ISBN: 978-0553499193
Publisher/date: Knopf Books for Young Readers (March 13, 2018)
Genre: YA Sci-fi
Series: The Illuminae Files: Book 3
"Alea iacta est. The die has been cast... What happened here on Kerenza is not the story of one corporation against another. It is the story of what happened to those caught in the middle."
STOP READING HERE if you haven't read Illuminae or Gemina. But if you have, do you really need my review to read Obsidio? No, you don't, because you already know the awesomeness that is this series.
But I'm going to write this review anyway because FEELINGS!!!!!
Remember all of the characters we've already met? Let's put them in one book, bring them back to where it all started, and add back in Kady's cousin Asha who is STILL ALIVE, and the guy she ran a universe away from. Oh, and btw, he works for BeiTech.
If that wasn't enough to get you hooked, I honestly don't know what is.
Maybe if I told you that I laughed out loud. "Get the fuck inside before I freeze my Brittany off!" Did they seriously just make my name a new name to call a vagina? LOL.
My stomach literally clenched with anticipation. "Like a life. Like a universe. It begins as all things do, very small."
I cried over the bravery of the resistance stuck on Kerenza, fighting to the bitter end. "When you look down the barrel at your ending, will you be able to smile at it like this guy does?"
And cried over the grief the characters still hold from the previous books, unforgotten. "This knowledge that never goes away that beats at the back of my head all the time. This is forever."
And cried over the atrocities BeiTech has committed. "You weak bastard! You mother fucker! She's 13 fucking years old!"
And I cried over a monster. "Every story needs it's villain. And it's hero. And it's monster."
I screamed at this book, sobbed and sobbed some more. Dammit Amie and Jay, WHY DO YOU LIKE TO BREAK MY HEART?! I loved this book. I loved this series. I love Amie and Jay for writing it. I love all of the characters. I love that the authors even show us things from the villains' sides. They are not faceless monsters. They are people, who came to be in this situation in a believable way. This is a story that makes you remember that when countries go to war, it's the people caught in the middle who suffer.
Sci-fi is a genre that turns many people off, because all of the gadgets and technology often take from the story instead of giving it a background. But Amie and Jay have truly done the genre justice, creating a believable future with a believable level of technology and a believable scenario that could have easily been written in the modern or even a historical background. This background adds to the story in an interesting and unique way, in a very unique and forward-thinking format.
I listened to the audiobooks, which I highly recommend for their production value. I especially enjoyed Analyst ID 7213 0089, whose humorous narrations brought levity to some truly horrible (and very disgusting) parts of the story. (Although I'll note that after reading the entire series, shouldn't he have had a Russian accent? Hmmm...) But I just purchased the set of hardcovers, because I loved the series so much that I definitely plan to do a reread. Or several. And read pretty much anything Amie and Jay write from here on out.
Thank goodness there's Aurora Rising for my book hangover, which I'm currently suffering of in epic proportions although I literally finished this book a couple hours ago.
6 FUCKING STARS, BEST SCI-FI SERIES EVAAAAAAAAAAAIDANAAAAAAA