amie kaufman – Cannonball Read 17

Imagine being stuck in space with HAL, a zombie-virus, and your very recently ex-partner

Illuminae (Illuminae Files 1) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

June 6, 2020 by CoffeeShopReader Leave a Comment

If you take some of the more famous bits that include humans from 2001: Space Odyssey, add a probably evil corporation out to destroy everyone and everything the main characters hold dear, a deadly zombie-like virus, and two main characters who are teenagers who have just broken up at the beginning of all the trouble, you have the basic premise of Illuminae (The Illuminae Files_01). If you know the basic types just noted, then you know the characters and the narrative already for the most […]

“I am not good. Nor am I evil. I am no hero. Nor am I villain. I am AIDAN.”

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Gemina by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

May 2, 2019 by scootsa1000 Leave a Comment

I feel like I’ve been reading these books forever and that’s not necessarily a criticism. These are books are seriously big, and I definitely got invested in the story and the main characters (I quickly learned not to get too attached to anyone who wasn’t a beautiful teenager or a creepy computer). But my god, these books are long. The three books take place hundreds of years in the future (I think? There are many references to our life on earth: religion, history, poetry, etc. […]

Evil AIs are in my wheelhouse

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

February 10, 2019 by yesknopemaybe 3 Comments

I picked this up purely based on the renewed buzz it was getting in one of my book circles. It was available as a library audio download, so why not? I went into it knowing basically nothing about it except what the cover looked like. I was honestly expecting a mystery book since it seemed like a case file. And I guess it really is a case file, just not the kind I was anticipating. In reality, it’s part evil AI sci fi and part […]

The Rare YA Sequels That Didn’t Disappoint

September 6, 2018 by MrsLangdonAlger 1 Comment

As I said in my review of Illuminae, the first book in this series, I always worry about young adult trilogies going off the rails in their second or third books, because I’ve been burned by this so many times. If the plot doesn’t get downright silly, standard tropes are thrown in that kill the suspense because I know exactly what’s coming next, or characters become completely one-dimensional and only exist to move the plot forward. Not so with the second book in this series, […]

Actually Unpredictable YA

August 22, 2018 by MrsLangdonAlger 2 Comments

I used to read a lot of young adult fiction. I still read it relatively often for a 35-year-old woman. And as much as there’s a ton of genuinely great young adult fiction out there, a lot of it is rote and predictable. This holds especially true, unfortunately, for both sci-fi and fantasy and is often even more true for a series in either genre. You can guess at so many elements that will appear: a love triangle, a mysteriously reappearing parent, the list goes […]

I wish I would have realized this series is not for me before I wasted all this time reading it.

April 20, 2016 by narfna Leave a Comment

I should have known better. I really should have. And I should have kept my big mouth shut about this book. Halfway through I decided to blab to Goodreads that I was actually really enjoying this book, way more than I had the first two, and that maybe juuuuuust maybe I would read a book in this series, and by these authors, that I really, truly enjoyed. The universe loves destroying dreams. Seriously, the first half was really fun in a way this series hadn’t […]

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