From bestselling author duo Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff comes the exciting finale in the trilogy that broke the mold and has been called “stylistically mesmerizing” and “out-of-this-world-awesome.”Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station … Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza–but who knows what they’ll find seven months after the invasion? Meanwhile, Kady’s cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza’s ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys–an old flame from Asha’s past–reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heros will fall, and hearts will be broken.
A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF 2018
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**spoiler alert**
This book was a great finish to the Illuminae series. Although I was sad to see so many characters die, especially Boll, I thought this aspect made the storyline feel more believable. I’m also not sure how I feel about AIDAN not really being dead. I really liked the AI character and felt like the authors could do a spinoff series around it. At times the book was a little slow, but overall I really like how the authors developed the characters, threw in some great twists, and ended the stories of the character I have come to love.
An amazing end to the Illuminae trilogy; this book weaves together the narratives of the existing characters while filling in gaps about what is happening on Kerenza through the perspectives of our two new major characters.
Kady, Ezra, Hanna and Nik are now aboard the container ship Mao and enroute back to Kerenza to see if anyone survived the invasion by BeiTech. Little do they know that the conflict is still active and many survivors are starting to rebel against the Pounders, BeiTech troops on the ground trying to keep order. Asha Grant, Kady’s cousin, survived the attack and is currently working as a pharmacy intern at the hospital. She is working with an underground resistance group and trying to keep a young child who is hiding from the troops. If they find her they will kill her. Rhys Lindstrom shocks Asha when he appears working for the other side. He is an old flame of hers and they parted ways on a bad note.
The final book in this trilogy bring everything full circle. Kady, Hanna and Ella make a great team and Ezra and Nik are a team made in combat heaven. With everyone working together, and AIDAN helping out, they are bound to beat BeiTech and see justice served.
It was an exciting and tragic ride through space. There are no plot twists, but there are plenty of OMG moments. Asha and Rhys are a great addition to the team and I liked having Kady’s dad around. He was a voice of reason, but still listened to the kids, unlike some others.
This whole trilogy had been one amazing ride and I will miss AIDAN and all the others. I wish there was more.
Rating: 4.5 stars
I think they could have developed Rhys and Asha’s story more; their story felt very rushed, and they had the least bit of personality from the group. This book also had the slowest pacing compared to its counterparts. Things moved very slowly before we got to meaty action. Gemina and Illuminae was action and fear right from the getgo, Obsidio takes a while to get to it.
That said, this series was so good. By the end of it, my heart was racing because I needed all the characters to make it out alive. I love each of them individually, though Hannah remains my favorite. My heart was literally aching when I made it to the final page—I’m going to miss them 🙁
This series was fast paced, intense, cinematic, unique, and overall fantastic. I would highly recommend to everyone!
When you’ve lost it all, what is there to fight for?
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Rating: 5/5
Absolutely brilliant is what this series is. I loved it. It’s easily one of the best series I’ve read ever.
In Obsidio we get to tag along our favorite ragtag team as they embark in a win all or lose all mission. The fate of thousands rest on the hands of a bunch of teens who have balls of steel. Every second counts and every decision has consequences.
This book gave me everything I was hoping for and then some. I cried, laughed and got so angry I almost tossed it across the room.
I loved how everything was wrapped up. The goodbyes, the encounters. The battles. The growth of the characters. Everything was on point.
I won’t spoil it for you but I’ll say this, some goodbyes were hard. Some hellos were anticlimactic but every page was magic.
The world building even on the last book was magnificent. The character development all the different interactions on point.
My fav. Character and please don’t burn me on the stake for it;was Aidan. Even though everyone hated everything he did, he did it for the greater good. If it wasn’t for him no one would have survived. He was the one that saved all the MCs. We wouldn’t have this amazing journey if it wasn’t for him.
I can see this series becoming a movie or a series and it would be awesome.
Well, all the gritty, desperate, struggle-for-survival excitement comes down to this third and final book of The Illuminae Files Young Adult Sci-Fi series. Each book has kept the thriller action in space taunt with tension and desperation so that I was at near distraction waiting for my pre-ordered book arrive.
Obsidio, as book three, is not a good place to start. This is a series that needs to be read in order for all the clues in the conspiracy and building series action to make sense.
Each book is presented as a case file documenting the extent of a travesty that various key players are trying to make known so that justice may be found for all the victims, dead and alive. The big picture is only fully revealed by this last book.
I went into Obsidio worried that it couldn’t live up to all the build up and promise of the first two books, but I soon learned to set that aside. Things have come full circle and its for all the marbles as all the key players find themselves engaged in an epic battle for survival and if not survival, the opportunity to tell the true story of what happened when Bei Tech military attacked a civilian illegal mining colony to gain control of the mining resources and began a war between two big monopolies with the civilians caught in the middle.
Like the others before it, this book pulls no punches with catastrophic events and devastation. It really does a good job of making one see what being in the middle of a war is really like particularly for non-combatants who must step up just to survive. This is a young adult in that the main figures who are the movers and shakers are teens, but I think it is a series that is actually suited to adult readers maybe moreso. There is a ruthless, dark and desperate quality to it.
