Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: That was unexpectedly amazing!!

Illuminae 

by 

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Kady and Ezra thought that their day sucked when they broke up. Until their planet was attacked by a giant space-corporation and a crap-ton of their friends and family were murdered in cold blood. Trapped on separate ships of the fleet that came to their rescue Ezra and Kady’s troubles have only begun as the three ships become stranded in space. Months away from civilizations with engines busted and an enemy warship hot on their tails safety is a long way away.

Characters

Kady

I love this tiny, pink-haired sass master. Mostly because she can hack everything. 

 But she’s also totally a hopeless romantic even if she denies it. I loved Kady so much! And that’s not just because we have short people problems or similar names . . . or skills . . . or personalities. So much for that argument. Okay Kady and I super alike but I promise she’s cooler than me. Hey! Serving a planet-devastating even and a mass-exodus through space gives you some serious street cred. I assume.

Ezra

is equally sarcastic but kind of like an uncoordinated seven-year-old next to Kady. Okay that made him sound useless. Ezra was awesome, he was just less intentionally awesome than Kady. Which actually made him slightly more realistic. While Kady was running around kicking butt and hacking into anything and everything Ezra was just being Ezra. Being goofy and romantic and shooting the crap out of enemy planes. Love him.

Likes

The freaking presentation

everything, and I mean everything! Is in document/file form. There’s chat between Kady and Ezra and hacked reports and some transcripts from video surveillance footage. Also, ASCII art. 

Beautiful and occasionally mildly pathetic ASCII art. I have to admit I wasn’t all that sold on the idea when I began but I can safely say that I am convinced! Not just because it made a five hundred plus page book a breeze (that helped) but because it was so unique and utterly fascinating. I loved it.

Aiden

 I honestly wasn’t sure if I should put Aiden in the ‘characters’ section or the ‘likes’ section because he’s not exactly human. He’s the largest ships, The Alexander, onboard AI. Clearly, he was amazing. Massively intelligent and completely psychotic Aiden isn’t so much a character as a freaking force of nature. One minute he might be helping the crew, the next he might decide to destroy them all as an act of mercy. No big deal.

Space with zombies guys! Zombies!

I won’t go into too much detail to avoid spoilers but I was freaked out! It actually reminded me a lot of Firefly’s Reavers so maybe that added to it. Still, I don’t think there’s anything scarier in the universe than being trapped in a floating can in space that’s being overrun by mindless killer humans. And that friends is why I will never go to space. Ever. Not gonna happen.

My stress levels hit the roof

You guys have no idea how many things went wrong! Literally every time Kady and Ezra turned a corner they’d run into another problem. And every single one of them could have created plenty of conflict on their own. I kid you not there was, on average, five or six things trying to kill them at the same time! It has been a long time since I’ve been so stressed out during a book. And I’m especially impressed that I could reach such a level of anxiety from a book that was written in chat speak and mission logs and poetic homicidal AI ramblings. How! I am floored honestly.

Dislikes

Kind of also sad about the presentation

Okay, I know I’m being a complete nut right now because I just spent an entire page raving about the unique formatting. But, as with all unique ways of telling a story, there were some drawbacks. For instance, I never saw the inside (per se) of the character’s heads. Sure, on one hand it gives some great opportunity for a bit of ‘unreliable narrator’, because everybody was hiding something, which was cool but not always a good substitute for good old fashion inner dialogue. But, all in all, it’s a small sacrifice for the complete awesomeness of this book.

I’m serious I wish I’d picked the second book up at the library when I had the chance. Apparently, it’s supposed to be a trilogy (awesome) and the third one is either scheduled to be out soon or has recently hit the shelves which simultaneously excites and worries me. Because endings suck guys! Even when they’re good they suck. Still picking it up though.