PoC. There were little to no (again, didn't re-check, not sure about the amount) scenes where a character was described as caucasian. Which ... okay, one could say that there are no white characters in the book. However, with regards to the cover of BoP, I highly doubt that, meaning being white is implicitly being seen as the norm, whereas everything else is straying from the norm and has to be mentioned. Which, again, in itself the mentioning isn't a problem, it just needs to be done with every character the same amount (once again, I didn't pay too much attention to character description, I just noticed it with a description a while in the book and didn't go back to check, so again, not too sure about the numbers and all))
I don't really get why the books were split in two, with the first one being really short and this one not being too long either. Especially with the audiobook going 2 1/2 hours without much happening besides telling the plot of the first book from another character's POV. I mean, it was okay, but it was a lot of time that could have been used for different things, the important parts being told more condensed into a handful of shorter scenes. For it to be a book on its own, BoP would have needed more vigour on its own. If it were up to me, I'd probably have made one book and separated it in parts, like part 1: the events of BoP, part 2: what happens afterwards, Holden's POV, part 3: Holden and the minister meeting, etc. etc.
And last but not least, uh, my thoughts about the morale here is split. I guess that Daniel meant for the good guys to be kind of grey, because - smoking all the time and then throwing the cigarettes on the ground or into the water? The rebellion (aka what we are supposed to see as the "good guys" here) having ("using") freaking su*c*de b*mbers? There's a lot of stuff going wrong on both sides ... Which, now a totally personal opinion, just isn't my cup of tea. I like complex characters, but I prefer it when I can at least like them. And they were neither complex nor did I like them. And yes, it's good that there's no good-and-bad thinking, I still wasn't a fan of that.