Review | The Illuminae Files

The Books: Illuminae, Gemina, Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Date Published: October 20, 2015; October 18, 2016; March 13, 2018

Dates Read: July 6-13, 2018

Current Goodreads Rating: 4.32/5, 4.55/5, 4.61/5

July is the month of reading in my office. Most of the college students have settled into their summer schedule or just gotten the hell out of town so the days crawl by if I don't have some form of distraction. Since starting this wonderful month I have blown through 5 books and I'm well on my way to finishing my sixth.

But I'm not here to brag. I'm here to talk about this series which, OH MY GOD THIS SERIES. I apparently shelved the first book in my "To Read" bookshelf on Goodreads way back in 2016 and I'm almost a little mad that I didn't make myself read it earlier. I think maybe the reason why I didn't immediately pick it up was because, for some reason I thought that the Illuminae were some kind of group similar to the superheroes in the I am Number Four series. Spoiler alert: I was wayyyy off target.

The Illuminae series takes place in SPAAAAAAACE. Over the course of the three books we learn that it is 2575 and an illegal mining planet has just been bombed to shit by an evil corporation. Kady and her ex-boyfriend Ezra escape on a fleet of ships racing for safety. These ships are chased by a dreadnought owned by this evil corporation determined to wipe away any evidence of their massacre. However, this corp isn't the only bad guy in the series. In the first book alone Kady, Ezra, and the rest of the refugees not only have to stay one step ahead of BeiTech, but they also have to deal with a psycho sentient AI named AIDEN, and a 28 Days Later-esque disease that's sweeping the fleet.

However, despite having a heart pumping action filled plot and heart breaking misery filled dialogue I think the best part of this series is how it is all laid out. See, instead of having a "he said, she said" plot this story is told by the assembly of documents. Whether its an IM chat or a description of a video log, the story is laid out in bits and pieces pieced together by the main characters themselves. After we meet Kady and Ezra in Illuminae we meet Hannah, Nik, and Nik's cousin Ella in Gemina. Hannah is one of the few artists in the galaxy who still uses normal pen and paper so the story is sprinkled with pages from her diary (featuring in the corner dun Dun DUN a bullet hole!).

The final book, Obsidio, not only introduces two new characters (Asha and Rhys), but also brings the five other characters into the same plot. They are all connected in various ways and they all come together to save the day. What I think is great about this, besides you know the perfect pulling together of loose ends, is that this is very much a YA book series. All the main characters are between the ages of 15 and 18. Instead of having every character accept that these kids are perfection, there are adults that question why someone so young is in charge and then the kids prove their worth. It's a situation they should not have to be in at such a young age, but they prove to themselves and to those around them that they can and will survive.

Here's my one issue with the books: and I'm going to be real honest with you, it isn't much of an issue. My only complaint is the fact that every couple introduced is written to fall in love. Kady and Ezra have recently broken up and, after a traumatic event, are pretty much forced back together. Nik and Hannah are thrown together because Nik is Hannah's drug dealer, but then bad shit goes down and they have to work together to save the Heimdall station. Asha and Rhys are another ex-couple, but Asha is part of the resistance and Rhys is a soldier in the BeiTech army. Every book plays into that classic Romeo and Juliet love story (minus some of the killing and all of the soliloquies). I've read another series that Amie Kaufman has worked on called The Starbound Series and it is very similar. In all three of those books we meet a guy and a girl and they eventually, through space and all that jazz, fall in love. It might be a little cliche and convenient, but whatever. I don't hate it. Yes, every couple falls in love with their counterpart, but I don't feel like it's completely forced. I'm rooting for these characters to find each other in desperate times and I believe that they would end up, and stay together, after these books end.

Final Note: OH MY GOD YOU GUYS YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THE AUDIO BOOK. I only did this for the final book, but it was AH-MAZING. Since the book is split up into various documents every single character is voiced by a different actor. If one of the chapters is a video log description prepared by analyst SL-0004-5632 and another one is prepared by analyst SL-012-3847 then those two video logs are going to be voiced by different people.

Main characters like Kady and Ezra and even creepy AI AIDEN have their own voice actor. If there's a particular scene where someone is crawling in an airduct (believe me it happens often) there is background noise that accompanies it. There is one of AIDEN's creepy scenes that was so well read with accompanying Creepy Noises that I could feel goosebumps on my arms. If it was back in 1938 and this played on the radio, I probably would have believed it (jk, but I did get to through in a cheeky War of the Worlds reference).

Also, final side note, Magicians' actress Olivia Taylor Dudley voices Kady throughout the series and she is AH-MAZING in it. Props to Olivia.

Long story short:

• Space is cool, you should read more about it.

• AIs and corporations are going to kill us all.

• Don't knock audiobooks until you've tried them.

My Rating: 5/5 across the board.