Thursday, 29 October 2015 / 2 Comments
Illuminae - Book launch report and review
Last Friday I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Melbourne launch of Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff at Dymocks. This book has received a lot of hype over the past months, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy.
You may know Amie as co-author of the Starbound trilogy, and Jay is known for The Lotus War trilogy. Together they are writing The Illuminae Files, and Illuminae is, funnily enough, the first installment.
So, back to Friday night. Amie and Jay thanked everyone who has supported them through this book, and their friends and family for letting them kill them all off in the book. Seriously, thousands of people die in this book, and many of them are named individually. It was fun to watch said friends go through the book looking for their names among the lists of the dead.
Dymocks was packed and the signing line is huge. There is a lot of love for this book, and for good reason, it's amazing. Amie and Jay are both thoroughly lovely and it was a pleasure to meet them. The book and bookmark will be taking pride of place in my collection.
Illuminae is a dossier, or collection of documents, that has been put together to investigate the circumstances surrounding the destruction of an illegal mining operation on an isolated planet. The settlement, known as Kerenza, was all but destroyed by a rival company, Bei Tech, and the few survivors were taken aboard a science vessel, the Hypatia, a battleship, the Alexander, and a supply vessel known as Copernicus. The documents focus on two of the survivors, 17 year olds Kady and Ezra who ended up on different ships after breaking up that morning.
There's nothing like the destruction of your world to change your perspective on a relationship, and Kady and Ezra start to rekindle their romance, despite being separated by vast amounts of space. Add in an intergalactic war and a super computer with megalomaniac tendencies, and that gives you some indication of what Illuminae is about, but it doesn't give you the full picture.
Illuminae is not just told through text, but through stunning visuals as well. It is not just a book, it is a work of art. I read most books on Kindle, but this is one I would definitely advise getting in paperback, or the hardback if it's available in your region.
Illuminae is in turn funny, frightening, uplifting and utterly heartbreaking. It is a work of genius and whether you normally read sci-fi or avoid it like the plague, you need to read this book.
One of my top reads of 2015 for sure, and my rating system doesn't have enough hearts to convey how much I loved it.
You may know Amie as co-author of the Starbound trilogy, and Jay is known for The Lotus War trilogy. Together they are writing The Illuminae Files, and Illuminae is, funnily enough, the first installment.
So, back to Friday night. Amie and Jay thanked everyone who has supported them through this book, and their friends and family for letting them kill them all off in the book. Seriously, thousands of people die in this book, and many of them are named individually. It was fun to watch said friends go through the book looking for their names among the lists of the dead.
Dymocks was packed and the signing line is huge. There is a lot of love for this book, and for good reason, it's amazing. Amie and Jay are both thoroughly lovely and it was a pleasure to meet them. The book and bookmark will be taking pride of place in my collection.
Review:
My review here will be brief, and I'll be posting a lengthier review over on Reading Lark next month, so keep an eye out for that.Illuminae is a dossier, or collection of documents, that has been put together to investigate the circumstances surrounding the destruction of an illegal mining operation on an isolated planet. The settlement, known as Kerenza, was all but destroyed by a rival company, Bei Tech, and the few survivors were taken aboard a science vessel, the Hypatia, a battleship, the Alexander, and a supply vessel known as Copernicus. The documents focus on two of the survivors, 17 year olds Kady and Ezra who ended up on different ships after breaking up that morning.
There's nothing like the destruction of your world to change your perspective on a relationship, and Kady and Ezra start to rekindle their romance, despite being separated by vast amounts of space. Add in an intergalactic war and a super computer with megalomaniac tendencies, and that gives you some indication of what Illuminae is about, but it doesn't give you the full picture.
Illuminae is not just told through text, but through stunning visuals as well. It is not just a book, it is a work of art. I read most books on Kindle, but this is one I would definitely advise getting in paperback, or the hardback if it's available in your region.
Illuminae is in turn funny, frightening, uplifting and utterly heartbreaking. It is a work of genius and whether you normally read sci-fi or avoid it like the plague, you need to read this book.
One of my top reads of 2015 for sure, and my rating system doesn't have enough hearts to convey how much I loved it.
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This isn't the sort of book I usually read Nicole (WAY outside of my comfort zone / genre) but I included it in a (best reads) monthly wrap up post I do for another blogger because I've been reading such good things about it.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a great launch!
It absolutely deserves all the hype it's getting. I didn't include pictures of the bubbly or nibblies, but it was definitely a great launch :)
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