Illuminae
3 • 608 pages

Ratings248

Average rating4.2

15

I picked this up because it's popular amongst my students, and I was pleasantly surprised by most of it. The book has several good twists and throws together elements of cat-and-mouse ship chases (like Master and Commander), space horror (Sunshine, Alien), and even a dash of zombie-like survival adrenaline (28 Days Later, World War Z). There's also a good decision to make the ship's AI its own, thoughtful character, and I thought the authors handled machine decision-making very well. There's also a gorgeous, thoughtful approach to the visual design process, with some of the most creative mixture of text and graphics I've ever come across. There's a lot to like here.

It's also primarily aimed at high schoolers, so the teen romance and some of the tone is very YA, but fair enough.

September 2, 2021