Name: The Rise of the Resistance: Phoenix One
ISBN: 9781635552591

Jackie D

The soul of America has been lost for almost a century. A few people may be the difference between a phoenix rising to save the masses or permanent destruction.

The Rise of the Resistance: Phoenix One

Megan Cooper

A relatively light science fiction novel set 70+ years in the future - a dystopian future where America has been divided into two - the isolationist, authoritarian, patriarchal police state that drugs its citizens to retain their power and and the outlying communities that have broken away but are hampered by limited resources and forced to trade the majority of their food in order to maintain some level of autonomy. 

The book starts in the present where a beleaguered President sees the writing on the wall with the rise of a fear mongering opposition who are poised to take over the government. He creates the Phoenix Project where four specially selected people (specialists in military, technology, psychology and history) will be cryogenically frozen and able to be activated when it is time to retake the government and reinstate democracy and American ideals. 

It's an interesting premise but the book itself just didn't work for me. I had more questions than answers with the world building, assumptions and overarching plot that kept pulling me out of the story. I didn't connect with either of the MCs and the romance seemed too stilted and forced. 

While reading this one, a number of things kept bugging me and pulled me out of the story
(view spoiler)[
Kaelyn is chosen because she's going to make such a good leader - but her character is relatively passive and never really leads. 
 
If I were Kaelyn, I'd be moderately weirded out by Arrow's fixation - she's read/watched all her lectures and books, gone through all her personal stuff and has been sitting beside her cryogenically frozen body for years just talking to her. It's almost stalkerish.

If it is such a bad thing that the McLeods set up a ruling dynasty - passing the leadership from father to son, why is is such a good thing that the former President's daughter is supposed to be the chosen leader of the Resistance/new America without anyone questioning it?

Phoenixes - Just because you're an expert in current times, doesn't mean you'll be an expert 70 years in the future - the context of things like culture, geography, psychology is fluid ... it like saying if Thomas Jefferson showed up, he'd be the perfect leader for the present. And why only four and why these specialties. 

That was the quickest and easiest coup ever ... was the population of the US reduced to a few thousand people all living in one city?  (hide spoiler)]