Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)

In the year 2575, seventeen year old Kady breaks up with her boyfriend Ezra. Little did she know that would also be the day that their planet was attacked. Still reeling from their breakup, Kady and Ezra must work together to get safely inside one of the spaceships that can get them off of their planet and reach a safe point. After making it to the ships, they are separated, and Ezra makes it onto the spaceship Alexander, and Kady makes it onto Hypatia.

Little do they know, their problems are just beginning. Not only is a virus spreading and causing those contaminated into attempt to harm others, but the corporation who invited their planet is hot on their tail trying to wipe out any remaining survivors. The commanders of the ships are remaining tight lipped about all of the details, so Kady decides to take things into her own hands by hacking into the computer systems. It turns out that the one person who can help her uncover the truth is none other than her ex-boyfriend, Ezra.

Told through a series of case files, IMs, emails, interviews, and more, Illuminae is a fast paced story about two regular teenagers forced to step up in order to save themselves and the ones they love.

I am a huge fan of epistolary novels, and will basically read anything told in email/text/IM format. I think they are fun and unique, and I just love reading them. That said, I was a little hesitant to read Illuminae, because generally sci-fi is not my thing. After seeing so many positive reviews coming in from people I trust, I decided to give it a try. I bought the book, and its been sitting on my shelf for probably 9 months. I finally decided to pick it up, and I was instantly hooked. I read the book in two sittings!

Initially, I did find myself confused until about 100 or so pages in. It took a little bit for me to understand the language and learn who the different characters were and how they related to each other, but once I got that part down, I flew through the book. I stayed up way too late reading it during my first sitting, but I was dying to know what would happen!

I really loved all of the characters. It was refreshing to not see another YA book fall down the insta-love rabbit hole. Instead, we see a couple who has been together for a while, but opted to break up. Theyre mad at each other, but you can tell there are still feelings there. The feelings develop and change throughout the book, and I liked seeing the relationship change sort of in the reverse of what I normally see. I found Kady to be a wonderfully competent character. I hardly ever read books where a woman is into computers, coding, hacking, and other technical skills, so I loved that it was Kady who played that role and not Ezra.

I also loved that the story was told from both Ezra and Kadys points of view, based on which one of them was IMing or interviewing at the time. It felt like it made each character more developed and well rounded, and I really enjoyed that.

Despite the fact that Im generally not a huge fan of sci-fi, I loved this one. I felt like it was done really well, and written in a way that didnt feel confusing on insanely far fetched. I found myself wanting to know more about the times they lived in, and to learn more about their planet and the way things worked in this new world where space travel is possible, so I actually really liked that aspect of the book, which completely surprised me.

The book was really fast paced, and there was a ton of action! The end of the book was so intense and I just loved how everything played out. Illuminae did leave on a cliffhanger, so if you plan to read it, make sure you have Gemina ready to go!

I highly recommend this one, even if sci-fi isnt usually your thing, give it a chance and I think youll be pleasantly surprised!

So this was certainly an experience. At first, I was unsure how well this unique format could end up telling an engaging and complex story, but I was pleasantly surprised by the end. I absolutely understand the appeal and the high praise now.

I went into this pretty blind as all I knew was that this was a scifi story told in an unconventional way. I had also heard that the audiobook was fantastic so I decided to switch between it and the ebook. While I loved the incorporation of a full cast and sound effects (which definitely made the space battle sound epic), some of the images used in the book weren’t able to be replicated via audio. I found myself preferring the ebook just so that I could appreciate the visuals that were included.

For me, this book was a bit of a roller-coaster. There were times that I found the text slow, confusing, or bogged down with technical terms, abbreviations, or other details that I couldn’t keep straight. Occasionally, reading this felt like too much work and I’d have to put the book down for a bit before I was mentally ready to tackle it again. Then, there were other times that I was completely captivated and would flip page after page as I just had to know what was going to happen next. I didn’t expect the multiple threats that emerged throughout the story or how dark things got toward the end. There were some really tense and even heartbreaking moments and twists that I didn’t see coming. All of this contributed to how much I enjoyed this book and could overlook some of the issues I had had with parts of it.

