Clemmie Judges

OBSIDIO

BOOK INFO

Title: Obsidio

Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Pages: 618

Publication date: March 13th 2018

Description: 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, heros will fall, and hearts will be broken.

Warning: Spoilers from the first two books

REVIEW

This time, the review is short not because I like it. It's not because I hate it either.

It's because it's forgettable. Which is strange. It's everything you'd expect from a cool, high-stakes epic sci-fi. It's certainly better than Gemina, but not as great as Illuminae. I think I understand why now.

1. New characters

So, up to Gemina, we now have four main characters already. It should be hard, right? Having to juggle between them, I mean. So, what's the solution, then?

That's right! Add more characters!

It would be fine if the story is only about the new main characters, but nope. The main characters from the previous books are in the story. Hell, I'd even say they're more important to the overall narrative than the new main characters.

Instead of focusing on developing the characters that already exists, and letting them interact with one another, our attentions are spread too thin between six—or is it seven?—characters. And it sucks. Because doing so creates another problem, which is...

2. Forced friendship

Yes, the characters interact with one another. Yet when they do, it all feels so... inorganic. Things would happen, and yes, logically, they can happen, but nothing about it is organic. 

The characters interact with one another, but not enough to convince me they're forming a bond with one another. Again, yes, there are heartfelt moments between the characters, but the story unintentionally sabotages these moments. 

Why, you may be asking? 

Well, chum, that's due to reason number three, which is... 

3. Too-heavy plot armor

I only have one real complaint about the first book in the Illuminae files. Only one.

And that is the fact that Ezra's alive. 

What made me like the book so much is because it's not a love story between Ezra and Kady. Not really. It's about Kady struggling to keep the only person she cares about (her dad notwithstanding) alive. It's her fighting tooth and nail to find him, only to have him be gone. And to have to face her own doom.

That's the sort of shit I live for.

But then, turns out he's alive? It makes sense, it does, but it's still disappointing. Especially because they don't really use the "Ezra is Leanne's son" thing much in the story. So, why have him be alive at all? What's wrong with the story being Kady on her thirst for revenge against BeiTech?

The same thing's happening here. I can't say much because of spoilers, but I will say that the plot armor is thicker than any ATLAS ones.

4. Rushed

Yeah, just that. Rushed. 

What's rushed, you may ask.

Well, everything. The book tries so hard to be epic and smart that it doesn't prioritise the characters very much. Well, not in the way that I'd like it to. I wanna see more of Kady and Hanna interacting, and Nik and Ezra interacting, and—hell—Kady and Nick or Ezra and Hanna. But we don't get to see a lot of that much. And when we do, it always relates back to the plot. Which sucks. Because this really could've been an awesome story.

OVERALL

This story serves as a reminder for me that I can do everything "by the book" and still have my story be mediocre. It's a weird morale boost. 

Okay, is it a bad story? No. No, it is not.

But it pulls its punches. And it doesn't seem to care about its characters as much as it should. Because of that, I don't care about the story as much as I should. When I closed the book, I don't feel awed. Nor do I feel disappointed.

I barely feel anything at all.

Rating: 8/10