Title: Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Pages: 599 pages
Release Date: October 20th, 2015
Source: ARC from Bookcon
Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Young Adult
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
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.
Buy it now!
On a scale of 1
to Kady Grant, how far would you go to save the one you love most? My answer
would be probably closer to 0 and nowhere near Kady’s level, lol.
Illuminae is an
excellently crafted collaboration between two ingenious authors, Amie Kaufman
and Jay Kristoff. Although I was at first largely intimidated by the sheer size
of Illuminae (almost 600 pages, people!), the plot and the concept of an intergalactic
space battle orchestrated by an animated artificial intelligence with some
added romance makes it no secret that I ultimately gave in and tackled this
beast of a “book” – actually, is it considered a book? It's more of a dossier
of random, chaotic files.
Like everyone
else, Illuminae will be one of the most physically and emotionally unique books
you'll ever read. Besides the intriguing plot about two separated teenaged
refugees, who are trying to figure out the secrets that the commanders of their
spaceships are trying to keep hidden, while attempting to flee the enemy fleet
and subdue a psychologically damaged artificial intelligence system, there is
little that will keep any reader browsing the shelves away from considering Illuminae.
Warning: this is in no way going to be a light adventure.
And within
minutes of picking up the story, not only was I extremely indulged by the
situation at hand, but I also found myself quickly at page 50 because the pages
of Illuminae are not regular novel “pages”. The bulk of Illuminae consists of interviews,
narrative reports, hacked messages, and love letters, and the alternating
documents are little puzzle pieces that all end up fitting perfectly in a large
puzzle, also known as the truth.
Yet, even though
I would highly, highly, highly, praise Illuminae for its wondrously fresh new
concept, and would recommend this book to any reader of YA, I give this book an
overall rating of 4.5 stars out of 5 stars. The main reason for this is that it took
me a rather long time to really get into this book and to start to care for the characters. Yes, I admit,
at first, it was extremely difficult to connect with these two very different
characters. I was confused by the first interview (partly due to the fact that
I went into Illuminae blind without reading the blurb) but nevertheless I ventured
forth. In the end, I loved Illuminae, and I have grown extremely attached to
two of the characters (one of whom is Kady Grant). This universe that Amie
Kaufman and Jay Kristoff built is so diverse and truly yearns to be explored
further.
Overall, would I
recommend this book to you? It depends on who you are, really. If you like
science fiction, intergalactic travels and warfare, mystery and deceit, and
possibly descriptive gore, then by all means, go ahead, this may be your
favorite read of the year! And if you have the book sitting around on your
shelf, and have heard more than fabulous raves about it, and want a rather
short-and-fast-paced read, also go ahead! It'll be an adventure. I'm extremely
excited for Gemina and I can't wait to dive back into the world of Illuminae!
Spoiler-filled Discussion
DISCLAIMER:
ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE IS CONSIDERED A SPOILER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. PROCEED
AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Alright,
so…getting straight into the nitty gritty, let’s talk about the characters in
Illuminae. These are some of the most…physically diverse cast of characters I
have ever read –when one of these characters is a literal personified
artificial intelligence system, you're breaching diverse. However, Amie Kaufman
and Jay Kristoff also write ethnically diverse characters. There are Caucasians,
Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and all any other ethnic group you could possibly
name, who really make this character cast so colorful. But besides having
diverse characters, the main cast of characters in Illuminae all have extremely
vibrant personalities.
As I said
previously, I found it difficult to really connect with the characters at
first. From the opening pages, I thought Kady was going to be one of those typical “badass” YA heroine wannabes
(let's be real, we’ve all read one of those). But boy, was I SO WRONG. I don't
know when I started falling in love with Kady and opened my eyes to her story,
but it was probably at the part where she was messaging CitB (Byron Zhang) and
her sarcasm made me take a good long minute and laugh till I nearly rolled off
the bed.
Kady Grant is
not your typical pink haired, sixteen year old, who had just dumped her long
term boyfriend, saved that now-ex-boyfriend’s ass from being killed that same
day, and is now a refugee on a science vessel spaceship, trying to hack the
main computer system for some hint as to what’s going on. Or maybe she is. All
throughout Illuminae, Kady made me feel a roller coaster of emotions. Her texts
with Ezra (and then with AIDAN) cracked me up, made me weep, and swoon a bit.
Her courage –or recklessness and disregard for safety- is truly awe-inspiring.
Even when she was on the verge of being attacked by psychotic serial killers
and hit with radiation, Kady was still able to do more damage and have more
success than the entire Alexander Fleet with the UTA officers. Give this girl the universe’s biggest cookie
and a standing ovation. But in seriousness, did anyone else realize the
irony that while Kady was never (and avoided being) scripted into the UTA as a
computer specialist, she ended up saving the remains of the UTA Alexander Fleet.
Moving on to my second favorite character and possibly
my favorite literary Artificial Intelligence, AIDAN. I think out of every
character in Illuminae, the range of emotions AIDAN made me go through is
larger than the distance from Earth to Kepler 2.0. I had so many trust-issues regarding AIDAN, and
I swear, I trusted AIDAN, and then AIDAN “betrayed” everyone and I thought it
was the antagonist, and then it was an anti-hero, and then I felt betrayed by
AIDAN again, and then I started to
hesitate trusting AIDAN, and then I felt myself sympathize for this machine,
and then at the very end, I just loved AIDAN, fully trusting it and seriously
loving the Kady-AIDAN relationship. SO MANY EMOTIONS YOU GUYS, AND FROM A
FREAKING AI!!!!
Byron Zhang is
another character I was extremely intrigued by. Byron was such a good person,
even at the very end. His relationship with being Kady’s mentor throughout the
book and helping her learn about the truth of the Copernicus incident and
Phobos A and B was so emotionally beautiful. The two characters were so humorous
in their early encounters and when Byron was taken over to the Alexander, I
cried so hard for him because it was just like imagining a father being ripped
from his home, his family, his kids, and being forced to fight in the front
line. Seeing Byron deteriorate and be utterly destroyed by the Phobos B virus
really hit a hole in that wee little sentimental part of my small human heart.
To see the strong, undermined Byron go insane and nearly kill Kady with an axe was heart breaking to read. But the most heart
wrenching scene –when Byron surfaced
for just a moment, saw Kady, and saved Kady and himself, from himself. I think
if that moment hadn't occurred, the whole mission, the entire Alexander Fleet,
would've been utterly decimated, by either the Lincoln or Phobos inflicted Byron.
So in a way, Byron really did help –and not help- save the day.
These three characters
are the ones who had the most impact on me throughout the entire read. It’s
been a while (and I mean since ACOMAF’s release) that I’ve read such a heart-wrenching
story. About the damsel in distress who didn’t need saving, but did the saving.
And although I love Ezra very much, if AIDAN were a real person, I would
1000000% ship him and Kady (c’mon
fanfiction writers, wya). But I also like that Kady and AIDAN have a
friendship, that is so unlike your usual friendships- one that transcends
dimensions and realities. All in all, my last comments on this book would be that I
wished the censored parts hadn’t been censored; do you know how difficult it is
to try to fit words into the sentences sometimes?! But I loved this story, and all I can hope is for more from Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
