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 Stephanie on

4 of 5 stars

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This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter






Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman was a June COYER book club pick and I'd been meaning to get to it. When it was picked for book club it seemed as good a time as any to read it.



Honestly the plot is what dragged this down one star for me. There's a lot of time spent learning all the different species and parts of their cultures in the beginning and in the middle of the story. It almost gets a little overwhelming and I *think* that's the point.



It also felt very stutter stop pacing to me. Hurry up to get to a place to sit and wait, then hurry again. When the action was going though it was fantastic. There were also great plot twists; some of them I saw coming but others I didn't.



I really loved most of the characters. Cat is the one I probably disliked the most. Honestly Tyler was the second. For some reason in this book I've aligned more with Kal, Finian, and Zila then with the other hot shots of the Squad.



I liked Aurora but I didn't see her as a strong character. I could only think of her as someone who lost everything. I'm hoping in the second book she gets more answers about her past and her present.



It was a little slow to start for me and thoroughly confusing at times but I really enjoyed it!

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 23 June, 2020: Finished reading
  • 23 June, 2020: Reviewed