Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

Book Stats:  

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 425 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release date: December 1, 2015

Series:  Starbound, #3

Source: Library

Reviewed by: Kara

Order: Amazon | Book Depository

A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now-infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness LaRoux Industries' corruption. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were the only survivors of the Icarus shipwreck, forced to live a double life after their rescue.

Now, at the center of the galaxy on Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players in the fight against LRI.

Gideon Marchant is an underworld hacker known as the Knave of Hearts, ready to climb and abseil his way past the best security measures on the planet to expose LRI's atrocities. Sofia Quinn, charming con artist, can work her way into any stronghold without missing a beat. When a foiled attempt to infiltrate LRI Headquarters forces them into a fragile alliance, it's impossible to know who's playing whom--and whether they can ever learn to trust each other.

With their lives, loves, and loyalties at stake, only by joining forces with the Icarus survivors and Avon's protectors do they stand a chance of taking down the most powerful corporation in the galaxy---before LRI's secrets destroy them all.

I was really excited Sofia got her own book! I really liked her from the last series. And from what I can remember, the Knave was mentioned in earlier stories too? Appreciated the strings of how they came together in this novel. With both of these interesting characters having, shall we say, layers of persona, it took some time to be able to tell what was fiction and what was truth with Gideon and Sofia. They've both put up so many walls that you had to wade through the plot action until they both softened a bit. I thought this book was possibly the most creative in the series because it shows a very futuristic business-oriented world with layers, from rich to poor and pristine to filthy, sort of a sci-fi picture of modern day Edinburgh with the vaults and streets buried underneath (you know, if people still actually lived underground).

One of the side characters I identified most with is Mae, the secret mom hacker, whose kids make her vulnerable to LaRoux. It's so true that your kids are your biggest weakness... Another character who stood out to me was the scientist Sanjana. I would have liked to see more of her since she's a tough, defiant woman and one of the few adults who helps the group of radical teens. What stands out about this book is the discussion around different emotions and sacrifice. While the characters do discuss these topics, the small interruptions in narrative, similar to the previous novels, also explore these emotions and even what it means to be human and to care about humanity.

The pace in this novel is possibly the fastest of the series what with LaRoux Industries having a countdown to some horrifying plan, and Gideon and Sofia seeming to be a step behind in thwarting it. Their flirty banter and comic escapades at times gives the reader a break from the high risk of discovery for Gideon and Sofia and their fight against LaRoux Industries. A high point in the book is when we get to observe the six main characters in the series join together in a weird but enthralling kismet of fate, and experience a devastating plot twist that changes everyone's plans. Then it's a dystopian battle for the end reminiscent of The Hunger Games at Snow's mansion, except the enemy isn't "Snow" like you would expect. Shocking. Twisted. I couldn't put this book down! That final plot twist...wow. I don't think I really saw that coming? Possibly the most thing that frustrated me at the end was how I was still craving what happened. I wanted more resolution. I wanted more books, what happened to the characters...Probably this is a really good thing for an author. Total book hangover at the end that I had trouble starting other books for a few days.

Have you read this series? What did you think? Should I start their newest series ASAP?

Read More

Posted by Kara at 07:00

 Amie Kaufman, Disney-Hyperion, Megan Spooner, Science Fiction, space fiction, Starbound, Their Fractured Light, Young Adult Fiction  Leave your mark

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

 This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

Book Stats:  

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 390 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release date: December 23, 2014

Series:  Starbound, #2

Source: Library

Reviewed by: Kara

Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. His sister died in the original uprising against the powerful corporate conglomerate that rules Avon with an iron fist. These corporations make their fortune by terraforming uninhabitable planets across the universe and recruiting colonists to make the planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage against the military occupying his home, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape base together, caught between two sides in a senseless war.

The stunning second novel in the Starbound trilogy is an unforgettable story of love and forgiveness in a world torn apart by war.

A new planet, a new pair of heroes, and a new star-crossed love. Having been used to Lilac and Tarver from the first series, it was a bit jarring to start over with Lee and Flynn. Rather than being immediately sympathetic to the characters this time around, I, too, found Lee cold and living up to her Stone-face nickname. She was hard to trust. Flynn, by contrast, seems immediately likeable. Hurting him seems like kicking a puppy. It's easy to see why he was the one who cracked her hard exterior worn like battle armor throughout her military career due to her childhood trauma.

This is probably by far my favorite planet of the series. Avon reminds me of Dagobah from Star Wars. Murky, swampy, filled with plops and oozes, slime and sludge. I didn't notice any mentions of animal life in the book, which struck me as odd. Here we have an ecosystem of algae and water, and while there's a bit of a mention of fish, there's no crocodile or snake equivalent that present a danger to the populace. That and maybe the lack of swarming insects? However, I think it can be written off as a result of their unstable climate.

