Author: Jay Kristoff (Page 1 of 2)

Item: Aurora's End
Rating: 5
Author: Arielle

BOOK REVIEW: Aurora’s End (The Aurora Cycle #2) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

December 3, 2021 / Arielle / 0 Comments

Aurora's End (The Aurora Cycle #3)
by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
The squad you love is out of time. Prepare for the thrilling finale in the epic, best-selling Aurora Cycle series about a band of unlikely heroes who just might be the galaxy's last hope for survival.

Is this the end?
What happens when you ask a bunch of losers, discipline cases, and misfits to save the galaxy from an ancient evil? The ancient evil wins, of course.
Wait. . . . Not. So. Fast.
When we last saw Squad 312, they working together seamlessly (aka, freaking out) as an intergalactic battle raged and an ancient superweapon threatened to obliterate Earth. Everything went horribly wrong, naturally.
But as it turns out, not all endings are endings, and the te4am has one last chance to rewrite thirs. Maybe two. It's complicated.
Cue Zila, Fin, and Scarlett (and MAGELLAN!): making friends, making enemies, and making history? Sure, no problem
Cue Tyler, Kal, and Auri: uniting with two of the galaxy’s most hated villains? Um, okay. That, too.
Actually saving the galaxy, though?
Now that will take a miracle.

Review

Squad 312 forever.

This series and these characters will live in my mind and in my heart for the rest of my life. The only reason I didn’t read it IMMEDIATELY after it came out was because I had wanted to re-read Aurora Burning and have everything FRESH in my mind. I remembered how it ended, I remembered screaming at my Kindle and thinking it was going to put me into premature labor (lol jk) but remembering the last few pages are a lot different than being fully re-immersed into that world and I am SO glad I waited to start this one.

The first thing you need to know about this book, like the tagline says, is that it’s…ABOUT TIME. Sure, yeah, you could easily take that as “it’s about time we are getting our hands on this damn book because I have been DYING from that cliffhanger from book 2” BUT it is straight up ABOUT TIME. And right when I found that out, I was in. I was ALLLLLLLLLLL in. Time travel has always been my jam. Trying to figure out if time is a loop, if it’s fixed, if we have to worry about a multiverse of dimensions….it’s all a mindfuck that I welcome eagerly. The next bit will feature mild spoilers so proceed with caution.

Our heroes are split into three groups here. Fin, Scarlett, and Zila have been blasted into the past and are forced to live the same day with a woman from that time (Nari) over and over and OVER.

Tyler starts with Saedii post-battle and then after something triggers a very intense and alarming vision, continues on to warn the Aurora Academy that the Ra’haam are coming for them.

Auri, Kal, and Caersan are blasted into a VERY bleak future and need to rush to fix the Weapon or order to prevent the very Ra’haam infested future they were sent to. When I say it’s dark–I mean it. These chapters hurt the most BY FAR.

Even though the squad had been split up, it honestly didn’t feel that way. They were all trying their best to get back to one another to what they keep trying to do best–save the world. They are all constantly on each other’s minds and there is no doubt the lengths each would go in order to be reunited. Plot wise I think that’s just about all I can talk about with giving away HUGE spoilers that had me screaming, crying, laughing…basically experiencing the full range of human emotion.

I was reminded throughout this entire book, but especially at the end, that this series and these characters are so special because of their love for one another. They are each other’s CHOSEN and found family and not even centuries of time and zillions of lightyears is going to change that. Without going into any detail their love for one another saved each other and the entire galaxy and that is what is going to stick with me the most.

Squad 312, it has been a pleasure and an honor. You are all crazy and amazing and I thank you each for your service to the galaxy and to us readers. You’ll forever have a crazed fan in me.

Huge thanks to Knopf Books For Young Readers and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this in exchange for my honest opinion.♥

BOOK REVIEW: Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

March 9, 2020 / Arielle / 8 Comments

Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2)
by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
Our heroes are back… kind of. From the bestselling co-authors of the Illuminae Files comes the second book in the epic series about a squad of misfits, losers, and discipline cases who just might be the galaxy’s best hope for survival.

First, the bad news: an ancient evil—you know, your standard consume-all-life-in-the-galaxy deal—is about to be unleashed. The good news? Squad 312 is standing by to save the day. They’ve just got to take care of a few small distractions first.

Like the clan of gremps who’d like to rearrange their favorite faces.

And the cadre of illegit GIA agents with creepy flowers where their eyes used to be, who’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on Auri.

Then there’s Kal’s long-lost sister, who’s not exactly happy to see her baby brother, and has a Syldrathi army at her back. With half the known galaxy on their tails, Squad 312 has never felt so wanted.

When they learn the Hadfield has been found, it’s time to come out of hiding. Two centuries ago, the colony ship vanished, leaving Auri as its sole survivor. Now, its black box might be what saves them. But time is short, and if Auri can’t learn to master her powers as a Trigger, the squad and all their admirers are going to be deader than the Great Ultrasaur of Abraaxis IV.

