RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 (3/5 moons)
Published: March 13, 2018
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 615
“There is a moment just after the die is cast and before it lands upon the gaming table in which the smallest breeze may change its course – the way it rolls and where it comes to rest.”
SYNOPSIS:
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.
THOUGHTS:
This book is a disappointment. No preamble, no short intro on what this book is all about.
Given that this is the third and final book in the trilogy, I have a very high expectation. Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff have set a standards to writers out there to up their game; by creating a book told in dossier, artwork & video surveillance Kaufman & Kristoff have captured the attention of almost everyone. However, this book truly disappoints me in so many levels. I have a lot to say so let’s begin.
- Main characters – we are all aware that each book revolves around different main characters. Each character is unique and adds a touch of spice in the story as a whole. However, I feel like the main characters in this book are Kady, Ezra, Hanna, Nik & Ella. The new set of supposed to be main characters were overshadowed by the characters I stated above. How the authors incorporated the old and new characters is quite a mess. Indeed, we have a glimpse of who they are and their participation in the chaos as a whole but I did not care about them at all. They appeal to me as a side-character and not as a main character.
- Plot – I think the main reason why I am so disappointed with this book is that the 1st and 2nd book have set quite a high standard with its plot, and I am not talking about the plot twist. The plot of this book is all over the place. It feels like a sub-plot after a sub-plot glued together in a rush to combine it and make it whole. And because a lot of things are happening all at once, you do not know where to focus and you do not have time to wallow on what’s happening because you will immediately jump to the next scenario.
- The ending – Another one to add on the list of things that disappointed me in this book. My interest has finally been piqued in the middle of the fight scene but as soon as I’m finally getting into it, it abruptly ends leaving me with a thought of “that’s it?!”. I was hoping for a revival in the end, just a simple ending would suffice; but it’s too rush and abrupt at the same time. I have a lot of question rather than answer in the end and it is so frustrating how they wrapped it up with some loose ends. Yes, they give us some information on some things – we know who lives and who died, how they pull off the whole Illuminae Files and where they lie low – but what about the in between? What happen to Kenyatta and Churchill? How did the people in Kerenza escaped? How did it ended up in a cease fire? How did Ezra and Nik find their way back? What happen to the rebellion and their families? I feel like the authors created a much complex plot than they thought and so when it is time to wrap things up, they tried to pick up all the loose ends but failed at doing a good job at it.
- Format – what I really loved most about these books are the format. However, the third book are probably 80% surveillance footage and sometimes it is so boring and quite unnecessary (or maybe it’s just me), and that is probably one of the reason why it took me this long to finish this book.
To be honest, after reading again and again the points that I have stated above I am second guessing my rating of 3 moons. I did not give myself time to think after I finish the book and I immediately write this review because I need an outlet to vent out all my frustration. If I ever changed my mind, well I’ll update this review.
Please read the Starbound trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. That trilogy does not have a mind blowing plot twist and there are times when romance is somehow overpowering the story but the third book wraps-up so well – giving the readers a chance to love the new main characters yet at the same time a right amount of kick ass scene of the whole crew – and that’s probably the reason why I am not satisfied with this ending.
If you happened to like or love this book, just want to let you know that I am not throwing hate of anything in this book. I am just pointing out some key points that I am looking and lacks the satisfaction of seeing its execution.
Oh well, that’s all folks!
Till next time!
Maria ❤
A Daughter of Parchment and Paper 