In this novel, there's a different literary device used to tell the story. The narrative element of third-person descriptive scenes breaks up the action between Lee and Flynn and tries to give the reader a different perspective of Lee through past, present, and future. Sometimes I felt it was really used well and other times it carried me out of the story when I just wanted to know what happened next and couldn't be bothered to figure out yet again why there was a third narrator. However, the concept is intriguing (especially once we find out the why of said perspective). It seems to be related to dreams or predictions or memories of Lee, but none of these seem to fit exactly. Once Lee has the incident in the cave that results in a very sad death, that was when I started questioning everything and really trying to figure out, was this girl going mad too? Have we been following a would-be murderer this whole time?

You tell me.

P.S. This isn't so much relevant to this novel, but it's really easy to see this narrative plot device  morphed into the dossiers, IMs, emails and various other mediums used in Illuminae. . . Fascinating to study Amie's earlier work and how it evolved!

Read More

Posted by Kara at 07:00

 Amie Kaufman, Disney-Hyperion, Megan Spooner, Science Fiction, space fiction, Starbound, This Shattered World, Young Adult Fiction  1 Person left their mark

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner

Book Stats:  

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 374 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release date: December 10, 2013

Series:  Starbound, #1

Source: Library

Reviewed by: Kara

Order: Amazon | Book Depository

It’s a night like any other on board the Icarus. Then, catastrophe strikes: the massive luxury spaceliner is yanked out of hyperspace and plummets into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive. And they seem to be alone.

Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a young war hero who learned long ago that girls like Lilac are more trouble than they’re worth. But with only each other to rely on, Lilac and Tarver must work together, making a tortuous journey across the eerie, deserted terrain to seek help.

I was interested in reading this book because I am such a huge fan of the Illuminae Files. Since I loved that series to pieces, I was curious about Amie Kaufman's other novels, especially since she and Megan Spooner have yet another series that is currently in publication. How was this different? How was it similar? A fellow librarian friend loved it after I turned her on to Illuminae and she'd been bugging me to read it.

I had two main complaints with this first book. But, just...bear with me a minute.

1) I wanted to know more backstory about Tarver and Lilac. They were such very interesting characters, but I somewhat felt the action continuously pulled them into the present and neglected telling us about their lives before the story. I kept figuring this was going to come in a later book, but it didn't. And I didn't realize this series would jump to new protagonists in the next novel. As far as problems go, it's a minor one, but I really wanted to see Tarver pre-military and Lilac have some more depth to her familial interactions, though some more details are revealed in later novels.

2) While I loved the idea of this planet and its inhabitants, I also had trouble with really seeing it in my head. Once again, most of the story is propelled through the characters of Tarver and Lilac and their interactions and thoughts, but not enough detail is spent on fleshing out the setting, making it fully realized. Perhaps the reader is supposed to see their own version, but since this was a planet  seemingly missing the inhabitants, the setting could/should act as a character. I didn't have this problem in the other novels, just this one. I guess I just wanted it to be a tad bit richer so I could love it more.

So, despite these few flaws, I genuinely liked this story. Tarver and Lilac are strong characters and I enjoyed their story continuing in later novels. In no way did I predict the twist at the end of this book because I just was still trying to figure out what was going on. The juxtaposition of the madness versus a ghost or something else kept you on your toes for what might happen. The most vivid scene I remember that I still love (writing about this months later) is where they find the disembowled juggernaut, Tarver becomes ill, and Lilac, already facing the prospect of insanity and hallucinations, has to explore inside the mass grave of a ship to find supplies. Wow. The sheer horror of the situation and the fierce need for survival and companionship makes this an amazing scene in a really good book. Hopefully coming soon -- This Shattered World where we continue the resistance against LaRoux Industries and meetJubilee "Lee" Chase and Flynn Cormac and revisit with Tarver and Lilac.

Read More

Posted by Kara at 07:00

 Amie Kaufman, Disney-Hyperion, Megan Spooner, Science Fiction, space fiction, Starbound, These Broken Stars, Young Adult Fiction  Leave your mark

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Book Stats:  

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 624 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release date: March 18, 2018

Series:  Illuminae Files #3

Source: Purchased

Reviewed by: Kara

Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza--but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys--an old flame from Asha's past--reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heros will fall, and hearts will be broken.

