Rebel’s Creed
is a very interesting book to look at.
Self-published as the second book by YouTuber Daniel B. Greene it serves
as a direct sequel to Breach of Peace and the final prelude to an
intended novel series from Greene. It
was originally meant to be a trilogy, but the expansion of Rebel’s Creed
from novella length to that of a novel, and the trilogy shortened to a
duology. This shortening could have been
a poor decision from Greene, as Rebel’s Creed could have easily become
two books in one, but Greene clearly understood that expanding the story to
encompass the journey of essentially one character, Holden, as an exploration
of grief and a confrontation of a corrupt political system. This novel moves along with quite a nice pace,
outside of an opening and several interludes which undercut some of the mystery
that runs through the book. The story is
dealing with the aftermath of Breach of Peace, which ended with the
implication that both Samuel and Khlid were dead, but Rebel’s Creed
opens with the intriguing sequence that Khlid survived and is being
experimented upon by the Anointed. While
this sequence and the interludes are perfectly fine on their own, they are
where the book falls flat as the rest of the book is following Holden and
Chapman. Holden in particular is dealing
with the grief and denial of losing his mentors and closest friends, which feels
hollow as the reader knows that Khlid is alive, even if she is turning into
something inhuman. Greene attempts to
play the reveal that Khlid is alive as a surprise to not only Holden and our
other characters, but to the readers, all the while he’s already included some
interludes with her. The interludes are
also inconsistently spaced throughout the book, as Khlid’s point of view
eventually gets its own chapters.
The plot itself is actually interesting as Greene is
exploring quite a bit of what happens when the system people had been raised in
to believe as perfect in essentially innocent idea of the people in power being
good and the reason the world works. Of
course, the truth is much darker, the police force is full of religious fanatics
and the Anointed are theocrats crushing the poor and downtrodden under their
boots. Holden cannot believe that the government
would have let Samuel and Khlid die, and that Chapman would be the ones to betray
them. The reader gets to see Chapman’s
point of view leading to the betrayal which is interesting from the standpoint
of those knowing where it’s going and what could drive a man there. Holden’s grief as the driving force is also
interesting as it leads the man through a crisis of faith towards joining with
the rebel’s to hopefully find a way to bring down the government and avenge the
deaths of his friends. Once it’s revealed
that Khlid is alive, and what she has become since her capture at the end of Breach
of Peace it shifts to a more nihilistic outlook on the rebellion. Rebellion is messy and one that doesn’t always
end in everything finding its way towards a good conclusion. The book ends with the obvious setup for the
novel series, one that is set to draw on manifest destiny and the age of
exploration, looking deeply at the harsh truths on a period that in many
American schools is often glossed over with rose tinted glasses instead of a
period filled to the brim with genocide and death. As setup it’s great, but it does make Rebel’s
Creed feel a bit too much of all setup and no payoff.
Overall, Rebel’s Creed is definitely a step up
from Breach of Peace, using its longer page count to give us something a
bit more interesting and in depth than the very short, but effective murder
mystery of the first installment. Some
of the flaws still have come across from the first book, as both feel very much
like setup for something bigger which will be coming. The length doesn’t actually hinder it, and it
gives a satisfactory ending despite the first one setting up a trilogy, but
there is still the prelude like nature of the book holding it back. 8/10.
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