THERE HAD BETTER BE A FOURTH BOOK IN THIS SERIES

This was incredibly, ridiculously good.8 s Morgan McGuireAuthor 4 books20

The first book in the series was good. The second one was an exhausting, nearly pointless chase scene. This third one has some good world-building, but the pacing is awful, the characters blur together, and the writing is weak (you can only repeat "ouroboros" and "defilade" so many times to show off that you've learned two new words as an author, especially if you're an author whose go-to adjective is "fucking").

You'll find the following within the first few pages of the first chapter (so, not much of a spoiler). Sho has become pointless in the series, as Esa's Gift essentially incorporates his now. Javier, Marek, and Preacher are forgotten until needed for some minor comment, even though they are in nearly every scene. Esa and Jane are indistinguishable, which is particularly confusing as they alternately narrate chapters, and if it weren't for the name at the top, you wouldn't know who is who. Esa has essentially become one super-character who absorbs all of the others, breaking up the party dynamic and destroying any interesting conflict between them. And to make it worse, there are two new antagonists...who are exactly the same as Esa and Jane. The characters even say that they are exactly the same.

There's a great plot twist around 75% of the way through, which is then squandered by a confusing and generic ending. This series had a lot of potential, but it felt Williams raced through it after the first novel without sufficient critical feedback on the overall plot structure. He writes great snarky combat scenes, but doesn't handle the larger elements well.6 s Scott - Book Invasion228 73

Another fun ride with varying POVs between Jane and Esa. A bit more of the same but with higher stakes and the final boss wasn't as satisfying as I had hoped. Still a good finale to a really fun and action packed trilogy.20225 s Erin219 9

I’m going to SCREAM I need the next book immediately please and thanks5 s Hobbitviolinist57 1 follower

If this is the last book in this series I’m going to be unhappy. Write more Drew! Also, that was incredible and it made me feel a great number of things. 2 s Gareth HowellsAuthor 9 books40

This is an excellent third part in the story. It takes a while to get going I think, but once it's hit the big moments when the plot moves forward, the set up pays off and the final moments in the book are especially rewarding.
Some of the characters blended together in my mind a little, but I think that could be a fault in how I was reading it as much as the writing.
I really enjoyed it though...


a-science-fiction1 Nathan Chattaway181 3

This third installment in the series is enjoyable but tending towards a watered-down blend of action and soul-searching angst. But what's my motivation? half the characters seem to be yelling.
The author has toned down his penchant for ramming emphasis down the reader's throat and the profanity dial has been wound back from 11 to about 7.

Tiny potential spoiler alert follows.








Going in, I thought this was going to be the series finale but that isn't the case.1 Sarah350

*mild spoilers* Everything on Goodreads calls this a trilogy/3 book series, but after a very incomplete ending, I scrounged online and found this referred to as the "penultimate" book in the series. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I hadn't been waiting for the series conclusion and getting closer and closer to the end wondering how it was going to wrap up... Also, lots of repetitive explaining of things and really couldn't tell much difference between the personalities of the two narrators.20211 Kimberly358 17

This series just keeps getting better. The world building is on point and the ending had me on the edge of my seat.1 Randal1,023 14

Ooh, second-book syndrome in a third book, that's new!
Middle books in trilogies are notorious for being weak links, where the author expounds on stuff that is fairly tangential to the main plot, after they have gotten your attention with book one and before they wrap things up in book three.
That's this one. Padding things out is a lengthy and deeply unsatisfying subplot involving Jane's mysterious background so Jane almost but not killed this person once before, watching them spiral to what seemed certain doom. And here, Jane watches her fall to almost certain doom. C'mon man, she's either dead or you're going to try to wring even more pages out of this marginal character.
I was expecting this to wrap up in three books, and it certainly could have. I don't feel there's a lot more I want to know about the main characters, there's the token sidekick death, and a multipage boss battle. Although I am glad it didn't go full The Return of the King and have the invisible / unnoticed Preacher / Gollum character fall into the Crack of Doom with the McGuffin. I'm good. Let's slap an ending on this and call it a day. Instead, there's a cliffhanger, introducing a new plot twist that means this almost has to be a five- or six-book series. I don't think I'm invested enough in the Universe After to read another book with the same characters / world, let alone two or three.
Part of it is that Williams has run out of interesting ways to describe the lennnngggtthhy battle scenes. If I have to read about Esa coiling the energy around her fist barbed wire one more time ... sigh. And why barbed wire? That's a western thing, from the first half of the 20th century. Why not razor wire, barbed wire's grown-up cousin? Something, anything else. I'm starting to feel the longer this series goes, the more the limits of the author's wordsmithing become A Thing. I called the series an homage to Scalzi. I think it's starting to show why John Scalzi is JOHN F***ING SCALZI and Drew Williams isn't. 3.5 stars.sci-fi Eric544 2

Working for the justified, Jane and her protege Esa, were able to finally take down one of the Cyn, a being of pure energy that is hell-bent on the hunting the gifted, but are now up against an army of them. In order to finally gain a foothold and come up with a way to permanently fight back, Jane and her justified group will need to go to the ends of the known universe on the heels of a secret weapon which could finally help turn the tide.

