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A review by ph_read_be
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Picture an adult woman, lying on a hallway carpet at 2am, frantically twisting a book this way and that in a similar fashion to a fighter pilot completing evasive maneuvres.
That woman was me as I tore through the last hundred pages of Illuminae.
Book One of The Illuminae Files was a wild journey that kept me up until 2.30am with its bold plot and incredibly creative mixed-media approach.
I'm pretty much always a fan of mixed media in fiction, and this book particularly appealed to me as it is presented as a dossier. You are thrown into a world already in crisis and things don't slow down from there. While it may sound a little dry to read 600 pages of transcriptions and schematics, the constant drip feeding of new information and shifting voices kept me turning the pages to find out more - it was a quick read despite the page count and I finished it in 24 hours. The format of the novel also means that you are only fed relevant information which keeps the plot moving, however, some may prefer a book that goes deeper into explicit character study. Some interesting questions about artificial intelligence are raised that I hope are explored further in the sequels.
Between Skyward, The Weight of the Stars, and now Illuminae, I can confidently say 2020 has made me fall back in love with sci-fi!
That woman was me as I tore through the last hundred pages of Illuminae.
Book One of The Illuminae Files was a wild journey that kept me up until 2.30am with its bold plot and incredibly creative mixed-media approach.
I'm pretty much always a fan of mixed media in fiction, and this book particularly appealed to me as it is presented as a dossier. You are thrown into a world already in crisis and things don't slow down from there. While it may sound a little dry to read 600 pages of transcriptions and schematics, the constant drip feeding of new information and shifting voices kept me turning the pages to find out more - it was a quick read despite the page count and I finished it in 24 hours. The format of the novel also means that you are only fed relevant information which keeps the plot moving, however, some may prefer a book that goes deeper into explicit character study. Some interesting questions about artificial intelligence are raised that I hope are explored further in the sequels.
Between Skyward, The Weight of the Stars, and now Illuminae, I can confidently say 2020 has made me fall back in love with sci-fi!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, and Violence
Moderate: Grief
All swearing is sensored (redacted) and an in universe reason is given for this. However, due to the violence that is described I would still only recommend this for older teens or adults. The main characters are 17 and 18 and most of their interactions are with adults.