Review of Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

I grabbed a copy of Illuminae because it had good reviews and I was looking for something a little different. It’s written in a ‘letters’ format, in that everything is presented as documents and other information compiled from a past event and presented as a final report.

This was a little grating at first as document header information had to be read out by the narrators – time, date stamp, person(s) involved, etc. However, that’s really my only bone with it. It’s the sort of thing you’d skip over in the print version, and after a while it became unnoticeable anyway.

Overall, it was a fantastic story. Seriously good book and very immersive despite the ‘report’ style format. Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff really know how to pack a punch.

I haven’t bought the sequel to anything in quite a while, but I’m going to grab the sequel to Illuminae – it’s that good.

The story: 1500 years or so into the future, two galactic mega-corporations have just kicked off a corporate war, and the citizens of an illegal mining colony are the first victims. The survivors escape on three ships in the hope of reaching a nearby wormhole/gate which will take them to safety – but it’s months of space travel away, and they’re being chased.

The corporation which initiated the attack doesn’t want any witnesses, which means eliminating the survivors. It’s only a matter of time before they’re run down.

And that’s just the beginning of the survivors’ problems. Nobody in command is telling them anything, an incurable plague has broken out and is turning people into insane psychopaths, and the AI running the only ship in the small fleet that’s capable of fighting back has more than a few loose wires of its own.

Overall, a highly original, edgy, tense story that’s well worth the read. It’s also one of the best-read audio productions I’ve come across.

I’ll definitely be getting the next book in the series.

Grab the audio book or ebook/print version on Amazon or wherever you buy books.

Highly recommended.