Undying (Unearthed, #2)

by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Alex McKenna (Narrator), Steve West (Narrator), and Vikas Adam (Narrator)

Trapped aboard the Undying’s ancient spaceship and reeling from what they’ve learned there, scavenger Mia and academic Jules are plunged into a desperate race to warn their home planet of the danger humanity’s greed has unleashed. From the mountains of Spain to the streets of Prague, the sequel to Unearthed is a white-knuckle ride that will send readers hurtling back to earth, and leave them breathless until the last page.

The earth’s fate rests in Mia and Jules’s hands in the epic conclusion to New York Times best-selling authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s tomb-raiding sci-fi duology.

• ISBN10: 0525496920
• ISBN13: 9780525496922
• Publish Date: 22 January 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Listening Library
• Edition: Bot Exclusive ed.
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 11 hours and 20 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[ladygrey]

I don't know what to think about this book. Or more precisely, what to say. It wasn't bad, but I didn't love it. I didn't love the humans are bad for destroying earth message which has almost become a cliche at this point. I didn't love the look-how-fabulous-humans-can-be-if-we-all-just-get-along because it's not untrue but it's boring. Or more precisely it's idyllic but it's not an ideal that I find appealing or interesting. I didn't like the parts where the characters were all “I'm annoyed at him for trying to hold onto hope” because hope is a beautiful thing and especially when you're creating desperate stories like this, it's the thing characters should hang onto, not resent. Most of all I didn't like the cheating logic.

For starters, I knew it was the Centauri crew midway through the first book. So that wasn't a surprise. But that one was ok because it made since. Even with the feint (I guess in case anyone had guessed that) with the “they're really aliens! they have blue blood" misdirect. But wait they really ARE the Centauri crew. Who definitely didn't time travel. They just got in a storm that moved them forward and backwards in time. Totally different thing. Like, after all the build up, come up with a different explanation or own the one you've got.

And I suppose it doesn't help that I've recently read Brandon Sanderson. And while the characters in Undying are better than anything he's come up with thus far (and by that mean that I've read by him) his payoff has yet to disappoint. This payoff isn't terrible but feels a bit sloppy and cheap in comparison. That being said, I did REALLY like Dex especially in the first half of the book and the dimension he added. He became a bit less interesting toward the end but the pivot with him finally engaged me in the story in a way I hadn't been through the beginning and kept my attention into the second act. The hard thing is it's not any one thing that ruined the book for me. It's a lot of little things in an otherwise decent book that I didn't love.

[alisoninbookland]

Before I get started, I have to say a HUGE thank you to Amie and Meagan for putting in a letter to readers that did a quick recap of Unearthed. I read a LOT so my memory can get pretty fuzzy if it’s been a while since I’ve read the book.

Undying managed to keep the fun adventure going even though we lost the fun setting of outer space. Sure, the story starts in outer space but we do eventually end up back on Earth. We also ended up on a road trip to save the world which is a bit cliche. I did miss the puzzles from the first book.

The big twist of making the Undying humans from the future was cool. I love a good alien story so it was a bit disappointing that they weren’t truly alien. The idea of our enemies being us is a terrifying idea. Atlanta and Dex were a great addition to the story. Having two teenage Undying stuck with Mia and Jules made sense.

The science behind everything got a bit murky for me. The lost Centauri mission got lost and did some space jumping? This leads to some sort of time jumps which puts them much further in the future than we are. I know better than to fully understand the science in my science fiction so I’m okay to just roll with it.

This was the end of the duology. Despite that, there was a very middle book of a trilogy feel to the story. Things were laid in place that made you think more was to come. The story does fully wrap up in the end but it still feels like there should be more.

The bottom line? Enjoyable wrap-up.

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[sa090]

That’s was a pretty good follow up and conclusion to the duology, only wish that something was toned down so it’ll be better.

