Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Amy        

 Lynnie  

young adult, adventure, science fiction

In the year 2575, an illegal mining town on an ice planet is destroyed by a rival corporation's military. Illuminae is the story what happens to the town's people after evacuation aboard a variety of space vessels while being pursued by the warship that forced them to flee in the first place.  Written jointly by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the book's main focus is on two teenagers, Kady and Ezra, who were a couple before their planet's attack and are now caught up in events beyond their control. 


Amy's Review

I won a copy of an Advanced Reader Copy from First in Line, for which I am very grateful! (Although, it was odd that it wasn’t delivered until the book was officially released.) This book was an experience! It was also a visual delight. Instead of being written in the traditional form of a novel, it is a collection of reports from multiple sources (emails, schematics, military files, instant messages, medical reports, interviews, etc.) that tells the story of several spaceships involved in a series of aggressive attacks. If I hadn’t won the book, I probably would have gotten the e-book version and I’m not sure if the translation to e-book would work as well as the hardcopy book in this case.

The main characters are two teenagers and the Artificial Intelligence system of one of the spaceships. Not only did Illuminae hold my attention, but it tugged at my heartstrings a couple times. It was compelling, creative, and interesting. It had action, suspense, danger, humor, romance, and science. It was a satisfying story and I look forward to the sequel.


Lynnie's Review

First of all I have to get this out of the way DO NOT READ THIS ON A KINDLE! It was okay on the Kindle app on an iPad (where everything was bigger), but on a traditional Kindle, this is a no go because of the way it's presented- the text is so small you have to have super-vision to appreciate it. Mark my words though, this is a book that should be appreciated. It's really beautiful & the way the story is presented is fascinating.

The story unfolds through a series of reports, chat logs, even some thought art (for lack of a better description), which were fascinating. It was easy to follow along and get lost in the events of the story's space vessels (space ships?), personnel, and their intense battles for survival. It has everything you want from a novel- action, adventure, interesting characters and even some (awkward) romance. A very enjoyable experience over all, so I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.