Review: Shades of Earth

Title: Shades of Earth
Author: Beth Revis
Release Date: January 15, 2013
Source: bought

The final book in the  New York Times bestselling trilogy, perfect for fans of Battlestar Galactica and Prometheus!

Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed 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.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

Nancy’s Review:

OMG. This book was epic. I am so obsessed with it. I was a little nervous when I started reading it, because I didn’t remember much from the first two books and so I was expecting to feel very lost. BUT I DIDN’T. I don’t know how she did it, but the author explained everything that had happened in such an inconspicuous way that I didn’t even realize she was summarizing the first two books. Awesome!

In this last book Amy, Elder, and a large group of people from Godspeed embark on a quest to reach Centauri-Earth and make it their home. The idea of this whole new “Earth” was amazing. I loved how everything was described and how vivid it seemed. It was a truly unique new world, different from what Amy and the other people from Sol-Earth were expecting. I was blown away with just how real it seemed and how much detail was given to making sure that the reader could picture this new world.

Besides the scary, but awesome Centauri-Earth, the plot of the Shades of Earth was yet another highlight for me. I thought that it was excellent. Everything worked for me. I loved that the emotions from the people of Godspeed and the people from Sol-Earth really came through the story. With such a large cast of characters it could have been easy to get confused and/or lose track of who was who, but it actually worked out very well and I didn’t feel lost at all. I knew all of the important characters, who they were, and what they were in Centauri-Earth to do.

As I said, I loved the plot. I was so glad that Amy and Elder were not separated throughout most of the book, since that tends to happen in YA series at some point or another. I was glad that they were together and though they had some rough patches in their relationships and some doubts, they worked through it like a real couple would do. Everything that happened to them while they were in Centauri-Earth kept me on the edge of my seat (figuratively). I was dying to know what was going to happen next.

I don’t want to give away anything for the people who haven’t read it, but it was definitely one of the best (if not the best) conclusions to a series that I have read. I absolutely loved it. If you haven’t read the first two books, Across the Universe and A Million Suns, go read them now!