Tuesday, November 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh

 




Rebel Seoul is a YA Science Fiction novel by Korean-American author Axie Oh, featuring a dystopian SF take on Korea.  It's also a story that features some giant mecha, a protagonist torn between wanting for a better life in a richer area and his past ties to rebels and gangs, as well as his feelings of betrayal....and a bit of romance between him and a girl bred to be a kind of weapon.  The book first got my attention a few years back, but my libraries at the time didn't have a copy, so it took me till now - years after the book even got a sequel - to give it a try.  

And I really did like Rebel Seoul quite a bit, thanks to its main character, a really relatable protagonist - Jaewon - who came from nothing and has felt betrayed by the two most important people in his life - his dad and his best friend/brother-figure - for reasons that will surprise a bit the reader.  The romantic relationship between Jaewon and Tera, as well as the other characters and aspects of this dystopian setting, also work fairly well.  Some parts of the plot are a bit predictable, and honestly the giant mecha are the least interesting part here, but Rebel Seoul is pretty well done YA SF, and I'll be picking up the sequel soon enough.  




-------------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Lee Jaewon, scarred by betrayal from those closest to him - by both his now deceased father and his best friend Young - has decided he will do whatever it takes to get out of the streets of Old Seoul, where he grew up as part of a dangerous gang, and into the rich privileged world of Neo Seoul, a capital of the Neo State that rules the world.  To that end, he has become one of the best pilots of mecha in the Neo academy, and along with his privileged friends is so close to graduating and being given a position where he can leave Old Seoul behind for good.  

But Jaewon's life changes when he keeps running into a strange girl - first at a concert, then as part of his VR final graduation mission, where his life is on the line.  And then he discovers the girl, Tera, is the assignment at his new top secret job - a girl bioengineered to be a super soldier and to pilot one of the giant God Machines to help the Neo State win its current war.  Tera and her sister, who possesses psychic powers, are supposed to be the trump card for the Neo State against a rebellion that is only growing, a rebellion Jaewon has long buried ties too.  

Tera's powers are such that everyone wants her - the Neo State, the rebels, even the gang leader who once terrorized Jaewon's life.  But when Jaewon begins to fall for her, he becomes desperate to convince her there is another life for her than just being a tool of someone else, and that life is somewhat worth living....assuming he can get the others to let her live it......
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Rebel Seoul has a setup that makes you think it's one kind of story, when it really isn't quite that at all.  You have a dystopian future in which a new world order of governments - the Neo States - believe their dominance over typical nation states will somehow end war, which is clearly a lie.  You have a class system where people are left behind outside of the Neo cities, and you have gangs with substantial power who roam those older poorer cities.  And of course you have a group of rebels, a member of whom was the protagonist's father, who are fighting against the major government and hoping to change things back.  In a typical story with this kind of setup, Jaewon would wind up allied with the Rebels, and he and his friends, or at least he and Tera, would support the Rebels in a big strike against the Neo-State, possibly with the help of the gangs.  

This is not that type of story.  Oh Jaewon is a good guy at heart, who cares for people even if his biggest motivation at first is to secure himself within Neo Seoul, so he can get away from the poor life that featured the two greatest betrayals of his life.  But Jaewon is so affected by those betrayals - by the fact that the two most important people in his life left him, and did so without asking him what he wanted - that he doesn't care about rebellion or about the evils being perpetrated by the totalitarian neo government.  Jaewon is a survivor more than anything else, at least until he meets Tera...and then he gains a new purpose, which again isn't some noble idealistic goal, but rather instead towards convincing Tera she is a person, not a weapon, and deserving of her own life, and someone who has others to live life with.  This makes him a tremendous protagonist, one who doesn't have tremendously idealistic goals, but is instead committed to ensuring that he and his loved ones don't feel his old pain of being left alone, even for a good cause.  

This is of course complicated by the fact that those other parts of the world DO exist, even if Jaewon would prefer not to deal with them.  He can't avoid the rebels, or his rich privileged (and somewhat of  selfish asshole) Alex's reckless plans, or the gang leader who sees the bioengineering project as an example to emulate for his own disastrous plans.  He can't avoid the fact that the friend who he loves as a brother, who betrayed him, is still there and still cares for him.  And of course there's the giant mecha, as well as the dangerous legendary teenage general who has bad eyes towards him.  The result is a plot that takes some solid plot turns, even if one twist is so predictable you'll see it coming 200 pages away.  

It's a very solid plot, even for its predictability, and I really enjoyed this novel in one sitting.  The book has what I believe is a stand alone sequel (featuring Alex and Tera's sister Ama), and I am eager to bite into that too, to see how Oh takes the story from here.  Recommended for a solid YA SciFi story.

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