This is an excellent wrap up to a fantastic series. This final book, while slow at the beginning, does a good job of tying all the stories together and bringing them to a satisfying end whilst also developing the plot to a space opera crescendo!

The Last Hero by Linden A. Lewis wraps up the trilogy that began with The First Sister, and it's a book that particularly deserves attention for anyone looking for more books in the vein of Emily Tesh's Hugo winning Some Desperate Glory. While Lewis' trilogy doesn't have that book's 90 degree plot swerves, it offers a much deeper look at what radicalisation and deprogramming look like when the bullets are actually flying, and we get to watch the young protagonists from across different factions - the fundamentalist Geans, the caste-based Icarii and the marginalised Asters - grapple with what is expected of them within their respective systems, and the price of trying to overthrow them. Add in some great bits of worldbuilding and a hefty dose of character gender feelings, and you've got a trilogy well worth checking out.

A few years ago I read The First Sister. That book had me hooked immediately and drew me into this world completely! The Second Rebel captivated me even further, taking me on a journey of political intrigue, rebellion and heartbreak. With The Last Hero, the trilogy is completed on an even grander scale, with the future of humanity hanging in the balance.

For me, this book was about chaos. About not knowing what is the right choice, when you both want to save your friends and save everything you have worked for. What does the greater good mean, when you have lost the one you love? How much is a sacrifice worth, when no one seems to understand why you do it? And how do you learn how to trust, after you've been betrayed time and time again?

I loved the way individual choices, either based on clever thinking or deep-rooted beliefs and emotions, influenced the future of so many people. And how you can work so hard to achieve your goals, to only have it all erased by one person being reckless. Or brave, depending on your point of view.

This story shows a lot of darker sides of humanity, but it is also about hope. I don't want to get into details and spoil anything, but this is one of those trilogies that will stay with me for a while!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book. My opinions are my own.

2.5 stars
I found The Second Rebel rather confusing as a mid-trilogy installment and I have to be honest that confusion was constant throughout this final part. The strengths of this world lie in some of the characters, some of the world-building and the queerness woven througout. This was a buddy read and I am more grateful than normal for that, we split this long read into four and had a chat each day. Those chats helped us all try and get this world into some clarity; there was so very much going on.

Character-wise, I continued to like Hiro, Lito and Luce. I liked some of the other characters but I came to absolutely dislike Astrid in this book. She had far too much page-time for my liking and her constant need to make stupid decisions and walk into traps felt on repeat. Alongside her, Lily was also a bucket of dislike for me, untrustworthy and a bit insipid.

I liked seeing the synthetics fleshed out more and finding my way to some understanding of how they worked. The evil father continued to be evil. (view spoiler).

The last few pages were a nice epilogue, good to see but for me overall, this has been an up and down series. This book was sorely in need of a key to refer to on charcters (including their alternate names), which character was connnected to which,different locations and which species/race was from where. That would helped a hell of a lot with the constant confusion.

I enjoyed the first book but I feel like this series has gone down in enjoyment with each book, sadly.

I made the mistake of waiting too long after finishing book 2 to start this one and found myself very lost for a lot of the book as I couldn't remember the backstory well. However, saying that, I still enjoyed this adventure and catching up with these characters. This is a great trilogy for readers wanting to dip their toes into the sci-fi genre as it's incredibly accessible and fun.

Honestly this book was just so bleak and depressing, I just wanted to give the characters a hug. An ok conclusion and glad to have finished this series. 2.5 stars

This was a truly epic and awe inspiring conclusion to what has been an excellent trilogy. The scope and stakes are elevated once again in this third book, giving even more layers to the world and providing more point of view characters. The plot is compelling and the character development is top notch and satisfying. From where the series started as an intimate look at the interwoven lives of three individuals to the galaxy spanning exploration we have here, the road to get there has been wonderful and I cannot recommend this series highly enough. A fantastic achievement and I will eagerly await Linden A. Lewis's next offering.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I loved this series from the very beginning. The characters, the plot, the way it absolutely gutted me, how it handles loss of bodily autonomy, rebellion, suffering, and so much more. So to reach the story's finale felt very special to me. It's hard for me to put into words.

Let me start by saying that this was an absolutely worthy conclusion. It kept raising the (already high) stakes from the beginning, extending personal to comunal to global and galactic tragedy. Whenver I thought things had gotten as bad as they could get, it kept getting worse. It greatly portrayed what suffering can do to different people, and it was gutting. The conflicts happened not only on a plot level, but also on a personal level.

But all throughout, it also gave hope. A tiny glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, even as everything around the character shattered.

