Want-to-Read Wednesdays ‘Illuminae’ by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

For the first time ever this weeks ‘Want-to-Read Wednesday’ has been inspired by the review of another WordPress blogger. One of the things I love about blogging is that it’s given me the chance to explore and discover books I never thought I would enjoy.

Goodreads summary:

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

BRIEFING NOTE: Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

So thank you to Riana of Fictional Worlds and Me for this suggestion. It’s been duly added to my want to read shelf and I hope to get round to it soon.

Illuminae is a story set out in a collection of  ‘emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews and more’  which I imagine would put some people off, but it reminds me of  World War Z (the book, not the film, never the film), which I thought I wasn’t going to like but I was won over by the unique approach to storytelling.

I have read very few books with a space/intergalactic setting, since I normally favour the more natural, woods and trees and fairies and that ilk. But as I say I’m really trying to diversify my bookshelf in many different ways and this seems like the perfect way to do it.

As always there’s the slight fear of a romance overshadowing any real plot development but I have high hopes that these two authors will have managed to avoid the pitfalls of writing young adult relationships.

I’m definitely going to work my way around to this one, I’m looking forward to reading something that promises to be new and unique, not just in comparison to the other books on my shelf but hopefully in comparison to everything else I’ve been reading of late.

If you want to read Riana’s wondrous review to let it tempt you as it did me you can do so here.

Check out last week’s Want-to-Read-Wednesday.