(The Aurora Cycle #1)
Publication
Date: May 7, 2019
Hardcover, 473 pages, Knopf Books
Genres:
YA, Sci-Fi
From the internationally
bestselling authors of THE ILLUMINAE FILES comes an epic new science fiction
adventure.
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.
My Review
Aurora Rising can
pretty much be described as a young adult version of the Chris Pine Star
Trek films combined with the chaotic nature of The Guardians of the
Galaxy. There’s a found family, a plethora of alien characters (though are
they really aliens if they live in space?), and crazy adventures on spaceships
and strange planets.
Tyler Jones is our very own Captain Kirk. He definitely
gives off some young Chris Pine vibes. Cat is the pilot. Scarlett is the diplomat.
Kal is the muscle. Aurora is the stowaway. And Fin and Zila are the brains. My
favorite characters were Tyler, Kal, Fin, and Zila. Kal because of his species,
which I’ll get into later. Fin because he’s absolutely HILARIOUS. I tabbed so
many of his lines because I actually laughed out loud. I don’t do that very
often with books. Zila because she’s unintentionally funny, and she reminds me a
lot of myself—standoffish because she chooses to be. (I don’t understand why
she wasn’t given more chapters!?!) And Tyler because, well, I mentioned the
Chris Pine vibes already, right?
As for Cat and Scarlett, they kind of blended together sometimes.
Both had their moments, but I never really connected to their characters.
Though I do ship Scarlett and Fin. I think they’d make a cute couple.
Now Aurora’s POV was the worst! She’s basically just a plot
device to move the characters from point a to point b. Someone online said she
was there to info dump, since Kaufman and Kristoff could use her chapters to
explain everything to the audience, which is a totally weak writing strategy.
It just made her BORING. The only thing interesting about her was her powers,
and those are not even that compelling. The crew dynamic is way more fun.
Speaking of the crew dynamic, I did want more of it. I
definitely think it was close to reaching Guardians of the Galaxy levels, but
it just didn’t quite get there. The Aurora storyline brought it down. If there’d
just been a heist or a bad guy, and she was completely left out of the story,
things would’ve been so much funnier. Also, the narration style was sometimes
hard to follow, as the POVs blended together. They simply weren’t unique enough,
even though two of the crew members were different species and one was a girl
from the past.
One part of the story I found fascinating, however, was the
Syldrathi. They’re super cool. I’d rather have a book just about them. They’re
fae-like space aliens, almost a cross between Sarah J. Mass’s fae and Spock’s
Vulcan species. Unfortunately, the weird instalove mate thing almost ruined it.
Maybe it wouldn’t have if the relationship wasn’t between a character I really
enjoy and I character I really did not. I actually ship Kal and Tyler. I know
it won’t happen, but THE QUEERBAITING IS REAL YA’LL. A m/m main couple could’ve
really made this a standout YA instead of just another sci-fi book with similar
elements to every other sci-fi book/tv series. I get that Kaufman and Kristoff probably
don’t want to write m/m relationships between main characters when they themselves
aren’t, as it gives actual gay men the opportunity to write their own sci-fi
stories, but come on! They seriously shouldn’t have done all the queerbaiting.
Other than those problems, I have to throw in that sometimes
things could get confusing in regards to the space and ship terminology, but
you don’t have to understand the terms to enjoy the book. Just make up a
pronunciation in your head and move on.
All in all, this was a quick, delightful read with a few major
issues and a somewhat mediocre ending. I expected a big, dramatic cliffhanger,
but the last chapters were kind of anticlimactic. Thankfully, four members of
the crew held this book together, and I’m excited to find out how their stories
develop in the sequels.
*Note: I received
a copy of this book as a gift. This in no way affected my opinion/review.
Sorry to hear this one wasn't all you hoped for. I still need to read it myself. I guess I wasn't sure if it was best to wait the series out since this is Kaufman and Kirstoff we're talking about here and what they did with the Illuminae trilogy nearly destroyed me even though the books were standalones with interconnections. Lol. Glad to see that you still enjoyed bits and pieces of this one! Nice review!
ReplyDeleteOh, I really enjoyed it! It was actually better than Illuminae, imo. I just didn't like some elements of it. But yeah, I do wish I'd waited until all three books were out to read the series.
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