Tag: amie kaufman

BooksReviews

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

Posted on by J.W. Martin

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.
BooksReviews

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – A Spoiler-Free Review

Posted on by J.W. Martin

IlluminaeIlluminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

First off, I feel like I might be the one person in the blogosphere who hadn’t read this book. Now I’m the only person in the blogosphere who hasn’t read Gemina!

Normally, I’d put the synopsis here. But I’m not going to this time in case you wanted to read it as I did.

I decided to read Illuminae on hype alone. Everyone was talking about it. The cover looked amazing. I never once read the back blurb, and I purposefully stayed away from any and all reviews. I’m not sure how much that enhanced my reading of it, just that it did.

I had no idea what was going on, where the book was heading, who the characters were… just nothing. That could’ve been dangerous. It might have led to me putting the book down, but it didn’t.

Instead, I had 599 pages of riding a rollercoaster through the dark. And it was awe-inspiring.

I could see the format worrying some people. It took a little getting used to, but after books like World War Z and Robopocalypse it didn’t take me more than a few pages.

There’s no true narrative as we all classically know it. The idea is that the book is a collection of digital files. Emails, interview transcripts, chat histories, personal diaries, etc.

You might think this leads to a cold, emotionless read, but you’d be dead wrong. This thing is teeming with all twists, turns, and of the feels that go with them.

  

In the spirit of giving you the choice of reading this book blind, I’ll keep this short and not give any details about the plot.

The last thing I’ll say is that the book looks daunting. It’s thick. It’s 600 pages. By no means the biggest book out there, but definitely above average. Contrary to that, you’ll find yourself burning through pages. Not just because the story is so good (and it is) but the format just allows for it. No matter how matter pages you normally read in a sitting, Illuminae will make you double or triple that.

Trust me. Just read it.

Fun fact about this post: My memory is so bad that I look at my shelves to see what else I had read with a unique format.