Science Fiction-y Goodness||Gemina Review

“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. “

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Reviewer’s Note:

This is a review I wrote waaay back when and I think the only reason why I didn’t publish it was because I never made a blasted graphic for it. Oh well. This whole thing is written up anyway, so here it is. I’m very excited for the third book.

Once again Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff have been able to weave a tale so smooth and entertaining that I finished this book in three days. THREE DAYS. I don’t remember the last time I was able to read a book so quickly. Last night I got so engrossed reading it that I hadn’t realized two hours had passed until I looked up at the clock. Yes, my dear readers, it was that good.

Gemina follows a (sort of) new cast of characters and we mostly follow Hannah Donelley and Nikolas Malikov. Both of these characters didn’t let me down. They were both witty, fun, and incredibly competent. I love reading characters that are just built for the situation they’re in. Malikov is a criminal who knows how to play against the rules and Hannah is a commander’s daughter and knows when to kick some serious ass (without sacrificing good fashion). Now the story follows somewhat the same kind of plot line that Illuminae did but in a very general sense.

Spoiler Commencing: Highlight to Read

So pretty much Illuminae has the whole, Beitech coming after them and then the whole space zombie attack happening right? Well it’s kind of the same lines with Gemina with Beitech coming after them and then some crazy thing happening on the ship at the same time that’s all I’ll say. I hid it because Illuminae spoilers.

Spoiler END

That being said, I still had a damn good time with it. Gemina plays with my artsy fartsy side of my brain and constantly I’m going, “the formatting, the plotting, the ART”. I’m nerding out on the whole logistics of the Gemina tome while I’m also enjoying the story. The story picks up early on which is different from Illuminae which takes a little bit longer to pick up. I was about 50 pages in when I was like, “man when does the action happen” and then it delivered pretty soon after. It sounds like I was being an impatient book child, but if you read Illuminae you knew what you were looking for. I’m glad that both Kauffman and Kristoff delivered. 

Now Gemina does have a wider cast of characters that do a lot more in the novel than die, so sometimes it’s hard to keep track of everyone (and how they look like) but our lovely storytellers gave us some handy guides that pop up every once in a while in the book, so it’s ok. 

One thing about Gemina is that this one deals a little bit on the quantum physics side, so beware. That’s the only think I’ll say about it. I hope that’s not spoilery, but my small knowledge of quantum physics helped me understand the last act of the novel. Still, it’s awesome and science-fiction-y. 

Overall Gemina is a great sequel to Illuminae. We have characters who kick ass, we’ve got espionage, betrayal, romance–it’s like a fantasy adventure novel but in space (SPAAAACE). It’s got all of these great components to making a damn good novel and it was a novel I had to tear away from so I could do something productive in my life, dammit.

And now I have to wait a year for the next one.

Cue the Tears

 

 

So So