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A review by eesh25
Obsidio by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman
5.0
Obsidio is the third and final book in The Illuminae Files. And honestly, it wasn't as easy to get into as the previous one. A part of that was because I'd been hoping that the book wouldn't introduce a new set of characters and instead just focus on the old ones. That didn't happen though, and there's a good reason for that.
Asha Grant and Rhys Lindstrom are on Kerenza IV. Yeah, the one that Kady and Ezra had escaped from. The same planet that they're having to go back to because it's the once place with a jump platform that can be used to finally get out of the Kerenza system. The role Asha and Rhys play is that not only do we get to know the situation at Kerenza through them and what the hell BeiTech troops are up to, we also see how they're planning to save themselves.
You see, the mobile jump platform that BeiTech has is currently not working. It needs hermium, from Kerenza's mines, to be functional again. So BeiTech has all the survivors of the colony either imprisoned or enslaved (minus the few thousand they executed because they were "non-essentials") to get the required hermium.
BeiTech's plan is that they're going kill the remaining Kerenza people as soon as the jump platform is functional, and then happily leave. Rhys is a BeiTech employee. Which is... yeah, I didn't know what to think either. BeiTech are the villains. But Rhys is supposed to be a protagonist? What? But you see a different side to the atrocities that were perpetrated by BeiTech. We already got the perspective of the ones who were attacked, right? Now we get a glimpse at the attackers too. Though, don't worry, the book doesn't try to justify BeiTech's actions.
Anyway, various plot descriptions aside, this was a great book. Yeah, more new characters gave me pause and I never grew as attached to them as the other five—we didn't spend as much time with them as with the others—but I liked them and I understood why they were a necessary addition.
The pace of the book is good, but not as good as Gemina's. The story is great. The authors didn't try to add much new stuff to it and focused on tying up the ends of the stories already started, which was a great idea. And the conclusion really works. It was more than satisfying and there was stuff that we found out about the identity of Analyst ID 7213-0089 that made me very happy.
This was a great way to end a series that is easily one of my favourites. And I'm excited about not only future collaborations between the authors, but also their individual works.
Asha Grant and Rhys Lindstrom are on Kerenza IV. Yeah, the one that Kady and Ezra had escaped from. The same planet that they're having to go back to because it's the once place with a jump platform that can be used to finally get out of the Kerenza system. The role Asha and Rhys play is that not only do we get to know the situation at Kerenza through them and what the hell BeiTech troops are up to, we also see how they're planning to save themselves.
You see, the mobile jump platform that BeiTech has is currently not working. It needs hermium, from Kerenza's mines, to be functional again. So BeiTech has all the survivors of the colony either imprisoned or enslaved (minus the few thousand they executed because they were "non-essentials") to get the required hermium.
BeiTech's plan is that they're going kill the remaining Kerenza people as soon as the jump platform is functional, and then happily leave. Rhys is a BeiTech employee. Which is... yeah, I didn't know what to think either. BeiTech are the villains. But Rhys is supposed to be a protagonist? What? But you see a different side to the atrocities that were perpetrated by BeiTech. We already got the perspective of the ones who were attacked, right? Now we get a glimpse at the attackers too. Though, don't worry, the book doesn't try to justify BeiTech's actions.
Anyway, various plot descriptions aside, this was a great book. Yeah, more new characters gave me pause and I never grew as attached to them as the other five—we didn't spend as much time with them as with the others—but I liked them and I understood why they were a necessary addition.
The pace of the book is good, but not as good as Gemina's. The story is great. The authors didn't try to add much new stuff to it and focused on tying up the ends of the stories already started, which was a great idea. And the conclusion really works. It was more than satisfying and there was stuff that we found out about the identity of Analyst ID 7213-0089 that made me very happy.
This was a great way to end a series that is easily one of my favourites. And I'm excited about not only future collaborations between the authors, but also their individual works.