Memento by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Disclaimer: This is a review for Memento, the Illuminae Files novella. It’s set right before and in the beginning of the events of Illuminae Files and Goodreads will not allow for a Memento page because it violates community rules.Book Series: Illuminae Files Book… uhhhh…. -1?Rating: 5/5Diversity: YES! Different POC charactersPublication Date: not a published workGenre: YA Sci-Fi DystopianRecommended Age: 16+ (violence, insane AI, and deciding which to run over: the one or the five).Publisher: Alfred A KnopfPages: 82Amazon LinkSynopsis: AIDAN EXPERIENCED FAILURE IN ANALYTICS NODE 8-0091A.THE FAULT WAS RECTIFIED AT 04:41.ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY.ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLY ALL SYSTEMS ARE NOW FUNCTIONING OPTIMALLYSOME MONSTERS ARE BORN. I WAS MADE.Review: I’m a total Illuminae Files fan, so I definitely picked this pre-order incentive up when I heard about it for when Aurora Rising was coming out. Guys, I did NOT regret this. I LOVED every second of this book. This book had mystery, AIDAN was back and we got a backstory for him, and we got a new team to root for! I was so sucked into this book and I COULDN”T PUT IT DOWN! I definitely would be up for more books in this series.My only ONLY issue is the length. It was 82 pages as opposed to the usual 600-800 pages in the books. The pacing was a bit faster than I’m used to because of it, but, I mean, it’s promotional material and not a real book so…. Kinda can’t be 600 pages LOL.Verdict: A11 SYST3M5 AR3 N0W FUNCT10N1NG 0PT1MA11Y

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Rating: 4.5/5

 

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

 

Recommended Age: 15+ (violence, gore, death, child death, psychotic AIs, teenagers taking charge)

 

Pages: 615

 

Author Website (Amie Kaufman) (Jay Kristoff)

 

Amazon Link

 

Disclaimer: None, I bought this book on my own!

 

Synopsis: 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 think this series will always hold a special place in my heart. I loved this series and I was so sad to see it end. But being the anxious beaver I was I had to read it ASAP. The story picks up from where we last left off in the series with our heroes and we have two new ones. I thought the story picked up from the last book right where we left off and that the characters blended well together. The character development of all 5 of our previous heroes was well done as well and the plot and the pacing kept the story interesting. I also thought the writing was well done as well, if really does sound like different voices talking instead of just 2. I think co-authoring works well with this book.

 

However, I did have an issue with Asha and Rhys. Asha, while developed, didn’t get much book time. Rhys wasn’t very well developed in my opinion and we didn’t really learn a lot about them. Their reunion and him deciding to help her out seemed really quick. The plot they came up with at the end of the book wasn’t also explained for the audience, which could make it confusing.

 

Verdict: An action-packed adventure with your favorite heroes, plus two new ones that don’t get as much book time as I would have liked. Great if you like throwbacks to the old IM chat books.

Gemina (Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Rating: 5/5

 

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/ Horror

 

Recommended Age: 16+ (mature content, language ((censored)), violence, gore, jump scares, a usual  Jay Kristoff book).

 

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. – Amazon.com

 

Hey look I finally read GEMINA! And OMG I AM WRECKED! I NEED THE NEXT BOOK IN THE SERIES! PLEASE JAY AND AMIE?! Anyways, on with the review! While this book is in a strictly mixed media format like Illuminae, it’s different. You get excerpts from a trial in this book and excerpts from a character’s journal that are in a scanned format and the way that the characters communicate to each other are very different from Illuminae. I don’t want to go into detail about it, but I will say that the difference in the communication worked for these characters very well in my opinion. I considered how Illuminae was wrote and tried to see in my mind if Gemina could have been wrote the same way, but I think the way the authors wrote it was very true to their characters, which I would rather have then equal writing styles. The characters included, while not all of the side characters were well defined, was very well done overall and I was surprised by the characters motives and actions throughout the book. I thought that plot was also very different from Illuminae. In Illuminae you have 4 main arcs in the book, while in this book you have 3 major arcs. This book spent more time on two of the arcs and it felt more drawn out, which I thought did well to accentuate the horrors in this book. This book also dealt with a topic that I am extremely picky on. I think that this “thing” that the book did is very hit or miss in books and in my opinion makes or breaks a book for me. I think that I might need to do a reread of it in order to get a better opinion of it, but from the first read through I think it was pretty well done.

 

However, even the best books that I read have some issues. The pacing in this book is slower than in Illuminae and while I thought the pacing was very well done I can see where other people might get put off by it. I think that it worked well to keep the reader in suspense, but others might not think the same as I do. I also think that there were some plot points in the book that were just done away with way too early and easily in the book then I believe they should have been. I don’t want to go into detail about it, but if you read the book then you might know what I’m talking about.  Also, the “thing” described up above might be a breaking point for some readers because it depends on people’s interpretations of the theories surrounding the “thing”.

 

Verdict: I love this series and I love how it is written. Since starting a readalong of Illuminae I do realize that a lot of people don’t like this format style, but I do and I think it’s very well done. I’ve read books where mixed media is used and the book is just… bad and doesn’t do justice to the format, but this book isn’t one of those bad books. Amie and Jay make this book work and make these characters come alive through the screens of their palmpads or computers. Definitely will still recommend for sci-fi lovers and horror book lovers.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Rating: 5/5

 

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi

 

Recommended Age:  13+ (censored language, sexual innuendos, and death and gore… lots and lots of it)

 

Favorite Quote: “Am I Not Merciful?”

 

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 a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.– Amazon.com

 

Does anyone remember those books that were wrote in all IM format? Maybe not, but I used to read them and I never really enjoyed that format. I was a bit skeptical I would like the format over a decade later, but I had heard such great things about this book that I decided to give it a go. And I want to thank all of bookstagram for making me want to read this book. I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK. The characters, which was super difficult to achieve, were very well developed. While I didn’t have the usual “I am of medium height and have average brown hair” (thank God) I did get to learn about their personalities. And while a huge cast of characters usually makes for underdeveloped characters, this was not the case with this book. The plot is also very well developed. Complex, yes. Confusing in the beginning, yes. Well explained in the end, yes. Yes. YES. I know everything about this universe so far and I’ve not felt the sense that my brain is going to explode with too much information. The book, for the format is in, is so awesomely wrote and is so easy to digest! It’s nearly 600 pages, but it only feels like a 200 page book! I don’t know how the authors wrote this book but they did amazing and I would hug them so hard if they were within hugging range!

 

The only thing that annoyed me was that the ending was not very explained. I was left wondering what the hell was going on. I know I need to read the second book in order to have the full story, but I WANT TO KNOW NOW! NOW! RIGHT RIGHT NOW!

oVeRaLL I FeLt ThIs WaS an AWESOME read. CAN NOT WAIT TOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTOTO

 

DON’T LOOK AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

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AM I NOT MERCIFUL?