**This review will contain spoilers for the first two books in this series, Illuminae and Gemina**
For my next read, I decided to continue on with the Iluminae Files and picked up the third and final book in the trilogy, Obsidio. I was honestly surprised by how much I was enjoying the series up to this point, and I was excited to see how the story would end. Initially, I was thinking that there was no way the conclusion of the story could maintain the same level of suspense and engagement of the previous books. In my experience, it's kind of rare for a young adult series to end in a completely satisfying way. I figured it would probably be good but not great. I'm happy to report that I was wrong. Obsidio was awesome, and a worthy end to the adventure.
The story picks up back on Kerenza, where we quickly learn that Kady's cousin Asha is still alive and working as a nurse. When BeiTech attacked the colony way back in Illuminae, part of their fleet was crippled and forced to remain there, occupying the planet until they could make the necessary repairs to their ships. They have taken over the entire colony, murdering most of the civilians that didn't manage to escape the initial assault. They have had to keep some of the people living there alive, however, mainly to run the hermium mines so they can refuel their ships, but also to run things like medical facilities and make infrastructure repairs. Their plan to is liquidate everyone once they are mobile again, which they are very close to being.
Asha is part of a small resistance cell, and is doing everything she can to impede BeiTech's work until some form of rescue (hopefully) arrives. Her plans are shaken up, however, with the arrival of Rhys Lindstrom, BeiTech's new hotshot computer expert...and her old ex-boyfriend. Stunned that she once loved someone who is now working for a genocidal enemy, she has to figure out the best way to proceed. Rhys, being new and not understanding the gravity of the situation, is still interested in rekindling their relationship. She decides to try and persuade him to join the rebellion, and resist losing her heart to him again.
Meanwhile, on board the Mao, Kady, Hanna, and the rest of the gang from books one and two are in dire straits. They've managed to make it to a relatively safe location after escaping the Heimdall, but they now have very limited options for what to do next. They are stuck on the wrong side of a wormhole and are several lifetimes away from civilization. The only place close enough to get to is Kerenza, the very planet they were fleeing from in the first place. They head in that direction, but are unsure what their might find when they get there. The trip won't be easy. With all the remaining survivors from the Hypatia and the Heimdall jammed on their ship, they are carrying many more people than the Mao's life support systems were designed for and are running out of oxygen. The group must find a way around all these problems and figure out a plan for what to do once their make it to their destination.
Eventually, the groups unite and continue their fight against the BeiTech forces. They hope to finally defeat them, but if they can't do that, they want to at least ensure that their story can make its way back to the core systems so the world can learn what happened to them. Their struggle to achieve those goals leads up to a tense, action-packed conclusion where we get to see all of our teen heroes fight fiercely to save their world and bring justice to those who tried to destroy it.
Just like its predecessors, Obsidio was an excellent read. I thought it had a bit of a slower start than the others, but once it got going, I was just as engaged in the story as I had been previously. The new characters of Asha and Rhys were great, and having a BeiTech soldier in the mix brought a fresh perspective to the story. I did think that he was unrealistically naive at the start, but he catches onto what's happening on Kerenza pretty quickly, so it turned out okay. It was also nice having everyone from Illuminae and Gemina all together. I realized how much I had come to like the characters throughout the course of my reading by how much I enjoyed seeing them all interact with each other. Aiden, the computer AI, was still my favorite by far, and I continued to like the unique voice and style Kaufman and Kristoff used in his sections.
Many of the things I enjoyed in this novel are things that I have already elaborated on in my previous reviews. The action sequences, suspense, and twists were all very well done and there was definitely a lot of clever storytelling going on. The unique format of the text being a collection of documents continued to be an effective and entertaining way to present the narrative. All the loose ends were tied up nicely and the story felt complete in its final pages. Aside from my usual mention of needing to suspend your disbelief in the face of some pretty unlikely events, I don't have anything negative to say. This is an excellent young adult sci-fi series. I'm truly impressed.
One aspect of this trilogy that I haven't talked about much are the relationships. Each book features a romance between the two main characters, and Obsidio was no different. Asha and Rhys' relationship was fairly well-developed here, but I wouldn't say that that romances are the most engaging parts of the story. They don't bother me, but they don't exactly draw me in either. I do think that the friendship and family relationships are extremely effective though, especially in this third book, where many of the characters have lost family members and are starting to form new family relationships with each other. I liked how Hanna's father started bonding with the teens that lost their parents. There is a whole "found family" thing going on by the end of the series that I really liked.
The Illuminae Files is my first finished series of 2022 and the first completed series for my Finally in 2022 Challenge. Obviously, this was a great one to start off with because I was surprisingly into all three of these books. There is a lot of hype surrounding this trilogy in the YA world, and in this case, it is entirely justified. This is a really fun, action-packed, suspenseful science fiction set of books that I'm definitely going to be recommending to everyone who is into this genre. What a fantastic beginning to my year of trying to read more series!
Challenge Tally
Finally in 2022 - Series Edition: 3/28
Total Books Read in 2022: 9
No comments:
Post a Comment
So, what do you think?