Review: Flame by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Written By: Kellie - Jan• 07•14

flame

Series: Sjy Chasers, #3
Publisher:  St. Martin’s Griffin
Publish Date: January 7t, 2014
Source: ARC
Goodreads

Rating: 4/5 – A great finish to a wonderful sci-fi series.

About the bookIn the thrilling conclusion to the Sky Chasers series Waverly, Kieran, and Seth struggle to survive on-board the New Horizon—and take down their enemies before it’s too late.

Waverly and the other members of the Empyrean have scattered, and their home ship has been destroyed. Their mission to rescue their parents didn’t go as planned, and now they’re at an even greater disadvantage: trapped with their enemies on the New Horizon, trying to find a way to survive. Kieran has been pulled under Anne Mather’s wing, but is she really trying to make peace, or just using Kieran to build her own power? Meanwhile, Waverly is taken in by a mysterious old man who wants to help her bring Anne Mather down—but the more Waverly cooperates with him, the more dangerous her position is, and the more at odds with Kieran she becomes.

Seth’s situation is even worse. After setting out from the Empyrean on his own, with only a vague strategy to guide him, he is a fugitive aboard the New Horizon. He’s doing what he can to challenge the power of Anne Mather, but he’s badly hurt, and getting sicker.

Will Seth ever see Waverly again? Will his health hold out long enough to help her topple their enemies? And will Waverly find a way to unite with her friends before they all fall? Nothing is sure and every moment is a risk in this explosive finale of the Sky Chasers series. -Goodreads

Thoughts: Aww, man. I’m really going to miss this series. I feel like I waited forever for the final installment of The Sky Chasers series, but now I’m just sad it’s over. If you’re looking for something to fill the spaceship sized hole in your heart after the Across the Universe series, I definitely recommend this series–I actually prefer it to Beth Revis’ series (which is great too). This trilogy offers a great mix of dynamic characters, politics and well, spaceships. This entire series mainly focuses on the relationship between two massive spaceships on their way to New Earth. One is more religiously motivated, and the other more scientific. I know that premise can be a little off-putting for some people, but it’s actually pretty interesting and the other plot elements will definitely keep you turning the page to find out what happens next.

If you’re reading this review, I’ll go ahead and assume you read the first two books which saw one of the spaceships getting all but destroyed (even AFTER most of the adults aboard had been killed, leaving the teenagers to make decisions in standard YA fashion). After the end of book two, there were definitely a lot of question marks about what was coming next for Kieran, Seth and Waverly (love the name). So… onwards! This book has some deliciously infuriating bad guys (think along the lines of Professor Umbridge) that make you want to throw heavy objects around the room. Waverly has to put up with a lot of crap, and things aren’t much easier for Kieran or Seth (okay, maybe they’re a bit easier for Kieran *angry fist shake*.) This book is anything but predictable, and actually managed to pull me out of a small reading slump.

Thankfully, Flame manages to totally pull away from the love triangle between the three main characters and the story is definitely better off for it. There’s too much other stuff going on to worry about who is making kissy faces at each other. Don’t worry, there’s still some of that stuff and I have zero complaints. We also get everything else both relationship and political wrapped up nicely in a bow in a short epilogue. I have lotttss I want to say about that, but it’s next to impossible to do without giving things away.

Overall, if you like space operas and the like, I’d definitely recommend checking out the Sky Chasers series, especially now that it’s all wrapped up.

You can read my review of book one, Glow here –http://www.reviews.snarkybooks.com/2012/01/14/glow-amy-kathleen-ryan/– and of book two, Spark, here –http://www.reviews.snarkybooks.com/2012/07/23/spark-amy-kathleen-ryan-2/

Purchase Sky Chasers:
@Amazon (US) @Amazon (CAN) @The Book Depository

Second Opinions:
@Imaginary Reads

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