Archenemies

Renegades, Book 2

By: Marissa Meyer

Narrated by: Dan Bittner, Rebecca Soler

Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Renegades Trilogy continues, in this fiercely awaited second installment after the New York Times-bestselling Renegades by Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles.

Time is running out.

Together, they can save the world.

But they each other’s worst nightmare.

Nova’s double life is about to get a lot more complicated: 

As Insomnia, she is a full-fledged member of the Renegades, a syndicate of powerful and beloved superheroes. She works with Adrian’s patrol unit to protect the weak and maintain order in Gatlon City.

As Nightmare, she is an Anarchist - a group of of villains who are determined to destroy the Renegades. Nova wants vengeance against the so-called heroes who once failed her when she needed them most.

But as Nova, her feelings for Adrian are deepening, despite the fact that he is the son of her sworn enemies and, unbeknownst to Nova, he has some dangerous secrets of his own.

In this second installment of the Renegades trilogy, Nova, Adrian, and the rest of their crew – Ruby, Oscar, and Danna -- are faced with escalating crime in Gatlon City, while covert weapons and conflicting missions have Nova and Adrian questioning not only their beliefs about justice, but also the feelings they have for each other.

The line between good and evil has been blurred, but what's clear to them both is that too much power could mean the end of their city – and the world – as they know it.

©2018 Rampion Books (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"The narrators excel in portraying the two protagonists. Bittner's jovial tone captures Adrian's sense of hope and justice, while Soler snarls through antihero Nova's angst-filled diatribes. In addition, Bittner and Soler keep the large cast of secondary characters sorted out so well that it seems like there are way more than two narrators." (AudioFile)

Overall Good, Pacing a Problem

First of all, I love the way Marissa Meyer writes. She's one of my favorite authors. Her characters are always distinct and memorable. But...along with Winter, I have issues with this book. While Winter struggled with an improbable plot and to a lesser degree, pacing, the core of this book's issue was slow pacing. I found myself getting bored with the descriptions of artifacts. I wanted action in this book and it disappointed me how much of it was devoted to description. So I'd say the book was flawed but overall enjoyable. What I loved was: 1. The Characters. They come to life. Each different than the next. 2. That ending. Set up well, you can tell Meyer is a good writer and where she's going (hopefully, please don't be another Allegiant). I don't want to be too critical, because I enjoyed it, but it does have its struggles. I'm still not used to Audiobooks so I like the female actor doing female voices and the male actor doing male voices. A lot. The problem is when they do the opposite gender. It distracts me by how fake they sound. I don't know if that's common in Audiobooks or not, so I'm not going to knock the book for it. Overall, I would recommend, but definitely the second book in a series. I hope it ends well, or else I'd say this story could've been told in two books.

More "Lifetime Channel" than "SciFi" Channel..

This book spends 95 percent of the time with the main character moaning over and over and over and OVER again about how "I love Adrian... but I can't love Adrian... but... I DO love Adrian.." and only about 5 percent actual super hero story. It was a huge disappointment considering that the first book was pretty good.

It Deserves a TV Series, Amazing story

I am completely invested in this story and I strongly think the 3 books can be greatly adapten in to a +14tv streaming series.

Blatantly Rushed

It's a cool world and plot but Marissa always patters around insignificant, repetitive, platonic scenes and waits till the last 2 hours for any actual plot development to happen.

Not to mention her characters are making less and less sense as she contradicts herself without any definitive explanation to it.

It just seems like she writes (pretty good stuff, mind you!) but it doesn't connect till she stumbles through enough of it to find a plotline..

AAAAAAAA SO GOOD

at first its kinda slow but then SO MUCH STUFF HAPPENS MARISSA GOT US FOR A REAL ONE WOWWWWWWW

A great surprise!

I loved this book! More than anything, I thought I knew where the story was going, but it completely defied my expectations. Loved this book! can't recommend it enough!

A solid sequel

I enjoy the story a lot, but something I’ve never liked about this series, the the duel narrators, it feels weird to have two different people try to do two sets of voices, it seems unnecessary.

Great!

This is such a great sequel. I loved the romance but also enjoyed that it didn't consume the rest of the plot. Marissa Meyer never disappoints!

so here's the thing

over all this book is pretty good but there is one thing still bothering me Do the renegades not get that they can't be renegades and the establishment at the same time. That their name is kind of an oxymoron like what are you renegades against The anarchs you can't be relegate against anarchy. that's why its anarchy its a lack of order. its like they have zero introspection and just thought it sounded cool and edgy and stuck to it. The book is fine I like it but every time they bring up the renegades I keep thinking why do you call yourselves that it makes no sense your not renegades you are the man! the authorities...and they weren't even elected officials and I haven't seen any civilian oversight or authority so this feels like a military dictatorship just saying. not sure they are really the good guys just beneficent tyrants and despots.

Building. Bursting. Brilliant.

Now THAT was a kicka$$ sequel! There are few writers that I’ve found who can truly justify the second book in a series. Meyer passed with flying colors!

⚖️ Plot: As in book 1, the pace is absolutely perfect to violins and build until we want to burst with suspense! And as soon as one twist is resolved, we find ourselves tangled into another. Simply brilliant!

🗺 World: The description in this is absolutely breathtaking! We get to see all of the disparities of the world and their fabulous superhero gifts in all their splendor. The scene that Sketch draws is one of the best pieces of world building I’ve ever read.

💑 Characters: This has everything and more I was looking for in Nova and Adrian’s character growth. And now I cannot wait to see the explosion that is going to be the final showdown between their superhero personalities. I’m soooo happy that I didn’t start this trilogy before it was released. I’m sold!