Illuminae - by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Title: Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Published: 1 Nov 2015
Series: The Illuminae Files #1
Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis:
One moment, Kady Grant and Ezra Mason have nothing bigger to worry about than each other. Specifically, avoiding each other in the wake of their messy break-up. In the next second, their entire world falls apart.
The year is 2375 and one of the mega-corporations that control much of deep space has just fired the opening salvo in an intergalactic war, destroying Kady and Ezra's planet. Forced to flee on a small fleet of crippled rescue ships alongside thousands of other refugees, the fear of enemy warships chasing them down is at first all-consuming but soon becomes the least of their worries. A deadly plague is ravaging the refugees on the ships; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be an enemy; and High Command is refusing to acknowledge that there may be a serious problem. As Kady plunges into a tangled web of data in search of the truth, she realises that Ezra is possibly the only person who can help her save the refugees before it's too late.


"With their brief lives and their tiny dreams and their hopes that seem fragile as glass."

I listened to this one as an audiobook and followed along in my physical copy. The pictures in the book were absolutely amazing and the sound effects in the audiobook draws you in.

Some pages were very easy to read as some had only a sentence or two and some had no words on them for effect - such as simply being a black page filled with outer space.

"Okay, well for the benefit of the sight-impaired, I am now raising my... oh, dear... yes, it's my middle finger at Mr. Postgrad here."

I was a bit iffy about Jimmy to start with, but he grew on me quickly. So when he was forced to stay in the airlock of the bay where the afflicted were, I did end up crying a little.

Some of the things that Ezra said to Kady made my heart burst with fondness for him. And when he drew hearts made of poetry for her, I wanted to just squish him because of how cute it was.

"Come to save her beau. Her hero. Her beloved."

My guess is that 'Spooner', one of the techs who helped try and restrain AIDAN before he came back online, is a nod towards Meagan Spooner who is Amie Kaufman's partner in crime most of the time. However I could always be very wrong, but I'd like to think that's the reason.

"My databases show no record of this Crazytown of which you speak."

I did tear up a bit when Kady was telling AIDAN about when she used to sleep in Ezra's shirts as they used to smell like him, which is how she guessed that the envirosuit that she was in was the one that he'd worn when going outside the ship.

"Tears track down her cheeks, and her eyes close.  This doesn't look much like victory."


I loved this book more than I thought I would. The 600 pages do look daunting, but I'd encourage you to try and read it anyway as it is a lovely book full of beautiful descriptions and just as beautiful pictures.

"Promises are just words. They don't mean a thing."

Spoilers!

I also cried when Byron stayed behind on the Alexander and tried to get Kady to help him from the other ship. They'd become fast friends with their mutual love of code.

Unfortunately for me, I was listening to the audiobook while driving when Kady sat and listened to Jimmy's will via datapad so I had to pull over so that I could see through my tears.

When AIDAN told Kady that Ezra was dead, I amazingly didn't cry. Probably because I didn't believe him. I figured that surely Ezra was either alive on the Alexander or over on the Hypatia, right?

However, I think my favourite page in the entire book is the one a couple of pages from the end when it is a picture of Kady and Ezra made up of the word 'together' over and over.

End Spoilers!

__________________________________________________

All books in this series:

0.5 | Memento
    1 | Illuminae
    2 | Gemina

    3 | Obsidio