Title: Gemina
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Series: The Illuminea Files
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published Date: October 18, 2016
Blurb: Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.
The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.
Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.
When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.
But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.
Once again told through a compelling dossier of emails, IMs, classified files, transcripts, and schematics, Gemina raises the stakes of the Illuminae Files, hurling readers into an enthralling new story that will leave them breathless.
My Review:
My husband and I both enjoyed Illuminea so much that we purchased the audiobook of Gemina almost immediately afterward.
What I Loved: I’m still really enjoying this world that has been created, and the way that these books are laid out. This time we start out in a court room reviewing documents against BeiTech. From there we are told a story once again through the IMs, documents and video surveillance cameras as we were previously. Similar to Illuminea, we are dealing with not only BeiTech and another invasion, but another outside conflict – this time in the form of human-eating aliens.
The characters in this book grew on me as the story progressed, which was good because I didn’t care much for Hanna at all at the beginning. The characters Hanna and Nik are both just as fun and witty as Kady and Ezra were, but very much their own people. The best character by far, though, was Nik’s cousin. I just LOVED her ‘voice’ throughout the entire book. Hanna’s was kind of amazing when she applied all of her convenient training – and started scaling the ship like a super-spy. Nik was an awesome hero and ladies man <wink.>
Not So Much: So there is some drug usage in this book. It does play it’s part I suppose, but I never care for any kind of drug recreational usage in a YA novel. It’s just a ‘thing’ for me. I was also disappointed at first of the lack of Kady and Ezra in this book, as I had grown to love them in Illuminae. I did really enjoy this book, but honestly, it really just followed the same exact outline of Illuminae – granted the story was different, and the aliens were some bad dudes, the general outline is there. I really hope that the future book will not fall into the same rut.
The Verdict: I don’t think it was possible for this to have been better than Illuminae no matter what way you shake it. I really do love the world that has been established, and at this point I really want to see BeiTech go down – hard. So I will be listening or reading anything else that comes up in this series. As far as clean goes – the cussing was cut back by a LOT in this book (though as it was previously – all cussing is blanked out in the actual book the audiobook makes it clear what is being said). I mentioned the drug usage previously – and that would really be my big hang-up with the whole YA genre.
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Anita Loves to Read 