Normally, I’m a big fan of romance in anything that I read. However, I never felt any strong emotion about Ezra and Kady as a couple. Don’t get me wrong, I thought they were both fine, but I much preferred them as individual characters — with a slight bias toward Kady if I had to choose. I liked seeing their connections with other characters and how they each responded to the various obstacles that they encountered. I just think they made better friends than lovers.

Unlike what seems to be the majority of readers/reviewers, I wasn’t enamored with AIDAN. Even after my initial dislike and wariness lessened, I still got too many creepy or weird vibes from him (especially involving Kady) which meant he never won me over completely. \_()_/ That being said, I did like being inside the mind of an A.I. character and seeing certain events play out from his perspective.

Overall, I was quite entertained by the story and super impressed by the level of creativity in how it was relayed to readers.

That was…erm…interesting. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t anything all too memorable about it other than it was a bit gimmicky with its unorthodox epistolary format. I can’t say whether or not I’ll continue the series. It had promise, but it just fell flat. There were missed opportunities to make this truly memorable, but it just didn’t capitalize 8 out of 10 times. There was just too much going on at some parts and not enough emotional investment for me to care about these characters.

I do have to say this to the publisher: Those black pages of AIDAN’s data where his thoughts and Kady’s speech are white and his reply to her is in a dark gray was hard to read at parts where it appeared the printer may have failed. I was not amused. It’s cool looking for awhile, but it gets annoying. Stick to white pages with black ink or black with white. No gray.

Perhaps bravery is simply the face humanity wraps around its collective madness.

During my read I found myself wondering which parts were written my Amie and which by Jay.. Did they sit down and say: Edit that, write this this will cause more emotional heartache! Did they??! UGH!

I am never going to recover from this. It was chilling, outright horrifying at times, and sweet, and painful.. The pain. I have never cried so much while reading a book, and Im a crier so thats really saying something.

ERROR

^^ My brain is just.. Okay, taking out the gore, horror, fear and heartache lets talk about the format.

This book is written unlike any other Ive ever seen, after seeing pictures of it online my immediate thought was nope’ I didnt think itd be easy to follow or enjoyable. I was wrong. The format is in part, why this book is so incredible. It made it, more.. It made it feel real, like you were right there amidst it all. If anyone is putting it off because of the formatting, trust me, itll blow your mind!

Im torn between wanting to read the next one and scheduling a therapy session. My heart feels heavy.
Amie and Jay are definitely a force of nature. This is my first read from either of them, and from what Ive been told theres lots more pain incoming I need to stock up on chocolate.

I cant get my head together enough.. Its one of the best books Ive ever read, hands down. Theres not much more I can say.

“She is catalyst.
She is chaos.

I found this book almost by chance and a reviewer’s reference to Battlestar Galactica drew me in.

There is some commonality with BSG, but really this stands alone as something that feels like it has many influences (BSG, 2001: A Space Odyssey and even Bioshock) but really is a fresh story.

It starts the ground running and the first part of the book quickly brings us up to speed on the main characters and the story background. I love a new universe like this and want to know more.

The authors don’t pull their punches – quiet happy to deal with dark topics, violence and a fair amount of death. I understand this is a ‘young adult’ book but aside from the main characters being young and a bit precocious this felt every bit a book for all ages.

The story did dip a bit in the second quarter… and my interest waned. Lots of chat based interactions where it’s really quite annoying having to navigate the slang writing, for example wut = what. It seemed pointless as they would then use overly long words and in other texts showed they were capable of writing properly. But in the chats, they then suddenly regressed and had to talk like “wut u doin cuz im chill”. Additionally they use swearing then censor it, so you’re constantly slowing down to try and work out what the word is.

But that was soon pushed aside when the story picked up pace again at the half way point – and I blew through the rest in days. It took me along for the ride and had plenty of twists and turns.

The format is very interesting and for the most part worked, but a word of warning that some dialog in the images is almost impossible to read on Kindles. It’s easily solved by reading those bits on a phone or tablet… but it does make me think i’ll go with the paper version next time.

All in all, heartily recommended.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member