Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)
Amie Kaufman
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 mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra — who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit. But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again. Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents — including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more — Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
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0This book was very cool. That’s the best way to explain it. It was so very fun to read and I smashed through it. It was a unique way of putting together a story and publishing it, I genuinely was so stumped by some of the plot points and twists. I also love a good science fiction that isn’t impossible to wrap your head around of follow, it felt easy to read and also easy to engulf yourself within. Not only that, I loved the badass female character and the stakes within the book. The characters were fun and well written, although somewhat filled with cliches, who doesn’t love a couple cliches every once in a while?!? I still have yet to finish this series but I am very excited to do so, and like that you can leave this book as a stand-alone if you wish to. I really do love this book as an easy reading sci-fi novel, with low stakes and low stress, something that is easy to digest but is still good quality.
0This book is totally up my alley. On paper, it has everything for a five star review. My favorite novels of all time are sci-fi, futuristic, epistolary novels. HELLO ILLUMINAE!
Unfortunately, I think it was just a little to YA for me. I had trouble with the text/IM speak - perhaps I'm more traditional than I realized. I think it also is the reason I found myself questioning the plausibility of our two main characters to be so common sensical and able to transform from love struck, awkward teenagers to war heroes in an instant.
Illuminae is so unique in its epistolary format, and the doodles and drawings truly added to the story.
Sci-fi, disease outbreak, conspiracy theories, artificial intelligence, romance - this book combines all of my favorite things without it seeming like too much. Surprisingly, with all of these fantastical and futuristic elements, the part of this book I found the least realistic? The romance.
READ if you like sci-fi and epistolary and want to read something completely unique.
DON'T READ if you're looking for anything remotely "traditional" OR if you get annoyed by awkward teenagers and lols.
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