Author(s): Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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.
I absolutely love this book. I bought this book at my local bookstore after seeing it and its format. As soon as I had finished the book, I recommended it to all of my friends who are now reading it and also love it. The format of this book is one of my favourite things about it. The book isn’t written like a typical novel. The story is told through instant messaging, security footage, from the point of view of an artificial intelligence, and more. Many pages also have pictures or have the words written in a shape to show the action. This really breaks up the book. I sometimes find that I get bored when reading long books, but the format of this one really helped that. Another thing that made this book not drag on was that the storyline was full of bumps and twists. There was always something happening. It felt like a crazy roller coaster that had tons of unexpected drops and flips.
Another great thing about this book is that it’s nothing like anything I’ve read. A lot of times with science fiction I find that the storyline is very similar to other books, but Illuminae was nothing like this.
I would highly recommend Illuminae to science fiction lovers. With that being said, I don’t usually like science fiction and I clearly loved the book. If you want a thrilling read nothing like anything you’ve ever read before, Illuminae is for you.
