Books Servants of the Empire #2: Rebel in the Ranks by Jason Fry

Just finished book 2. I really really enjoy this series. the first book was very enjoyable indeed and this continued its trend. I think because of the target audience there is more action straightaway and that helps. incidents come thick and fast but written in a way that you don't feel that its rushed.

I found the Merei subplot fascinating and great cliffhanger. after all her work to cover tracks...... cant outsmart your mum!

 

Hope nothing too bad happens to Merei.

 

Spoiler

I'm assuming the Empire traces her hacking back to her home and assume her parents responsible.
She might be under threat of re-education but if that did come true I suspect her father would realise what's really going on and take the blame to protect her.

But that's purely speculation

 

Follks, I see the Kindle edition of Rebel in the Ranks is now up on AMZN. My apologies for the delay. This link supports the Jason Fry Beer & Mortgage Fund, if you're so inclined.

And now back to writing Book 4. Merei's in a pickle, but oh man, poor Zare....

 

*fist pump* *buys book*

Never have I been so excited for a junior novel.

And Amazon calls it a digital picture book, which is so confusing, but whatever. Given the awesomeness of the first one I would buy so many digital picture books in this series.

 

Aw, thank you. Hope you like this one too. One thing I'm happy about so far with this series is every book feels quite different.

Yeah, I dunno what that "digital picture book" stuff is. Sounds cool, but bears no relationship to Rebel in the Ranks. Ah well. The world is a curious place.

 

I've read 'Edge of the Galaxy' and 'Rebel in the Ranks'. I thought they were both excellent. I'm a primary (in the US that would be 'elementary') school teacher (Year 6) and I've often found that tie-in books and spin-off books related to film frachises tend to be quite poorly written but these were quite the opposite. The writing was of good quality, fluid and easily accessible, the characterisations were believeable and really interesting, the situations in the stories brought out some deep feelings in me as I read the books and the techie computer / security stuff was really very well done indeed. I thought they were both fab. The only downside is having to wait for the next one!

 

This is a fantastic book, just like the first one but even more so. It does what some of my favorite old-school EU stories did: take a minor side character from the films (or TV show now) and tell their story. Seeing Zare's perspective on Dev/Ezra and the antics they get into is fantastic and the book's detailing of the Academy's ins and outs gives what is otherwise a rather oddball episode of the show some rather valuable context. Rebel In the Ranks is a good episode, but this book makes it better. And seeing Sabine and Zeb, albeit briefly, makes me want a story about their stories all the much more.

It's odd that the best books of the "NEU" have been the ones tying in to Rebels, between AND and this series. I can hardly wait for the next one, and to see whether they tie back into the show at all in Season 2. Keep it up, Jason, your books are as much "Must reads" now as anything else that's been coming out the past few months.

 

I couldn't agree more! Also, the third book will feature the meeting between Zare and Ezra in Vision of Hope, or so I've heard. It will be interesting to see if they met each other any more times prior to the episode, I kind of got that feeling.

 

I just finished this over the weekend and it was excellent! Zare and Merei are both great characters. I loved getting, essentially, half a book about Merei and what she was up to while Zare was training. She doesn't suffer fools gladly. It was fun to see her butt heads with Sabine and then arrive at some kind of mutual respect. I'd love if she got to feature on a cover someday, because she certainly deserves it, but I suspect that won't happen.

I have to admit I've had visions of Merei five or ten years down the line, running her own operation, either independently or with the Rebels. Being an all-around BAMF and bossing around people twice her age because she's just that good at what she does. And now I'm invested in her and praying nothing too bad happens to her because I want to see her pop up in future books.

And Zare... oh, Zare. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. I have to admire his determination but I never felt he was in more danger than when he was talking to the Inquisitor. Zare felt sort of safe in this book, but in the next one I suspect I'm going to be fretting over him like a mother hen.

tl;dr This book was awesome and I need Book 3, please and thank you.

 

Zeb being the friendly one instead of Sabine was hilarious.

 

I've been loving this series. I think I like the first book the most right now, and it's all because of grav-ball. I love that Star Wars is getting its sports world fleshed out a little bit

As far as this book goes, it was great. I couldn't put it down--and not just because there aren't standard chapter breaks. The suspense is gripping. I love how seamlessly this ties into and builds the world of Rebels. It makes me think that Zare and Merei might be my favorite characters on Lothal, including the Ghost crew. These are great characters in intense situations. I really want to see how they (if they?) make it through. This really is starting to feel like a Galactic Civil War. The conflict is splitting families.

 

Still thought that Zeb might have been annoyed that Ezra got them (the Specters) involved in some Imperial mess.
And good to see slicing survived as well.

 

I'll probably pick up the first book next paycheck or so.

 

Just ordered this book plus the first one off amazon.

If I enjoy them I might end up picking up the road to force awakens YR novel when they're released.

 

Dang it I read this and now I'm worried about these kids too.

The mental image of that drill sergeant yelling at Ezra gives me life.

And now we've got an equivalent of "big walking carpet" for Zeb. "Big slab of purple beef".

 

Dear jasonfry,

If you kill Merei, I will be very, very, VERY disappointed in you.

Sincerely,
Nanci

P.S. I really liked this book. Moar pls!

 

And my axe! I mean, co-sign.

 

I just read both the Servants of the Empire books in as many days. Really, really, really good stuff. More in depth thoughts are below...

Spoiler

The epilogue with the Inquisitor was the most intimidating I've ever found him to be, by far, and when Zare lies to get to his sister...man, I can't wait to see where that ends up.

I really can't get over how good that was! I mean, just from a characterization and worldbuilding perspective it was fascinating, and it was very well paced. I expected it to be better than average for a YA novel, but that was better than "Tarkin" WHICH I ENJOYED!

Some highlights for me...the flawless transitions into following the actual dialogue of the corresponding episode and then flowing back into the rest of the story. It was actually infuriating when it would get to a part that wasn't in the episode, because Rebels (a show I love!) could've done so much more if it'd followed these books! Ah well.

Harvester is absolutely fascinating, to me. I'm curious if it'll tie into the upcoming Darth Vader #5 events, but that does seem unlikely. Maybe more probable is an expansion of the whole Inquisitor idea, for Season 2? Really be nice to see it have a bigger impact on the world as a whole.

Laughed at Merei's mom saying "wrath of the empire" at the end. If it hadn't been the last line of the book I would've rolled my eyes, but it worked.

Are there other canon EU YA novels sort of written at this level? I can never tell in the stores if it's going to be a YA book like this, or if it'll be, well, more of a chapter book.

 

Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy, also by Jason Fry, might count. It's a recap of TCW Season 4-5 from Maul's point of view. It's technically Legends at the moment - but it's so "TCW-episode-centric" that it really should be carried over.

 

Not to derail the thread, but when folks ask what's different about working with Story Group this is something I can point them to. Shadow Conspiracy was written from scripts, with fight descriptions that were essentially placeholders, important changes to episodes after the book wrapped, and limited art reference. For Rebel in the Ranks I got to watch a nearly-complete version of "Breaking Ranks," which meant I had a sense of how action scenes worked and also the "feel" of scenes. If all you have is a description of the Inquisitor standing in a room with Kallus, Aresko and Zare you'll miss the moonlight, the way his posture communicates the rage he's holding in, the expression on the others' faces, etc.

Not to say that Shadow Conspiracy was a bad experience as a writer or that I think it's a lousy book -- it was a lot of fun to do, everyone at LFL was as accommodating as they could be, and I think it's a good read. But the additional level of access and assistance helped make Rebel in the Ranks, IMHO, a much better book.