Charlie Jane Anders gives readers the perfect ending to their Unstoppable series with PROMISES STRONGER THAN DARKNESS. I appreciate that each book picks up basically where the previous one left off as the countdown to annihilation gets closer and closer. Tina is Not Tina now... which was a frantic attempt to provide everyone with Captain Thaoh Argentian in the hopes that THAT will save the solar system. But as with everything else, it does not go quite as planned.

The concepts of humanity, acceptance, and belonging continue to be explored, building upon the lessons and ideals shown in the first two books in this series. And just when our favorite characters are up against a wall and make an unimaginably difficult choice in the space version of the trolley problem, they learn from a potential ally that there is often times a third option. This series is queer, it's full of tough topics but also overflowing with the love of found family, and I don't think there is any one else I'd want to explore space with than with the Unstoppable crew. But like... as long as I don't have to come face to face with Marrant.

I definitely plan to go back and read this series through again in succession because knowing how it ends now, I think it will be fun to see what threads were started in VICTORIES GREATER THAN DEATH that I didn't pick up on at the time.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Tor Teen in exchange for an honest review.

“Promises Stronger Than Darkness” (Unstoppable #3) by Charlie Jane Anders ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: YA/Teen SciFi/Space Opera. Location: Outer space. Time: Present time.

THE SERIES: Makvarian clone Tina’s job is to Save The Universe! Luckily, Tina has 5 earth friends with her: Rachael, Damini, Yiwei, Elza, and Kez. They fought the terrible Vayt and the evil Constellation. They still have learning and growing to do, inspired by alien friends with blue stripes, fizzy purple skin, one eye circling their heads, stone bodies, little wormy tubes faces, fox-faces, moss-covered faces, and a fire breathing 9-eyed beetle. It’s a fantastically diverse environment for discovering, practicing, and accepting your true self- and fighting bigotry wherever it lurks.

THIS BOOK: “300 earth days until all the suns go dead.” In book 2, Tina sacrificed herself to allow Captain Thaoh Argentian to return and save the day. Now her friends must stop the ancient Bereavement curse and return Tina to her body. They are a band of aliens, crewmates, earthlings, lovers, plus 1 annoying frenemy. They’re on The Undisputed Training Bra Disaster-a starship made 1/2 of art and 1/2 of science; they’re the galaxy's most wanted―and its only hope.

Author Anders does a fine job bringing us up to speed. Reacquainting return readers and explaining to new readers flows easily. Her writing is sweet, heartfelt, and ironically humorous in a ‘Douglas Adams’ way. She creates passionate characters examining and making life choices. Her writing style is so “present” you’ll feel like a little fuzzy neon mouse in the corner watching the action.

Anders builds a wildly diverse and inclusive world for her fast-paced books. For example, human or alien, your universal translator automatically adds the person’s preferred pronouns. You are free to choose and express your preferred best self. This has a very complicated plot, but don’t lose heart-space is complicated. So are people. It’s definitely 5 stars from me! 🌵📚💁🏼‍♀️ Thank you NetGalley, TorTeen, and Charlie Jane Anders for this early ecopy! Publishes 4/11/2023.

My students already read City in the Middle of the Night as a whole class, and the first two books in this series are always signed out of my classroom library. This one does not disappoint! The care with each member of the Unstoppable Crew, the meaningful growth for Rachael, the seriously gut-churning action. Anders does the best of hopeful sci-fi in the tradition of Star Trek, and social commentary of Le Guin, and the unrelenting pace of Butler. Absolutely adore. I'm going to be re-reading!

I got about 25% through the book and felt a little lost - after reading some reviews of the first two books of the trilogy, I borrowed them as audio books from the library. I'm so glad that I did - the narration really brought the stories to life, and there's an interview with the author at the end of the 2nd audio book.

Back on track with the backstory, I resumed reading "Promises Stronger Than Darkness." I enjoyed it thoroughly - as an adult reading a YA novel, I found that it tackled some pretty strong themes throughout: consent, non-violence, leadership, collaboration & cooperation for the greater good, diplomacy, egocentrism/speciesism, and generally learning to accept others, build good relationships and manage boundaries.

In this third installment of the trilogy - we see Rachael, the empathic artist, come into her own as a leader in a time of crisis. She learns coping skills to keep herself from withdrawing or shutting down, and she learns to identify ways of helping others to manage with their emotions. People share burdens and learn about each other. There's love, starship battles, spies and double crossing. It's a fantastic trilogy and I look forward to reading more stories of the people in this world.

This was a thrilling end to the story of Tina, Rachael, Eliza and their friends.

As with the other books in this trilogy, a major focus was on these characters working through their doubts, grief and trauma with the help of their friends.

