Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

You can check out the reviews of the previous books in The Illuminae Files series:

Illuminae
Gemina

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3)
By: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

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 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, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken. – Goodreads

The Illuminae Files series is one of those rare series that really keeps up their momentum throughout. It keeps a unique structure of telling the story through surveillance reports, radio transmissions, official documents, etc. The first two books had hints of paying tribute to certain popular horror classics in a sci-fi context with their own little twists added in. The characters are teenagers primarily as the main protagonists but yet also have their supporting characters in the crew to save their world. To be fair, all three books use a similar structure of having a countdown heading toward some possible imminent death. However, due to the time crunch that adds to the tension, there are the relationships who give the character depth but never let it overshadow the main issue at hand, survival. Its also the fact that we only get a chunk of the situation and never the full picture that there leaves mystery and a lot of spots to add in our own conclusions, if any can be made until the final act.

I’ve talked a lot about the general series up to this point. The fact is, The Illuminae Files are the most effective a unit together and for that, I have been debating to re-read the entire trilogy back to back. Even though I say that, because I did read each of these books, a year or two apart from each other, they still have a very nice self-contained element even if this final book, Obsidio brings together the stories of Illuminae and Gemina to create it, the level of connection to the characters is the main factor that gets pulled into the equation. The first two books are essentially two different stories. With that said, it is inevitable that the final book of the trilogy becomes less self-contained than the previous two. However, the story here, while still having some events overlapping the previous books, still manages to craft its own story and pulls together all the loose pieces lying about and pulls it all together and even gives us an idea of how these Illuminae Files came together. In the realm of what it does, Obsidio shows really detailed view of getting to this point and seeing the big picture of how to put together this story in a complete way.

There’s so much to love about Obsidio. Fact is, at this point, the characters are all such a crucial element. With each hardship, they grow and develop a little more. Obsidio is done with so much care for the situation at hand, the sci-fi factor but also keeping in check that these characters are young and have to make some difficult decisions and become such a pillar and being pulled into a situation that they didn’t want to and the courage they have. Its a fast-paced novel with layers of tension, sarcastic humor and adventure. Its a book full of surprises and twists and turns and done in such a clever way.

Goodreads: 5/5

The Illuminae Files may be done but I’ve finished just in time as this author duo’s next book (maybe starting off a new series) is going to be released soon and I cannot wait to read it.