Shocking revelations, bank heists, mysterious gifts, inappropriately tight bodysuits, and an epic firefight will determine the fate of the Aurora Legion’s most unforgettable heroes—and maybe the rest of the galaxy as well.

Review

HAHAHAHA I HAVEN’T READ A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THAT IN YEARS. I’M 38 WEEKS PREGNANT I CANT HANDLE THIS SHIT.

I…..honestly don’t even know where to begin with this review. I have been SO excited for Squad 312’s journey to pick back up since I read Aurora Rising also as an ARC back last March. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again—being able to be one of those people who are lucky enough to read ARCs is AWESOME. Who doesn’t want to get these books as early as humanly possible, am I right?! However. There are also TWO main downsides to this. 1) You are VERY limited to the number of people you can fangirl to about the book you just devoured and 2) you are now forced to wait EVEN LONGER until the next book comes out. In the case of Aurora Burning….I might die. This GD book ends on THE CLIFFHANGAR OF ALL CLIFFHANGERS, PEOPLE. I honestly couldn’t even tell you the last time I read a book that ended with me furiously trying to swipe left on my Kindle over and over and over to no avail, praying that my Kindle was just frozen and that I didn’t just read the end of the book and am stuck wondering, WAITING to see what happens for over a year. Sigh.

I’ve seen a few reviews already that have said they loved this one even more than the first. While I’m not sure I can quite agree with that, they were at least on an equal level. Getting to know everyone just that little bit more (especially more on Zila’s past) was great. There were a LOT of twisty parts, especially towards the end that just left me reeling. There are things that we end the book not knowing that will drive you BONKERS. Basically a good word to describe this book is ~frantic~. They’re all in a rush to not get killed, to learn more about Auri’s powers, to find the Weapon, to save the galaxy—you know, real important things.

Aside from ALL THAT though, even just seeing them grow is a family unit made my heart swell. They are all affected from the situation with Cat, understandably, and none of them really want to take this connection they all have for granted in any way. We see certain romantic relationships grow which made me so happy and I’m hoping that we’ll see more…*cries*…of that..*sniffles*…in the next book. I really don’t want to give ANYTHING away, just know that this was the sequel that I had been looking for and I will be counting down the mother-custard-ing days until that last book is out.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for the chance to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.♥

BOOK REVIEW: LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike #1) by Jay Kristoff

April 19, 2019 / Arielle / 2 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike #1) by Jay Kristoff LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike #1)
by Jay Kristoff
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

On a floating junkyard beneath a radiation sky, a deadly secret lies buried in the scrap.

Eve isn’t looking for secrets—she’s too busy looking over her shoulder. The robot gladiator she’s just spent six months building has been reduced to a smoking wreck, and the only thing keeping her Grandpa from the grave was the fistful of credits she just lost to the bookies. To top it off, she’s discovered she can destroy electronics with the power of her mind, and the puritanical Brotherhood are building a coffin her size. If she’s ever had a worse day, Eve can’t remember it.

But when Eve discovers the ruins of an android boy named Ezekiel in the scrap pile she calls home, her entire world comes crashing down. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic conscience, Cricket, in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, infiltrate towering megacities and scour the graveyard of humanity’s greatest folly to save the ones Eve loves, and learn the dark secrets of her past.

Even if those secrets were better off staying buried.

Review:

“Leave it alone,” Cricket warned.
Eve’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “Crick, are you smoked? Can you imagine how much scratch this thing is worth?”
“We got no business with tech that red,” the little bot growled.
“What’s the prob?” Lemon asked. “He looks armless to me.”
Eve glanced at the severed shoulder. Up at her friend’s grin. “You’re awful, Lemon.”

Lol ummmmm. I don’t even know where to begin after an ending like that, lol WOW. I mean UNFORTUNATELY one of the regular patrons at my library spoiled one of the biggest reveals for me a few weeks ago (which really was crappy, like wtf lol) but STILL. I feel like it was just one thing after the other for the last 25% of the book like I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO BELIEVE ANYMORE, WHAT IS HAPPENING!?

“So. You wanna play?” the skinny boy asked again. Lemon looked the kid in the eye. Fingered the stolen creds in her cargos.
“All right, you little snots,” she muttered. “Let’s dance.”
“What’s your name?” Stinky asked as Lemon pulled up a chair. The girl cracked her knuckles. Picking up the cards, she fanned them out over the table, swept them up into a riffle shuffle, dovetailed them into a perfect stack and set them down before the wide-eyed children. She dropped her stiks on the table and smiled.
“You can call me Daddy.”

