Phoenix Flight (Skyborn #3)

I’ll admit, I side-eyed the ‘chosen one who doesn’t want to be chosen’ trope when I started *Phoenix Flight*, but Khoury subverts it by making Nox’s resistance *earned*. This isn’t a kid being coy—it’s a boy who’s been burned by every adult in his life, including the ones who swore they’d protect him. Emily Eiden’s Ellie is the perfect foil: her performance crackles with impatience, but there’s a tremor in her voice during the quieter moments (like when she admits she’s terrified of heights) that sells the stakes. Gallagher, meanwhile, turns Nox’s sullenness into something magnetic—his delivery is less ‘angsty teen’ and more ‘war veteran who’s seen too much at 14.’ Their back-and-forth in Chapter 7’s escape sequence is audiobook gold, especially when the sound design kicks in with the *screech* of metal tearing mid-sentence. That said, the pacing isn’t flawless. The mid-section sags slightly under the weight of exposition about the Clandoms’ history (a risk when you’re the third book in a series), and I wished the editors had trimmed some of the tech-jargon-heavy dialogue—it’s cool the first time Ellie explains her rigging system, but by the third, I was mentally fast-forwarding. The climax, though, is worth the wait: a breathless, 20-minute sequence where the narration and sound design sync so tightly, I found myself gripping my headphones. If you loved the first two Skyborn books, this delivers on their promise. If you’re new? Start with *Skyborn*—but mark this as the one where the series *finally* spreads its wings.