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A review by mirandadarrow
Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman
4.0
Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)
This is a very buzzy book, at the intersection of YA and SciFi, right up my alley, so I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as I saw it. Another quick read, I finished it in about one day, and it kept my attention the whole time. The natural comparison for this type of book would be The Fifth Wave and I don’t think this is better than that, but it is still an enjoyable read. A couple of points I think are worth discussing in this review.
The Preposterously Proficient Protagonist
I liked the plot even though it was a little fantastical. I’ll forgive a lot of Young Adult fiction their ability for young people to do the impossible and be ‘the best” at whatever they’re doing, as that “incredibly capable young protagonist” (cough, Katniss and Tris, cough) appeals to their key demographic more than old fart literature’s audience. Kady is the best computer person ever, even though no-one on her own ship (except perhaps her friend and mentor Byron) realizes it. Once you can swallow that as something necessary in this universe, the rest is pretty easy to go with the flow, as it is an enjoyable ride.
Epistolary Format
Rather than having a character narrator (or an omniscient narrator) lay out the action in this novel, it is told in a series of emails, interviews, videoclip narratives, computer database logs, etc. A traditional epistolary novel is a series of letters between characters (see Jane Austen’s Lady Susan), the use of these additional third party source materials are keeping in character for modern novels using this concept. The most recent example I read in this format is The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger, which used court documents as well as correspondence and email to forward its story. Illuminae was much more smoothly done and takes the best advantage of this format – hiding the narrator and not giving away the fate of the main characters.
A/V Format Differences
I listened to this book in Audiobook, which had very definite advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantage – you miss out on the graphics and visual features of the hardcover book. I understand that the e-reader version also doesn’t have these graphics, so that would be the worst format, as you also don’t get the audiobook advantages. Advantage – very cool cast reading the audiobook with different perspectives and audio effects, including voice disguising effects, actual sounds effects, which was interesting and made it go very quickly. It did remind me a little bit of the original Star Trek tv series (Shatner and Nimoy) with the silly current global accents for characters (including a little Scotty knockoff), which makes very little sense for a book set 500 years in the future with a characters who have most likely never set foot on Earth (or Terra, as I think they’re referring to Earth). Really, these accents are going to be the prevailing vocal styles more than 500 years in the future for people living on distant planets in outer space? That seems loony. I’m wondering just how these accents were written in the hardcover version and whether it was equally distracting. Right now I’m trying to decide whether to push for my book club to read this book, and if so, would I steer people away from the e-reader (and possibly the audiobook) so they don’t miss the features of the paper book format.
In Sum, the characters are a little annoying, with their over-perfection and not quite as cute as they think repartee (which is probably realistic for young people talking and flirting with each other). The plot is good. We have HAL, oops, AIDEN the supercomputer who has its own agenda (and is itself a compelling character). We have a rage zombie type plague infesting people at an alarming rate. We have separation and limited communication between star-crossed lovers. While I didn’t love it as much as The Fifth Wave, I think this will be a big hit and am looking forward to the sequels.
This is a very buzzy book, at the intersection of YA and SciFi, right up my alley, so I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as I saw it. Another quick read, I finished it in about one day, and it kept my attention the whole time. The natural comparison for this type of book would be The Fifth Wave and I don’t think this is better than that, but it is still an enjoyable read. A couple of points I think are worth discussing in this review.
The Preposterously Proficient Protagonist
I liked the plot even though it was a little fantastical. I’ll forgive a lot of Young Adult fiction their ability for young people to do the impossible and be ‘the best” at whatever they’re doing, as that “incredibly capable young protagonist” (cough, Katniss and Tris, cough) appeals to their key demographic more than old fart literature’s audience. Kady is the best computer person ever, even though no-one on her own ship (except perhaps her friend and mentor Byron) realizes it. Once you can swallow that as something necessary in this universe, the rest is pretty easy to go with the flow, as it is an enjoyable ride.
Epistolary Format
Rather than having a character narrator (or an omniscient narrator) lay out the action in this novel, it is told in a series of emails, interviews, videoclip narratives, computer database logs, etc. A traditional epistolary novel is a series of letters between characters (see Jane Austen’s Lady Susan), the use of these additional third party source materials are keeping in character for modern novels using this concept. The most recent example I read in this format is The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger, which used court documents as well as correspondence and email to forward its story. Illuminae was much more smoothly done and takes the best advantage of this format – hiding the narrator and not giving away the fate of the main characters.
A/V Format Differences
I listened to this book in Audiobook, which had very definite advantages and disadvantages. Disadvantage – you miss out on the graphics and visual features of the hardcover book. I understand that the e-reader version also doesn’t have these graphics, so that would be the worst format, as you also don’t get the audiobook advantages. Advantage – very cool cast reading the audiobook with different perspectives and audio effects, including voice disguising effects, actual sounds effects, which was interesting and made it go very quickly. It did remind me a little bit of the original Star Trek tv series (Shatner and Nimoy) with the silly current global accents for characters (including a little Scotty knockoff), which makes very little sense for a book set 500 years in the future with a characters who have most likely never set foot on Earth (or Terra, as I think they’re referring to Earth). Really, these accents are going to be the prevailing vocal styles more than 500 years in the future for people living on distant planets in outer space? That seems loony. I’m wondering just how these accents were written in the hardcover version and whether it was equally distracting. Right now I’m trying to decide whether to push for my book club to read this book, and if so, would I steer people away from the e-reader (and possibly the audiobook) so they don’t miss the features of the paper book format.
In Sum, the characters are a little annoying, with their over-perfection and not quite as cute as they think repartee (which is probably realistic for young people talking and flirting with each other). The plot is good. We have HAL, oops, AIDEN the supercomputer who has its own agenda (and is itself a compelling character). We have a rage zombie type plague infesting people at an alarming rate. We have separation and limited communication between star-crossed lovers. While I didn’t love it as much as The Fifth Wave, I think this will be a big hit and am looking forward to the sequels.