Illuminae (Illuminae Files, #1)

by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

For fans of Marie Lu comes the first book in an epic series that bends the sci-fi genre into a new dimension.
 
 “A truly beautiful novel that redefines the form." —Victoria Aveyard, bestselling author of Red Queen

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 a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.
     But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
      Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
 
“Prepare yourselves for Illuminae.” —EW.com
 
“[Y]ou’re not in for an ordinary novel experience. . . .”  —Bustle.com
 
“A truly interactive experience. . . . A fantastically fun ride.” —MTV.com
 
★ “[O]ut-of-this-world awesome.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred
 
★ “…stylistically mesmerizing.” —Publishers Weekly, starred
 
★ “[A]n arresting visual experience.”—Booklist, starred
  
★ “[A] game-changer.” —Shelf Awareness, starred

“Brace yourself. You're about to be immersed in a mindscape that you'll never want to leave.”  —Marie Lu, bestselling author of the Legend trilogy
 
"Genre: Undefinable. Novel: Unforgettable." —Kami Garcia, bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures & author of Unbreakable
 
“An exuberant mix of space opera, romance, zombies, hackers, and political thrills.”  —Scott Westerfeld, bestselling author of  Zeroes and Uglies
 
“Stunningly creative. Smart, funny, and romantic.”  —Veronica Rossi, bestselling author of Under the Never Sky
 
“This is one of those rare books that will truly keep your heart pounding.” —Beth Revis, bestselling author of Across the Universe
 
“This book is xxxxing awesome.”
—Laini Taylor, bestselling author of Daughter of Smoke and Bone

• ISBN10: 0553499122
• ISBN13: 9780553499124
• Publish Date: 20 October 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 20 December 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 608
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553499124

Reviews

[Berls]

I've had this book/series on my TBR list for years, but with it being Sci-Fi it's never been at the top of my list. When it was selected for COYER book club, I decided to give it a go. I know it's a very popular series, but for me it was just okay and I don't plan on reading more.

To be honest, I almost DNF'd Illuminae. There were a few reasons -- I had a lot going on in my personal life and was perhaps not in the best place to be reading this book, I wasn't drawn to the VERY YA characters, and the plot initially lost me. I usually make my decision to DNF a book at the 20% mark, but I gave it a little longer because of my mindset and I am glad that I did. I ultimately found that last 25% ish very engaging and I can see why the series is so popular. Just a very slow start.

I think it was at about 35% that I got really interested. The artificial intelligence made things interesting and the illness presented an unexpected complication/twist. I really never did get to where I truly cared about any of the characters though. Kady was somehow simultaneously smart and dumb, selfless and selfish. So yeah, a YA character.

The way the story was told - though snippets of an investigation looking back at what happened - probably had a lot to do with how I felt disconnected and impersonal. I can see why it was done that way and it had definite advantages, but it did keep me from really connecting with the characters, I think.

The narration possibly added to that disconnect. It is one of those performances that has tons of narrators playing different roles, complete with sound effects and everything - a true theatrical experience. And it was definitely a solid performance, something I typically consider to be a treat. But in this instance, I think that it added to the feeling of disconnect. I never forgot that I was listening to recordings of events and stayed disconnected from the characters. I don't know, I think everyone delivered a solid performance and if this is your kind of book I think I would definitely recommend the narration.

All that said, if the story were continuing in the next book I'd probably read on. But it appears to be rehashing of events from different POVs and I'm really not interested in revisiting this story. So that will be it for me.

[bearley]

Uniquely fun and interesting novel that I makes you want to order the rest of the series right away. Took some time to get into the formatting, but I ended up loving it at the end especially someone of the beautiful compositions done with the AI.

"Am I not merciful?"

It's been a hot minute since I've read a sci-fi novel and I was so excited to read Illuminae. I had high expectations and I was not disappointed. 

The format is unique. Illuminae is told through media such as transcripts, interviews, chat logs, official documents, camera surveillance footages and emails and the format makes this book a work of art. There are some format elements that I enjoyed reading more than others and the format tends to make the plot progression a little choppy at times, but overall a unique reading experience. 

Unfortunately, because of the format, it took me a while to become immersed in the story and I didn't get attached to the characters. The main characters, Kady and Ezra, are likable, but because of the limitations of the format, they seem underdeveloped. All I know about Kady is that she's a badass hacking genius and Ezra just faded into the background.

There is one unexpectedly interesting character: AIDAN, who is robotic and logical at times, but most of the time seems almost human, which is super creepy. AIDAN's data, thoughts and justifications are intriguing. 

