"These seven little pebbles who started an avalanche heard all the way around the universe."

Loved it! Not sure if I really liked this book more than the other two, or if I'm just wrapping up all my emotions from the trilogy as it's come to an end. As in the first two installments, the book is presented as intercepted communications, journal entries, memos, transcribed videos, etc. I'd listened to the audiobook for all three books in the series. They are great! Complete cast, full production. The audio really brings it all to life. And yet ... I couldn't help but wonder if I was missing a little something not seeing the print version. I was! I was able to also check out the Kindle copy from my local library and wow! Much was as expected after having listened to the audio, but other parts/presentation just couldn't quite come across. There were comics. There were images (the pictures of the 2000 people making up a collage of baby Hypatia). I have not seen an actual print copy, but there I assume it would be better than Kindle (as I had to click on an "image" and enlarge to try and see the details on some things). I am glad I experienced the audio first ... that way I hadn't imagined any voices differently than how they were presented here. Looking over the print copy though, it was almost like the experience of reading a book after seeing the movie version. Movies and books vary so much, but even though the audiobook was read directly from the text, actually viewing it myself felt so different.

So book 1 introduces the main conflict as BeiTech Industries attacked Kerenza, then tried to cover everything up. We meet a cast of characters, with Kady, Ezra and Aidan being the main ones. The action takes place mostly on the Alexander and Hypatia ships in space.

In book 2, the setting shifts to Heimdall station, the main characters change to Hannah and Nick, and Ella, although we do still see several favorites from book 1.

Here in book 3 ... again, while we still have the characters we care about from the first two installments, the new "couple" here is Asha and Rhys. The setting is mainly on the Mao, and also back on Kerenza, following up there.

Honestly, as the second book started and we were introduced to new characters, I was thinking I wouldn't care about them the way I did Kady and Ezra. Again, in book three, as Asha was introduced, I wasn't sure I'd get into her story, but I did.

I just loved so much of the underlying humor interspersed with all the drama and action. Ella's little name additions "Ella Malikova, Agent of Chaos" "Ella Malikova, Ayatollah of Rockandrolla" just to showcase a couple ;) Little tidbits from the characters ... "Hey, if hostile battleship takeovers were easy, everybody would do it." or Duke's "Up with this, the Duke shall not put". There was a lot of drama and death and loss and it was nice to have some stuff to lighten the mood.

Perhaps everything tied up a little too perfectly in the end, but I was okay with that.