Title: Gemina (Book #2)
Series: The Illuminae Files
Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Illustrator: Marie Lu
Genre: YA, SciFi
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books
Format: Hardcopy (Owned)
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.
***please note that this is a review for the 2nd book to a series***
One of my favorites of 2016!!! Just like Illuminae which I read the beginning of the year. Gemina is once again told in a series of documents, IMs, emails, files, etc.
Gemina follows a different set of characters in a different spaceship but still carries the same plot from Illuminae.
Welcome to the future where people now live in Spaceships and there are space pirates, space gangsters, and drug dealers. Yes, drug dealers in space. I had initially asked myself how the hell did these people have access to drugs in space but Ms. Kaufman and Mr. Kristoff obviously answered my question.
“a whole sky of different stars”
Everything was all perfect and dandy. Hanna, daughter of the station captain who lived like royalty worrying about her boyfriend and what she was going to wear for Terra Day. And Nik, the drug dealer, who was just helping his family sell drugs on the spaceship. Till a space pirate came along and shook things up with his crew taking control of Jump Station: Heimdall. BeiTech is here again with their crap, as always.
Once Heimdall is invaded that is when things really start to go down. Then there’s Hypatia, where Kady and Ezra from book 1 are on their way to Heimdall. Man oh man things really start to get good in this book when Hanna and Nik realize that not only do they have to save their own lives, but everyone on Heimdall because they’re all at risk from a universal breakdown a.k.a. dying. But also imagine being stuck on Heimdall where you’re almost dying and this pathetic song is being played over and over and over AND THERE’S NO ESCAPING IT.
I really loved this book and I will not be comparing it to Illuminae because I just loved all of it equally as book 1. This one seriously had me laughing out loud and I love when a book can make me laugh. It also had that “edge of the seat” feel like the first book.
Illustrations done by author, Marie Lu.
Writer of the Legend and Young Elites Trilogy.
The characters of this book are unique and authentic within theirselves. Hanna, although the daughter of the station captain can be easily stereotyped as the brat is fantastic, smart, and selfless. Plus she’s a kickass fighter. Nik who is a drug dealer and can also be easily stereotyped had me balling in laughter, he knows exactly what he’s doing and will not stop till everything is safe in Heimdall. We also meet Ella, omg I love her!!! She was definitely the brains and helps Hanna and her cousin Nik throughout the crises.
The plot is full of action, angst, and just “ohmygod what the hell is going on” moments. I loved how the authors add scientific elements to make the story more real in a sense. I mean this is a scifi book but not everyone executes the science greatly. And with everything that is going on in our real world lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if the future composed of us humans living in a spaceship.
The authors talk about theories in which the title “Gemina” comes in and I don’t want to go into full detail because that would be a major spoiler. But again, SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSE, IT’S ALL GOING DOWN. However, I would like to thank the authors for making a fun, action packed, science based novel.
The writing..what can I say? The story is told by different formats but it just WORKS. And the story is delivered with all the interactions in emails, files, IMs, transcripts. You understand everything that is going on with the flow of it all.
Please read Illuminae and then pick up Gemina if you haven’t done so already.
Credit to myself because I made this lol.
Song that reminds me of Gemina:
High (Young Bombs Remix) by Jesper Jenset (Click here for the YouTube link)
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