I think what stands out the most to me about the series are the characters. They've come to mean so much to me. Especially Hiro, and Lito to a lesser extend. They are fundamentally different, in their personalities, their personal stories and struggles, the roles they play throughout the plot. And yet they remained intrinsically connected. They objectively spend very little time in the same space, and their interactions were very limited, but their bond still touched me deeply.

But even as they were my favourites, I appreciated the others too. As the old POV characters remain, two new ones are added: Castor and Lily, who share their chapters as they are twins and their plots are closely linked. In the ebook, it sometimes was hard to tell who of them was talking, but in the audiobook, that uses different narrators for each POV character, that wasn't an issue. I also really commend the choice of narrators for each character, they fit very well.
I greatly enjoyed their addition as POV characters, as it finally adds a much needed Aster voice to the protagonists. The Aster rebellion is so central to the plot, and yet so many of the key players are human, which felt strange to me.

Astrid's plot had some interesting developments, and remains a very powerful story of fighting for self-governance.

While they aren't POV characters, I also loved what was done with Sorrel and Ophiera. Their story is heart-wrenching from start to finish, but it was wonderfully executed.

My one gripe with the book lays in one of the (very minor, to be fair) romantic subplots, that comes completely out of the blue. I reread books 1 and 2 before starting The Last Hero and I was completely blindsided by the sudden attraction between the two characters.

My favourite books are those that, while reading, make a little movie play in my mind. This entire series did that from page 1 onwards. I cannot recommend it enough, though do please look out for content warnings.

I was very excited to be offered this book to review, having enjoyed the first two books in the series! While Lewis has maintained their reputation as the master of epic twists I didn't - but should have - seen coming, I found the pacing of this instalment rather lacking compared to previous books, and thought the book struggled to justify all the extra POV characters it insisted on including.

I can’t recommend this series enough, it’s such an amazing set of books, so well written and just beautiful, the
characters are all amazing, it’s heart wrenching, thrilling fun, very engaging and addictive. A sci fi epic that I very much recommend to anyone I can

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in return for an honest opinion

And so, here we are: the conclusion to this amazing trilogy that captured me from The First Sister and all through The Second Rebel. We pick up where the latter left off, once again joining Astrid, Hiro, Luce, and all the others, Icarii, Gean, and Aster. The stakes have never been higher: each had a moment of victory in the previous book, only to have events turn against them. Is peace between the factions of humanity even slightly a possibility? Or, will the Synthetics – those minds beyond simple ‘AI’ – intervene even more strongly than before?

I don’t want to talk too much about where we find each character – it would be spoiler-y for the previous books. But oh, I have so enjoyed each journey, individually and together. Often when following several viewpoint characters the switching between them each chapter can be frustrating – leaving a storyline you’re invested in to go elsewhere for a while. Not here: the author doesn’t torment you with obvious cliffhanger chapter endings, but rather leads you to another character you’re equally invested in, and their continuing story, until it’s time to circle back. By which I mean, there are no ‘weak links’. I loved all the threads. I can’t even say I had favourite characters – all of them?! There’s so much to root for, for Hiro and Lito, Luce and Lily, and all the rest.

Each book in the series has built to greater heights. We started with two main PoV characters, now there are so many more, and yet it didn’t ever feel ‘too much’. It feels rich, there’s a good word: rich, and varied, and excellent world building with the different aspects of new humanity. The threats have gone from personal danger to the possible annihilation of the human species. And yet we still get satisfying endings to all the threads, huge and individual both.

I cannot recommend this series enough, really. It uses a few tropes but with very much its own spin. There was little that felt predictable, but not in a trying-too-hard way. The characters are all amazing, so *so* well crafted, and lift this sci-fi to something so much more about the human condition. But it’s still *fun* – heart wrenching, jaw dropping, thrilling fun, but always a joy to be reading.

Sort of sad to have finally finished, tbh!

So go: read it all! 🙂

I really do adore this series. It’s dark and intense and overwhelming at every possible moment. This was a series that I picked up when a friend read an ARC of the first book. Since then I’ve been reading every book as soon as I possibly could, so when I got an ARC of THE LAST HERO, I couldn’t wait to jump into it.

It’s so hard to sum up this series, and even harder to review the third part of such an intricate, sprawling sci-fi story. By THE LAST HERO we have so many factions on so many different sides of this galaxy wide war that it could be hard to keep track, except for the fact that Linden A. Lewis is a fantastic writer and makes it easy to follow the complex multiple viewpoints and motivations. The blend of politics and worldbuilding is perfectly balanced and had me on the edge of my seat as I waited to find out how this series could possibly conclude.

The relationships in this series are beautiful, but I *****have***** to highlight the QPR energy of Lito and Hiro. As someone in a QPR myself, it meant so much to me to see platonic love so beautifully shown and protected. It’s just as important as the romantic relationships and tension and means so much to me to see it play out.

