Gemina by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

*** SPOILERS FOR ILLUMINAE AHEAD***

Hey guys!

Here are my thoughts on Gemina, sequel to Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff.

  

Goodreads Synopsis:

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’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 residents 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.

Once again 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.

Okay so our story picks off at Jump Station Heimdall, where Hypatia was heading in the first book. We have a different set of main characters, who are equally as sassy, lovable and funny as the first book’s. Our main leads are: Hanna, who is the daughter of the station’s commander (highest post) and Nik who is illegally aboard along his uncle & said uncle’s family. Nik belongs to a notorious criminal family, House of Knives. I know, it IS SO COOL!

I can’t say I enjoyed this as much as Illuminae but I’m not really surprised because Illuminae was a first in the series and took me by surprise with the unique format. The second time around, I was kinda used to the amazingness of it. Its worth mentioning that the dossier features a really cool new style and it’s very visually appealing and creative. Kudos to the authors for pulling it off, again. I loved the twists and turns and the unpredictability of the plot. There is literally no way to guess what’s going to happen next and I appreciate that a lot about this series so far (so it a trilogy?).

A++ for the characters! Characters that are realistically flawed but also redeemable appease me as a reader the most and this is exactly what our group of characters are like in Gemina.

Another thing I loved were the action scenes. It gets very confusing for me to picture an action sequence but this was not the case here. The thing that I love most about this series is that there are NO PLOT HOLES WHATSOEVER. If something happens, it’s always explained very clearly what lead a certain event to occur, or even the smallest of reaction by a character — it’s meticulously detailed and leaves no stone unturned. Sometimes its so easy to tell that the story took a turn just for the sake of keeping the plot moving forward but this is not the case here. This is especially amazing because the story keeps you on your toes and you can’t really guess what’s going to happen next.

I liked the villain better in Gemina, as opposed to AIDAN in Illuminae. I know, I know, we all love AIDAN but guys he was kind of a good guy at heart (motherboard?). Our villain here was sadistic, unpredictable & scary but also really cool. You feel me?

The only qualm I had was that it took me about a 100-pages to really get into it, and the plethora of information being dumped on me, as a reader, was over-whelming at first. The authors didn’t do a good job at easing their way into the information-giving and it was coarse at times. Overall, I immensely enjoyed enjoyed reading this & I can’t wait for the next book, Obsidio, to come out!!

Have you read Gemina? What was your favorite part?

Happy reading!

-Amna xx