One theme very much came to the forefront in this book: how to deal with having killed someone, even in self defence. I remember reading a review of the first book in the trilogy that mentioned this, and pointed out how rare it is that fiction deals realistically with the trauma of having killed someone. In Promises Stronger Than Darkness, this is not only a theme, but an active topic of discussion among the characters. At one point, one of the characters says, “It’s difficult to grieve when a friend dies. But it’s even harder to grieve for an enemy you killed. We don’t even like to think of it as grief, because that implies you wish they hadn’t died. Still, if you must take a life, then it’s best to make space to hold a funeral, even if it’s only in your own imagination.”

This is not just an action-packed book, but a thoughtful and humane (is there a better word fir this when there are multiple alien species involved?) meditation on how to make the world (the galaxy? the universe?) a more inclusive and better place. And how to retain your humanity when fighting against those who would destroy people unlike them without a second thought.

Promises Stronger than Darkness delivers a wild ride as the crew from the Undisputed Training Bra Disaster races to save the universe from destruction. While Tina and Rachael play prominent roles in this final volume of the trilogy, the main story line follows Elza’s journey of self-empowerment – a series of hard-won choices that guide her friends to victory. For all you action fans, this book is packed with stellar battle scenes and spectacular rescues. But what really stands out to me is how Anders interrogates the fuzzy line between doing harm in the name of good and doing harm for harm’s sake. By featuring Marrant’s evil desire to annihilate non-humanoid species, Anders also questions the human urge to envision the world as created in our image. The Unstoppable series defies sci fi trends by celebrating friendship instead of glorifying the rogue hero.

Read PROMISES STRONGER THAN DARKNESS (Unstoppable #3) by Charlie Jane Anders if you love spaceships, teenagers saving the world, linguistics, body snatching, art, messy breakups, difficult decisions, having your heart broken, dragons, punching fascists, songs, origin stories & donuts.

A great end to a great trilogy, and in ways I truly wasn't expecting.

Thank you to the publisher for the advance copy.

Amazing end to an engaging trilogy. I would love to see more of these characters on the future. Maybe they can take time off from saving the universe to have some fun.

Anyone who thinks the universe, to paraphrase J.B.S. Haldane, is stranger than we can imagine is clearly unfamiliar with the weird and wonderful universe of Charlie Jane Anders’ Unstoppable series. Book three of the YA space opera, Promises Stronger Than Darkness, is a delightful read, wrapping up the story with plenty of exoplanetary adventure, angsty romance, truly creepy villains, and galactically high stakes. I appreciated that underpinning the fun, the cast of diverse human and extraterrestrial characters engage in some fairly weighty trolley-problem debate over the consequences of their actions, while each one has opportunities to be clever, brave, flawed, and heroic. I’ll be happy to recommend this series to the young adult readers in my life.

This series is amazing and it absolutely sticks the ending. No spoilers but it continues on as strong as the first two, with inspiring characters overcoming obstacles and not always turning to violence to do it (which is great to see in something that could be called space opera). The characters seem so real, even though some of them might have more limbs than most humans or use 'fire' as their only pronoun, and they talk about their problems (sometimes) instead of just having an idiot plot where everything would just be fixed if people talked to each other. The books are messy like real life, but triumphant too and with a diverse cast of characters.

This book was a great ending to the trilogy! I like how it kind of ended with the promise of good things yet some conflict to come, so was realistic, but also gives you a thought that there could possibly be spinoffs to determine how the characters and the world is doing in the future of their time.

The tension just builds and builds as the young crew races to save the universe... or as much of it as they can. Hard choices have to be made with little time to consider. Just when this wild ride can't get any more intense, it steps up to another level. No spoilers but there's as much in the first half of this 3rd book in the series as was in the first two combined. Our young earthlings and their friends from Victories Greater Than Death and Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak are pitted against the most hated enemy of all. Is there time or space for love amid this race to the end of everything? I had to put it down a couple times to let it cool off. Charlie Jane Anders pulled out all the stops to deliver a thrilling conclusion so keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times.

I loved this weird and wonderful series and I feel like book three does it justice.

I enjoyed the character development, discovering new worlds and societies on other planets and appreciated the ambitious storyline and universe building. The characters are loveable, flawed, and forgiving and seem like real people doing out of this world stuff. I feel like a review of book three ends up being a review of the whole series - the entire premise is inventive, and largely unpredictable. I find parts of it authentically chaotic - in that what is happening is chaos, and the written words capture that emotion.

There are several parts of the series that are just delightful, I love sinking into the world and being delighted by some of the explorations, heartened by the friendships, or simply horrified by some of the villains.

It's YA, and it's YA I would have loved to have as a young person, but appreciate as an adult too.

Thanks to Tor Teen and Netgalley for e-ARC for the third and final book in the Unstoppable series.

I am sad this is the end of the trilogy, I have come to love this group of characters. This is one of the best YA science fiction trilogies I have read in a long time.

Thank you, Tor Publishing Group, Tor Teen, for allowing me to read Promises Stronger Than Darkness early!

Promises Stronger Than Darkness is brilliant, an amazing conclusion to a glorious series. Charlie Jane Anders cemented herself as one of my favorites forever.