Book Review: "For the First Time, Again" by Sylvain Neuvel
4/5 stars
*Spoiler alert!*
For the
First Time, Again is
the third and final entry in Sylvain Neuvel’s “Take Them to the Stars” series.
I’m sad to see the series end, but I felt like the third book wrapped
everything nicely.
Aster is a
normal teenager growing up in the 90’s, or so she thinks. Her mother gave her
up when she was a baby, but Aster had a great childhood under the parentage of
a hardworking single dad. Readers will know that she is Lola’s
daughter, the same Lola that sacrificed herself by confronting the Tracker, in
order to give her daughter a normal life. Aster doesn’t know this yet. Everything is going great, until she finds herself in the middle of a mass
shooting. This shooting takes her father’s life.
Of course,
nothing is the same. No 12-year-old should have to go through this, to lose the
only parent they know in this way. It’s overwhelming enough to lose your father,
but Aster is taken into custody by the US military in the wake of this event,
where she learns she has “unusual” blood.
I think you
see where this is going.
She must
escape the clutches of the US government before she is dissected, and finds an unlikely
ally in the current Tracker, sworn enemy of her and her ancestors, yet the only
one able to explain her Kibsu heritage. We are introduced to this Tracker,
Samael, in the previous book.
I have
complicated feelings about Samael and his redemption arc throughout For the
First Time, Again. Even as he protects Aster from the US government and (of
course) the aliens that come running after the beacon is activated at the end
of the second book. He still is very violent and self-centered, but at least
begins to question the ongoing feud between the Kibsu and Trackers.
“Humans kill. They exploit, treat each other like cattle. They are capable of destruction on such scale I sometimes find it difficult to believe our people could do worse. Yet they do all that while claiming the moral high ground. They cling to the idea that it was their smarts and ingenuity that made them the dominant species, as if killing was not the mother of human invention. I have no doubt Homo sapiens would have bludgeoned every rival with rocks had it not been able to create better things to kill with. I am astonished by the mental gymnastics these people will perform to reconcile their actions with their idea of good. For all their faults, my kind kills more honestly. That is precisely why I have to stop them, but it is also the reason I am eager to do so. This changes nothing of course—I will kill them all—but I find it philosophically interesting.”
I’ll hand it to Samael, he has startlingly astute observations about
humanity. What a savage indictment. Yet, Samael chooses to help Aster save
humanity by launching the infamous beacon out into space, away from Earth, and
hopefully diverting a much larger invasion. That speaks to the larger theme about
hope that comes up over and over throughout this trilogy. That humanity is
worth saving. Armed with the knowledge of our history, seen through the eyes of
alien protagonists, that’s one step towards making society better than it has
been.
As I said before, I already miss this series and the story it tells.
However, there is a second epilogue, kind of like a Marvel movie post-credits scene,
that hints that Neuvel may not be completely done with this story’s universe. I
am excited to see where he chooses to go next.
Happy reading!
--BookOwl
Comments
Post a Comment