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Aria and Perry have never had it easy. Coming from two different world, a burnt-out wasteland and a domed uber-tech fortress, was only the beginning of their differences. But Dwellers (inside the dome) and Outsiders all have one thing in common. They want to reach the Still Blue where the Aether storms can't ravage everything they know and love about life. Into the Still Blue is the conclusion to Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky, and it holds your heart in its hand to the last page.
As the new Blood Lord of the Tides, Perry is now responsible for everyone in what was once his brother's tribe. Now that Aria has returned to him, he feels he can face that responsibility. But the fact that Cinder, the boy who can control the Aether, was kidnapped haunts him. The psychopath leader of the Horn Tribe, Sable, and Soren's father, leader of the domed city Reverie, Hess, have joined forces to do everything they can to get to through the wall of Aether to the Still Blue, even if it means kidnapping and using a little boy like Cinder. They knew Perry, Aria, Roar and the others wouldn't let them get away with it, either. In fact, they counted on it.
Perry's plan is to attack the Komodo, a giant moving city that is slowly creeping to the edge of the Aether. With the help of Soren, a former Dweller, they can fly the hover craft to the Komodo, rescue Cinder, and get back to their people in time to escape the incoming final Aether storm that will eradicate anything still living inside the burning, toxic wasteland. The problem is that Dwellers and Outsiders don't play well together. Both Perry's group and the group inside the Komodo are ravaged by a lack of trust and faith in one another. When you are constantly watching over your shoulder to make sure your partner doesn't stab you in the back, it is hard to see the enemy who isn't afraid to stab you in the heart. The one thing keeping the survivors from the Still Blue might just be themselves.
I have followed this series since the first book was released, and I have never once been disappointed, including this finale. It was a way to bring the story full circle and deliver a conclusion that would make Rossi's fans proud. There was no slump from the first page of book one to the last page of book three, and I am really glad I found this series. With such dystopia burnout out there, it is hard to pick your favorites, but this is certainly one of mine. There is a perfect mixture of hope and despair that keeps you through this hull of a world to get to the place we all hoped existed. These characters have all lost so much that you couldn't help yourself but to hope there really was an oasis in the face of such destruction.
While the story itself and the world-building, are pretty phenomenal, the true winners are Perry and Aria. Both are loyal to a fault, and Perry's loyalty to Cinder has to be my favorite. He cares for the boy to the point of staying with him on a mission that can only lead to certain dead for both of them. It is really fantastic to find a male lead like Perry who we all hope our sons and students can grow up to be like (without the apocalyptic landscape of course!). And Aria is a young woman for our girls to look up to as well. She understands the difference between her own hopes and desires and her responsibility to the people who trust her, and she faces difficult decisions with grace and determination. I loved watching the two of them together. But don't discount the supporting characters! If you don't love Soren and Roar as much as I did, there has to be something wrong with you! It is just sad knowing their story is over, even if it was the perfect ending!
Aria and Perry are the couple who made us all melt in Under the Never Sky. She was a Dweller, living in the high tech domes who was cast out into Perry's post-apocalyptic world where food is scarce and every place you go dangers greet you. In Veronica Rossi's Through the Ever Night, their story continues as they fight to protect those they love and most of all, to return back to one another.
Now that Perry is Blood Lord of the Tides after his brother's death, he has more responsibilities than he knows what to do with. With a tribe full of starving people and the Aether storms threatening to kill them all, he can barely keep everyone alive let alone work past the fact that most of his tribe thinks he is incompetent. But when Aria finally returns to him, he feels like things might eventually be better than they are now. There is hope. But when his tribe proves they don't want Aria to be marked as an Aud (a person with super hearing), as one of them, and they do so by poisoning the ink used to make her marks and almost kill her, he realizes he is torn between his heart and his responsibility.
Aria knows what she has to do to protect Perry, and it is the hardest thing she has ever done in her life: she has to leave him. In order to save Perry's nephew Talon from the dome, she must bargain with its crazy leader, the very man who exiled her from the dome. And the only thing she has left to bargain with is the Still Blue- the one place left safe from the Aether storms. But the one man who knows how to get to the Still Blue is the very man who bought Perry's sister from their older brother. And Sable isn't a bargaining kind of man. With the weight of the world on their shoulders, Perry and Aria must find a way to solve all their problems, all their people, and find each other again.
Can I just tell you how much I love Perry and Aria? They are amazing. And the thing I love the most about them is they know the world is bigger than just the two of them. Their loyalties to their people and their friends and family leaves them unselfish and makes their love just that much more special. It was hard to watch them be physically apart for the majority of this book, but you knew how necessary it was. Their sacrifice made the continuation of the story that much stronger.
