After its close escape, the Hypatia cannot make contact with space station Heimdall because BeiTech is determined to leave no witnesses this time. Not willing to repeat the mistake they made with the last hunt, they now send an elite assault team to finish the job once and for all.

But they have underestimated the crew’s determination to fight for their lives, in particular Hanna Donnelly and Niklas Malikov. They both could not be more different, she the daughter of the station’s captain, he a member of a crime family selling drugs. When everything starts to go wrong, they have to work together to have a chance to get out of this alive.

With more and more people dying and more and more problems staring to stand in their way, it seems to be only a matter of time until the trained soldiers can overpower the revolt and finish the job.

This is one of those books I read on one day and that is quite something, considering the page count is about 660. I just was not able to put it down, it was just too good. I mean, yes, it was not easy at times to get your hopes up when things went well only to be politely reminded by the authors that this is not the way it works. But still I had to keep going and going and going.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads this year, if not the one I wanted to get my hands on the most.

I already said it about Illuminae, but the style of the book again is one of the things I loved the most. Although I can’t really say that because I can’t chose which aspect is the best really. I can understand why this is not for everyone yet I am grateful that not every book is the same and only has chapters named after the person that is telling the story or numbers (This is a totally acceptable way to do it but I still crave for chapter titles deep down in my heart). I was actually always looking forward to finish the surveillance camera parts as fast as possible to enjoy the other styles of telling the story again. Especially the graphics and illustrations of the happenings outside the station which brings me to something that I will forever cherish about the books.

I know that I have some advantages over other readers when it comes to the physic parts of the book as I have a degree in Physics. Nevertheless, I think the authors did an amazing job in waving theoretical physics into a story for young readers although I can admit it can be a bit much when you are not familiar with the topic at all. I am happy that readers can learn about the multiverse theory, wormholes and more fun facts about space. I get enthusiastic when reading it or writing about it, so I just better stop now, but it’s so cool.

Apart from the realistic descriptions of space, I find the plot to very believable, especially because the main characters of the story don’t get everything right and have to fight very hard to get out of situations (alive). And they have to deal with losses and uncertainty which I think they do very realistically in certain aspects which is first and foremost the language. I realize that all the blacked out words can be a little annoying sometimes, especially when you can’t figure them out (well, I’m not native speaker and don’t know all the swear words) but to me they are just so much more genuine and comparable to real life conversations. Ok, maybe not the swear words, but in general the way the characters speak and act feels way more normal, I mean, how often do you have a conversation where you don’t find the perfect words at the first try or it takes some time to finish a thought and speak it out loud.

But I actually wanted to talk about the plot. The fact that it is SciFi with real life physics, inventions and problems (personal ones, not that it happens so regularly being ambushed by elite soldiers) is a perfect combination for my taste. Having grown up with Star Trek and so on, the story just transports me back to those years and I just wish to go explore the universe on a spaceship or a space station (and I want to see a wormhole, for real).

All in all, this book was somehow too much for me. After the last sentence I had so many feelings, I was happy to be finished as I knew the ending but the way there was also very exhausting because getting your hopes up and all just to have them crushed. But the worst feeling was the fact that now I have to wait another year (!!!!!) to read the next one which is making me quite sad. I knew before reading that 660 pages will not be enough and I was right, I want more, right now, I need the next book.

What’s left to say? Well, …

The pattern is always the same.

Kady is braking up with her boyfriend Ezra when her planet in being attacked. They are upon just some of the population that makes it to safety on the evacuation ships. But this is not the end as they are being pursued by an enemy warship. On top of that, the artificial intelligence that is supposed to help them is acting in a way nobody can really understand. It does some horrific things that should not be possible according to its programming.

To make the situation even worse, the survivors of the attack are confronted with a plague that has broken out. Kady, who is kind of a computer genius, hacks into the system to find out what is going on as the information she gets from the authorities on the ship does not satisfy her. She discovers some unnerving truths and she realises that she needs the help of Ezra as he is on the other ship in the fleet.

Soon everything gets totally messed up and Kady seems to be the only person able to save hundreds of lives on the ships even when her live seems to hang in the balance.

Yes, I absolutely loved this book and I could not get enough of it. I spent every free second I had on reading more of this fantastic story. This has to be one of my all-time favourite books because:

1. It is SciFi. I grew up with Science Fiction like Star Trek, Stargate and Andromeda. I love astrophysics, I even studied it at university. I just get lost in space (and its stories).

2. It is long. Being younger I loathed thick and long books because reading them for school was just taking so awfully long. But now I don’t want the books to end, at least the ones I can’t get enough of, the great ones.

3. It’s writing style is an absolute delight. Maybe there are other books written in the same style but I don’t know any. So this was my first and I felt sheer joy in reading this piece of literature.

4. It has a good story. Well, it is young adult so there is certainly some love story to be expected but it was just part of the story and not the only story. And even though it probably was not the most original story, I loved every second of the ride.

5. The humour. And it is dark humour, so great to read it in a book. Love me some more of that.

6. The way numbers and letters were used not only for words but zo visualise the story. Just all in all the way that the disparity between black and white is used to design the pages. And yes, it is design.

7. It tried – and succeeded in being something different.

I am sure, there are so many more reasons for me to adore this book but I am lacking thoughts and words to express myself only by remembering the experience of reading the book.

One word for the book: magnificent

Message for the authors: Thank you!