Book Review: Deathstalker Rebellion

Deathstalker Rebellion by Simon R. Green
Release Date: July 1996
Publisher: ROC (Penguin)
Audience: Everyone
Pages: 508
Buy the Book: Amazon
Book Rating: 4/5
Defiance Audio Length: 15 Hours
Buy the Audiobook: Defiance Audio
Audiobook Rating: 3.5/5







Deathstalker Rebellion is similar to the first book in the series-Deathstalker-in that it, too, seems preoccupied with staging the pieces for the third book in the series, Deathstalker War. The main story arc in this book is the rebels various attempts to financially sabotage the empire and to destroy the new stardrive factory on Technos III while simultaneously trying to unite the various rebel forces and come to terms with the changes wrought on them by the madness maze. In addition, this book also introduces a number of enemies to humanity, including Ghost Warriors and two unknown alien species.

I think that the series, at least to this point, suffer from too many characters and too many things going on, the resulting books being slightly bloated and some of the characters getting lost in the shuffle, or pushed towards the back of a large crowd of tertiary characters. You have: the main part of rebels and all the things they are dealing with; the various rebel groups of humans, clones, and espers; Lionstone and her cohorts; the court and the various families vying for power; infighting in the families; humanity fighting aliens; humanity dealing with the Hadenmen and the A.I. from Shub; and the list goes on. . . It is not surprising that both the first and second books in the series are over 500 pages apiece.

However, that being said, the book kept my attention for the most part. There were moments when a group of rebel factions were arguing or scenes with talking that really doesn't do much but serve as filler that my attention waned. But the entire section on Technos III was really good, and Silas and Frost's (my favorite characters) storyline was really good. Although, I was listening to the audiobook on the drive to and from work, so I can't say if I had been given the book to sit down and read, I wouldn't have gotten bored with it and turned to something else.

For all the main characters, other than dealing with the changes imparted by the madness maze, really can't be said to evolve to show personal growth in this novel. Yes, Jack Random comes into his own again, and the various members of the main group start to work better with one another, but other than that, things stay pretty much the same for the characters from the first book.

Overall, this book, while entertaining, is still setting up the pieces but, like a freight train, is slowly, but surely, gathering speed.