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A review by noragracereads
No Plain Rebel by M.C. Frank
3.0
**2.5 stars**
"Power will always pollute things. The word's entropy will always increase- and man carries the source of pollution within himself. He carries the seed of redemption as well, but it's not as simple as you'd think to find it. It's certainly not as simple to redeem as it seems to be to destroy."
No Plain Rebel is the second installment in the No Ordinary Star teen sci-fi series about love, loss, and morality. The stakes are higher in NPR than in the first, because Felix now understands that if he doesn't finish the Clockmaster's work, millions of people will suffer.
There's a certain maturity lying buried in the pages of this series that I think makes it stand out from its peers. The themes are not easy to grasp unless the reader is paying attention to every little detail- every. That means no tiny piece of information is insignificant, because it's part of a world-building scheme so complex that I wish I could have a history book about this universe featured in NOS.
That being said, this book is too short. I need to know more... So much more about this universe. Like I said in my review of Part One, these books feel like thirds of one big book, when I think that really the author should have combined them into one book like it seems, then write two more full volumes so that the reader feels satisfied.
Since these books are so short and feel like just fragments of a bigger story, not much happens in them.
Felix is the soul of Part Two. While I love Astra, her voice felt rarely heard. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but Felix has more "page time." This is his primary development stage, where he does a lot of learning and role-taking, so it's pretty great. He's also such a good soul... His compassion reminds me of Harry Potter. Fiction seems to be lacking in compassionate characters these days. It all feels like war and redemption rather than loving kindness. (Which sounds dumb, but have you seen Wonder Woman (2017) yet? Turns out compassion is heroic. Ha.)
Like with No Ordinary Star, the Eurocentricity of No Plain Rebel irked me in a few places. I've gotten over the Christmas thing because I love Christmas and I'd be a nihilist killjoy if I kept complaining about it, but take this, for example: (This is Ulysses speaking to Felix.)
"Have you read the Classics? Frankenstein? Oedipus Rex? The Greeks, again. I'm talking ancient Greeks here, boy, you won't even have heard of them."
(Later Ulysses refers to Plato's philosophy. A few times, actually.)
So there's nothing wrong with Greek philosophy and Greek literature, it's just that combined with the Christmas/ Christian Faith theme, it all just seems a little to European-y. For non-European readers, for even some American readers like me, the exclusion of all forms of philosophy, thinking, and religion feels a little isolating. Maybe I'm being too picky, but Walter Jon Williams, acclaimed science fiction writer, says, "Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science." Like Frank Herbert did, I think Walter Jon Williams understands what few science fiction writers do, and that's the value of knowledge in a variety of thought, from Laozi to Nietzsche. For a story battling the evils of the destruction of the individual and identical thinking, it focuses a lot on one way of thinking. I think that if the books are going to allude to any philosophy or religion, the focus can't just be on Europe, especially since this is a series that involves the lives of millions of people all over the galaxy.
"Power will always pollute things. The word's entropy will always increase- and man carries the source of pollution within himself. He carries the seed of redemption as well, but it's not as simple as you'd think to find it. It's certainly not as simple to redeem as it seems to be to destroy."
No Plain Rebel is the second installment in the No Ordinary Star teen sci-fi series about love, loss, and morality. The stakes are higher in NPR than in the first, because Felix now understands that if he doesn't finish the Clockmaster's work, millions of people will suffer.
There's a certain maturity lying buried in the pages of this series that I think makes it stand out from its peers. The themes are not easy to grasp unless the reader is paying attention to every little detail- every. That means no tiny piece of information is insignificant, because it's part of a world-building scheme so complex that I wish I could have a history book about this universe featured in NOS.
That being said, this book is too short. I need to know more... So much more about this universe. Like I said in my review of Part One, these books feel like thirds of one big book, when I think that really the author should have combined them into one book like it seems, then write two more full volumes so that the reader feels satisfied.
Since these books are so short and feel like just fragments of a bigger story, not much happens in them.
Felix is the soul of Part Two. While I love Astra, her voice felt rarely heard. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but Felix has more "page time." This is his primary development stage, where he does a lot of learning and role-taking, so it's pretty great. He's also such a good soul... His compassion reminds me of Harry Potter. Fiction seems to be lacking in compassionate characters these days. It all feels like war and redemption rather than loving kindness. (Which sounds dumb, but have you seen Wonder Woman (2017) yet? Turns out compassion is heroic. Ha.)
Like with No Ordinary Star, the Eurocentricity of No Plain Rebel irked me in a few places. I've gotten over the Christmas thing because I love Christmas and I'd be a nihilist killjoy if I kept complaining about it, but take this, for example: (This is Ulysses speaking to Felix.)
"Have you read the Classics? Frankenstein? Oedipus Rex? The Greeks, again. I'm talking ancient Greeks here, boy, you won't even have heard of them."
(Later Ulysses refers to Plato's philosophy. A few times, actually.)
So there's nothing wrong with Greek philosophy and Greek literature, it's just that combined with the Christmas/ Christian Faith theme, it all just seems a little to European-y. For non-European readers, for even some American readers like me, the exclusion of all forms of philosophy, thinking, and religion feels a little isolating. Maybe I'm being too picky, but Walter Jon Williams, acclaimed science fiction writer, says, "Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science." Like Frank Herbert did, I think Walter Jon Williams understands what few science fiction writers do, and that's the value of knowledge in a variety of thought, from Laozi to Nietzsche. For a story battling the evils of the destruction of the individual and identical thinking, it focuses a lot on one way of thinking. I think that if the books are going to allude to any philosophy or religion, the focus can't just be on Europe, especially since this is a series that involves the lives of millions of people all over the galaxy.