A multiverse traveling, genetically engineered super soldier, who is a young and strong female character? Yes, please. If you agree, The Rift Uprising trilogy by Amy S. Foster may be right up your alley. 2017 delivered The Rift Frequency, Foster’s second installment, and it was a fun and fast-paced read.I’m a guy’s guy of a guy. I like shoot ’em ups and greasy food and semi-bitter beer. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would also enjoy female led young adult sci-fi, I probably would have laughed at you. And yet, over the last few years, some of my favorite books have included strong young adult female characters. Sure, I liked The Hunger Games. Who didn’t? But I’ve also just finished Alastair Reynolds Revenger (review coming soon) and I am through two of the three of Kelly Sedinger’s Forgotten Stars trilogy, both Reynolds and Sedinger feature young sisters as their lead characters, and both were thoroughly enjoyable. Add to that list the exciting second installment of Amy S. Foster’s The Rift Uprising trilogy, and I have had a great and unexpected few years of reading.

Author Profile: An Interview With Author Kelly Sedinger

Catching Up

The Rift Uprising books feature a group of teenagers who were genetically engineered to be super soldiers, designed to protect the Earth from “immigrants” who come through rifts that open pathways to the multiverse and what would appear to be an endless supply of alternate versions of Earth. The first book, which I reviewed earlier this year, takes place on Earth and focuses on Beta Team, which is led by Ryn Whittaker, a layered and complex character who has to deal with both the troubles of being a teenager and the challenges of leading a team of super soldiers while they save the world. Just another day in the life, right? The Rift Uprising ends with a great “holy crap, I didn’t see that coming” moment that very nicely sets up the second book.

The Rift Frequency

There’s a couple of major complications in the first book. First and foremost, Ryn discovers that everything they’ve been told over the years is a complete lie. The organization that oversees the Citadels has misled them from the get go. The uprising that book one and the trilogy are named after is an uprising by the Citadels against their “masters.” The catalyst for Ryn’s discovery in book one is Ezra, a young guy who came through the rift, and who at the end of the first book, ends up unwillingly back in the rift, traveling to who knows which of the endless selection of alternative Earths. He has with him, some very important stolen information that is essential to the Citadels. Oh yeah, Ryn has feelings for Ezra too. Minor detail, right?

The Rift Frequency, in a great departure (literally and figuratively) from the first book takes place as Ryn and another Citadel, Levi, another character with some interesting layers, but mostly just a dumb guy, head into the rift on an Ezra rescue mission. While book one takes place entirely on our Earth, Frequency takes place entirely on a myriad of other versions of Earth. It is great fun to read as Foster explores several alternative timelines that assume different outcomes to major historical events that we have all studied in history class. One of my favorite parts of this exercise is Foster’s attention to little details, like how clothing and customs from an ancient civilization have evolved to modern day. While I won’t spoil it, I really enjoyed Ryn and Levi’s visit to a planet of sentient robots who have the faces of celebrities from our Earth.

Characters

The first book is a “big picture” book and we get to know a larger group of Citadels and the leadership structure that commands them. We get to meet the alien, Edo, a Roone who came through the rift early on and helped the people of Earth to create the Citadels through genetic engineering.

Amy S. Foster’s Author Page on Amazon. See all of her novels.

The second installment, however, zooms in and the main focus is just three characters, Ryn, Ezra, and Levi. While there are certainly other characters involved, they play a much smaller role, as the story develops those three characters much more completely. Layers are peeled away, new versions of the characters appear beneath them. It is exciting to see that these are complicated and complete characters that are not always so sure of themselves, ya know, like real teenagers. At the end, I found my opinions of characters changing, and even my allegiances shifting.

The Story

After writing my first review, I read some other reviews and found that the biggest criticisms of the first book involved the language, because the characters talk like actual teens, and the focus on sex, because the characters think like actual teens. Both of those elements exist in this installment, as well. I wasn’t really troubled by it then, although I did mention in my first review that there were adult themes, and I am not really troubled by it in this book. Be warned, if those things concern you, or you are choosing books for really young adults, maybe this book isn’t right for you yet. I am confident that, like The Hunger Games, that these books will hold up pretty well.

In comparison to the first book, I liked this story better. Sometimes, multiverse stories are muddy, and hard to embrace, as the science is sloppy or the time/dimensional travel “rules” are pushed too hard. Foster uses the multiverse as a backdrop more than a character itself. It is a highway system that gets the characters from one place to another, and I didn’t find myself bogged down by it. I didn’t get wrapped up in the onerous rules of time and dimensional travel. As a matter of fact, there is a nice moment when one character meets a different Earth version of themself, and it was a fun bit. As written, Foster’s multiverse was easy to accept, and nothing made me stop and question it along the way. I’m not gonna lie, I am not a believer in the multiverse theory and that makes me have to stretch to suspend my disbelief. That never happened once while reading this book. I enjoyed visiting the different iterations of Earth and seeing what peoples and technologies that Foster dreamed up. It’s an easy read with chapters short enough to read several and stop at a chapter break. I like that short chapter style a lot.

I think, overall, one of the things that I liked best about this book is that things I thought we knew at the end of book one get totally flipped on their head at the end of book two. That is good, clever writing, and I hope that Foster is able to do that again in the third outing.

One of the few things I didn’t love about the book was the ending. At the end of book one, while there was a nice cliffhanger introduced, it came to a logical ending, with resolution to the conflicts of that book. Frequency ends without much resolution to any of the conflicts set up in it. We’ll need to wait until the final book comes out for resolutions to conflicts set up in this book. Anticipation. Ugh. I am impatient at times.

Related: Grumpy’s Best Bets on Sci-fi and Fantasy Releases this December

One of my criticisms of the first book was the abundance of pop culture references. Because of the amount of them, they seemed forced. Frequency is also a book full of them. It certainly did not distract me as I read through. This book, like its predecessor, is a fast-paced, action packed, science fiction book that crosses young adult characters with military sci-fi. I plowed through it in a matter of days. Also, as I was researching the book, I found an article about the book(s) being developed into movie(s), and I think this would make an outstanding film adaptation.

Final Score



9/10

I thought this was a better book than the first installment. It was a quick read because I was engaged throughout with the characters, the setting, and the story. I enjoyed watching the characters develop more completely, and the multiverse theory was used in just the right amount to make it enjoyable, without testing my ability to suspend my disbelief. Ryn is challenging as a character. She is not always likable, which I think makes for a great protagonist.

+ Nice character development on multi-layered characters

+ A simple version of the multiverse

+ Cool new races and technologies

– Adult language and themes, if that bothers you

– The ending didn’t provide resolutions to some conflicts set up in this book

In addition to writing kickass sci-fi books, “Amy S. Foster is a celebrated songwriter, best known as Michael Bublé’s writing partner, and has collaborated with Beyoncé, Diana Krall, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, and a host of other artists” (From the author provided bio).

What do you think? Have you read any of The Rift Uprising books? Leave me a comment below.



The Grumpy Geek, Pete Herr is the author of “10 Things We Should Teach You In High School and Usually Don’t”. He is the oldest geek in the Geekiverse by a factor of two. Follow Pete Herr on Facebook, Twitter,and Instagram . If you don’t he gets Grumpy. You don’t want to see him Grumpy.

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