Stars: 3 out of 5
I loved the first two books in this series. In fact, I rated both of them 5 stars, so I was both excited and apprehensive to pick up the final book in the trilogy. Would the author be able to stick the landing? Will the ending be a satisfying payoff for having invested so many hours into this story? Would the characters I grew to love get the futures they deserved? Would all the plotlines be tied up neatly (or messily, I don’t care, as long as they are not left hanging)?
The answer is meh… kind of?
The biggest issue with this book is the pacing. The first two books were characterized by an almost breathless pacing where action was non-stop, and things went from bad to worse, yet the characters still persevered and somehow managed to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. This made for very tense, but also immersive reading. I remember finishing each of the first two books within 2-3 days of starting them. This book, though… let’s just say that it took me two weeks to get to just over 50%, after which I put it down and didn’t touch it for half a year (set aside in June, and finished end of November).
The reason is that it’s boring. Almost nothing happens for Rake or Cavalon for the first 50% of the book. Yes, we get some action in Jackin’s POVs, but… let’s just say that he is not having the best of times, so those passages are quite heavy, and with nothing to compensate for it in Rake and Cav’s POVs, it makes for a long read. They are basically stuck in that ancient fortress, twiddling their thumbs and talking circles around what they could/should/might do. And when the action finally picks up, it’s not because of a decision that Rake made, but because it was forced on her by Augustus.
And then in the last quarter of the book, the pace suddenly revs up to 100mph, and everything careens towards the ending like a car without brakes. The ending is a jumbled mess. Too many deus ex machina moments and wins that are literally handed to our heroes on a silver platter. Why spend over half a book trying to find the cure to the mutagen, when it will be handed to them on a thumb drive in a parallel universe? Why portray Augustus as the big bad for three books just to resolve this situation in less than a chapter? Everything feels rushed and half-baked in the ending. I would have rather the author sped up through the first slogging part of the book and took more time bringing all her plots to the resolutions they deserved.
The biggest strength of these books has always been the characters. I love Rake, and Jackin, and Cavalon as our protagonists. I grew to dearly care for them, as well as the side characters like Mesa, Griffin, Puck (oh, Puck)… So as far as the characters go, this book does a good job with them.
Cavalon especially gets a huge boost in character development. He finally overcomes his fear of abandonment, his impostor syndrome, and realizes that just because he is Augustus’ clone doesn’t mean he will become another Augustus. I loved watching him grow a spine and take charge of his own destiny.
Jackin gets a good send-off as well, though I feel like the horrors he went through in captivity weren’t addressed as thoroughly as they should have been. There is no way he would be this okay after all this, as he is portrayed to be. I know the author wanted to have a happy ending for everyone, and I really want that as well, but it’s just not realistic. He needs therapy. He needs rehab. His road to being physically and mentally okay would be a lot longer than it is portrayed to be.
My biggest disappointment, though, is what the author did with Rake. She was such a driving force in the previous two books! Yes, she had moments of doubt and despair, but she always knew when to act and get shit done. And it feels like the author took all of her agency in this book. She isn’t acting, she is reacting. She is reacting to Jackin being back, she is responding to Augustus attacking the fortress, and she is reacting to the information Kaize gives her about the generation ships. In fact, the only time she seems to act on her own is when she takes Jackin to get his implants removed and when she decides to strike at the heart of Augustus’ empire at the very end.
Other than those instances, she is just spinning her wheels for three-quarters of the book, and it seems like everyone around her is trying to push her to do something, anything, and she just… procrastinates, is not the right word. Overthinks everything, maybe? And because of that, the final promotion Lurgen tosses at her doesn’t feel earned. She is portrayed as this great leader who is able to galvanize people and persuade them to follow her into a literal insurrection, but nothing in her actions in this book supports that. The previous books? Yes, absolutely. This book? It’s like she is a different person. And that’s so disappointing, because she has always been my favorite character.
I am, however, glad that we avoided the dreaded love triangle. I loved her friendship with Cav. They really felt like siblings more than colleagues or friends.
So in summary, this is an okay ending to an otherwise great series.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
