goodreads: (Default)
Title: Obsidio (Illuminae Files #3)
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Sci-Fi, YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 615
Date read: November, 2018

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza - but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion?

Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys - an old flame from Asha's past - reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.


A great conclusion to the trilogy. It didn't have quite as many twists and turns as the two previous books, but still enough to keep me nicely entertained. It's hard to say much more without spoiling the first two books, but I did find it a very satisfying wrap-up.
goodreads: (Default)
Title: Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2)
Author: Amie Kaufmann & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Sci-fi, epistolary
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 500
Date read: October, 2018

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.

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.


Soooooo, I may have read this book in a day :-D Well, it IS a quick read, thanks to its unique writing style, and now that I knew what I was in for, I didn't have the same issues getting into the book as I had with the first one. I really liked both Hanna and Nik, and didn't miss Kady and Ezra as much as I had expected to (although I'm really looking forward to seeing them all together in the next and final book in the series). Once again, there were twists and turns I hadn't expected, and though I'm not sure I really got all of the pseudo-science behind some of them, I don't care :-P My favourite part of Gemina were Hanna's journal entries. Great addition to the chat / radio logs and surveillance cameras.

Can't wait to pick up the last book and see how everything works out.
goodreads: (Default)
Title: Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)
Author: Amie Kaufmann & Jay Kristoff
Genre: Sci-fi, epistolary
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 599
Date read: October 2018, May 2022

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she'd ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But the warship could be the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what's really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.


Full disclosure: I was predisposed to like this book for not just one but TWO reasons. First of all, because I absolutely LOVE books that play with the media, and I've seldom seen books that do it as well as this one. Secondly because I'm a huge fan of epistolary novels, and this one came close enough to count.

Fortunately the plot lived up to it as well. It took me a little while to get into it properly, as you're literally thrown into the middle of the action (... much like "Sleeping Giants" actually - another book with much the same writing style), but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I really liked both Kady and Ezra and was thoroughly tricked by some of the twists the book threw at me. Though the first in a series, it's got a good ending, but I'm still keen on reading the next in the series.
goodreads: (Peanut: Book geek)
Title: Into Thin Air
Author: Jon Krakauer
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 319
Date read: January, 2013

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning, he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn't made it back to their camp and were desperately struggling for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.

Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest.

Fascinating book! Not one you read in one sitting though, as it's full of names and details to remember. But it never became dry, and I found myself thinking about it even when away from it - that's usually a good sign.

I know nothing about climbing, but reading about Jon Krakauer's experiences I can tell that it takes a very special mentality to subject oneself to that kind of hardship for the sake of... of what? In the case of Mt. Everest, it seems to be for the sake of a high risk of failure, 15 minutes top on the summit (if you make it that far) and an ever-present risk of hypothermia, frostbite, and even death. Of course I can understand the accomplishment of being able to say "Done that!", but for me, personally, it wouldn't be worth it.

That said, though I wouldn't do it myself, it's still fascinating for me to read about! I love living life vicariously through others, and in that regard, the book was spot on!

Profile

goodreads: (Default)
goodreads

June 2025

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011 121314
15161718192021
22 232425262728
29 30     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 04:28
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios