[ 2016 | #49 ] : "THE LAST STAR"

Title : “THE LAST STAR”

Text copyright © 2016 by Rick Yancey

Cover art copyright © by Allied Integrated Marketing

Cover design © by Ryan Thomann

Printed in the United States of America

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons

( an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC )

paperback ; 340 p ; ISBN 978-1-101-99620-1

Normal Price : IDR 189

Many years ago, a ten year-old boy, having his first unforgetable experience looking out into universe through skies full with stars at planetarium. He would never forget that day. And that’s why when her daughter coming out into this universe, he named her : Cassiopeia – in hope and dreams of life full happines, without knowing that the future he imagine never be the same for his childrens ...

Aliens attack the world, and now, for few of humans that remains, survive from one attack to another, dreams of better future would never happens, ‘coz they know, the Earth with all living things inside is going to be destroy within hours. Total apocalypse and no hope at all. But for Cassie and her remains friends – there is a very tiny chance to change that, thanks to Evan who reveal the secret and came out with the idea how to prevent that.

The problems is, no one seems to believe Evan, aside Cassie. Well, who could blame them, after all, Evan Walker is one of the Silencer – alien who planted into human body, with mission to destroy any kind of humans left on Earth, until he meet Cassie Sullivan. This group of them so called rebellions, but even Cassie starting having doubt, how can four teenager (one of them alien) with two (very young) child can prevent alien missions to destroy the Earth ?

The truth, I’m quite skeptic to continue this series, both previous experiences did not make me even wanna remember the whole story. But then again, I think, let me try one last time-one last book-and surprisingly this one ‘Last Star’ is quite good, or as I recall it was way better than the previous instalment. In the following adventure of Cassie Sullivan, she must facing the most difficult and intriguing choises, that could leading into her destiny.

First, let me take you all to take a look-back regarding following (long) journeys involving girl named Cassiopeia. In the beginning, the author let us to assume that is (just) story about humans vs aliens, then it all turn-around when Evan Walker appears, a alien in human body and also got ‘human-fellings’ – quite weird right ? It’s going to be complicated when the acting government did not protect the last surviving humans on earth, but do secret project to turn human (mostly teenager nor childrens under proper ages) into ‘killing-machine’ ...

To make more interesting (or confusing) story, this time readers will learn that there is ‘traitors’ inside every groups, both in humans or aliens. And you couldn’t judge people by their ‘outside’ looks (well, they all looks like humans actually), ‘coz aliens or humans got several different opinions on how the future will be held. So the war no longer ‘just’ between humans vs aliens, but happens everywhere, anytime where at least there is two different groups with two different agenda ... that’s really a scary-frightening place to live it.

No, I’m not gonna reveal what happening inside this ‘chaotic’ world created by Rick Yancey, just enough for me to remind you : don’t hold your breath or even gave your self high hopes for nearly a perfect happy ending (well, might be the same thing happens with fans of GoT Series, yes ... so many characters ‘murder’ by its author). Butttt ... I also must admitted that this third book got my emotion move a little-bit (sadly its not a happy one), just re-imagining the final ending of Armageddon’s movie (prepare your pack of tissues first).

And considering the awful conclusion the author choose for his reader, somehow it also feels ‘right’ that all those sacrifice needed to close the whole drama between aliens and humans. What better way to start a new evolution of living things (noted : is not meant to be just humans or just aliens) than to wiped-out the entirely civilatations ... or in this case, do blow-up something bigger (almost like destroying a planet – is a methaphore, ok). Well, I’m glad is over and DONE !! Let’s moving-out with other / different kind readings.

~ Conclusion ~

Buku pertama dan kedua benar-benar membuatku ‘tidak berminat’ meneruskan serial ini, tapi godaan untuk menuntaskan kisah terakhir akhirnya mendapat ganjaran cukup lumayan. Maksudku disini, lumayan mengerikan, kacau, benar-benar menunjukkan ‘chaotic-world’ ala Rick Yancey – jadi jangan berharap kisah ini berakhir dengan ‘manis’ (itu saja yang sanggup kuberikan sebagai ‘spoiler’ bagi kalian). Di sisi lain semua kelemahan dan kekurangan menyangkut kurangnya daya tarik secara emosional terutama menyangkut perkembangan karakter-karakter sepanjang kisah ini, kali ini pembaca akan diganjar hingga ‘babak-belur’ oleh penulis, ibarat naik ‘roller-coaster’ bersiaplah untuk mengalami ‘guncangan demi guncangan’ (tidak disarankan bagi yang memiliki ‘lemah-jantung’ ... serius lho). Secara singkat, buku pamungkas ini jauh lebih baik (lebih intense, seru, bikin penasaran tingkat akut dan pasti jauh dari boring) dibandingkan kedua buku sebelumnya, walau tetap saja tidak akan mendapat jatah ‘favorit’ dalam daftar bacaanku \(-__-)/

Title : “THE LAST STAR”

[ book 3 of THE 5^th WAVE Series ]

Text copyright © 2016 by Rick Yancey

Rate : 3.5 of 5

 [ more about this author & related works, just check at here : Rick Yancey | on Goodreads | on Wikipedia | Movie Adaptation ]

Best Regards,

@HobbyBuku