Audiobook Review - Obsidio

I know this is NetGalley November. I know, but I asked you guys on Twitter if you wanted this write-up now or wait till December. You all voted now, so here we are. This is all on you!

And here we are. The final book in Illuminae Files series. And I blame you all for badgering me to read/audiobook this as, if you backtrack through most of my reads the past few years, I don’t jump to sci-fi books that often. I am much happier in fantasy and crime/thriller (though there are a few sci-fi books on my TBR that I do want to try and read/audiobook in the next few months. There are always expectations to the rule) but this series has a lot of love to it and I worried that I wouldn’t “get” this series… 

Hang on, let me get the info up and explain better in my write-up! 

Title And Author: Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Publisher: Rock The Boat

Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
Length: 624 Pages or 13 Hours 1 Minutes

Asha survived the initial BeiTech assault on Kerenza IV and is trying to survive and be involved in Kerenzas ragtag underground resistance. But when a face from her past - Rhys - reappears, they find themselves on different side of the conflict. 

Meanwhile, Kady (Asha’s cousin, by the way), Ezra, Hanna and Nik narrowed escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdal station and find their situation all the more worse now they find themselves crammed in a container ship Moa with over 2,000 refugees, among them Nik’s cousin and Kady’s injured father. With the jump station destroyed, resources bare and an AI that can’t be trusted, their only opinion is to go back to Kerenza. But who knows what they’re going to find seven months after the invasion? 

It looks like their day in court is coming, and their final battle is coming stupidly fast. Let’s see how many of them survive, chum…

I am going to say this now: if you are a sci-fi fan and you haven’t read this series, get your rear in gear and get it on your radar. I admit this isn’t going to be everyone’s taste - like I have said in the previous write-up with this series, the style of how this series is written (reports, email, voicemails, surveillance footage write-up, courtroom transcripts, diary entries, AI coding, etc) might be jarring for some people (though when you get the end of the series, or even a good way into the second book in series, Gemina, you get why it had to be written this way!). 

But I didn’t read this. I audiobook this. And like I have said before, because of how these books are written, some of this transfers into audiobook really well. It feels like an audio play or podcast (which I love!) and with a full cast, it adds something. Though, you do lose stuff as well. There are drawings, art, sections that are written in a unique and insane way, that can’t work in audio and the editor/director of the audiobooks either adapt it to work or cut it out completely. So, whatever way you read this, you will have something fresh and yet, you will lose something at the same time. You’ll have to take your chances.

Though, I do want to read this series and see how different it is to the audiobook and figure out which is better (Oh yes, I’m already thinking of rereading/reaudiobooking this series sometime in late 2021). 
But, saying that, I have to accept that Obsidio wasn’t my favourite of the trilogy (not including prequel novella, Memento in this as I LOVED that novella!). In fact, it’s probably my least favourite (I fear that Gemina is my fave out of the three as it was the one that stressed me out the most, weirdly). And I can’t exactly figure out why, if I’m honest with you all. 

Is it because I didn’t warm to Asha and Rhys as quickly as I did with Kady, Ezra, Hanna and Nik? Is it because this felt more Endgame and more gorilla-warfare (similar to Tomorrow When The War Began or Mockingjay) and, in places, less urgent whereas Illuminae and Gemina felt very thriller and horror? Is it because it had more surveillance footage write-ups and that made this more streamlined? Or is it because I was expecting a different ending? I have no idea, but I think that after audiobooking Gemina and it stressing me out, I was probably expecting a different book. 

But I did like Obsidio and I really like this series. More than I was expecting when I decided back in early summer to audiobook Illuminae. I didn’t expect to get quite involved and a little obsessed with these characters and everyone psychopath AI, AIDEN (oh, I can talk about AIDEN. This AI is a mix of fascinating and terrifying). I am now wondering if I should start Amie and Jay’s other series, Aurora Rising (what I am saying? Of course I will. I just need a little lie down before I do!)