Renegades

Author: Thomas Locke 
Genre: YA Science Fiction

Twins Sean and Dillon are using their transit abilities for good--but not everyone sees it that way. Arrested and imprisoned by a clandestine group within the highest reaches of the Human Assembly, Sean and Dillon are forced to choose sides between those who wish to serve and those who seek to rule.

At the same time within a distant outpost, a young soldier is

coming into his own. Logan has known since childhood that he possesses a special gift--he can detect others who have the ability to transit, or ghost-walk. Though ghost-walking has been outlawed for centuries, Logan is secretly drawing together a crew for a risky quest.

The fates of these three young men will lead them, along with the entire Assembly, to the brink of destruction in this inventive tale of adventure, honor, and the things worth fighting for.

Reviewer: Susan Poll

This is one of those fantastic world building, future envisioning, action packed, page turning, in-depth storyline, imagination stimulating stories. Yes, this book has it all! The characters are engaging and endearing with their flaws and personal battles they struggle with. The dialogue and interactions between characters are thought out and kept me turning pages. The twins are back in this second one of the series and the author has them growing into themselves and their futures with some hard hitting growing pains. There are many characters and names to keep up with, but the story flows so well that it shouldn’t be a hindrance.  Add this one to your bookshelf!

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing.

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Reviewer: Crystal P.

Not recommended, even for a sci-fi fan.

I'm going to start off with this: I have no clue what just happened. That is not a good thing in this case. I'm normally a huge fan of most Sci-Fi, but this one just flopped for me. I'll admit I did not read the first book, but I hoped I could have a general idea of the series. Boy, was I wrong.

~ Renegades cannot be read as a stand-alone book. ~ 

You're expected to know who the characters are and what happened in the last book. Apparently, a lot happened in the last book that made it super difficult for me to know who the characters were. Apparently, someone was in a coma... and it mentioned some of the twins' break-ups with their old girlfriends. This all happened in the last book, so it was a bit confusing for me. I wish I had realized this before going into the book.

~ There was no plot and the story was ...what even happened? 

Like I started out in the beginning of my review, the story was utterly confusing. The plot was all over the place and there were multiple things that made no sense. I was super clueless for the whole book. I rarely got into it, if I ever did at all. Where did Landon's kidnapping fit into all of this? Am I expected to understand court trials? Because I did not get Sean and Dillion's trial... way too complicated for me. Had I not been given a copy to review, I probably would not have finished it. I don't even want to begin with the characters. I just felt no connection at all with them. The closest I even got to that was probably with Logan... but that ended quickly. Was this like the first book? 

Other thoughts... 

Even though there was minor romance and although it's mostly clean, it still was annoying. I thought this was a Christian author, but the book is more secular than the books I've seen around by him. I will hand it to him that he did make a pseudonym for Sci-Fi, but I really didn't expect a girl to literally just admit her feelings to a guy right away and then literally kiss him. How appropriate is that? And dragons... I mean, dragons are cool if done well, but it just seemed randomly thrown in.
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Overall, I am just disappointed by this author and I really wouldn't read another book by him. At least "Thomas Locke". 

Content Warnings:
Minor romance: mentions of attraction, break-ups, a kiss once. Violence: one death, lots of battle/war, etc.

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing.

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Reviewer: Camille Murray

I enjoyed Renegades. Although I'm not a huge fan of the writing style, it fits the genre, and Locke uses it to superb effect. He did a great job of weaving a political mess throughout the story. I really enjoyed the brother relationship between Sean and Dillon.

My biggest disappointment was the climax. After all that leadup, I expected a big, challenging end battle. But the ending was no bigger than the rest of the story. Everything pretty much went according to plan, and all the challenges that might have been worthy opponents for the ghost-walkers were quickly dealt with.

Overall, it was a fun story with decent suspense, and the world-building was very believable.

Book provided courtesy of Baker Publishing.

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