Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

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Title: Aurora Rising
Author: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Series: The Aurora Cycle #1
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 6, 2019
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 480
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Space Opera
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2020 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling authors of The Illuminae Files comes a new science fiction epic...

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.

My Review:

5 stars — Well, I was thoroughly entertained!  I always feel weird when I end a book and I’m like “5 stars!!!”  Because in general I just don’t give them out very much, but I gotta go with my gut.  Does that mean this book was flawless?  Nope.  But I seriously enjoyed myself that much.  If you’re a fan of Firefly, I think you’d enjoy this one…those were the vibes I got most strongly.

I was worried about how I was going to enjoy 7 different POVs (once I started to realize that this was more than just dual POV), but I feel like it worked well in this situation.  I never felt like when I was in one POV I was wishing I could see inside another — they always picked the POV that made the most sense, and it always contributed to the story and the characters in some way.

And a consequence of all those POVs is that I had 7 different characters to fall in love with — which is NOT easy.  But in general I think I really did.  And if not in love, then intrigued.  There were ones that rubbed me the wrong way at times, but then over the course of the plot I got to know more and I think I understood more…or at least enough else went on that I forgave them their shortcomings, if that makes sense.  They are a bunch of teenagers afterall.  And holy wow, it did not stop me from bawling my eyes out this morning as I read through the conflict and climax — what can I say?  I’m an emotional girl and I get invested.  I’m not sure I can even tell you my favourite, because I loved things about each of them.  I’m intrigued to see how they will continue to gel for the rest of this series, b/c this was basically the story of them forging those bonds — from a mismatched group of misfits, to a strong squad.

And besides characters (which are always my favourite part of the book), the plot kept me on my toes.  There were plenty of things I did NOT see coming, and that delighted me.  I was on the edge of my seat through a number of their close calls, and I loved that I was so wrapped up I wasn’t spending all my time figuring it out, just going along for the ride.  Not that I didn’t see a few things coming, but I’m okay with that…it just makes me feel smart and intuitive (*snort*).

So yeah.  I was sold.  I noticed there’s a large cast of narrators (likely one for each of the 7), and so I’m kind of thinking I should check out the audio in the future…or maybe for book 2.  I can’t wait to see where this is going next!