Rising Up takes place forty years after the arrival of the Areth, beings from space with advanced technology. They insist that we are descended from the survivors of their crashed spacecraft. They maintain ten thousand years of separate evolution accounts for the differences between us. They also claim they are here to help us. Most are sheep that can't see past the pretty propaganda that the aliens are spreading around. Some of the best and the brightest have seen through the lies and are working in Phoenix, a covert organization whose soul purpose is to overthrow the control of the Areth.

That is the story line, but the book is really about the people. So many truly wonderful people make up the heart and soul of the story. Their living quarters are twenty stories beneath a mountain outside Colorado Springs, former United States. My favorites are Nick and C. J., Jace and Lilly, Beverly Surimoto, Victor the Areth doctor who many times saved Michael's life and Michael, of course. Nick Tanner is a retired Earth Force colonel whose flight records have never been broken. Twenty-five years ago his wife and son died in childbirth. He's never gotten over it. The love of his life, Dr. Caitlin 'C. J.' Montgomery came to his ancestral lake cabin to show him a video of his son who hadn't died twenty-five years ago. Nick hasn't spoken to her since the night eight years ago he planned to give C. J. a ring, instead she left him without saying goodbye at the behest of her Areth supervisor. She'd been taken from her family at age seven and raised by the Areth to be a geneticist. She was really too young to think for herself, but Nick has still hated her for eight years. He won't speak to her now, but she was there and wouldn't leave until she'd told him about Michael. He is alive, but has been tortured, a prisoner, and a half-human guinea pig for the Areth's genetic experiments and entertainment his entire life. Nick's wife didn't die either, but she wasn't even human. She's the evil scientist torturing their son for pleasure.

When I say that I am anxiously awaiting the second installment of The Phoenix Rebellion, I mean it literally. The story ends in cliffhangers on three plot levels. This may well be my favorite book of all time. The Phoenix Rebellion Book 1: Rising Up is one of those rare books for which a five heart rating seems sadly inadequate. Don't miss this one!

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Very sensual

Reviewer: Karen H.
March 11, 2006