The plot and worldbuilding is the best part. There's a war between a megacorporation and a planet, refugees living in compact spaces, spaceship battles, a deadly virus  (which made me question all my life decisions, because pandemic) and a loose cannon of an AI machine. The plot is fast-paced, so much happens and the plot twists are unexpected. I especially enjoyed the last half of Illuminae.

Illuminae has a weird tone, almost like it doesn't take itself too seriously. There's lots of violence, blood, gore, destruction and death, but those moments tend to seem more over-the-top and ridiculous. I also couldn't take the emotional moments seriously because of it. Illuminae is laced with humour and sarcasm and there are some places where it works, but there are others where it's a bit too much.

Overall, Illuminae is a unique, fun and entertaining sci-fi read and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

"The universe owes you nothing, Kady. It has already given you everything, after all. It was here long before you, and it will go on long after you. The only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance."

  

[Nessa Luna]

Months ago, I started hearing about the book Illuminae for the first time. I honestly had no idea what it was about then, but I heard the word 'space' and I was immediately intrigued. Then, as the ARCs were distributed, and the reviews came in, I heard it was not written like books are usually written, but it was more of a compilation of files. That got my attention even more, so that's when I decided I was going to buy myself a copy. I went for the more expensive - but beautiful - hardcover, mainly because of that amazing plastic dustjacket.

Illuminae is compiled of a bunch of files describing the events that happened from the moment the planet Kerenza was attacked. It tells you the story of Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, who had just ended their relationship three hours before their planet was attacked. During evacuation, they got separated and placed on different ships. Kady got onto the Hypatia, and Ezra onto the Alexander. The three ships - the Copernicus included - make their way towards jumpstation Heimdall, which is a six-month journey. And of course, a lot can happen in six months.

To be honest, I don't know how to write this review. I've started over at least four times, and this is my official fifth time I am writing this review. Maybe it's the way the story was written, that I now think I should do a different review format as well? Maybe I should write a poem, seeing as it's close to Sinterklaas in my country - and a lot of people write poems for the people they've bought gifts for. No, okay, I am crappy at writing poetry, let's not do that.

Illuminae was an amazing book, I loved every bit of it. I especially liked the way it was formatted. It was basically meant to be a bunch of files send to the executive director of a company by a group that calls itself the Illuminae Group. Emails, IMs, camera footage, footage taken from the AI of Alexander, there is a lot of different kind of files in this book, and I really enjoyed seeing all those.

We mainly follow Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, who broke off their relationship three hours before their planet was invaded. They get evacuated onto different ships and eventually - reluctantly - Kady contacts Ezra because she needs him for something. Another main character in this story - in my opinion - is the artificial intelligence, AIDAN (Articifial Intelligence Defence Analytics Network), who I thought was a mixture of Ultron and Vision.



I really liked Kady, right from the start, because she had pink hair (which we didn't find out until later in the story tho, but still), and she can hack very well. She's the one who - together with a guy named Byron Zhang - uncovered much of the truth that happened on the ships. She was just so heroic at the end of this story, and honestly I was very afraid for her throughtout the story. Because I was convinced she was going to die, either on the Alexander, or of the radiation poisoning she got from the Lincoln's bombs, but she didn't and honestly that was a tiny bit of a shame.

This story also reminded me of that one episode of Doctor Who, called Midnight, where you just find out how cruel and awful humans can be if their lives are in danger. How easily they can murder innocent people just because they think something is wrong with them, how easily peer pressure works and people who were first against killing could suddenly be persuaded to kill. Ugh I hated that episode so so much. I can handle weird, scary aliens, because I know they aren't real, but people - people are real and so so scary. This book was just like that, and sometimes I just had to put the book down because I was so frustrated with the choices some people made in this story. I get that they were scared, but think - just THINK.

The setting was just really cool, I love everything that has to do with space and spaceships, and oh gods I just loved seeing those schematics of the ships in the book. I heard that the next book will take place on a space station, which I assume is the Heimdall jumpstation they were heading to, and gods I can't wait to see that!

Kady and Ezra broke up three hours before their planet was attacked, and as I was telling this to my friend I thought to myself 'they'll end up back together again', that or they'll die. Unfortunately, I was right and halfway through the story Kady and Ezra started confessing their love for each other again, which was a bit of a shame. I mean yeah it's cool for them that they ended up together again, but honestly why does this always happen? Oh well.

In the end, I really loved Illuminae and I will certainly pick up the next book when it comes out next year! Did you read this book? If so, what did you think of the formatting? Did you love it as much as I did, or would you have rather had a normal story? Let me know in a comment!

I recommend this book to people who love space, who love Doctor Who and science fiction in general, and who love unique books. Though honestly the story isn't that unique, the formatting makes it so much cooler. (Yes I will forever be talking about the awesome formatting, shh).

My opinion on this book in one gif:

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

At first, I was hesitant going into Illuminae for two reasons: it is a very hyped book, and it was mixed media, which may/may not work in audiobook format. I kept my expectations pretty low, because a lot of the super hyped books don’t really work for me.

Going into the early chapters of Illuminae, I was glad I protected myself with low expectations. The world was interesting, and the action started right away, but the characters? Meh. Especially in the early chapters, they’re all quite vague and flirtatious. There are moments that are good mixed in, like the initial battle between the Lincoln and the Alexander. In these places, the audiobook really shined. Illuminae is a full cast recording, and it’s just… so well done. This is definitely one of those books that feels like a radio play when you listen to it, and not just like a book being read to you.

But those early chapters? If I had boarded the hype train and had high expectations for the book, I would have been hugely disappointed. It was reading like a romance and I was bored. And, yes, having finished the book, I now understand the importance of the dialogue and slow pacing in the first 50%. But while I was in it? It was not for me.

Then, at almost the exact 50% point… AIDEN was turned back on.

Then things got good.

I could not stop listening to the second half of this book. As the book continued, I missed the mixed-media as the narration turned to AIDEN’s memory almost exclusively. But, you know what? That was fine. Give me an evolving AI and deadly, gruesome plague any day. There were twists and turns and the more I think about it retrospectively, the more and more hints I see where I should have figured things out. I called one of them, but you know, I think that was more from desperation than logic. But the twists were really well written – I think that good twist is something you could predict, but may not… and if you can’t, you can go back and figure out all the missing pieces.

Through the second half of Illuminae, I was there for the ride and enjoying it, not thinking ahead of the book too much. I loved it. It’s an easy book to recommend, with a lot of questions left unanswered to mull over and a lot of action points. The only thing I didn’t love were the characters. I don’t feel like we got to know Ezra well enough, and I just didn’t care for Katy? She was well written, but I just didn’t connect with her. But that’s okay!

Generally, this was such a rollercoaster ride, and I’m definitely in to read Gemini. If you like space operas like Star Wars, then you’ll like Illuminae. It’s such a great sci-fi book and honestly, this needs to be picked up and turned into a TV show. AIDEN had such great vibes of both HAL 900 (2001: A Space Odyssey anyone?) and “Robbie” from Isaac Asmov’s I, Robot collection. The action on the ship itself reminds me of any number of space flicks, and the Cyclone flights are definitely Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Any appreciator of sci-fi (appreciator being the key work – not aficionado. Sci-fi people can be intense) should appreciate Illuminae.

TL;DR? This was a great book and generally speaking, it deserves the hype. It followed so many time-honored sci-fi tropes in all the best ways, have some great action, and I highly recommend it. It’s certainly a book I will be reading again.

[dragononabook]

Wow. I knew when I started that I was going to like this book, but I had no idea just how much. Switching between IMs and AIDEN's core and surveillance reports and everything added so much to the story. I was absolutely blown away by this book, and I really need to get my hands on the next...

[nannah]

I'm actually pretty amazed this book doesn't have more negative reviews ... the ableism and fatphobia here are SO rampant it made me go from enjoying this book to me wondering how the manuscript as it is got published at all.
Lots of fatphobic and ableist publishers and agents/editors, I guess ...

Book content warnings:
ABLEISM
fatphobia

So the plot basically opens on a tiny, icy planet "owned" by one Megacorporation--illegally--so it can mine some needed thing for free. Unfortunately for them, another Megacorporation wants the planet for themselves, and since Megacorporation A has it illegally, they figure they can just, you know, massacre everyone there! Thereby getting the planet and getting rid of anyone who could tell on them for genocide ("genocide" in quotes here because culture really didn't evolve on this planet enough).

But the lives here won't go down without a fight. There are three ships that escape, though Megacorporation B takes quick chase.

The book follows Kady Grant and Ezra Mason (who broke up just before their planet was attacked), Byron Zhang (a "chiphead", aka someone good with computers and/or AI), and the AI of the ship that comes to the planet's SOS signal, AIDAN (of the Alexander).

The book is also told as a report filed to sum up everything that happened after Megacorporation B attacked. So ... is it a creative way to tell a story? Maybe. Is it a platform to show good writing?/Is it fun to read? NO. Reports and transcripts and emails are incredibly BORING. In writing and to read! Obviously many people here think differently, but when there are no dialogue tags or ANY prose whatsoever in between the next chat line ... it's so monotonous. Especially when so many of the dialogue lines are single-line swears (oh wait, never mind, because they're bleeped out). Because it's YA, lmao.

Along the same vein, (of "I want my characters to swear, but I can't let them because it's YA, so let's bleep them out), that ABLEISM!