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Because of how we ended up last time, I was really looking forward to seeing how this story will end. That being said, after such a long time has passed its easy to forget a few details here and there, but our co-authors has a way to solve this. Before the novel actually starts, there are a few pages of a summary of the prequel’s plot line for anyone who might’ve forgotten something from then till now provided by our authors which I thought was pretty cool and insanely convenient, really wish more authors would do that for really long waits in not so amazing books. That aside, the plot of Undying is more of a dealing with an impending doom when compared to the exploration side of Unearthed, to me personally, I really missed that side, but it also seemed like a natural progression so I’ll give it a pass

It’s also helpful that in this book, our protagonists are trying to make sense of the situation as they go by which gives it a certain level of mystery as well. So it’s not completely thrown out of the window! In the end, the common-ness of the plot somehow made it less of an interesting read if plot was my only focus, so I’m very thankful that I’m more of a character driven reader than anything else, because the characters in this book were definitely the main focus and more important point of focus. We got to see Jules and Mia alongside more than a few new faces (and old), I like to see characters grow depending on what they had to go through in earlier books and this one showed me that to some extent, for some characters more than others. What I didn’t enjoy whatsoever about this book, is Jules’ continued usage of extremely unneeded vocabulary, the romance being way more important than an alien invasion at times and once again the blame game that never stopped.

On the topic of vocabulary, I just need to sit down with someone who can explain to me the relevance, necessity and actual need of using the words “Perfututi” and “Mehercule” other than being pretentious. I don’t understand, could be because I haven’t studied Latin nor understand the way it works, but I’m really really curious as to why it needs to be added to this extent. I wouldn’t be so hopped up on this topic, if I didn’t spend at least 15 minutes after every single time they appeared researching online so I can understand it better. For the romance on the other hand, I do understand that it’s a YA book, where I’m dealing with teenagers and the entire basis on this relationship in particular was born because one boy and one girl existed in the same vicinity for an extended persons of time, but I really wished that it’ll be put aside so we can focus on the events themselves. I’m not saying it was on a sickening degree thankfully, but I also didn’t expect to read as many thoughts concerning it as I did especially with how the book went. Thankfully, there was a voice of reason around, albeit being somewhat useless.

The real worst offender for me here is the blame game, I hated it in book one and I loathe it in book two. Jules and Mia haven’t known each other for very long, and both started out the story with different albeit also similar goals in the grand scheme of things. But because they spent that minuscule time together, Jules in particular comes off as this self entitled idiot who gets offended over the tiniest things Mia says in this book when it comes to prioritizing her original goal and maybe not caring so much about his. Is this wrong? Hell no, she has every right to do so just like he does. The problem for me here is that he is still completely focused on his goal, and it takes priority for obvious reasons, but the difference here is Mia is completely supportive, yet the minute she starts talking in logical reason, this guy starts acting like a sullen idiot who is supposedly “betrayed” by her logical and HUMAN thinking.

I didn’t enjoy it at all and I am definitely sulky about the twist at the end, would’ve one pretty quick and easy solution lol. Now that I’ve talked in length about the characters and my issues, I’ll discuss the other positives of the book. For instances, the mystery surrounding the Undying finally getting talked about in details was an awesome thing to see, mainly because I figured the outline of it out in book 1 so even if they tried to get me to think different here and there in this book, I’m glad to see I was right and I did find the whole explanation very interesting so bonus for that. The world building in the book wasn’t as prominent in this book given the location, but I did enjoy briefly seeing some of the new locations and learning more about the IA itself.

I do think it’s a very interesting book, it’s just got these pretty annoying things about it that makes it hard to love in its entirety for me :)

Final rating: 3.5/5

[littleread1]

Dec 27, 2018: Bravo ladies! Bra-fucking-vo! Now, excuse me for a minute, I have something in my eye ...

Jan 16, 2019: Now that I have had a chance to get my thoughts in order ... time for a real review!

I love duologies. I think more trilogies should actually be 2 books, and then they would avoid that "second book slump" they often have. This right here is a good example of a book 2 that grabs you from the start, which really should not be surprising considering where Unearthed left us.

If you don't quite remember all the details though, don't worry! Kaufman and Spooner considered that, and Undying starts with a brief recap of the characters, their situations, and where they all are,s o you don't have to try and squeeze in a re-read! Of course if you have the time and desire to do one, go for it. I just really appreciated the re-cap and think more books need something like that. Especially for those of us that read 100s of books a year.

I had a theory about the Undying while reading Unearthed, and I was kind of right, but kind of wrong too. I always appreciate when I am wrong about where a book is going. I like to keep guessing!

Mia and Jules are a great pair, and I really like watching them work together. Their interactions and conflicts are written in such a way that they are relateable and believable, even in a fictional world. The authors write everything so seamlessly that I was not able to figure out who wrote what parts. They have always worked well together and I look forward to any and all future projects they have together!

This review is intentionally vague, because I want to make sure I give nothing away. There are a couple surprises that I don't want to ruin for you!

[Kelly]

★★★☆
Not as engaging as Unearthed but still enjoyed it nonetheless. Especially the second half.