DOVE ALIGHT

In this trilogy closer, Phaet, the East Asian teen symbol of the resistance, faces losses and the final battles over the fates of the moon and Earth.

The jargon-packed (Pygmette speeders, an Omnibus ship, the Singularity, “the Pandora Particle Accelerator, or PaPA”) in medias res opening of a Dovetail resistance mission may send readers back to Dove Exiled (2016) for a refresher. Despite the successful mission, Dovetail is running into supply troubles, including one of troops—they’ve started a draft and are dipping to soldiers as young as 15. Phaet proposes a risky mission to Earth to form an alliance with Battery Bay, which would bring her back to love interest Wes, a white boy. Before any deal can be struck, villainous, brown-skinned Lazarus strikes as part of a Committee-Pacifia alliance attack. Lazarus is a clichéd, cartoonish bad guy (“Love has made you soft”), which makes it unfortunate how predictably he comes back. Once the Earth sojourn is out of the way and they start engaging directly with the Committee back on the moon, the stop-and-go jerky pacing begins to smooth out. Of the handful of climactic twists, all are effective except for one too heavily foreshadowed and artlessly deployed—unfortunately, that one is the final twist. The epilogue is one of the few places where this book deviates from the formula of the standard teen-dystopia trilogy conclusion.

Notably diverse cast aside, derivative and predictable.