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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The writing style using memos, messages etc keeps the story moving quickly.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I just finished Illuminae and give it 5 out of 5 stars!
I already had a review typed up on my phone but I lost it somehow, ugh! Anyway, here it is:
The quickest way to describe Illuminae is that it is like a mix of the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Star Wars, and the Resident Evil video games.
Illuminae is about two characters named Kady Grant, and Ezra Mason who live on a planet called Kerenza IV. After the planet is attacked by BeiTech Industries, Kady and Ezra escape in the Alexander fleet which consists of 3 spaceships: Alexander, Hypatia, and Copernicus.
During the attack, BeiTech unleashes the deadly Phobos virus on the citizens of Kerenza IV, and some of the refugees carry it onboard with them onto the Alexander. Phobos is a fast-spreading, mutating virus that turns its carriers into inhuman, hallucinogenic, crazed animals. Needless to say, this created major chaos on Alexander, and it reminded me of Resident Evil.
In addition to the Phobos virus, the spaceship Alexander is run by an AI called AIDAN. Let me just say he goes WAY beyond HAL in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey movie.
On top of all this crazy stuff going on, the Alexander fleet is being chased by BeiTech's ever-looming battle cruiser, Lincoln. The showdowns when Lincoln catches up with Alexander are like Star Wars with the fighters issued from each ship, and then the final battle between the Alexander and the Lincoln is kind of like the Death Star blowing up.
The layout of the book was unique, and I've never read a book like this before. It was simply fun to read and very entertaining throughout.
If I could give Illuminae 6 out of 5 stars I would - it was that good. Highly recommended!
P.S. (Sorry for all the spoilers, but I couldn't resist on this one)
I already had a review typed up on my phone but I lost it somehow, ugh! Anyway, here it is:
The quickest way to describe Illuminae is that it is like a mix of the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Star Wars, and the Resident Evil video games.
Illuminae is about two characters named Kady Grant, and Ezra Mason who live on a planet called Kerenza IV. After the planet is attacked by BeiTech Industries, Kady and Ezra escape in the Alexander fleet which consists of 3 spaceships: Alexander, Hypatia, and Copernicus.
During the attack, BeiTech unleashes the deadly Phobos virus on the citizens of Kerenza IV, and some of the refugees carry it onboard with them onto the Alexander. Phobos is a fast-spreading, mutating virus that turns its carriers into inhuman, hallucinogenic, crazed animals. Needless to say, this created major chaos on Alexander, and it reminded me of Resident Evil.
In addition to the Phobos virus, the spaceship Alexander is run by an AI called AIDAN. Let me just say he goes WAY beyond HAL in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey movie.
On top of all this crazy stuff going on, the Alexander fleet is being chased by BeiTech's ever-looming battle cruiser, Lincoln. The showdowns when Lincoln catches up with Alexander are like Star Wars with the fighters issued from each ship, and then the final battle between the Alexander and the Lincoln is kind of like the Death Star blowing up.
The layout of the book was unique, and I've never read a book like this before. It was simply fun to read and very entertaining throughout.
If I could give Illuminae 6 out of 5 stars I would - it was that good. Highly recommended!
P.S. (Sorry for all the spoilers, but I couldn't resist on this one)
Edit: I forgot to mention googe much I loved the poetic elements both from poetry and visually.
Illuminae follows the story of Ezra and Kady, two 17-year-olds that live on a small mining colony, Kerenza, that is being mined illegally by, WUC, a large corporation. Despite the illegality of the operation, the colony has developed as a regular little metropolis, with schools, hospitals and all the other amenities of urban life.
That is, until a competing company, BeiTech, comes in and tries their best to kill everyone on the planet. Because the colony is illegal, BeiTech knows that if they can keep a lid on it, they can take over the mining without ever being called to answer for their tactics. Unfortunately for BeiTech, survivors are picked up by one military ship, the Alexander; and two smaller vessels from Kerenza also escape. The military grade ship, the Alexander, has been damaged in the skirmish over Kerenza and is unable to create a stable wormhole for the ships to move quickly through the star system, instead limping along for months to the closest station that may or may not offer safety.
