Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3)

Wow. Where do I even begin? This is one of my favorite series of all time, and I was so eager and terrified to see it end. Jay and Amie have scripted the most beautiful world, with the most lovable, endearing characters, and I was horrified to see how the war would endbut, above all else, I knew this would be a ride I couldnt miss. I genuinely dont even know how to break this review up, because I dont know how to explain to you all just how much this book meant to me, and how perfectly satisfied I was with it as the ending to our journey.

“Kady looks back and forth between the girls and shrugs.
At least our lives will have been worth dying for.”

Kady Grant / Ezra Mason
Our original duo, and quite frankly, my favorites. I loved them in the first book, but we see an entirely different side of the couple in the finale. Theyre exhausted, beaten down, grieving, and full of rage, but theyre still clinging to hope. If anyone can put on a strong front and pretend like everything isnt going to hell around them, its these two. Kady is one of my favorite female protagonists of all time, and she didnt let me down. Shes wickedly intelligent, and an emotional powerhouse who manages to ground everyone around her, no matter how bad things get. Ezra is honestly the perfect counterpart to her with his humor and warmth, and I would be the first one in line for a 600-page collection of pure fluff and cuteness between these two.

“And he kisses her like shes the first, last and only thing hell ever need, like hes learning every last part of her. Reverently, like this moment is holy.”

Hanna Donnelly / Nik Malikov
I wasnt sure how I would feel about watching the two couples meet and interact with one anotherwould they mesh well? Would it feel natural?but it was honestly perfection. With her astonishing strength and fighting prowess, coupled with her tactical brain and wit, Hanna meshes beautifully with Kady. Nik and Ezra are both our natural pros at banter, and the two of them together? Hilarious. Constantly a bright spot in horrifically dark times, and I loved the reprieve their taunts and jabs offered. Hanna and Nik together, though? I know a common complaint in Gemina reviews is that they didnt know each other well enough to fall for one another, and I wont spoil anything, but that topic is touched on really solidly in this finale, and I applaud the authors for being willing to tackle it on page.

We invaded these peoples homes, Cherry. Bombed them to . Killed their families. You think this isnt a battle? This is a ing war.

Asha Grant / Rhys Lindstrom
When I first learned that Asha would be one of our protagonists in Obsidio, I was stunned. Id been perfectly content to count her a loss in the first two books, when Kady mourned the loss of her cousin, but Im really pleased that she was included as a character. She didnt feel quite as three-dimensional as the other girls did to me, but I think that was fully to pin on the fact that this book was non-stop action and suspense with very little time for a lot of character development. Rhys struggled with the same problem, but despite not getting to spend much alone time with either of them, I still enjoyed them tremendously as characters and was certainly rooting for them throughout the entire thing. Theres a sub-plot arc with Asha and a little girl shes rescued named Katya, and the maternal vibes it gave off? Everything.

“I feaR this ship will neeD knives soon, Little SpiDeR.”

Ella Malikova
Everyones favorite little hacker girl did not fail to impress in this installment. I absolutely adored Ella in Gemina and desperately hoped she would get a substantial amount of screen time in the finale, so I was beyond ecstatic to spend so much time with her. True to her nature, she is still hilarious, snarky, and brilliant with a keyboardbut she also develops in the sense that we see her develop an affection for Hanna that is sisterly and precious. I love my little Spider girl, and what I wouldnt give for a whole spin-off about her.

“She cradles me to her breast
and I cannot feel the warmth of her skin.
Cannot hold her as she holds me.
And I cannot recall ever feeling so alone.
< error >”

Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network
I am without words. AIDAN plays such a tremendously fascinating role in this storytruly, it would be nothing without its logic, vicious honesty, and fiercely protective nature of Kady, the last of which we see bloom quickly in this final installment. If you noticed AIDAN growing more human-like and emotional in Gemina, just wait until Obsidio, where we get to see it depict humor, sorrow, loneliness, and even jealousy. Theres nothing that I can really tell you about AIDAN without offering up a million spoilers for this finale, so Ill just say that, if you love AIDAN even half as much as I do, I dont think a single part of you will be disappointed by this book.

“I know their names.
I
know
their
faces.”

supporting cast
There are a million and one characters in each installment of this story, and Obsidio is no different, but they each feel so complex and unique and perfectly human that I am consistently stunned by how easy it is to keep them all apart. We have entire spaceships and armies full of supporting characters, so Ill just name a few favorites:

Isaac Grant: #SquadDad goals for life. Weve got a crew full of orphans running around at this point, and Isaac doesnt hesitate to take them all under his wing. I have probably never loved a parental figure in any YA story half as much as I love him, and I spent the entire book laughing and crying over his pep talks, jokes, and desperate attempts to make everyone stop swearing.

Duke Wozniak: Ah, The Duke. One of Rhys co-soldiers, he refers to himself in the third person, is missing half of his tongue, and sleeps in full armor no matter what. I love this guy. I know hes on the wrong side of things in the story, but hes a fantastic example of how there are people on both sides who dont have bad intentionstheyre just doing what they can to survive.

Yukiko Oshiro: Rhys sergeant and shadow, responsible for keeping him out of trouble at all costs. This poor woman is shown from the beginning to be in so far over her head that shes doing everything she can to stay afloat, no matter what it takes. Despite how much I wanted to dislike her for some of her decisions, I couldnt help but constantly root for her and hope she would see the light.

