Gemina

Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Pages: 659

ISBN: 978-1-78074-981-5

Series: The Illuminae Files #2

Genre: SciFi

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.

Review

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.

More from Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff


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1 Comment on "Gemina"

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Ellen Liang
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I’m actually okay with the survelliance camera reports and find the guessing of the blanked-out words pretty fun. I’m quite sure I’ve worked all of them out and will be happy to share my findings, lol. But my favorite style in the book is surprisingly the chat messages, especially whenever AIDAN is around. All in all, a totally attention-capturing book and I can’t wait for the 3rd!