This book was so amazing. If you enjoy characters like eleven from stranger things, this may be the book for you. I also loved this book because it had various POV that I really enjoyed. I also liked how these characters gave you a complete view of the world. I was super invested in the story. I felt like the sciecne breakdown was easily to follow. I also liked how this book had elements that gave you more information about the world but in such a fun way. I will warn you this book has a killer cliffhanger. This book also has some of my favorite themes or concepts included a rag tag group of heroes, twins and a mystery girls. I really am dying for book 2!!! ( )

This book was so amazing. If you enjoy characters like eleven from stranger things, this may be the book for you. I also loved this book because it had various POV that I really enjoyed. I also liked how these characters gave you a complete view of the world. I was super invested in the story. I felt like the sciecne breakdown was easily to follow. I also liked how this book had elements that gave you more information about the world but in such a fun way. I will warn you this book has a killer cliffhanger. This book also has some of my favorite themes or concepts included a rag tag group of heroes, twins and a mystery girls. I really am dying for book 2!!! ( )

Representation: Biracial main character
Trigger warnings: Pandemic, explosions, military violence and war themes
Score: Eight points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

This is the first book I've read from these authors and I had high expectations for them after reading a not-so-good sci-fi book and it just exceeded them and blew me away so where do I begin with this masterpiece? It begins with Tyler graduating from Aurora Academy but he was held up when he rescued Aurora from cryo-sleep so he missed the Draft and now all he has is a bunch of misfits that nobody wanted and already this hooked me in. The first 200 pages of the book were nicely done since it introduced the world it was set in as well as the main characters Tyler, Aurora, Kal, Zila, Finian and Scarlett and they go and explore the world as graduates however something is off with Aurora and a bigger threat is imminent that will come into play later on. The next 200 pages were a bit slow but it built up towards the end as the crew tried to find out what was going on with Aurora and other investigations; turns out that Aurora had telekinesis but few people have this ability and she sometimes becomes mindless and tries to go back to her home even though it's blocked off by interstellar law. In the last 100 pages, there was a big battle on an old colony planet infected with vines seen earlier and Aurora became part of that but broke free, ending it in a cliffhanger and what a ride it was. If you like science fiction books I can't recommend this book highly enough since it was so remarkable from beginning to end. ( )

I remember reading the illuminae files and thinking the characters weren't fantastic, but it did not matter because what made the book so gripping was the unique way of revealing information and the countdown pages.
Without that element..... you'd get this book.

It started interesting and then I kind of lost interest. I kept reading to see if it would get more interesting but in the end I only cared for 3 characters and 0 of the plot.
It's not bad, and definitely has a sassy space feeling to it, but I felt like the characters couldn't carry the story.
I think this book suffered from too many POV characters. With 7 of them, none felt truly fleshed out and sometimes it felt hard to distinguish their voices..

Tyler is an perfect A student. Scarlett is his sister and Cat is their best friend. Zila is a somewhat violent scientist. Finian is an alien who never shuts up. Kal is good at fighting and also somewhat violent.
Auri was cyrogenically frozen for 200 years and now comes with weird powers

I was interested in Tyler and Scarlett’s history and Cat’s friendship with them both. The three of them definitely felt the most like characters to me and I would have loved it if the book went more in depth about them. I wanted to see Tyler be a proper strategist instead of planning in the moment I wanted to know why Scarlett put in the effort to be so good if she just wanted to stay with her twin, to hear Cat’s perspective on their history. Alas.
By contrast: Zila and Finian were just there I guess.

Kal and Auri are mostly there for the plot, and the plot was so fast paced I never got invested.
Kal is part of an alien group fighting among themselves and unfortunately born on the violent ones’ side. I felt like this could have made a great character arc that did not live up to its potential.
Auri’s odd powers and moods send everyone from place to place. There’s a lot going on in this space world and a lot of these places had potential, but the characters move from one place to another, find objects and messages and pirates and traitors so quickly I did not really care about anything or anyone. ( )

finian you are the only reason i like this book ( )