Retaliate

The Bright, Book 2

By: Alex Knowles

Narrated by: Steve Campbell

Injured and on the run. Desperate but not hopeless. Recovery is a team effort.

Fleeing the destruction of their home in a battered ship, Tytan and his friends have a long way to go to feel safe. Pooling all their resources and his knowledge, the refugees seek help from the only avenue left open to them - the secret training grounds of the Bright Lords.

When a rescue mission demands action before they're ready, Tytan and his friends will discover just how much they're willing to risk to save their future. Rejoin Tytan, Sin, and the crew as they fight for not only their own survival, but the survival of the galaxy-spanning Bright Lord society.

©2021 Alex Knowles (P)2021 Alex Knowles

Super sequel!

I really enjoyed this continuation of the story. In a lot of the ways I felt like this was a stronger book than the first book. It really took the premise that the first book established and ran with it. The narration was solid and did a great job with a wide cast of characters.

it's rare that the sequel is better

since the basics are covered in book 1 we just get to lean back and enjoy the show...
and the friggin' show ought to be on Broadway and getting a movie adaptation, because damn it's been a long time since I was this entertained by a litRPG...

we get to know more about the world, Ty and the overarching plot as well as enjoy the 8th wonder of the world which is the voice of Steve Campbell...

I finished this book the same day less than 12 hours after downloading it I'm writing this review.

Awesome Follow Up!

The story continued on and what a continuation! I was hooked from start to finish. It got more adventure, more discoveries, and more intrigues. I thought I was going to finish this book without ugly crying but I was dead wrong.

Steve Campbell's amazing. He did so well with all the different characters in this book. Bravo!

More polished than #1

The book is more polish in the written form but I feel the narration misses something in the narration.

Look forward to finishing the series

Fantastic Story

I love books like this, but not all of them are for me. I've read a few series like this one and while some of them have the video-game like elements that are first and forefront (you get sucked into a game, or you KNOW you're in a game). Where, with The Bright so far, they are there (setting up skills based on skill points earned) but it's more in the background. The Bright series has absolutely got my attention and I'm really intrigued where Knowles is going to take it.

In Retaliate we learn more and more about each character and find out a lot more of the secrets from this world. We are also treated to some romance and some kinship between some of the characters that was a really nice break in the breakneck pace of some of the action scenes.

One of the best parts of this is that even though it's a book two, we still get a nice story arc. You can tell there's a larger and longer arc for the series - but this book itself read like its own story and had a beginning, a middle, and an end. (I mention this because a lot of book two's seem to be just a "to be continued" kind of story without any kind of ending).

The narration by Steve Campbell is also great. There was a choice he made for one of the characters that at first I was confused by, but I actually went back to figure out why he did that and I think it made sense. It was a bit raspy at first and kind of pulled me out of the story, but then I realized it was a good choice and it stopped bothering me. I wanted to point it out because Campbell is an excellent narrator and sometimes you have to trust their choices. Bray did similar things in the Hell Divers books and they're some of my favorite moments in those books.

Overall, Retaliate was an excellent book and a great addition to this series.