The die is cast. But today we will shake the table upon which it lands.

action and war
While the other two books had plenty of scenes that were written for character development, or plotting, or explaining the ins and outs of spacetime, dimensions, ships, etc., Obsidio comes in with a hook and doesnt relent until the very end. There is so much action and tension in this story that I literally spent the last 150 pages with a feeling of nausea I couldnt quite shake. There were pages that left me trembling, sobbing so hard I could not think straightmuch less see the words on the pages. I cannot express to you how invested I was in this story, and how desperate I became to reach the end and see where the die would fall. The final battle was scripted so fluidly and to utter perfection; I could not, and would not, have asked for more.

“I am not good.
Nor am I evil.
I am no hero.
Nor am I villain.
< error >
< error >
I
am
AIDAN.”

final thoughts
If my incessant gushing and compliments to Jay and Amies storyweaving has not been enough to sell you on this book, I cant think of a single other thing I could say to do the job, honestly. As I mentioned at the start, The Illuminae Files is, without question, one of my favorite series in life, and I can only count one or two other series in the world whose finales have pleased me as much as Obsidio did. I cannot recommend this series, and this book, highly enough, and I sincerely hope that you will give it a try. I cannot wait to see what Jay and Amie craft in their next adventure together.

Listen, don’t you dare tell me Science Fiction is dead. If someone says that to you, take Gemina (It’s the bigger of the three) and slam it over their head.

The only way to adequately describe this book without spoilery bits is to just drop a slew of curse words and drown it all in tears. But Amazon hates it when I cuss and never publishes those reviews so here we are.

Basically, go to the beginning. Go buy Illuminae right now, and Gemina and Obisido. Buy them, read them, forget you are even on this planet and instead be enveloped by the stars above.

Amie and Jay are ******* metal. They laugh at our weeping, get drunk on our tears and lap up our outcries. And yet, they also slap us on the back and say, “cheer up, chum, you got this.”

Obsidio not only exceeded expectations but ******* smashed them all to ****. Thoroughly ******* ****** them up. If I could give the Illuminae_files as a whole a rating, there wouldn’t be enough stars in our universe, or the other.

Stop reading this review and read these books instead.

A million stars for the BEST series finale I have ever read! I want everyone to read it so this review will be spoiler-free.

Coming off of the amazing characters and twisty, action-packed plots introduced in Illuminae and Gemina, Obsidio had kind of a big job. There were so many plotlines and character arcs to tie up, I wasnt sure how it was going to go; however Im glad to say that for me, Obsidio completely surpassed all expectations. It was a satisfying conclusion that stayed true to all of the elements I loved from the first two bookswell developed characters, insane plot and suspense, beautiful original design and images; and of course the incomparable AIDAN.

I was so stuck on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next that I didnt take the time to consider how sad I would be to see these characters story end. But now that its over Im realizing how much Im going to miss navigating new adventures with them.

Our crew were well developed in Illuminae and Gemina, but here we are given even more context and character development for the Illuminae Group as they execute their final face off with BeiTech; in addition to the introduction of Asha and Rhys, whom I love dearly.

I wasnt sure if I could be shocked in the same way by the plot of this book after the first two, but I was in suspense and trying to guess everyones next moves the whole time and I was really almost never rightbut in the best way possible of course!

As ever, the formatting, the sketches, and all of those visual details that set these books apart were fantastic. Not to mention that in this book the hardcover beneath the dust jacket is SILVERso beautiful!!

I absolutely loved this book and this series and cannot wait for more from these authors!

OH WOW! Again, the authors blew my mind!

The first 300 pages were a very long prologue and it was nice but nothing special happened compared to the first two books. But after our heros got a chance to shine bright and try to save everyone’s asses I basically flew right through the rest of the book!

It was exciting, breathtaking and even unexpected sometimes! All the small touches the authors made brought the story closer. Everyone’s personality was uniquely described and loveable!
My new bookboyfriends are LT Babyface, Hustler and my fav Analyst

The format fortuantely changed a bit with the handwritten notes and prevented it from going boring. It was a nice move as well to provide glimpses into the forming of the Illuminae Group and to get to know who our favourite analyst (Analyst ID 7213-0089-DN) was.

AIDAN was.. well AIDAN! But it again showed some interesting issues in connection with artificial intelligence!

I missed the new scientific aspect that the other two books provided.
But instead there were some interesting thoughts about war and the horrible attrocities and war crimes that happen during a conflict like this! I loved it!

Fortunately the book isn’t lacking humor and the characters personality traits bring the perfect amount of friction! All in all I enjoyed this book and loved the series! Highly suggest it to everyone!

Obsidio is the last and currently the final installment of the Illuminae series. Like the two books prior, it is set above a spacecraft, this time the Mao. The characters we have come to know and love are present continuing the story of the trials and tribulations that await them.

The book is comprised of the same interview, video, email format as the previous books in the series, but I felt that this one was more descriptive as it guided you towards the ‘grand finale’ in what turns out to be an epic battle.

Like the previous books the body count is phenomenal but the determination of the teenagers who are fighting for justice has you on the edge of your seat throughout each segment.

With resources running low they are all forced to acknowledge that they need to return to the planet Karenza, but they’re all uncertain as to what they may find.

Prepare to be amazed once again by all the well thought out and unexpected plot twists, and to be enamoured with some new characters who are bringing the war to an end. It is well worth the read and I would recommend to anyone who would like to try a new series, or who likes sci-fi novels.

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