A review by hjerteknuser
The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The world building of this is SO gorgeous and the atmosphere of how haunting it is to be on a dead planet without any living thing around was just beautifully conveyed - I just kept wishing there was more of it all, more lore, more character interactions and backstory, more planets to explore. The ending especially just left me wishing this was a sprawling scifi epic with 5 parts because I want to watch someone do archeology and solve tje mystery FOREVER. I did also love the books exploration of grief and hope and healing but even that could've used more room and time to develop (and in a way the world building is so rich and fascinating to me it was almost TOO good and distracted me from that theme?) I very much can't wait to read more from this author though and I'll be holding out hope for more books in this universe forever