This series is by far one of the most amazing I have ever (yet) read, and I really liked this second book. ( )

Solid YA SF adventure. Sheepy was a nice touch. ( )

This review is also published on my blog Lis Carey's Library

This is the second book in a series, and so I had to pick up clues to the backstory while reading this one. There was enough there that it wasn't a serious problem.

The setting is a generational colony ship headed from parts unknown to parts unknown. The original, or at least the previous, governing structure had been overthrown generations earlier, and the population of the ship divided into Uppers and Scrubs. The tensions in that society came to a head in the previous book, Inside Out, the ruling class dominated by the Trava family was overthrown, and a new government and social structure, intended to be more egalitarian, was created.

As the new book opens, the rebels against the previous regime are finding out that sometimes governing is harder than it looks, and overthrowing a bad government doesn't automatically mean that the new system will work. Trella, the seventeen-year-old leader of the Force of Sheep that spear-headed the rebellion, thinks she's too young and inexperienced to take a leading role in the new government, and insists on deferring to older and presumably wiser heads. She has accepted only an advisory seat on the ruling Committee, and then resigns even that, since she thinks she's more useful exploring the world they now know is a ship, and much larger than they previously thought.

But some of her fellow Scrubs resent the fact that the Uppers still mostly do the relatively soft jobs, while Scrubs still do the heavy, filthy, and sometimes dangerous work. The Trava family is mostly locked up in the brig, and wants out--and they have the greatest technical knowledge of the ship, including knowledge of the Transmission, the ship's drive and power plant.

And then some party identifying itself simply as the Controllers starts taking control of various critical ship's systems. Trella and some of her friends and allies think it's the Travas. Some of the Scrubs, the ones who have kept working but are not happy with the new system, think it's, in essence, the ancestors, the forces that are supposed to be the ultimate governing force in their world, which have been ignored by both the Committee and the Travas before them. And they start cooperating with the Controllers.

Trella finds herself unwillingly drawn back into politics, espionage, and eventually rebellion again, trying to figure out who are her allies and who are her enemies--and then finding out that she has to cooperate with her enemies, as they all confront the alarming fact that, if their world is a spaceship, then there are people outside the ship.

This is an exciting, entertaining story with lots of plot twists to keep you guessing what will happen on the next page, and engaging characters to help you care.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book via NetGalley. ( )

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

A while ago I read Inside Out, the first book in this series, and though I liked the story, I didn’t really like the way it was written, which is probably why it took me so long to finish it (nearly a month). I decided to leave the second book for a while, and I kinda forgot about it until I saw this book in the supermarket. It was only three euros, and though it was in Dutch, I decided to buy it.

On Saturday, I spend an entire day without internet, and I figured I could start reading this book, because it might be an easy read. And indeed, it was. I finished it on the same day, and I might have enjoyed it a bit better than the first book.

The first thing I noticed, was that the names hadn’t changed at all. Usually, when a book gets translated into a different language, the names are being changed too, but as far as I can remember, all the names were still the same as they were in English. Though the Dutch writing seemed quite ‘childish’ to me (and I don’t really remember what Maria V. Snyder’s own writing is like), it did make it easier to read.

In this book, Trella has to deal with the fact that no one from the Lower Levels wants to work anymore, unless the ‘Uppers’ do the same jobs as they do. Then, there’s the problem of people trying to sabotage the ship (which is what we found out at the end of the last book, and it might be a tiny spoiler), and the fact that there is something outside the ship wants to get in.

And then of course, there is Riley, and a lot of other problems that Trella and the Insiders have to deal with. Honestly, I thought this book had a bit more action, and I liked the fact that there was something in the Outside that wanted to get Inside.

I might go and reread the book in English soon, just to see how differently the writing is, but first I’m going to read the other 50 books on my to-read shelf! ( )

At the start of this volume of the Inside Out series, the rebellion is over and the committee has been reformed to help govern inside. Trella is trying to quietly step into the background and allow the committee to do it's job. Unfortunately, the committee isn't quite working out the way it was planned and there is unrest among everyone which gives Outsiders a foot hold in.

In the first book the revolution comes about quickly and with minimal blood shed. I was really glad that in this book the transfer to a new government wasn't smoothed over. I was afraid that it was going to be a book where after the rebellion everything was going to be perfect until the Outsiders came. I was very happy to that author showed how hard it was to bring everyone together and to find a good way to govern inside.

The pacing of the book is quick with action on almost every page. There is one incident after another and it seems impossible to figure out who is doing what. If I hadn't known about the Outsiders from the goodreads blurb, I don't think I would have figured it out.

Trella's temprement adds to the action because she often doesn't stop and think about things but just continues to do what she deems is necessary. Trella is a character that I have grown to love and I really enjoyed reading about her development. She could see the problems caused by the committee and slowly came to the realization that her involvement was important because she was able to help bridge the gap between Uppers and Lowers, both because of who she was and how she saw things.

There are two things that I really wished I had gotten to see though. I would have loved to have gotten some more of the history of Inside when Logan found it and I would have liked to have followed Riley a little bit. I'm not going to explain why because I don't want to give away any spoilers but it would have been interesting to see things from his perspective. However these are really minor issues for me and overall I really enjoyed the read.

( )