Illuminae
by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Oct 20th 2015
Hardcover
599 pages
my rating: 4.5 out 5 stars
Synopsis via Goodreads:
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.
This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
My thoughts:
O.M.G this book was so cool. I loved just about everything about it. I liked the storyline, the way it was written, the characters, all the twists and turns. I did not want this book to end. I already want the next one!
Illuminae is the first book in what is bound to a kickass trilogy, seriously this book was so cool! I ended up docking a half of a star for all the terms used, at points I found myself a little confused about what was going on and when I tried to describe it I found myself at a loss trying to describe what was happening.
I really enjoyed how the book was written, it was told through emails, reports, poems. It was seriously really cool.
Pages like that made this book a very fast read, unfortunately, I had to go back and forth quite a few times to keep track of the plot and characters.
One thing I really liked was even though there was a romance to the story it didn’t overshadow it, it was the icing on the cake and that’s how I prefer my romances in fantasy stories so that made me really happy.
Aiden was a super interesting character, I don’t want to spoil anything, but he had, what I’m calling, an Ultron Complex and I really enjoyed that twist.
Random point: This book has me wanting to rewatch Battlestar Galactica, I’m not sure why there’s not a whole lot of similarities, to be honest, but it kept reminding me of it for whatever reasons. Actually Kady kind of reminded me of Starbuck a little bit, mostly with the attitude and the defiance.