Throughout the entire series, we’ve been faced with these amazingly fleshed out characters. Even the ones I hate feel like whole, realistic characters with their own complex history and motivations. The series was brought to a satisfying and ultimately positive conclusion in this novel and though I was left with a few questions, most of those lingering plot threads were tied up neatly over the course of THE LAST HERO.

#scifisunday bookreview: The Last Hero by Linden A. Lewis 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
This is one of the BEST scifi series out there!! I cannot believe this is the author's debut, and I cannot believe this is the last book in the series!!
The First Sister trilogy starts off with the first book that feels a lot like The Handmaids Tale during an intergalactic war. The first sister Astrid who we follow on the spaceship Juno is a priestess of the sisterhood and travels alongside soldiers who basically use her like commanders use handmaidens. When the Juno gets a new commander (Saito Ren) she falls in love, which is not very convenient as she needs to spy on them for the Sisterhood.

I love that ever since the first book more perspectives and storylines are revealed. There are twists and turn, especially in the sevond book that had me gasping!!

When we learn that aside from the Ikari Empire and the Geans (that include the sisterhood), there is an outcast colony of misfits, a whole different species, and next level AI, everything gets to a gigantic intergalactic BOOM in the third book. Where polictics and negotiations are a life or death situation. And my all time favorite characters are very unsafe.

Please try this series if you love a cool scifi setting, intricate undercover plots, evil sisterhood with scheming aunts, and twisted family bonds!

No entiendo por qué la trilogía The First Sister de Linden A. Lewis no ha tenido más repercusión al menos por estas tierras, siendo como es una space opera reivindicativa, llena de giros de guion y con un elenco de personajes carismáticos de esos que dejan huella. Afortunadamente, con la última entrega la autora no solo deja el listón bien alto si no que cierra las tramas con mucha solvencia, ofreciéndonos el final que una serie tan buena merecía.


Me perdonaréis que empiece por el final, pero es que me ha parecido maravillosa la forma en que se narran los últimos capítulos de la historia, con un ritmo frenético, apoyado por un aviso de la probabilidad estadística de la extinción de la humanidad pero a su vez empezando cada capítulo con una pequeña “reubicación” del lector que enlaza el final del anterior con el principio del siguiente facilitando el cambio de punto de vista. Es una decisión acertadísima en medio de la confusión de la última batalla para que el hilo de la historia siga siendo perfectamente distinguible.

La novela en sí es bastante continuista con las anteriores, pero como se dice normalmente, si algo funciona, no lo toques. Me interesa mucho como Lewis mezcla tropos muy utilizados en la ciencia ficción, como la singularidad o la manipulación genética para lanzar un mensaje que haga despertar nuestras conciencias. El elitismo y la separación de clases son tan evidentes en esta sociedad como para provocar una revolución, pero de no ser por la amenaza de una fuerza exterior no llegaría el cambio en el status quo. Pero también toca temas tan importantes como la familia (natural y encontrada), el cumplimiento de las expectativas puestas en ti por los demás o cómo conseguir abrir tu propio camino.

Los personajes son polifacéticos y dotados de una gran profundidad. Me entusiasma la evolución de todos ellos, desde Astrid a Hiro, desde Lito a Luce… Y la vía no ha estado exenta de sufrimiento y dolor. Los sacrificios que todos han de llevar a cabo son realmente titánicos pero en la mayoría de los casos consiguen mejorar. Aquí hay un mensaje optimista que no debemos pasar por alto, que puede servir como luz en la oscuridad.

También me ha gustado especialmente cómo algunos temas que aparecían en la primera novela influyen en esta última entrega, en la que vemos cómo todo o casi todo tenía una razón de ser que explicaba ciertos comportamientos que podían parecer anómalos.

En definitiva, esta novela es un broche de oro para una trilogía que no entiendo cómo no está todavía publicada en español. Editoriales españolas, echadle el lazo pero ya.

An absolutely stunning end to this beautiful series!

The stakes have never been higher for our protagonists in this gripping finale, and the culmination of the multiple storylines and character POVs comes together so well.

I'm so sad it's over and I have to say goodbye to these amazing characters throughout the world Linden A. Lewis has so masterfully crafted.

An explosive finale- Lewis has fully upended all the pieces in this final book and scattered them in unexpected combinations, to great effect. I loved the continued exploration of bodily autonomy and was especially gripped by the way the Sisterhood story was resolved. This was a very engaging and readable sci fi epic that I very much enjoyed following.

