Gemina I Review #44

“Just a simple boy.”

Title: Gemina

Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Pages: 659

Publisher: Rock the Boat

 

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

The saga that began with breakout bestseller Illuminae continues aboard Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of BeiTech’s assault. Hanna is the station commander’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 crew 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.

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.

 

REVIEW

I’ve heard a lot of people say that this book is phenomenal but still not as good as Illuminae – I have to disagree here. I think that both books were just as deserving as deserving of the five stars I gave them both.

Gemina picks up five minutes before the end of Illuminae and continues on as the events from Illuminae continue in the background. There is a completely new cast of characters; who I found myself loving just as much.

Kady Grant was the badass, intellectual and strong female character that I always love to see in a book – and she also had a great sense in style by the way because camouflage jumpsuits sound amazing! Her smarts and knowledge of the world around her was basically the drive behind this whole book.

Niklas and Ella Malikova are who I saw as the other two main characters; two children born into a gang lifestyle, neither the sort of people you would expect to grow from that. Niklas was someone I really didn’t expect, he was different and surprising, his plot twists were probably some of the best in the novel. And Ella… Ella was one of my favourites in this whole book – without her skills, well… No one would have lived.

The plot was fast and adrenaline filled throughout the whole book, although arguably a bit flat to the beginning; however, the nearer to the end the book got, the more the plot thickened. The way that the story’s main events had been laid out means that by the time you had gotten to the next plot point it would surprise you just how much it had to add to the story. The song virus was also great and mad me laugh so much every time it made an appearance.

I loved the idea of the “alien” lifeforms in this book as well! Not nearly as creepy as the Phobos Virus, but just as complex and well thought out.

Overall, I honestly love this book so much! Amazing plot, amazing characters, amazing layout. This is by far one of my favourite books of 2016 and if you have not read Illuminae – you really should.