The Second Rebel

The First Sister Trilogy

By: Linden A. Lewis

Narrated by: Jennifer Aquino, Neo Cihi, Farah Naz Rishi, Gary Tiedemann, Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Linden A. Lewis returns with this next installment of the First Sister Trilogy, perfect for fans of Red Rising, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Expanse.

Astrid has reclaimed her name and her voice and now seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within. Throwing herself into the lioness’ den, Astrid must confront and challenge the aunts who run the Gean religious institution, but she quickly discovers that the business of politics is far deadlier than she ever expected.

Meanwhile, on an outlaw colony station deep in space, Hiro val Akira seeks to bring a dangerous ally into the rebellion. Whispers of a digital woman fuel Hiro’s search, but they are not the only person looking for this link to the mysterious race of Synthetics.

Lito sol Lucious continues to grow into his role as a lead revolutionary and is tasked with rescuing an Aster operative from deep within an Icarii prison. With danger around every corner, Lito, his partner, Ofiera, and the newly freed operative must flee in order to keep dangerous secrets out of enemy hands.

Back on Venus, Lito’s sister, Lucinia, must carry on after her brother’s disappearance and accusation of treason by Icarii authorities. Despite being under the thumb of Souji val Akira, Lucinia manages to keep her nose clean...that is until an Aster revolutionary shows up with news about her brother’s fate and an opportunity to join the fight.

This captivating, spellbinding second installment to the First Sister series picks up right where The First Sister left off and is a must-hear for science-fiction fans everywhere.

©2021 Linden A. Lewis. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

A bit of second book syndrome

The First Sister made me gasp and cry and shriek and recommend it to everyone I know. I didn’t quite feel the same way about The Second Rebel, which may just be because of the place it occupies in the trilogy arc. Second books are usually my least favorites.

I love that the publisher was careful to get appropriate voice actors for each of the characters. I love all of the new characters who were introduced in this book and the insight we get into Aster society in particular.

However, I really miss the focus, mystery, and forward momentum of The First Sister. The relationships between Astrid and Ren and Lito and Hiro are on pause during this book, and while I liked the relationships that did develop, I didn’t find any of them quite as compelling. I also felt like Hiro’s storyline dragged on quite a bit for the impact it ended up having, and the bulk of Astrid’s storyline didn’t have much impact at all. I wonder if both of them could have been trimmed to improve the pacing, especially in the first half of the book.

That said, I liked this book and I love these characters enough to still be excited about Book 3. I’m hoping for happy endings and make-up kisses for all my favorites.

SO GOOD!

can't wait for book 3! I just wish the quality of the readers was better... the least they could do is make sure all the readers pronounce words the same way/ correctly

Great Continuation

This author manages to raise the stakes again and again without it feeling trite or forced.

great story

when I read the reviews for this before purchasing I saw all the comments on the narration and from previous times I sort of dismissed it as overreaction since I've seen that before on other books. I'm am sorry to those reviewers, you were right the different pronunciations is grating. I hope in the third book maybe all the narrator could be given a guide on how to pronounce the words the same way maybe? It really pulls you out of the story for a bit which is unfortunate because the story is excellent. It's been a long time since a story has made me outwardly react to plot twists! looking forward to the third installment!

Awesome book

This book and the narrators are amazing. I devoured the 19 hour audio book in about a week. My only critique is that the different narrators sometimes pronounced things differently (like a sister and brother pronouncing the sister’s name in two ways) which took me out of the fantasy a smidge. But, overall, if you enjoyed The First Sister, you will love The Second Rebel.

Okay what a ride.

Well I was quite surprised.No relationship fell into any cliche which is such a relief.It is not romance focused at all

Narrators detract from the story

I really enjoyed The First Sister book and thought the world was rich and well-developed. Those elements certainly carried over to this book but I found myself feeling lost for the first hour or two because the scope of this book is larger. I probably should have reread the final chapters of The First Sister to refresh my memory of where we left the characters.

I agree with some other reviewers about problematic narrators. I hate it when characters pronounce basic words differently and was really distracted by the narrator for Luce. The character’s first language is Spanish, but the narrator’s Spanish pronunciation was laughably bad.

Ultimately, I got over my issues with the narrators and listened to the full story in just a few days. It was a lot of fun and a good follow-up to the first book in the series!

Doesn’t disappoint

I’ve been looking forward to this sequel for a year! It’s a seamless continuation from book 1, and I’m going to play it again immediately.

Pretty good story, but one of the narrators is AWFUL

This book continues the scheming and plotting and political intrigue begin in the first book. The story drags a little in the middle, but I think it may be due to the narrators. They range from so-so to terrible!! The addition this book of a POV of Lucinia (Luce) introduced a new narrator in the series and she is AWFUL!! Very monotone delivery, and an extremely stilted delivery with horribly ill-timed pauses had me ready to gouge out my ears, it was so painful to listen to!! I almost didn’t finish the book because of this poor narrator. And I’m seriously considering not listening to the third one, but getting it in print, because I just don’t think I can put up with her!

But the story is a good one, though it’s unrelenting. There is no respite from the danger, plotting, and double-crossing. This definitely isn’t a “feel good” book, or light reading. It’s pretty grim. I think I would like this entire series better if I had read it, and not listened!

Absolutely Awful

The first book was.....alright. Not good, but at least it found its rhythm towards the end. The characters grew a bit and stopped whining and agonizing. This book slams the breaks and falls right back into "woe betide unto me" territory.
The prose is inelegant, the setting tedious, and I couldnt give a damn about any of it by the halfway point.
The narrators are universally terrible as well.
zero stars.