An intergalactic space war, a teenage breakup, a mysterious illness and a possibly homicidal rogue AI system collide in the wildly adventurous Illuminae by Amie Kaufman (the Starbound Trilogy) and Jay Kristoff (the Lotus War trilogy).
The same morning that Kady Grant breaks up with her boyfriend, Ezra Mason, their colony on Kerenza IV is attacked by BeiTech Industries; thousands are killed and the survivors forced to evacuate. Suddenly adrift on the battle carrier Alexander and research vessel Hypatia, Ezra and Kady find themselves in the middle of a war with BeiTech's ship, the Lincoln, in swift pursuit. With crews dwindling, all able-bodied and qualified civilians are conscripted into service, including Ezra. On Ezra's first mission as a pilot, the group's Artificial Intelligence Network Defense Analytics Network (AIDAN), abruptly launches nuclear missiles at one of the fleet's own ships before ordering Ezra's group to intercept the few escape pods launched prior to the attack. While covering up their own lack of answers, officials on the Alexander shut down AIDAN, citing damages to the craft sustained in the battle on Kerenza IV.
Kady, deemed unworthy of conscript, further develops her hacking skills aboard Hypatia. She quickly finds that not everything is as it seems, leaving her to question the fates of everyone aboard the ships. With the Lincoln swiftly approaching, the crew aboard the Alexander may have no choice but to reboot AIDAN. Will AIDAN be the group's salvation or its demise? Amid rumors of a violent mystery illness plaguing some passengers, will AIDAN's actions even matter? Kady isn't sure of anything other than that she has to try to save them all. When even optimistic Ezra questions their fate, Kady assures him "you have no idea how much I can do in just one day."
Told through a massive dossier of compiled information, Illuminae is a dizzying rush of space and cybernetics with dashes of teen romance. Interviews, summaries of surveillance footage, e-mails, web chats and more form a narrative that's well-rounded and wonderfully developed. Without the limits of traditional narrative, Kaufman and Kristoff manage multiple points of view and styles of writing with grace and ease. Some of the dossier's information has been edited and the curse words censored, leaving readers to wonder who exactly is behind the Illuminae Group tasked with compiling it, and why they sent it to executive director Frobisher.
Alternately humorous, charming, horrifying and electrifying, Illuminae is unforgettable and a game-changer for its genre. --Kyla Paterno, reviewer
Shelf Talker: Teens reeling from heartbreak find themselves fighting for survival amid an intergalactic war.