Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Space Opera
Content: Strong language, some suggestive jokes

 
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the academy would touch . . .

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass tech whiz with the galaxy's biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger-management issues
A tomboy pilot who's totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty's squad isn't even his biggest problem--that'd be Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, the girl he's just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler's squad of losers, discipline cases, and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

NOBODY PANIC

Well holy cake! It's official, I thoroughly enjoy the writing team of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. It's definitely YA, but in my opinion, it's fun. I knew from the start that this probably wasn't going to be as good as The Illuminae Files, I mean it would be hard for them to top that, but I really liked that this book was able to stand on its own without feeling like they were trying to duplicate what they had done with The Illuminae Files.

The best thing about the writing is the snarky banter between characters, and Auri constantly calling Kal by the names of different elves from Lord of the Rings, had me giggling every time. Although in the past I thought the authors didn't distinguish their characters enough from each other, this time around I felt like the authors improved on making each character feel more distinct.

I thought the threat to the galaxy was an interesting choice. I love how these authors seem to always take some iconic horror theme and add it to their stories. Who knew flowers could be that creepy! It reminded me a little of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and also a little of The Girl With All the Gifts.

This was a rip-roaring space fantasy, not to be taken too seriously of course. The author's are masters at weaving humor into the action and drama. Think Firefly or Guardians of the Galaxy plus space elves, and just tag along for the ride!


  “Who wants to be normal when you can be interesting instead?