Review: Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Hey all, Dani here.

Oh my goodness, it is finally Thursday. At the time this post goes live, I will be clocking out of work and getting ready for my four day weekend. Tomorrow Damian and I are heading to his grandparents for four days of relaxation with no cell phone service and minimal internet–as in they have a landline phone and what amounts to dial-up internet. But the local bar has Wi-Fi, and if the library is open, it should have internet as well, so I might be able to check in on likes and comments a couple times. Of course my main priority for the weekend–aside from eating copious amounts of festival food–is to read a lot of books.

Speaking of books, today is a review day, and today I’m talking about sci-fi. I enjoy sci-fi but I don’t read that many. Mostly because I prefer my sci-fi to be fun and action-y without being too science-y. So I definitely steer clear of hard sci-fi because to me that feel bogged down in all the science explanations. Don’t get me wrong, I love science, but I don’t want to feel like I’m reading a textbook.

Thankfully today’s book was a pretty quick and exciting read, which is no surprise given that the Illuminae Files were just as entertaining. So let’s just jump into the review.

Summary

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling authors of the Illuminae Files comes a new science fiction epic . . .

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the academy would touch . . .

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates 
A smart-ass tech whiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger-management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem–that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline cases, and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

Have I mentioned that I just adore groups of misfits in books/TV shows/movies? Because I do. And it is clear that each member of this team is very good at what they specialize in, but for one reason or another they just don’t fit in with other groups. Okay, sure so two of the group refused to join other squads out of loyalty to Tyler, but the others were the dregs that nobody wanted. But I think through this tale that they learned that this may be the team that fits them best.

I enjoyed learning about the different cultures, and getting little snippets of history from the past couple hundred years. The characters are so varied and interesting, and I was very quickly drawn into their lives and the adventure they found themselves on unexpectedly.

Also, I love the sort of honorable vigilante style crew. In some ways this book made me think of the crew of the Serenity (Browncoats forever!). Yeah, I’m still a huge fan of “Firefly.” I mean, especially if you want to start making comparisons between Auri and River, because that is totally acceptable.

There was action and romance and a little bit of mystery, and I should have fully expected to love this, especially after how much I enjoyed Illuminae–I still need to read the second half of Gemina and all of Obsidio. But anyway, this was a great start to a new series for the author duo of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Where to Buy

You can pick up your own copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore.