Obsidio – Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Release date: 14 March 2018
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★ – 9/10
Goodreads link
Book Depository link (this is the Aussie paperback version with the mirrored cover)

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3) blurb:

Asha Grant came to Kerenza to escape her past. Too bad he caught up with her.

Asha survived BeiTech’s initial assault and has been working undercover with the hopelessly outmatched resistance ever since. That, and figuring out what to do with the secret she’s stashed in the crawlspace. The last thing she expected to worry about was her ex-boyfriend, but Rhys Lindstrom just landed planetside, and he’s looking finer than ever in his new BeiTech uniform. Is he her way out – or a guarantee she never gets off this frozen rock alive?

But Asha’s not the only one with problems. Her cousin Kady’s ragtag bunch of survivors are headed for Kerenza – without enough oxygen to last the journey. Oh, and there might be  an insurrection brewing. But when have little things like that ever stopped the Illuminae Group?

Too bad time isn’t on their side. With BeiTech hurrying to repair their damaged jump gate, and a mass extermination planned for the Kerenza civilians, only a miracle could save them now. And everyone knows that miracles are just statistical probabilities … right?

You know, I think if you read enough Jay Kristoff books (and Amie escapes from this basket because of her speech at the book launch), you learn to expect the worst and hope for the best… so I actually didn’t have a moment where I threw this book at all. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely some tears and some “oh-no!”‘s, but no actual throwing of the book. Which I think means that they either didn’t do enough damage or I am sufficiently indoctrinated of Kristoff’s “I want to watch the world burn” attitude to keeping his characters alive and well. Amie definitely brings out his ‘warm and fluffy’ side. She should co-write Darkdawn with him.

So, the briefest of brief highlights about the plot, you know, in case you haven’t started this series… So, we come in following the events of Gemina (yes, this is the point where we cry and hug in support groups when we talk about the second book). Things are not going well for the survivors of that book, and they are headed back to Kerenza because of reasons (spoiler-free is hard, chums). They face a bunch of obstacles that I was like “OMFG, NO!” about. The on the other side we have Asha Grant (previously expected perished in the initial assault) and her buddies barely surviving the initial attack, let alone seven months of planet inhabitation by the BeiTech pounders. In case you aren’t aware, this is the end of the trilogy, so suffice to say, a LOT of shit goes down.

While we actually keep tabs on the remaining characters from the other two books more so in this story, we still get a couple of newbies, namely Asha (Kady’s cousin), Rhys (Asha’s ex boyf), Garver (minor role in Gemina), and Oshiro (Rhys’ supervisor). There are a few others, but these four are the mains (in my opinion).

You know how in the other two, Kady and Hanna were ELITE? Well, Asha Grant is just normal. Which, while it made the story far less exciting, was actually really nice in terms of her being relatable (because I am not extra in terms of bad-assery, hacking or looks). In fact, she’s just doing the best that she can and keeping her head down so as to gain as little attention as possible. That is, until Rhys walks in and nearly blows everything up (literally). These Grant girls are not having much luck with their exes during the invasion.

OK, then we have Rhys I’m-a-communications-technical-expert-who-happens-to-have-been-sent-planetside-despite-not-realising-there-was-a-war-on Lindstrom. I mean, has he been living with his head in a bucket of f***ing sand?? Rhys reminds me of a slightly more likeable version of Jacin from The Lunar Chronicles. And that’s because I genuinely liked him more than Jacin, but a) he’s on the wrong side, b) he’s blonde with some hair thing going on, c) he’s a good liar and d) baes in space (yes, I know I stole that from Ashley Poston). However, I like how he plays all the BeiTech guys at cards, and I like his nickname. And that the thing with Asha was never really over. And that’s waaaaay too much talking about new characters…

The world is amazing. In fact, I learnt so much about space from these books. Probably more than I ever learnt in two years of physics in high school. Also living on an ice-planet-colony or a hypothetical jump-station or spaceship. In fact, Amie and Jay should just have spaceships designed forever.

I will say this though, I was expecting FAR more deaths. Not that the 3,500+ deaths weren’t enough, but we all know how I feel about main characters dying (and if you’ve read Gemina you’d know why), and knowing Jay (as I said earlier) I was just expecting … more. Like, maybe no one to make it out alive. However, I’m still happy with the ending, so take all of my whining with a grain of salt.

Anyway, I F***ING LOVED IT. Thanks to Amie and Jay for my fave space series to date (let’s be honest though, I still haven’t even finished The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so I don’t have a great deal to go on here).