James Review -- Rebellion: Weapons of War

This week I decided to review Rebellion: Weapons of War by M.R. Forbes. 

The story begin the rebel starship Magellan has successfully escaped Earth after retrieving a Dread weapon from resistance forces on Earth in hopes of examining the weapon and discovering why Dread weapons can penetrate Dread armor that human weapons are useless against. But the Magellan fled beyond the edge of the slipstream it used to escape and is now stranded in deep space until another slipstream can be located and reached.

And, on board, Gabriel St. Martin faces the painful task of informing his father General Theodore St. Martin that among the human clones used by the Dread forces were clones of Gabriel's mother Juliet which means she was captured by the Dread at some point. And this news comes while the general is struggling with addiction to the pain medications he was put on after losing his legs. But rather then driving the general further to despair, this news ignites a new determination to beat his addiction and regain his ability to lead. 

Back in the Sol system, Dread officer Tea'va is assigned command of the warship Ishur and sent to pursue the Magellan. He forms an alliance with the scientist Zoelle, one of the clones of Juliet St. Martin, and when the Magellan is located he launches a fighter strike with the few pilots recovered from the strain of the many slip jumps needed to intercept Magellan. In desperation, the humans launch their own fighters only to discover to their shock that the fighter weapons can damage and destroy the normally immune Dread Bats. 

After this failed strike, the Dread known as Gr'el launches an attempt to assassinate Tea'va and seizes control of the Ishur. Tea'va escapes but finds himself on the run through his former command with his allies dead and Zoelle turning against him to become Gr'el's second in command. Meanwhile, on the Magellan the vessel's science team discover the secret behind the Dread armor which leads to the Magellan launching a desperate assault on the Ishur. 

Elsewhere on Earth, Soon Kim, a pilot from Magellan shot down drawing fire from the fighter carrying the captured Dread weapon, is rescued by a resistance unit led by Donovan Peters and Ehri, one of the Juliet clones who has turned against the Dread. They return to find their base overrun and receive orders from their dying general to take the base's medical officer and flee to a major resistance base in Texas. But the journey is made difficult by Dread forces hunting for them, and cracking down on any surviving free human settlements they can find. Donovan's band meet both friendly and hostile humans and launch an attack on a Dread base hoping to win a victory to rally survivors, many of whom have spent all their lives running from and fearing the Dread conquerors, to the rebel cause.

I give this book 7.5 out of 10. The author did a great job with the main characters but there was far too little attention given to developing the minor characters in my opinion. There were many times minor characters died and I felt nothing because they hadn't been developed enough for me to have any feeling regarding them. The author did wonderfully develop the Dread culture and explain their point of view and motivations and feelings regarding the war, but the action scene needed more length and intensity badly. Also, there was a love triangle side plot which I feel was pointless. The story ended on a good cliffhanger though and I'm still looking forward to the pending sequel.