What I d:
- helped to expand the universe and help bring some understanding to the enemies
- felt more a sequel than the last book, which felt more a divergence

What I didn't
- from what I understood, this is the last volume of the series and there was no ending, in fact nothing is resolved, the book ends as a massive threat is basically found which will be world ending and the book just ends

While I only list one thing I didn't , its so massive that it tanks the whole series for me. It comes off that they had no idea where to go so it just had to end, so its a massive cop out and waste of time. If another volume gets written, great, I don't care anymore. The fact that the book spent the whole time building up this threat just to not deal with it, is so aggravating that I wouldn't recommend anyone bother with this series. Pam39

Book 3 of 3. Jane, Esa and their posse of Justified find a relic planet with clues to the riddle of who created the Barius robots, etc. Strangely or not only the gifted children could read the writing on the wall so to speak and Jane runs into her long dead past.
Run into the Cyn & Bright Wanderers building giant spaceships. Have a fight, kill a few and on to the next.
They take a long trek further to find another planet with Cyn and Bright Wanders scattered through out the place. Also, they learn why they were tracking down the gifted children.
They are welcomed to this next planet, but soon defeat enough to land and it's quiet, too quiet. Only the gifted can walk through the barriers. With their non gifted team mates left behind they again find an astonishing word from the past. Is it good news? While the gifted are welcomed by the planet it funnels their ungifted team into a trap. Battle with the Cyn.
Esa comes face to face with the goddess they have been hearing about and she's faced with choices. People get hurt, no humans die. The furnaces come to life and the Bright Wanderers show up with their dreadnaught ships.
There has to be a book 4. You just can't leave Jane and Esa looking out into the stars.
John Adams1,462 5

its predecessors, the story is a trio of big set pieces with minimal reflection between them, and in a classic case of sequelitis, the villains multiply (multiples of the heavy from book two), mirror (both the protagonists confront dark mirror images of themselves), and escalate (with a final antagonist whose powers are god-, after the prior books ended with defeating seemingly unbeatable but definitely touchable foes), to the detriment of reading pleasure (the way most of each protagonists' character development is the other protagonist thinking about it rather than the story showing it is also disappointing). It's still fun (the characters are great), but hitting a point of diminishing returns. Jean582 3

I hope there is going to be another book in The Universe After series. This one was really good, and it does provide a stopping point for the series, but there is more story to be told, I think.

This is space opera at its best, with the feel of military SF with the battles fought. The reader has some questions answered, but there are mysteries provoked by those answers.

The language is still a bit rough, but I think it suits the characters and isn't as frequent as in the first book.

The series is highly recommended for fans of science fiction/science fantasy. However, don't start with this book -- start with the first book. This is one of the cases that I would suggest checking for the omnibus volume with all three volumes published to date. Kyle O’Keefe444 2

Man, I’ve had a good time with this series, and I really hope there’s a fourth book in the works because I need more after the ending of this one. The story and writing we a little bit repetitive and I feel this could have been cut down a little, which is why I knocked a star off, but the plot was a banger and I fell completely in love with these characters. Two women both taking up the mantle of surrogate mother really does it for me and I was fully crying during preachers speech at the end. The experience was heightened by the exceptional audiobook which I highly recommend. Paul Bard857

I deliberately read this slowly for enjoyment. Wow, what a successful third book.

The way he raised the stakes on the previous two books was brilliant. The plot was flawless. The action was superb.

I actually think less swearing might have helped this book a little. I’m very pro-sweating, but I felt it distracted from the action.

I look forward to the sequels, confident he can pull it off. A really talented writer! Stephtacular23

This book series is so underrated!! I absolutely love the characters and the story and I highly recommend to anyone that enjoyed The Expanse. This is that, but better and more focused around ass kicking females. Please don't sleep on this series and Drew please keep writing them. I adore them so much. Mark Edlund1,442 2

Science fiction series - the third book in the Universe After series. The justified are tracking down some frightening bad guys. Great action sequences. Pretty sure there is going to be a fourth book.
No Canadian or pharmacy references.science-fiction Zoe Neeley53 1 follower

I agree with other readers - there needs to be a fourth book!!!

I d that in this book we got to experience the events from Esa and Jane’s perspective. It seemed a nice progression from Jane’s POV in the first book and Esa’s POV in the second.

science-fiction Louise102

Expansive story

Expansive story of life in the galaxy.
Life, love, pain, confusion, hope and battle.
Many battles to overcome blind faith, hate and zeal.

Characters and worlds grown in detail and complexity.

Such a fantastic series, which I hope has another book yet!
Emma432 7

3.5 starssci-fifantasy Pat King335 2

Excellent Miche D175

audio book.

solid. Jane Kelsey1,019 79

This third installment was not as good as book 2 - I loved that book so much. The ending was kinda meh as well for me. I suppose it made sense, but too cliche for my taste. Eric491 4

Good series but ended on a cliffhanger, unless more books are coming...sci-fi pampampampampam112 177

I love Jane Kamali, but this was not the most engaging title, and I absolutely hated the ending. Hopefully, there will be another book to actually wrap things up, because things just ... stopped. Ernest Spoon518 19

Holy crap! Thought this was the end of a trilogy? Wrong. Keep writing, buddy. And quickly, please! Emma Reynolds268 1 follower

My least favourite of the 3 books. The arrival of an old friend and the Esa twist were both a little predictable, the former seeming unnecessary. Richard Radgoski454 10

4.5. Review tbd Magda119 3

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