Obsidio is the last book in the Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I’ve had nothing but love for the last two books, so Obsidio had a lot to live up to.
First off, this book is dark. It’s easily the darkest in the trilogy. The first two books have had their horrific moments – the planet wide attack and loss of ships in Illuminae to the brutal attacks by the kill squad in Gemina. The thing is these books also had moments of levity and humour. Obsidio on the other hand dives deeply into the horrors of war and doesn’t spare the reader by sugar coating anything. There were some seriously dark moments where I had to put the book down and go do something relaxing for an hour or so.
I enjoyed the interactions between the Kady and Ezra, and the Hanna, Nik and Ella teams. It was fun to see their dynamics as they easily fell into friendship. The only downfall of this was that there was less time spent building up the characters and relationship between newcomers Asha and Rhys.
The set up for these two is one that I’m always a sucker for in my fiction. They’re a former couple who find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict on Kerenza. Like all the other books in this series it’s a nice change to have the main character’s relationships with one another pre-established. But unlike the other main characters in this series I didn’t feel like I got to know them as well or was given the chance to form a connection with them. I found I was much more interested in the character’s other relationships like Rhys’s and Oshiro or Asha and the resistance.
Then of course what would the Illuminae Files be without our favourite homicidal AI? ADIAN was my favourite part of this series. I loved his slow descent into human emotion and self awareness.
HAL and AIDAN would probably be frenemies, let’s be honest
There is a lot I can’t talk about because of spoilers for Obsidio and the rest of the series. But if you’re a scifi fan than you should read this trilogy. It’s fun, fast paced, and full of everything you could ever love in a scifi novel. Spaceships, creepy parasites and insane AIs to name a few. Obsidio is the perfect ending for this awesome trilogy. I’m sad to see it over but I’m excited to see what Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff do next. I hope they’re merciful.
Unrelated/Random Thoughts
- AIDAN is the essay I wished I wrote during my undergrad. There is a lot to unpack here. i love every piece of his confused, murdery, self aware soul
- Kady’s dad was a fun addition to the cast
- I love how other authors appear as minor characters in this series
- This book is the darkest of the trilogy. I expected it to be dark but damn. I still can’t get over it.
- Obsidio makes me appreciate Gemina a lot more. Its sense of humour, contained nature… also the Mob.