It was an excellent, chaotic, gripping, fast paced, and highly entertaining series. This is the perfect final book and the best int he series.
it's hard to say goodbye to the characters and to this universe. An excellent queer space opera I loved.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

*The Last Hero* (out today) wraps up the First Sister trilogy, one of my favorite works of recent years. For those who have already read the first two volumes of this fantastic space opera: good news! Its ending did not disappoint. For those who have waited to start because they wanted the series to finish before they picked it up: dive in! For those who haven’t heard of this series, have I got a rec for you! For those who know of this series and have decided not to start/continue it: your opinions are bad and you should feel bad!

(Kidding, of course, but I really cannot say enough good things about this series.)

Lewis has continued to apply their trademark of “shocking twists that, while jaw dropping, actually make perfect sense in retrospect.” This time, though, we get them early on instead of at the climax. Our protagonists have expanded again: everyone you would expect from *The Second Rebel*, plus Castor. Other new editions include the not-unexpected Pollux and the entirely-unexpected [REDACTED]. The conflicts among the Icarii, the Gaens, and the Asters continue, as well as the internal conflicts within each faction. Looming over everything, though, is the Synthetics. We learn so much more about them, what they’re up to and what and why they want it. The nigh-omnipotent post-singularity AI isn’t a new trope in science fiction by any stretch, but this is a take on it I greatly enjoy.

One thing I particularly want to commend Linden on is their portrayal of the different kinds of loving relationships that are possible. Loving relationships in art are, in general, either romantic or familial, though there are plenty of deeply explored relationships that aren’t either. What’s very rare is for a relationship to be neither familial or romantic and still identity-defining. What I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen before is for a non-romantic relationship to be *passionate.* The love that Lito, Hiro, and Luce share among the three of them is exactly that, despite Lito and Luce being siblings and there never being even a hint of sexual tension with either of them and Hiro. It’s an impressive, and deeply affecting, thing.

I feel a little bit possessive of this series. I’d like to think that my pre-publication “ZOMG THIS IS AMAZING!” review of the first book, and my booking Linden to do an /r/Fantasy AMA, helped this series along at least a little bit. (Plus I am totally justified in indulging my inner hipster and boasting that I was into this series before it was cool.) I’m just delighted in how this ended, and can’t *wait* to see what the author is coming out with next.

I absolutely adore the first the two books and this third one was not a disappointment! Such a great read with themes around identity, war etc. Highly recommended and I'll definitely be rereading from the beginning!

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton for the invitation to read the NetGalley arc of The Last Hero by Linden A Lewis, the final book in The First Sister trilogy.

The Last Hero picks up the story shortly after The conclusion of The Second Rebel and truly delivers an action filled, heart pounding conclusion to the trilogy.

Following the explosive revelations of The Second Hero, First Sister Astrid has returned to the Moonborn and continues her search to understand more about Hringar and her origins. Hiro is determined to kill his father as he has little faith that that the trial will find his father guilty for his travesties but, finds themselves facing a moral and emotional battle.

Meanwhile Lily has stepped up to the role of Mother with the continuing internal civil war against Aunt Marshae, who is determined to consolidate control over the sisterhood and continues to build her reactionary army.

In parallel, the Asters are still facing an upward battle, as power forces seek to twist the revelations against them, which draws forth a divisive split that pulls them apart when they need to be united.

Surrounding all of these events the Synthetics, the artificial intelligence who have to date prevented humanity from expanding further into the Solar System are now pushed into a corner, and must now respond before humans self destruct.

Not one of these races are totally united in response, from Gaeans to Icarii to Asters to Moonborn and Synthetics; factions and divisions are rife, resulting in distrust, dissent and ultimately actions that plunge each and all further down the path to self-destruction.

I must quickly touch on Lewis’ world-building, from the first to the last book this has been mind blowingly brilliant. Lewis has delivered, worlds, societies, religions, technologies, philosophies and more with a deft touch that neither lectures nor bores but, places you carefully with awareness of the surroundings, people and more to firmly site you in this universe.

Lewis delivers multiple, crisscrossing storylines that deliver multiple character POVs, complex plots within plots and the resulting devastation and human impact beautifully. The upward trajectory of pace, politics and action that gradually built from The First Sister, through The Second Rebel to the conclusion of The Last Hero delivers a stunning finale to this trilogy that should not be missed.

I could talk forever about the way that Lewis deliver the political, philosophical and humanity, the questions raised around the greater good, the impact and influence of one against many but, that would deliver so many spoilers and you need to read this outstanding conclusion for yourself.

“To those who are struggling: Love yourself as an act of rebellion, even if you also want to change some things. Keep fighting, even when you feel like giving up, even if the only thing that keeps you going is spite. You are the only person with your voice; only you can tell your story.”