The last guy on the internet to read Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

GEMINA
by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Crown Publishing
Publication Date: October 18, 2016

From Goodreads:

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminaecontinues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

I don’t even know what to say about this book. You’ve already read it. You know how good it is.

When I first started reading it, I was a little disappointed to not be right back with AIDAN, Kady, and Ezra. But, I had a feeling that I’d be seeing them again.

Gemina starts aboard jump station Heimdall. If that sounds familiar, that’s the space station that the everyone in Illuminae was trying to get to. We immediately meet Hanna and Nik as the peeps we’re going to follow around Heimdall. These two grew on me very, very quickly.

I’m not sure if it’s the format of the book, or just the amazing writing skills of this author duo, but this book commands such fierce emotional investment that it leads you to do things like audibly gasp at surprises, shake your head in denial at the low points, and smile at the high points. In short, if someone were to watch you while you read this book, they’d think you were losing your mind. Whatever. Worth it.

On the off chance that there’s someone reading this who doesn’t know what I’m talking about when I mention the format, here’s the low-down: Gemina, along with the other books in the series, aren’t made up of pages and pages of traditional prose. The series is called the Illuminae Files. They’re made out to be a series of gathered files to serve as proof of events. What you end up reading are radio transmissions, chat histories, transcribed video, email, and more. That might sound off-putting at first, but by the 3rd page, you’re in. And it’s amazing.

No more questions. Just go read it. Unless you haven’t read Illuminae. Go read that first.

Fun fact about this post: I’ve been re-watching a lot of The Office lately. My GIF choices are slightly influenced by that.