But, like the first two books, a romance pair emerges. Granted, they are living on the edge of life and death so its not a prime focus, but a second chance romance is there and I enjoyed seeing them worth through mistrust, assumptions, and their continued connection in spite of it all.
Now, what takes this beyond a typical sci-fi space adventure is the epistolary format of the book. It’s told in security feeds, messages, memos, graphic art, and more. My only niggles is that at times the lighter shaded script was hard to read. The security feeds are told in an omniscient observer narrator who quips and comments on what he or she is observing. One might think this would make it hard to engage with the story, but in truth, I had no trouble getting emotionally involved and teared up or laughed out more than once. I found the notes Isaac left all those teen heroes on the eve of battle poignant, Nic’s crazy need to go around with a spacesuit and parachute with it was whimsical, Ella’s snark or Aidan (my bittersweet homicidal favorite AI)’s thoughts were also hits.
I have book hangover now and really don’t want to leave this series behind. It was stellar all around and I will definitely be going for a re-read at some point. For sci-fi lovers, this one is a must.
I am so satisfied. This series is gold! Loved it so very much.
What a great way to end a such groundbreaking series. I loved all the characters coming together in this third volume and finding a way to prevail under impossible odds. Now I’m off to go find more from these authors!
I’m diving straight back into this series right now, for multiple reasons. One: I loved this series so much and the audibooks are EVERYTHING. Two: I’ll admit to being confused and feeling like I need to go back and reread/relisten because I might have missed things on the first listen.
I think Illuminae might be my favorite of the trilogy, but I’m excited to reread them and see if that holds up after. Kady, Hanna, Nik, Ezra, Aiden, Asha, gah – I love every single one of these characters! These books are filled with so much action and information it can be a tad difficult to keep up. Pay close attention.
I might update my reviews after my reread.
So much emotion wrapping up the end of this series, I am not sure how I’m going to shake the massive book hangover that this one is already causing me.
This whole book I laughed out loud, I gasped out loud, and I was extremely emotionally distraught several times. All things that make up a perfect book!
I could not have asked for a better ending to this series and this has been on my re-read shelf since I finished book one.
I’ve listened this in audiobook and I absolutely loved how the authors concluded this amazing trilogy.
Will beitech pay? Could Ezra, Kady, Hannah, Nik and Ella survive??? Read and find out…
On the other hand I liked Rhys and Asha, they were awesome in their roles and it was great to read how they cared for one another.
But the most important element of this book for me is AIDAN, I love him, he is the best 😉
This is book 3 of a series. This is one of the best series I’ve ever read in my life. I suggest you start with Illuminae. The entire book is written like a graphic novel along with texts and emails. It is told through the eyes of the characters. Each novel contains 2 different
protagonists, whom you will love. The characters are beautifully developed. Obsidio, the 3rd book, ties everything together. I cannot recommend a book more highly.
Obsidio was one of my most anticipated releases for this year. I had previously listened to both Illuminae and Gemina and was easily caught up in the action of Katie, Ezra, Hannah, and Nick as they fought against Bei Tech’s forces. Obsidio wraps up their stories while giving us two new characters to root for in Asha and Rhys. A couple who lost touch with each other and ended up on opposite sides of this war.
Katie and Ezra, in Illuminae Files had escaped Kerenza, but her cousin Asha was one of those who were left behind to deal with the invading force. While working in the hospital, Katie runs into her old boyfriend Rhys, who has just landed on Kerenza from the invading spaceship Magellen, where he’s been for the last seven months. The combination of the atrocities he’s witnessing and seeing Asha who he still loves is enough for him to question what Bei Tech is doing on this planet. Is all as it appears? Meanwhile, Katie, Ezra, Hannah and Nick are on the spaceship Mao heading back towards Kerenza. Their crew is a mixture of crews from several ships and lets just say that they all don’t see eye to eye. Mix in the conflicted AIDAN, the AI computer that is malfunctioning due to his developing feelings, and the mutiny on the Bounty crew and you have an action packed novel that was really hard to not listen to from start to finish.
Since I had listened to both Illuminae and Gemina before reading, I decided to do the same thing with Obsidio. I was again amazed at the quality of the cast and the feeling that I was listening to a movie (with sound effects!) rather than a cast of narrators reading a book. This series is truly among the best when it comes to the audio quality of it’s cast. Combine that top quality cast with an emotional action novel and you get around 18 hours of fun! This was a hard novel to hit pause on for sure.
If I had one criticism, I would say that Asha and Rhys, while definitely pivotal characters in this book, seemed to also be somewhat superfluous. I had been so caught up in both Katie/Ezra and Hannah/Nick’s stories that Asha and Rhys paled in comparison. However, the climax to this book was as powerful as it was because of those two characters so I’m a little conflicted and ultimately shrugged those feelings off. AIDAN also can’t be forgotten. Bei Tech was the evil villain but AIDAN was a close second and his emotional development was fascinating. Is this really the last Illuminae Files book? The ending seemed to leave a small opening for another novel or an offshoot of this series. I hope so, these books were so much fun to listen to and read, truly innovative!
I really liked how this trilogy ended. Solid, but with a tiny hint that could be expanded into another series, or just left alone to wonder
A perfect ending. Good bye Aidan