The first thing I want to mention about this book is that I am obsessed with its characters. Lemon, especially, is hilarious. Eve was BA and I loved the friendship between her and her bestest. Ezekiel was….intriguing. I don’t know my full thoughts on him and the relationship there just yet. I’ll be excited to see how certain things progress in DEV1AT3 though, that’s for sure. Cricket and Kaiser though…*sobs* perfection. Two cutest bots on the block.

Overall this book was both weirdly not what I expected and exactly what I expected. I was thinking it was going to be a little more sci-fi when really it was a lot more dystopian. Kristoff painted a picture of a world that was ugly AF if I’m being honest. All of that machinery and not one blade of green grass or clean water was mentioned. The thought it horrifying. After I got a better grip on the world building though, everything flowed better for me. A lot of really horribly visceral things happened but since I’ve read The Illuminae Files and Aurora Rising I had kind of expected it. The writing, even though it was solely his instead of also with Kaufman’s, was very familiar to me and I appreciated the consistency of it. What I thought was super interesting was that even though it’s mentioned that this was “part Romeo and Juliet, part Terminator” that this is like 100% an Anastasia parallel. Like….that could kind of be a spoiler I guess (?) but…It’s still true haha. Once I realized it I was like OMG YES. SO MANY CONNECTIONS! I cannot wait to see what ends up happening in DEV1AT3, wow.

“We can’t just leave her in there alone, Freckles. You know that.”
“We lied to her. She hates us now.”
“It’s simple to love someone on the days that are easy. But you find out what your love is made of on the days that are hard.” The lifelike held out his hand. “And we still love her,” he said simply. “Don’t we?”

This final part I think I’ll put under a spoiler tag so I can talk some things out…
View Spoiler »

“Stronger together, together forever, right?”

BOOK REVIEW: Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

April 5, 2019 / Arielle / 3 Comments

BOOK REVIEW: Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle #1)
by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

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 techwiz 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.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

Review:

You know you’ve read an exceptionally good book when you relish the idea of writing your review as soon as you’re done because you want to impress upon everyone the exact emotions you were feeling as soon as you’ve reached the last page. Guys. I know we’re only a quarter of the way through 2019 but I’ve read some damn good books so far. This….is one of the best. As much as I loved Finale this might honestly have been better. I’ve wanted to get my hands on this book since it was first announced. I loved the Starbound trilogy by Kaufman and Spooner and also ate up The Illuminae Files which was by the same two authors who also crafted this gem of a book. In both series, I loved their take on the distant future and their incredibly addicting writing. The characters were unforgettable and there was always at least one relationship that had me swooning and dying for more. Based on ALL of that, THIS BOOK LIVED UP TO EVERYTHING I HOPED AND DREAMED IT WOULD BE.

Premise wise this book is about Tyler—a star squad leader who is about to get his dream cadet picks at the Aurora Academy and spend his life doing good and keeping peace in the ‘Way….until the complete opposite happens…kind of;

It’s about Scarlett, who only joined the Academy to stick with her twin brother, Tyler, and who is the mother hen of the group while also having killer wit and sarcasm;

It’s about Cat, Ace pilot, tomboy, not-so-secretly in love with her best friend who might also happen to be squad leader;

It’s about Kal, hot Legolas lookalike alien who has anger problems and may be the new love of my life;

It’s about Zila, trigger happy, very quiet, possible sociopath but also possibly there is a lot more to her than meets the eye and I’m interested to learn more???;

It’s about Finian, ALSO SUPER SARCASTIC, alien, techie boy who loves giving his squad shit whenever possible about whatever possible;

And finally, it’s about Aurora, or Auri, who was stuck in cryo-freeze on a missing ship for the past two hundred years and finds out she was the only one who survived and that she now has confusing new powers when she wakes up.

AGAIN, this is another one that’s been likened to SOC but other than the fact that it’s a group of misfits, it’s entirely its own thing. Each character has POV chapters but they never felt disjointed. I knew exactly who each one was immediately and loved each one immediately. What I’m trying to say is that Squad 312 is my new ~squad~ and I would die for each and every one of them. *sobs*.

This book was intense in a way that I had forgotten sci-fi could be. I don’t read a ton of it but when I do it strikes me that same way every time. I mean there’s the magnitude of Auri waking up TWO HUNDRED YEARS after she was put into cryo-sleep, knowing that life as she knew it is completely different and everyone that she had ever known and loved is dead. There’s the fact that a character dies and the incident ripped my fucking heart out and stomped all over it and I was sitting there crying in my car trying to hide it so my husband wouldn’t ask and then make it worse hahaha. I guess I’ve been reading too many romances or something. But I took it hard. HARD I TELL YOU. And the mystery of the story itself was one of the most gripping that I have read in a long time. I am dying for the next few books. Dying to see how certain characters grieve and heal. Dying to see how certain relationships blossom. And most importantly, dying to see how the universe is saved from sure destruction.

