By Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
Previous book here.
I haven't been quite as in love with this trilogy as I was with Illuminae, but this book is the best of the trilogy. It somehow levels up to me in a way the other two books did not. Review below the spoiler cut, but five stars.
Spoiler space
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Almost everyone's out of time. Literally. "You're out of touch, I'm out of time" kept playing through my head while reading this.
- Aurora, Kal, and Kal's dad somehow get blasted into the future, where the Ra'haam have won and they encounter a much older, battle-scarrred Tyler, fighing a losing battle.
- Scarlett, Fin, and Zila somehow get blasted a few hundred years into the past--AND ending up in a time loop with a Terran, Lieutenant Kim, who Zila gets interested in. Scarlett and Fin finally get romantically involved here as well. It's nice to see Zila finally get interested in someone (and again, those looking for a queer romance, here it finally is), and Scarlett and Fin trying to get it on when they have down time during time loops amused me, and it was also sweet. I did wonder how Fin was going to deal with the idea of possibly taking off his exosuit to bone, and
- Tyler and Saedii stay in their own time, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually people start muttering "beshmai" around those two and I'm ah AHAHAHAHA OKAY SO THEY ARE GONNA GET TOGETHER THEN (which is later confirmed in the future timeline). Sadly, the two separate for about half the book so Tyler can go back to Aurora Academy and try to save everyone's bacon, which is good plot but I was sad to see their "I hate you but you're hot" dynamic be split apart. It was fun.
Anyway, it's complicated but interesting. I'm still not quite sure how the time loop thing happened, but I do appreciate how Aurora figured out a winning move at the end, and the romances are very sweet, albeit different. Zila and Nari are a cuie, shy sort of pairing, Tyler and Saedii make arguing hot, and the other two are more openly romantic. There's not a whole lot of time to cover the aspect of Fin taking off his exosuit to bone, but Scarlett is very sweet about his insecurities about that particular topic.
I was also amused (and ah, grossed out...) by the final use of "why did Fin get a pen?" and how the future gifts situation came about.
This is not a series where the core group gets contractual immunity--though the eaten-by-Ra'haam version of Cat still pops up here and there, and the remnants of who those people were turn out to be the key to it all. I like how this plot is a mix of Babylon 5 and Star Trek: TNG, because nerdery is fun and those two plot elements combine together great.
Anyway, this has hit epic, and I'm really happy with it!
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