Illuminae

by: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she'd have to do today. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations--**** and ****-- are at war overa planet that's little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With the enemy fire raining down on them, exes Kady and Ezra--who are barely even talking to each other--are forced to fight their way onto the evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But the warship is the least of their problems. A deadly **** had broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results. The fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what the **** is going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again. {cover copy}
So, after my newfound obsession with the Red Rising series in January, I didn't honestly think I'd find another series I loved as much again for a long while. But then I read the Illuminae files, and discovered how wrong I was. I love it just as much, though for totally different reasons than Red Rising (which was a very emotional rollercoaster for me). First off, this book is an absolute visual delight. Having just designed the interior of my own book, I was hyper aware of the time and trouble the designers must have gone through to bring this book to life, but boy, was it worth it. The writing, combined with the design, was just absolutely fantastic. It conveyed so many things in ways that just amplified them. For example, the pages when AIDAN is speaking, how the words form pictures or in some cases create action through images already there. Or how you get snapshots of collected ephemera like a defaced flyer for something happening on the ship that also includes information for some other part of the story on the part that was defaced. It's such a cool concept and there are so many little things like that which just really set it apart. It's also funny as hell. The sass coming off these characters makes me so happy. I can really feel Jay Kristoff's humor shining through them, and I love his humor from Nevernight. Not only is it funny and interesting to look at, but the story itself is so engaging and intense. I love that you get to look at it through all this collected data and see the story unfold that way. It's really, really cool. I highly recommend this series and if I didn't have so much to do, I'd probably find myself re-reading it just for fun because I loved being immersed in this world. ( oh, and all the bleeped out words you see in this review? They are also blacked out in the book. It means the characters end up cussing in exactly the same style you do, because your brain fills in every single one as you read. Which is really pretty funny).

So here's the file that almost killed me, Director. {first line}
"Sure, the story kicks off with the deaths of thousands of people, but god forbid there be cussing in it, right?"

"...and at that point the southeastern anti-missile batter got vaporized by what I assume was a missle. So maybe you might wanna note in your report that those things don't, you know, stop missiles. "

"I am frequently underestimated. I think it's because I'm short. "

"That's so not your business it almost punches clean past the even horizon of Not Your Business and becomes Your Business again."

"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."

"Sure, it can think for itself, but no neurogrammer is stupid enough to make a computer capable of conceptualizing deceit. "

"omgnumbers ... wait, wait, I CAN TOTALLY DO THIS."

"Learning is everywhere."

"You deserve every star int he galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair."

"you have me ... until the last star in the galaxy dies ... you have me."

"logic bomb || is that even a thing? || it is now. we are going to be ****ing famous. WE WILL BE HEROES."


• run • {last word}