I was so excited for this book, I repeatedly had to tell myself to calm down and breathe. I love everything about it. From the space adventure to the near-death escapades and the creative art mediums to the real-as-life characters, this is an amazing series and satisfyingly wraps up in this final volume. Our favorite characters from the last novels join newcomers Asha, Kady's cousin, and Rhys, once Asha's boyfriend, who are battling for their lives on opposing sides on Kerenza while the rest are in a battle for survival in space making their way to the mining planet.

Marie Lu's art has changed as Kady and the group are rendered in manga-like cartoon form in a few sketches. More than before, this story is split between the courtroom trial of Leanne Frobisher and BeiTech, Kady/Ezra/Nik/Hanna, and the action on Kerenza. You might think it would be hard to keep so many characters and storylines straight but Kristoff and Kaufman do it almost effortlessly. Our beloved Machiavellian AI is back as AIDAN and it seems to be evolving. It now experiences emotion and shows itself capable of deceit.

Some key changes have happened along the way from Gemina, and we pick the story up right after Nik, Hanna, and Ella have their close brush with an alternate dimension and the Heimdall waypoint is destroyed. The two groups struggle to come together, and the Hypatia is overloaded with refugees. As they decide to return to Kerenza to intercept BeiTech's Mobile Jump Platform Magellan and from there hopefully return to earth they face a seemingly insurmountable task as they must manage to overwhelm the last of BeiTech's dreadnoughts the Churchill. The two groups of the Hypatia and the Jump Station Heimdall face some conflict in leadership which brings up the age-old challenge of adult vs. teenagers as many don't think Kady/Ezra/Nik/Hanna (shortened to KENH, because this is exhausting to type) have any authority despite the fact that some of the choices they've made have saved everyone's lives.

Meanwhile, on Kerenza, Asha encounters her former separated boyfriend Rhys but bad news--he's on the side of BeiTech. For the first time we see the viewpoint of a BeiTech grunt and the orders they've given to the soldiers; in other words, we see the enemy become human. As each of them struggle with their situation, they become unlikely allies as each tries to understand the other, inviting more of a Romeo/Juliet comparison.

This is probably the part of the book that I was most frustrated with. The breakneck speed of the plot and circumstances really didn't allow as much time as before to really get to know Asha and Rhys since they're already fighting for their lives. It's certainly understandable why, but I just missed having as much of a connection to their part of the story as with the KENH part. It's simply for this reason alone that I didn't LOVE this book as much as I LOVED Illuminae and Gemina. I've no idea how they would've made it any better than it was, but because it was just so fast, I wanted there to be more "meat" or emotional connection with all of the characters, especially with the new ones. And like most series, I wanted more at the end. Maybe seeing more of the celebration and all interacting together, alive and safe, finally? Not sure. Maybe reading about the weddings? Absolutely, I would like to read about this group of teens (and a few adults) doing something more. However, the ending with AIDAN? Ahhhh-mazing. Blown away. How you inspire so much love for an electronic entity I don't know, but Kristoff and Kaufman have definitely given me feels for this Machiavellian machine monster.

Tell me your thoughts if you have them!

Read More

Posted by Kara at 07:00

 Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff, Knopf Books for Young Readers, Science Fiction, space fiction, The Illuminae Files, young adult  Leave your mark

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Book Stats:  

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Hardcover: 672 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release date: October 18, 2016

Series:  Illuminae Files #2

Source: ARC, Purchased

Reviewed by: Kara

Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.
     The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.
     Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.
     When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.
     But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.
     Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless.

[I covered this book on my blog earlier, and since it was missing from the archive, added a quick post for you all so you aren't missing the middle title in the series.]

This second file describes the events at the Heimdall waypoint, where the Kerenza survivors are looking to reach to survive. Daughter of the station's commander, Hanna Donnelly is planning for a party with her military officer boyfriend, Jackson Merrick, and trying to score some of the local drug known as dust (think marijuana rather than anything hard). Her drug dealer is Niklas Malikov, an outrageous flirt and nephew of the local crime lord who farms lamina, terrifying fast-evolving parasites that manufacture dust. On the night Nik and Hanna are supposed to meet up, a Bei-Tech undercover operative cons Nik and his family into intercepting a secret mission allowing Bei-Tech assassins into the waypoint. Luckily, Nik skips out on the destruction to meet Hanna while the rest of the jump station dissolves into chaos and murder. As the Bei-Tech assassins continue their mission, Nik and Hanna are left as the only two free people on the station, aided by the computer skills of Nik's cousin Ella. Through Hanna's lifelong training at strategy and combat due to her father's obsession and Nik's determination, wit, and heart, they must battle or outsmart their way through Bei-Tech's 24 assassins before a second Bei-Tech fleet arrives and their hope for a future is lost for a thousand years.

