Book: Shades of Earth by Beth Revis (Across the Universe #3)

Genre: Scifi, YA

Preview: Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceshipGodspeed behind. They’re ready to start life afresh–to build a home–on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn’t the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed’s former passengers aren’t alone on this planet. And if they’re going to stay, they’ll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who–or what–else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed–friends, family, life on Earth–will have been for nothing.

Shades of Earth is the final book in Beth Revis’ Across the Universe trilogy.  You can read my reviews of “Across the Universe” and “A Million Suns” by clicking on their names in this sentence.

Can I just say, wow?  I was so impressed with this book, both for its own merit and for the way it tied up the series.  It is so rare for me to find a trilogy where I like all the books.  Usually the first and second are great, and the third one is a disaster. Or the first one is great and the second one drags on and on, and then the third is okay. Or the first one is great but the last two suck.  You get the idea.

I was so impressed by the crescendo Revis built into these books.  Each book had it’s own shape and roller coaster, but I still felt like each book added something and really built up to the finale.  After the setup of the first book, I felt like it was basically nonstop action through the second book, leading into Shades of Earth, and then up to the end.

Again, I don’t really know what to say about whether or not the plot is unique to the scifi genre but I thought it was interesting, and it definitely caught me by surprise multiple times.  I’m usually pretty good at guessing the end of books or movies, but this one kept me on my toes.

I definitely recommend this series, if you like YA fiction at all.  It’s a good story, even if you don’t think sci-fi is “your” genre.  Give it a whirl!

My rating for Shades of Earth: 4 out of 5 stars

My rating for the Across the Universe Trilogy: 5 out of 5 stars