The Spirit Rebellion

The Legend of Eli Monpress, Book 2

By: Rachel Aaron

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's Summary

Eli Monpress is brilliant. He's incorrigible. And he's a thief.

He’s also still at large, which drives Miranda Lyonette crazy. While 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 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 his duchy with an iron fist, and an obsessive perfectionist with only one hobby: Eli.

It seems that everyone is hunting for Eli Monpress.

Catch a thief: listen to another Eli Monpress adventure.

©2010 Rachel Aaron (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Awesome!

The duke is an awesome bad guy!!! The story is good, I liked how you learned a little more about Eli's past. Josef rocks! This is a great second book. I will for sure be listening to the next in the series.

It just gets better.

Rachel Aaron authoring skills improve greatly in this book and the third. The dialog and plot are much better here. If you did the first book and liked it then you can only continue on and enjoy it more. There are still a few loose ends by the third book so I expect a fourth. This is a book you can enjoy listening to with your kids. The story is not complex but is very engaging. Would love to see the author write a more hard core fantasy with a more complex story and characters. I think this as an author to watch out for in the future. Well worth the credit.

Accept the Cartoon Logic, and Have Fun!

This is not Game of Thrones, hyper-realistic "gritty" fantasy here. This is a cartoon. It does not suffer from cartoon logic, it embraces it.

Example the magic system animates EVERYTHING. You will see bank vault doors rolling around and throwing themselves at people. Once you understand this, the series is awesome!

Eli's Father made the whole book enjoyable. The first book wasn't anything special, but this second book had A Great Villain, a Great Supporting Cast (Eli's Father :)

Eli is great as always.

Great Narrator!!!

A fun read

What made the experience of listening to The Spirit Rebellion the most enjoyable?

Quick moving storyline, very well performed by reader

What did you like best about this story?

Characters are fun to spend time with

Which character – as performed by Luke Daniels – was your favorite?

Wow! Hard to choose; perhaps Eli.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Oh yes! However, I only listened while working out at the gym. It was interesting enough to prevent boredom on the stationary bike.

Story Isn't Improving

I really wanted to like this series, but I keep getting bored. I was hoping that as the books progressed, the story would grow in depth in terms of character and plot. The second novel, however was just more of the same. Much of the plot is repetitions of the last book. The characters still don’t have much depth. We rarely get much insight into their deeper feelings and motivations. This is especially true for Eli. He’s the namesake of the series, yet we get precious little time inside his head, so we still don’t understand his eccentric behavior and choices. It makes it hard to root for him.

On another note, I feel like the POV jumps around too often. Within the same conversation, we can be in the POV of the villain and then suddenly switch to the POV of a random page boy. It’s confusing and unnecessary.

Overall, though, these books do have a lot of potential. They’re filled with fun fantasy elements, creative magic, and political intrigue. Nicco’s story, in particular, really fascinated me. I feel, with a little polishing, this series could be something grand. As is, though, I think this is just too light for me.

Luke's narration was great as usual.

always a favorite

Such love for these stories. The characters are amazing and the story is a comedic adventure!

good book, great narrator

Fun, easy going adventure. Occasionally, I like to take a break from the heavy space opera, zombie, vampire or detective book and listen to something that I can actually enjoy cringe-free around my girls....and not have to worry about them hearing excessive bad language,sex,ect.
The narrator is one that I always enjoy, also. So, overall, a solid 4 star read. Enjoy!

Even better than the first book!

This book takes place soon after the end of the first book as our heroes deal with the events of the first book. Only this time we get some great new and fascinating characters.

This world and its spirit-based derivation of magic works really well. It sets up some great interpersonal dynamics, not only between people but between them and the spirits of doors, walls, rivers and trees. Only the wizards can communicate with these spirits.

And the spirits have personalities, just like people do. Genius!

The reader on this book does an even better job than he did with the last book. He is perfect for the wise-cracking Eli.

How can I not read the next one? Five stars!

The performance made the story

Some of this plot was hard to follow and not fleshed out very well. Considering it's about the spirit thief, most of the story doesn't seem to really be about Eli

Spirits in trouble

Eli Monpress our antihero is at it again. Initially, the heist was to find an unbreakable knife to pay for Nico’s new coat. Eli learns that the Duke of Gaol has a thief proof citadel and he can get the knife as well. His ego would not let him pass up that opportunity to burgle the Duke’s citadel.
Miranda Lyonette was severely and unjustly reprimand for her part in letting Monpress escape. The Great Wind of the West asked her to discover the problem with the spirits in Goal. Since she had time on her hands she agreed.
For all his bluster, Monpress believes in the fare and humane treatment of the spirits. Since that is not happening in Goal, Lyonette and Monpress team up to rescues the spirits. Of couse there is lots of action, magic, and exciting adventure and bickering between Monpress and Lyonette.