Publication: October 20th 2015 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary: This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.
This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a 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 enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has 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’s really 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.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
Goodreads Page
My Thoughts:
This is another book that I'm a bit torn about. Parts of it I liked. Parts of it I just found to be boring. But it's another book that impresses me with the ideas behind it. I can't even imagine how much work went into this book to conceive its idea and its execution. It's truly unique in the way some portions of it are told, especially in the space battles, and I've always been fond of epistolary books so I appreciate it in that sense. However, I also felt like the majority of the book just dragged on and on with the same events happening over and over again and therefore made this more of a 4 star read for me based on its plot.
Firstly, I wasn't especially fond of any of the characters apart from AIDAN. Katy was okay but there was just something off-putting about her that made me not become attached to her which actually really surprises me since I'm typically a fan of rebellious type of characters. I did like Ezra well enough but he didn't find a place in my heart either. The side characters were okay as well but there was just so many of them that it's nearly impossible to become attached to any of them either. However, I loved AIDAN and he (he??? it???) definitely made the book become more bearable for me as soon as his voice really entered the plotline. I love the idea behind artificial intelligence the way that it is but to be able to read it through the imagination of how far AIs might become in the future really made the book for me. AIDAN was much more than I expected and I wish I could talk about him more without giving away spoilers. Alas, let's just say, if the book is boring you for the first 300 pages, just you wait until you finally get to meet AIDAN and discover the true potential in the pages.
The plot was honestly quite boring for me for the first 300 or so pages. I also think the book isn't entirely easy to follow. I love the way that it is told but it takes a while as you read to piece everything together. Engaging, but a bit difficult. I really felt like I was just reading the same events over and over again as the Phobos virus spread and the characters continuously deal with that and the chase from BeiTech. Each time I felt like I might be coming up on a pivotal moment, it was just swept away again by another round of crazy Phobos-infested people. Cut about 200 pages of this book out and you'd be better off for it in my opinion.
However (cue negativity music coming to a close), I loved the ending. It was action-packed and interesting and full of twists, some predictable, some unexpected. I loved seeing the way AIDAN and Katy's partnership developed. I loved seeing the climatic scene that we're finally awarded after 500+ pages of reoccurring slight monotony. I loved the final twist in the last few pages as we finally get to know who is really behind BeiTech and what really happened within the pages of the Illuminae file. I can definitely say that that was something I did not predict.
Suffice to say, this is another John Green read for me mostly: love the big idea behind it, not such a love in the actual plot or characters. But is it worth a read? Definitely.
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