The year is 2375 and one of the mega-corporations, BeiTech that controls much of deep space has just started an intergalactic war by destroying Kady Grant and Ezra Mason's planet, Kerenza. By the way, they just broke up and were trying to avoid each other but of course everything has changed. They're forced to run away on a small fleet of rescue ships while an enemy warship is chasing.
Ezra ends up on the battlecarrier Alexander while Kady is on the science vessel Hypatia and the feeling of safety does not last long because one of BeiTech's ships, the Lincoln, is after them. The book is set up as a file to a mysterious group called Illuminae so by relaying the story through a series of interview transcripts, emails, internet chats, computer logs, and transcripts of security footage we are able to slowly unravel why the attack on the small ice planet of Kerenza evolved into the death of thousands of people. By setting up the story in this way, the deadly plague Phobos that is mutating and therefore creating terrifying mutated killers on the Alexander is even more horrifying as is the self-aware AI, AIDAN, on the Hypatia that has caused too much death when it's supposed to be protecting everyone and justifying it with the chilling question, "Am I Not Merciful?"
Kady and Ezra are high schoolers thrust into this mess who show just how intelligent and cunning they are when nobody in charge will tell them what's going on so they have to take matters into their own hands. Kady is a badass techie with some amazing hacking skills who has to reconnect with her ex-boyfriend in order to bring forth all the shady business that has been going in with the military and these mega-corporations. Ezra is an angry sarcastic combat pilot who is easy to make some snap judgments but is unexpectedly romantic and when this is paired with Kady's determination and sass show just how different they are but how they totally work.
As Kady uncovers more information in this complex network that we're presented with, we realize just how brave and selfless she really is.
The standout to me in this book was how stunning the writing was and it just made me stop and
reread things several times. On the flip side, the IM's felt a bit much after a while but they are still necessary to set up the story and to make you care for the background characters that you only know through their harsh way of commanding troops on these ships or just showing how connected these people became through this difficult work.
It took me a while to get into the style of the book since it is so unconventional but once I did I found it easy to follow. The eccentric set up- sometimes you even have to turn the book upside down to read it as pictured above- is something unique and I felt I had to brace myself with the turn of every page because you just don't know what's going to happen in this horror, sci-fi adventure ride.
Lastly, I feel the need to expand on the brilliance that is the horrifying AI that is AIDAN. This AI is a personification of everything we as humans fear, that technology becomes self-aware, but the twist in this story is how these authors manage to make the AI seem to be on the brink of feeling...human?! When I started to feel feelings for the AI, I knew that these two had a good thing going in this book. Especially in a story set up this way with everything being technology based, it's easy to assume that it could come of as frigid, matter-of-fact or passionless but it's the complete opposite.
Illuminae shows how empathetic and full of intensity humanity can be and it's worth the read so you can feel all these emotions for yourself.
I can't wait for the sequel, Gemina!
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