Natalia has been raised under the tyranny of President Vayne, who brainwashes anyone with Elemental gifts for his army. When the rebels invade, she and most of her found family are freed. But will their newfound powers be enough to rescue their nation – and the brother left behind? AJ Wolfe’s THE AETHER CHRONICLES: Rebellium may look like a long book, but it is so full of action and energy that it is relatively easy to pick it up, get lost in the story, and put it down a few hundred pages later feeling as if only minutes have passed. The characters are well-drawn and three-dimensional, with the reader permitted to see from multiple perspectives throughout the book (including Damien’s tortured and brainwashed mind, which is both disturbing and intensely powerful). Natalia’s courage, devoted loyalty, and love for her friends make her thoroughly likeable, while her impulsive, sometimes rash behavior and temper keep her from becoming the Perfect Noble Heroine, who might be morally perfect but is seldom very interesting.
Fraiser, her rival among the rebel forces, matches and balances her energy with a cool calculation and sharply logical intelligence that never becomes inhuman or unloving. Roman, leader of the rebels, is not only a strong and caring leader, but also a young man worried about leading others to their potential deaths, grieving his lost mother and filled with fury at the father who betrayed him for power. The action in this book, both physical and emotional, barely ever stops moving, and there are no dull moments or tedious backstory to drag the plot down. The fighting is believably and vividly described, and the cost of war is clearly and painfully portrayed. Romantic subplots are handled tenderly and warmly, with the characters portrayed as falling in love for real and genuine reasons as they actually get to know each other. The magic is reasonably well-developed, with a system and rules familiar to the users – at the one point those rules seem to break, it is believably startling to all involved and adds an interesting plot twist that also creatively pushes back against overused tropes in YA fantasy fiction.
Wolfe’s worldbuilding is well-done and clearly thought out, with only minor quibbles here and there – for example, the fact that the poorest sector has the fewest people in it while the richest has the most, when it is almost always the other way around for the same reason that most ecosystems have far more prey animals than predators. Still, it’s easy enough to suspend disbelief and get emotionally involved in this world and its problems. The ending offers satisfactory resolution as well as the promise of potential new stories for sequels to take on. All in all, for readers who enjoy stories involving fierce and dedicated heroines taking on injustice with the power of friendship and magic, THE AETHER CHRONICLES: Rebellium is the first installment in what promises to be an excellent new series in that genre.
An action-packed, adrenaline-fueled story of courage, daring, and resistance to tyranny, THE AETHER CHRONICLES: Rebellium by AJ Wolfe is a promising start to a series based on Elemental magic.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader