Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Aurora Rising (Aurora Cycle, #1)

by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES • From the 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.

NOBODY PANIC.

Reviewed by Renee on

3 of 5 stars

Share
I seem to be one of the only people who did not mind that there were seven point of views in this book. Because honestly, the number of POVs was not the problem, they were just all the same. Every character talked the same, they literally had no thoughts, except for Aurora, and they had no traits that made them unique. Also, Scarlet’s only quality seem to be flirting, because that is all she does in 500 pages. She deserved better. Every time she did something nice, it got turned around in a romantic flirty way and it frustrated me such much.
At the beginning I loved this book. I was hyped, I thought the world was interesting, the plot with Aurora was interesting, and was excited to explore the squad. We didn’t get any of that. There was a mention that someone of the squad was a sociopath, but that is never seen or addressed again. The fact that three people of the squad knew each other for years and was like family was told, but you wouldn’t notice it if you read only the dialogue. It was not as if there were more conversations between them nor did they talk more familiarly with each other.
Aurora’s storyline started of interesting, but was quickly foreshadowed which made the book have zero plot twists. I had expected more of these authors.
I still think that the world is interesting, even though it is never fully explored. The invaded world Octavia is unfortunately not something I was excited about and felt like a cheap movie plot.
Also, the talking device felt just like a cheap scifi must have that was there without any reason at all.
Also, how the ... did that rich guy suddenly appear in a restricted space area and just conveniently attack those spaceships? This was probably the tenth time that our squad just had immense luck without any explanation at all.

It was enjoyable, and maybe I would pick up the sequel if my library buys it, but it feels as if they made the book more bland because “YA”.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 2 July, 2019: Finished reading
  • 2 July, 2019: Reviewed