The story is told through a series of instant message conversations, interview transcripts, memos, the interpretation of video footage, the internal text of the AI and private journal entries. It is clear from notes attached to all this documentation that the whole has been assembled for someone's review, but it isn't clear who or for what purpose. As we move farther into the text, the notes fall away and the text is left to stand on its own as we are pulled into the story of the survivors trying to outrun BeiTech's ship, the Lincoln. Several months into the voyage, some other problems begin to crop up, the AI that powers the Alexander, and provides its automatic security has been damaged. AIDAN, Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network, has developed some quirks that are far too reminiscent of HAL in 2001.
Even with all that plot, don't be misled into thinking that this book is all plot and action and no characters. The plot is amazing and there are some nail-biting moments, but the authors do an amazing job of creating developed characters all through text snippets and third party interpretation. Even if you are not a fan of sci-fi, you may enjoy this as we deal with emotional manipulation, PTSD, and issues of what must be done in the name of the greater good.
My one complaint with the ebook version is that because some text is in image format, it is impossible to increase its size, making some pages extremely difficult to read. I would definitely recommend a physical copy.
Illuminae follows the story of Ezra and Kady, two 17-year-olds that live on a small mining colony, Kerenza, that is being mined illegally by, WUC, a large corporation. Despite the illegality of the operation, the colony has developed as a regular little metropolis, with schools, hospitals and all the other amenities of urban life.
That is, until a competing company, BeiTech, comes in and tries their best to kill everyone on the planet. Because the colony is illegal, BeiTech knows that if they can keep a lid on it, they can take over the mining without ever being called to answer for their tactics. Unfortunately for BeiTech, survivors are picked up by one military ship, the Alexander; and two smaller vessels from Kerenza also escape. The military grade ship, the Alexander, has been damaged in the skirmish over Kerenza and is unable to create a stable wormhole for the ships to move quickly through the star system, instead limping along for months to the closest station that may or may not offer safety.
The story is told through a series of instant message conversations, interview transcripts, memos, the interpretation of video footage, the internal text of the AI and private journal entries. It is clear from notes attached to all this documentation that the whole has been assembled for someone's review, but it isn't clear who or for what purpose. As we move farther into the text, the notes fall away and the text is left to stand on its own as we are pulled into the story of the survivors trying to outrun BeiTech's ship, the Lincoln. Several months into the voyage, some other problems begin to crop up, the AI that powers the Alexander, and provides its automatic security has been damaged. AIDAN, Artificial Intelligence Defense Analytics Network, has developed some quirks that are far too reminiscent of HAL in 2001.
Even with all that plot, don't be misled into thinking that this book is all plot and action and no characters. The plot is amazing and there are some nail-biting moments, but the authors do an amazing job of creating developed characters all through text snippets and third party interpretation. Even if you are not a fan of sci-fi, you may enjoy this as we deal with emotional manipulation, PTSD, and issues of what must be done in the name of the greater good.
My one complaint with the ebook version is that because some text is in image format, it is impossible to increase its size, making some pages extremely difficult to read. I would definitely recommend a physical copy.
Want to marry it. The only problem was that the end got pretty overly existential. But the main character was so well written and I liked her so much that it was fine.
I also appreciated how much restraint and thought the author showed when killing off main characters.
I also appreciated how much restraint and thought the author showed when killing off main characters.
Love love love the interesting way in which they tell the story and layout pages. Truly feels like an innovative work of art. The storyline was also good.
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Whatever horrors you may find in these dark spaces, have heart and see them through.
There are no premature endings. There are no wrong decisions.
There are only fresh perspectives and new beginnings.
This is a love story.
This was just effing amazing! I may write a review later, not sure yet. :D