Hanna is the spoiled princess turned butt-kicking warrior after she's gotten pissed her off by betrayal and her father's murder. Nik is the flirty criminal with a good heart. Basically, they're today's reincarnation of Han and Leia. Ella is sort-of Chewie and C-3PO (after he's been blown to bits in Cloud City and carried like a sack of potatoes) rolled into one. 

Honestly, I am trying so hard here not to reveal epic spoilers. I loved every minute of this nail-biting series and want to experience it over and over again. My favorite bits were the IMs because so much of my teen years were spent forming relationships over IM/internet forums. The art and design elements of spaceship schematics, roster lists, visual design spirals, dossiers, IMs, etc. were unexpected but tied together the setting and feel of the story. Addictive. Terrifying. I want more.

While Illuminae was the real stand out, Gemina was not far behind as a solid sequel and may have equaled the first had my pre-pub edition contained the rest of the art intended for the final copy. (I later bought a copy when it released.)

My copies of Illuminae and Gemina are advanced reader copies (that I've been foisting on everyone I can). THANK YOU #alaac15, #alaac16, and most especially Penguin Random House for giving them out! Currently this series is tied with one other for my favorite reads of 2016!

Note: Language, violence, sexual connotations, and visceral descriptors.

Read More

Posted by Kara at 14:02

 Amie Kaufman, Gemina, Jay Kristoff, Knopf Books for Young Readers, Review, Science Fiction, The Illuminae Files, young adult  2 People left their mark

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

 

This book is brilliant. I was a little hesitant at first because of its unconventional format but once you get the hang of it, it's amazing. ILLUMINAE is a very original take on space exploration, especially since it's a story that's not told in prose, but in a collection of transcripts, reports, messages and various visual aids. You would think the plot would be difficult to follow, but on the contrary, it's actually very easy to read. The authors must have thought long and hard about how to play out certain scenes, and while some were a little more confusing than others, it's all very cohesive.

I was a huge fan of the TV show Battlestar Galactica and I'm assuming these authors were too. Although they are similar in genres, they are completely different stories. ILLUMINAE sheds light on the destruction of Kerenza, a mining world, by a competing mining company called BeiTech. The survivors were evacuated by three spacecrafts, helping them flee from the BeiTech spacecraft. However, BeiTech isn't the only enemy they have to survive. They also have to deal with a crazy Artificial Intelligence controlling the main battleship and find a way to survive a deadly and mutating pathogen that makes the infected go insane. Through all this, Kady and Ezra find a way to connect, even if they are on different ships. Although Kady had broken up with Ezra the morning of the bombing of Kerenza, they soon realize that working together may be the only way to help each other--and the rest of the fleet.

Although Kady and Ezra are physically separated throughout the book, that doesn't seem to bother them too much. It's almost as if their relationship on Kerenza was doomed, but now, as they're thrown into wartime and separated by a deadly vacuum, their relationship only grows stronger. Their short conversations through hacked communication lines are full of banter and teasing. You can really see how these two care deeply for one another. It might just be because their relationship is the only normal thing they have left to hang on to, or it's the only way they can cope with everything they lost, but somehow, they manage to stick and work together to save as many people as they can.

The pathogen that's a threat to the whole fleet is a little bit to far fetched for me. Scientifically, I don't think it's really possible, but who knows, since the book is set more than five centuries into the future, maybe viruses and bacteria have evolved into super(supersuper)bugs. I guess it doesn't help that some scientists are suspected to have had a hand in creating this superbug, which gained the ability to mutate very fast.

This book isn't for the faint of heart. So many people die, and personally, I think they authors killed off to many characters for my taste. As soon as I started to enjoy reading about a certain character, they were killed off. Gone! Some descriptions are also quite bloody and gory and I'm thankful I only had to read it and not see it.

This book was published as a young adult novel, probably because the two main characters are teenagers. However, I honestly think anyone who's a fan of the genre will enjoy this book. Sure the swearing is censored out (and there's a lot of censoring) but anyone who can fill in the blank can use their imagination to read it as if it wasn't censored. The format is pure genius, and the book is deceptively big with its 600 pages. Despite the large page count, it actually reads really fast. If you're going to read this book, I honestly believe only a physical copy will do it justice. I'm a huge fan of e-readers and tablets but I really think this book deserves to be enjoyed visually, and a paper copy is the only way you can appreciate it to its fullest. Whatever copy you end up with, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Read More

Posted by Tynga at 00:01

 Amie Kaufman, epidemic, Jay Kristoff, Knopf Books for Young Readers, military, Purchased, Review, sci-fi, Science Fiction, Space, The Illuminae Files, young adult  5 People left their mark