In Short
The Spirit Rebellion by Rachel Aaron (Book 2 of The Legend of Eli Monpress)
Orbit Books, Fantasy, 426 pages, paperback edition.
My copy: Purchased.
Pros: Fun, great worldbuilding, fantastic protagonists
Cons: Heavily troped.
In a line: World’s greatest thief finds it hard to resist enticing trap.
Score: 7.5/10
The Spirit Rebellion is a fantastic sequel to Aaron’s first novel in the series, The Spirit Thief. With a more complex and intriguing plot, an increasingly fleshed-out set of characters, and a host of mysterious and engrossing villains on the horizon, The Spirit Rebellion is an excellent sequel to a promising debut.
From the blurb:
Eli Monpress is brilliant. He’s incorrigible. And he’s a thief.
He’s also still at learge, which drives Miranda Lyonette crazy. Since she’s been kicked out of the Spirit Court, Eli’s had plenty of time to plan his next adventure. But now the tables have been turned,because Miranda has a new job – and an opportunity to capture a certain thief.
Things are about to get exciting for Eli.He’s picked a winner for his newest heist. His target: the Duke of Gaol’s famous ‘thief-proof’ citadel. Eli knows Gaol is a trap, but what’s life without challenges? Except the Duke is one of the wealthiest men in the world, a wizard who rules hus duchy with an iron first and an obsessive perfectionist with only one hobby: Eli.
It seems that everyone wants to get their hands on Eli Monpress…
Increasing excellence
Eli Monpress is fast growing in my regard as an excellent Gentleman Thief. Throughout The Spirit Rebellion, we start to see more than the simple, shallow dimensions we were given in his previous adventures. He occasionally lets altruism and nobler motives other than his massive egotism guide his actions, which is nearly as endearing as watching him get petulant when someone challenges his overinflated ego.
Of more interest is the excellent development in Eli’s companions, Josef the swordsman and Nico the demonseed. Josef engages in more dialogue with his spiritually ‘awakened’ blade, the Heart of War. Awesome title notwithstanding, Aaron has made the Heart of War into its own, quite reasonable persona and not a cliche’d blood-thirsting demonic fiend, which I can only assume took a great deal of willpower on her end. The Heart is rightly annoyed with Josef’s stubborn resistance to using it. After all, if you’re the greatest awakened blade in existence, what point are you if you don’t get to cleave some opponents from time to time?
Luckily for us, Josef is forced into a deadly confrontation with an impressive opponent. We get a nice action scene with plenty of smitings – Nico gets to let rip as well, which is very satisfying – and a little exposition, which helps the world-building efforts no end.
Nico’s history and the problem of the demonseed growing inside her gets nicely fleshed out in this story as well. The heroes early on meet up with a master craftsman, Heinricht Slorn, who is very acquainted with the control and power necessary to keep a growing demonseed imprisoned. We are given glimpses of the shadowy League of Storms who watch over the realms unseen, hunting down escaped demonseeds and killing them before they can damage the world. Nico is indirectly threatened, the League held at bay by mysterious Puppet Masters. We can only assume that her story will reach a peak in the third book, The Spirit Eater, to be reviewed shortly.
Our other main storyline, that of Miranda Lyonette, is also a satisfying one. Moving at a slower pace than Eli’s adventures, Miranda finds herself unjustly reprimanded for her heroic actions at the end of the first book. Outmanoeuvred by political opponents, Miranda is stripped of her authority by the Spirit Court and barely escapes imprisonment.
Stung by the betrayal of her peers, Miranda is picked up by another powerful figure in the world, and re-assigned to the purpose that caused her banishment: the capture of Eli Monpress. With a powerful ally in the Great Spirit Mellinor in her service, and with vengeance in mind, Miranda starts to track Eli down.
Rollicking adventures
Aaron has done a fine job with The Spirit Rebellion. Her characters are fleshed out and more three-dimensional. The villains are less transparent, and there’s a nice balance of explanations and further mysteries as her plots progress. Miranda has grown from being almost dim in the first book to a more adult, quick-thinking character. This is particularly handy because Eli, lovable rogue that he is, is in fine form, trading pithy insults with everyone around him and generally being a rapscallion.
Everything that was good about the first book is here, polished and smoother. Aaron’s occasionally unconvincing dialogue has been tightened dramatically. Her story flows smoothly, and she handles transitions between plot points without needing to re-visit old ground, something which irked me occasionally in The Spirit Thief.
We’re still focussed heavily on Eli’s exploits, but we get a glimpse of where Josef, Nico and Miranda will be heading with their character arcs. I expect excellent things from The Spirit Eater, the third book in the series of five books. Impressively, Aaron has a very tight publishing schedule, each book coming out from Orbit within a few months of each other. This means that rather than the interminable waits forced on us by other fantasy authors, the entire series of novels is available within a very short window.
The Spirit Rebellion is a worth successor to The Spirit Thief. Tighter, smoother, grittier and more fun, Aaron’s hit her stride with this one. I happily give The Spirit Rebellion seven and a half enchanted rings.
The first and third books, The Spirit Thief and The Spirit Eater respectively, have also been reviewed. Rachel Aaron has also interviewed Write-Thing, and that excellent interview can be found here.
