Illuminae (The Illuminae Files: 1)

SYNOPSIS:

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she'd ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But the warship could be the least of their problems. 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 biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what's really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.

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.

REVIEW

(5 STARS)

Illuminae feels more like a graphic novel than a book. Its layout resembles an amount of compiled files, from private messages to qualified documents, so the reading experience is not the same as the one you'd get from a regular book. I think this design made the reading process quicker, much more dynamic and immersive. As soon as I opened the book, I would get lost in the story and its characters, forgetting about simple concepts such as time. At first, I thought this format would prevent me from connecting with the characters as easily. I had read some reviews of people complaining about this issue and I was scared it would happen to me too. It didn't, even though it took me some time to adapt. I ended up feeling attached to Kady, Ezra and Winnifred. I raged against Torrance and Aidan. I held my breath during confrontations. It was almost as if I was there, living it. I have no idea how Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff did it, but they reinvented sci-fi. It's always nice when authors do something different from the ordinary, and with Illuminae, the authors let it become a piece of art. They stepped up their game and let creativity take the lead, choosing a very artistic format to voice their story. I liked how there were no extenuating descriptions and a lot was left to the reader to envision. It's almost as if we have to work with the authors instead of just reading the final work. We have to imagine the personality behind the usernames. Sometimes we have to create characters from scratch because we're not given physical descriptions. So I think the reason why people didn't like this was that we, as readers, are used to getting everything done for us. Everything we need to know is right there, ready to be read and imagined. That's not what happens with Illuminae. You have to work a lot because description-wise not much is disclosed. Of course, there were things that I didn't enjoy as much. I thought some events were a bit predictable (even though there were two major plot-twists at the end) and many good characters were left unattended, forgotten during all the action. But overall, I loved this book. I loved how it was a mix of several common themes (space travel, futuristic wars, teenage romance and artificial intelligence) put together into an original plot, designed most creatively. I can't imagine this book being anything else other than what it is. There aren't many things I would change. And that's why I feel like this is a 5-star read. It's an action-packed story, with a sprinkle of romance, sci-fi and space-zombie apocalypse. What else could you want?