This story continues to balance between tortured post-apocalyptic landscape and high sci-fi, super tech futuristic world. It makes the story fascinating and addictive. While the landscape is fascinating, it is the characters who will keep you coming back. Even the supporting characters are just as compelling as Perry and Aria. Roar is a man you can't wrap your head around, and yet you just adore him. Rossi has a talent for dynamic characters who you can't help but find yourself emotionally invested in. It makes for a great story, and most of all, it will keep you coming back!
Before Perry came across a girl from the domes, he was just a boy with a complicated family in a tribe that can barely feed itself. In Roar and Liv, and Under the Never Sky story by Veronica Rossi, we get the sense that life isn't easy for anyone... especially those whose lives can be traded.
Roar loves Liv. She is his life. Now that his grandmother is gone, Liv and her brother Perry are the only family he has, and he would do anything to protect them. But their brother, Vale, is the Blood Lord of the tribe, and when he decides the tribe's well-being is more important than what his sister wants, Roar will do anything to prevent her from being sent away. But how much will he risk? His life? Her life? The lives of everyone in the tribe?
This was a really interesting prequel because you really get an idea of how Perry came to see the world as he does. He knows the duty his brother carries on his shoulder, but he also knows what is right and wrong. It was quite an illuminating little story as you think about Under the Never Sky. How could you not be bitter and cynical when your brother has to sell his sister to feed his tribe? Especially knowing how life in the dome is!
Great title, great cover, terrifying world. A world divided between people who live in automated domes where their whole lives are spent in virtual realities, never experiencing true emotions, connections, or human interactions. The rest of the world are Savages who live outside the domes and live in tribes and civilizations that barely scrape by through hunting and gathering. A world torn between two societies that have nothing in common but need each other in ways they never could have imagined. That is what Veronica Rossi's Under the Never Sky promises and delivers.
Aria grew up in the domes where life is simple and enjoyable. Work is done through automated machines so people have all the time in the world to enjoy themselves in the virtual Realms where they can be in Medieval Europe in one moment and on the moon the next. Her mother is a scientist and was working at another dome when communication was lost, and Aria will do anything to get news about her, even cozy up to the Consul's son. When a harmless flirtation and teenaged prank goes awry, Aria is blamed for the Consul's son's break with reality where he almost burned down the dome and quietly exiled from the domes. She is sure she won't survive the night, but she didn't expect to come across Perry, the very Savage who saved her from the fire.
Perry has never gotten along with his brother, the Blood Lord of their tribe, but he sticks around for his nephew, Talon, who grows sicker every day. Perry thinks the tribe is in danger of starvation and the ever-growing Aether storms that threaten total destruction each and every day, but his brother refuses to consider moving. When a hover craft from the Domes attacks Perry and kidnaps Talon, he will do anything to get him back, including taking Aria to the domes to trade her digital eyepiece with the evidence that will vindicate her of the fire. Two people who grew up in totally different worlds developmentally but geographically near find themselves thrust together in a harsh world full of angry wolves, terrifying storms, cannibals, and two societies that hate them. But they won't give up until they save their families: Aria's mother and Perry's nephew are the only things that matter now.
This was such an amazing dystopia I want to pick it up and read it all over again (but plan to wait until the second book Through the Ever Night comes out!). This world was a crazy dichotomy between technology-gone-too-far and civilization-thrown-into-the-stone-age. How can you possibly put those two worlds together, you ask? How can you do it and not see ridiculous or utilize time travel? Well Rossi has the secret and it lies within sealed, domed cities! The domed cities are a brilliant way to show the difference between the two societies and still remain realistic that these two societies could exist so close to one another and still never cross paths.
The characters, from Perry and Aria to all the supporting characters throughout the story, are phenomenal. They are deep, dynamic, and realistic with flaws and heroism rolled into one. They don't trust one another at first, obviously, but their circumstances mean they have to figure it out. Life and death situations can do a lot to bring two people together, no matter how different their childhoods were! The supporting characters are not just static caricatures that plague many books. You will find yourself loving them as much as you love the main characters (or hating the bad ones with an equal amount of intensity). Not only did Rossi build an incredible new world, she also nailed the characters better than most books I have read!
I would say this is a good book for any strong middle school student through any adult interested in the genre. The story is so interesting and exciting, you won't be able to put the book down. There is a little mild, vague sexual content, but it is nowhere near graphic or explicit. There is violence, but that is a given when you deal with most dystopias. Over all, I have to say I am dying to read the second book and will be suggesting this book to everyone I can! Brava, Ms. Rossi! You nailed it!
