In Review: The Final Six

The first time I read The Final Six by Alexandra Monir was back in 2020. I listened to the audiobook while working on a puzzle and really enjoyed it. Right after that, I listened to the sequel The Life Below, but I’m not going over it in this post. I enjoyed listening to this story so much that I had to buy a copy to have on my shelf. Last month, on a whim, I decided to go on a little space adventure and reread it. And now, I have the story fresh in my memory and ready to be reviewed.

Title: The Final Six Author: Alexandra Monir Series: The Final Six #1 Publication year: 2018 Length: 7 hours 40 minutes Genre: Sci-fi, Mystery, Post-Apocalyptic, YA Pace: Fast Story focus: Character & Plot

Earth is dying. Natural disasters are increasingly more frequent, taking lives wherever they hit. But there’s hope by the name of Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon. With time running out, 24 teenagers are selected to train and compete for the only six spots available to be part of the colonising mission. Leo was a professional swimmer before a flood took away his family and his dream. Until Europa presents itself to be an escape. Naomi is a science prodigy determined to find a way to cure her little brother’s heart defect. And now that plan goes down the drain when she is drafted for the Europa mission. Naomi is determined to go back home and not be one of the six in the end. In the meantime, she’s going to find out if Europa really can be their new home or if it’s a mission far more dangerous than they are letting them believe. What Naomi doesn’t count on is quickly learning sabotaging the mission to Europa will jeopardise some of the contestant’s only hope for a life.

Being a YA sci-fi story, there will always be space for cliche and unrealistic scenarios. Although for me, that doesn’t take away any of my enjoyment. I really liked reading this book. It’s easy, interesting, and has enough mystery to keep me turning pages. It was fun to read. This was my second time reading it, and I can see myself reading it again. And I’m stating this straight away because I’m going to go over a lot of details that I would prefer were different, and I’m afraid it might come off as a very negative review, which is not.

It’s normal the more you read a book, the more details you pick up. Funny enough some of the complaints I had when I first listened to the book were the same as I have now. The main one is the lack of a conclusion. Since it’s part of a duology, most of the mysteries, if not every single one of them, are left to be resolved in the next book. The only part of the plot closed is discovering who are the six finalists. And so, this book feels like just a setup, the beginning of a story. It doesn’t stand on its own. It needs a continuation. I wish there were some mysteries and secrets resolved in this book to turn it into something more solid.

The story is told from two perspectives: Naomi and Leo. And here is where the audiobook is a better medium. It has a male narrator for the perspective of Leo, James Fouhey, and Alexandra Monir narrates the perspective of Naomi. And so it’s easy to know which perspective I’m listening to. Meanwhile, reading physically from both perspectives is a different experience. At times, I wasn’t sure in which POV I was reading. Naomi and Leo have very similar voices. Unless something specific to characters was mentioned, I couldn’t distinguish them.

The book focus on training and on Naomi’s plan. In the beginning, she wants to sabotage the mission, but as the story progresses, her plans change due to various reasons. And when the story doesn’t focus on the plan or the romance, it’s about the training and the life at the space training program. There were two or three instances where the exercises they were doing are fully explained, and we see the characters participate in them. Although the rest of the story happens outside of that.

When the selected arrive at camp, they have a month of training to prepare for the mission. Their days are completely scheduled to condensate year-long astronaut training into a small amount of time. Although once the story shows different parts of the training rarely ever goes back to it. I don’t necessarily dislike this because it could easily become repetitive, but it also stops being mentioned. And suddenly, the story becomes focused on setting up all the mysteries, secrets and romance without intertwining it with the packed schedule the characters supposedly have. One of the biggest problems this creates is every time some candidates are eliminated from the program, it’s always a guessing game. There is no perspective as to who is doing better or who is doing worse. And so the selection of the final six looks very random.

Another aspect that goes hand-in-hand is the lack of people. There are 24 contestants divided into 4 groups. Each group is assigned a trainer. Although we only get to meet one of them. Then theirs the people in charge: Dr Takumi and General Sokolov. And that’s it. For a space program to train teens in a month to travel to the furthest humanity has ever gone, they are short on personnel. And I understand this is a post-apocalyptic scenario, but still, the space fell too big for very few people.

Not only that but of the 24 contestants, only 3 have a defined role in the story. The others are just plot points and names in the book. If I’m remembering correctly, in the next book, The Life Below, that changes and the six finalists are part of the story. But that still doesn’t change the fact in The Final Six many characters are just a name on the page. And that is such a shame.

Despite my problems with the narrative, there wasn’t a lack of action. The plot is constantly moving, lifting up the veil of the mysteries and throwing curved balls to Naomi’s plan from the start. Naomi is a very lovable character, and you also can’t avoid empathising with Leo. The romance might be too instant since it’s a kind of love at first sight. And with the short period the book takes place, they fall in love too quickly. Although that’s something that doesn’t bother me at all. I’m here for the sci-fi, not the romance.

It’s not the perfect book, not the perfect sci-fi, and not a perfect start to a series, but it’s entertaining. In its imperfections, there is an enjoyable story when you want a little sprinkle of sci-fi in your life without committing to something incredibly long and dense. It’s a book I’ll reread again and again whenever I want to run away to an icy moon on Jupiter. And for a quick journey, it’s time well spent.