Do yourself all a favor and pick this book up when it comes out. I give it my highest of recommendations.

HUGE thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Books for Young Readers for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.♥

BOOK REVIEW – Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicles #1) by Jay Kristoff

July 22, 2016 / Anna

BOOK REVIEW – Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicles #1) by Jay Kristoff Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicles #1)
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

The first in a new fantasy series from the New York Times bestselling author.

In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.

Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?

UPDATE : Because it seems that Nevernight wasn’t shitty enough as it was, it also shows problematic rep for Maori. Please read Anjulie’s brilliant post about it.

MY EYES, O, MY EYES! O, gentlefriends, you may not approve of my decision to rate Nevernight with a severe and lonely star given the fact that I failed to finish it. But I tried, O, gentlefriends, trust me, I tried, yet completing the task of reading all 18,695 pages of this wonder-

There are only 448 pages…

Oh, FUCK OFF, the cat “who is not a cat” (why thank you I KNOW you told me one billion times already – go haunt someone else’s shadow, watch over another balcony with your not-eyes would you even though I don’t even want to know how THAT bloody works)

Truth is, O, gentlefriends, I’m taking my life back. The 42% I read were painfully indigestible and I am very sorry if I offend 99% of my friends who love Jay Kristoff‘s writing but I cannot do this. I CANNOT.

1) The metaphors and similes

First, I don’t like them as a whole. While I do believe that they can add a poetic touch to a novel, if I start highlighting them, it either means that :

a) they’re overused ;
b) they don’t make any kind of sense ;
c) they make me forget the story to focus on the prose, as if the writer was tapping me on the shoulder in a “I am so clever, am I not?” fashion.

Some of them made me roll my eyes.

“Mia caught her temper by the collar, gave it a good hard shake. Clearing her throat, she brushed her crooked fringe from her eyes.”

“Mia sighed. Took her temper by the earlobe and pulled it to heel.”

Others earned a well-deserved WTF?!

“Tric gave another half-hearted stab, but the beast had forgotten its quarry entirely, great eyes rolling as it flipped over and over, dragging its bulk back below the sand, howling like a dog who’s just returned home from a hard turn’s work to find another hound in his kennel, smoking his cigarillos and in bed with his wife.”

O_o

“They’re led by a dozen camels, Tric. A noseless dog could follow this trail of shit in the middle of truedark. If they suddenly start trekking faster than a forty-a-turn smoker with an armload of drunken prostitutes, I think we can find them again.”

????!?!!

2) Heavy wordiness and other useless descriptions

This is a matter of taste, alright? But I can’t do this? Not willingly, at least? Look, I graduated in French Literature and hence have had my fair share of wordy books for the sake of being wordy. After five years, I’ve come to the conclusion that this overwritten and purple writing style does not suit me. Words are meant to carry the story, and not to prove how clever and well-read the author is. Again, in my opinion anyway.

“She introduced her boot to his partner’s groin, kicking him hard enough to cripple his unborn children.”

BECAUSE THAT’S A THING.

Nope. That’s a commonplace.

I tend to find commonplaces useless.

“The horizon was crusted like a beggar’s lips, scoured by winds laden with voices just beyond hearing. The second sun kissing the horizon was usually the sign for Itreya’s brutal winters to begin, but out there, the heat was still blistering.”

Many of you might adore this writing. I do not. Oh, and no, before some gentle soul implies it, it is not because I’m “used to YA” or “unable to ‘get it'”. As I said, I can enjoy classics. Just not the ones that make me want to pull my hair out.

3) There are footnotes as a world-building

Call it as you want, when an author uses LONG footnotes to narrate parts of the world-building, it seems like info-dumping to me. And an annoying one, at that. Honestly? I stopped reading them after two chapters : I had a hard time connecting with the story already, and would have DNFed Nevernight way faster if I had stopped every few pages to read these damn footnotes. More generally, I find it lazy to use footnotes when these legends could have been incorporated into the main story.

There’s also a character who speaks like a Shakespeare’s lad, but at this point, I’m not even counting anymore.

As much as I wanted to love Nevernight, whose blurb made it sound so captivating, I cannot stand this writing and it spoiled my read. If you add it to the facts that :

1) The world-building is a mash-up between the Roman Empire, the Venice Republic, Harry Potter and The Young Elites (not a bad thing per se, but again, distracting) ;

2) The heroine already earned her special nemesis whose only purpose seems to glare and glare and glare again ;

3) I don’t care about any of the characters whatsoever (except Tric. I did like Tric) ;

4) I don’t appreciate the so-called wit of that fucking cat who is not a cat (I didn’t laugh ONCE, alright?) ;

5) I am BORED ;

… Well, you’ll understand why Nevernight and me will part ways now, at 42%.

Mark my words, though : this will be a hit. Oh, well. On my minority shelf it goes.