I think the authors wanted a zombie-like atmosphere and crisis on the closed-in environment of the ship, but it was sci-fi so they had to think of something else. An enviro-weapon! Which isn't a bad idea, to be honest. But what comes next? IS.

Stop using mentally ill people as your fictional monsters!!!
I literally don't care if it's """technically""" not the same because it gets passed to each other in a virus-like format and blah blah blah, if you're saying it's like extreme PTSD (which I have, thanks guys) and that these people aren't even human anymore, it's ableist as (BLEEP). Not to mention it really seems like neither author has ever even known a genuinely mentally ill person before; everything is SCREAMING and MOANING and MOANING and SCREAMING (and killing each other, of course).

It's like 1960's asylum movies all over again!! Only worse because these authors should know better!

So yeah, I wanted to set this book on fire. But it's a library copy.
Also, the authors just loved making fatphobic comparisons--what the hell is that about?

I can't wait to get rid of this book soon enough. Unlikable characters, unlikable prose (when there was a sort of prose, and just ... a book that went on an on -- plus over 200 pages covered completely with black ink?? And only like 5 words in white ink? Are you serious (200 PAGES)?

[kalventure]

BRIEFING NOTE: This is an addictive, fast-paced adventure that I didn't expect to ███████ lurrrrrrve as much as I did.
▪▪▪▪▪

Greetings chum. I don't even know how to adequately review such an amazingly unique reading experience. Illuminae is not your traditional book. It breaks conventional storytelling and is told in multi-media format: the book is the compilation of emails, instant message conversations, redacted memos, and more as if you are reading a confidential dossier.

“It’s not the bullets that kill you. It’s moments like these. One piece at a time.”

The year is 2575 and this morning Kady Grant broke up with her boyfriend, Ezra Miller. Hours later their tiny planet of Kerenza, which is an illegal mining colony, was attacked by a mega-corporation. Bad day, I'd say.

Ezra: And then I said it.
Interviewer: What did he say?
Kady Grant: He said, 'You picked a hell of a day to dump me, Kades.'

And she did indeed. And unfortunately for the survivors of the attack on Kerenza, the nightmare is far from over. Not only are they being pursued by the ███████, but there's also a terrible infection spreading throughout the fleet. You better not look at them, chum.

I absolutely fell in love with Kady and Ezra and their struggle to reconcile their new reality with what really matters. You can sense the complicated relationship between them and the love that they feel for one another. Ezra is my love with his ASCII flowers and witter banter, but my favorite character might actually be Analyst 7213 and his colorful descriptions of video feeds.

This book has so much levity and humor, I found myself laughing hysterically on more than one occasion. Each of the characters feels very real and you cannot help but fall in love with them. This book honestly kind of reminded me of Battlestar Galactica in the best of ways, tapping into the reasons that show speaks to me deep down. This overall story isn't a new one to the genre but it is absolutely unique in execution and truly shines with the characters.

BRIEFING NOTE: I read along with the audiobook at the recommendation of Taylor, which was literally the best suggestion to ever be made in the existence of the world. The audiobook is full cast, and the unconventional format of the book lends really well to reading along... it brought the story to life in a way that instantly tugged at my heart and wrestled its way into my soul. I wholeheartedly recommend that you read along with the audiobook for a ███████ incredible experience. Just a warning that the 'pretty birdie' sections of audio are lowkey terrifying. You've been warned.
▪▪▪▪▪
Honestly this book made me an anxious ball of anxiety and nerves for the entire time that I read it, and I didn't see the twists coming. I am so sad that I sat on this book for so long, but I can say that this is a book where the hype is deserved.

🤝 This Mortal Squad Buddy read with Becca and Taylor!

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[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews Wow, where to start with this review? I have been badgering the BF to use his audible credits for this series for months. I had heard on Instagram how it was one of the most amazing audio books. I don't really like audiobooks. I have always struggled with the voices and find they ruin my perception of the character. But this book has a full cast and it changes everything! EVERYTHING! Every audiobook deserves a full cast. If all audiobooks where like this I would definitely listen to more of them. 

On to the actual story... I love the two main characters in this book. Kady is spunky but also very clever. Ezra is hilarious. I absolutely love his sense of humour.

Kady goes through so so much in this book that by the end you forget that she is only a 17 year old girl. The things that she encounters, the emotional turmoil is absolutely harrowing and by the end she is no longer the same teenage girl she was.

The other character we should also talk about is AIDAN. Well what can we say about AIDAN? There is so much to say and yet so little I can share. He is such a quotable character.

This book is full of twists and turns I did not see coming. I absolutely loved every word which is weird to say when most of it was actually heartbreaking. These authors work so well together. The story is seamless and flows effortlessly.

As soon as I finished this book I downloaded the next audio in the series because I just could not leave it there.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Review coming soon.