August 06, 2018

Review: Gemina by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2)
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Knopf BYR
Publication Date: October 18, 2016
Pages: 659
Format: Hardcover/Own

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminaecontinues 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.

Review: I enjoyed this book just as much as I enjoyed Illuminae. I loved seeing a second side of the BeiTech assault. It's quite interesting seeing just how long they've been planning everything and how far they were willing to go to make sure no one found out about anything. And how hard they are trying to lie about their involvement thus far. 

I really loved Hanna as a character. When the book first starts out, you think she's just gonna be some spoiled, rich, daddies girl that isn't gonna be able to fight against anyone. And she is far from it. Her dad was always playing military/strategy games with her. She knew how to fight. She knew how to be stealthy. She knew how to set traps. She is an incredibly smart girl underneath the spoiled exterior. I was pretty excited about how she was taking on the BeiTech agents and eliminating them little by little. It was so fun to read. I also loved that she was smarter than the BeiTech agents thought. They tried to get her to turn herself in by "taking hostage her boyfriend." She found out there was a BeiTech agent on the station, and she figured out it was him after he let a few words slip in a certain order/way. It took that one slip up for her to confirm he was the spy and not to trust him. 

I also liked Nik. He is one of the criminals on the station, who happens to be supplying Hanna with dust, a substance that gets you high. They were in the middle of their transaction for it when the shit hit the fan with the BeiTech assault. They ended up having to work together to survive and find out what was happening. While the partnership started out strained on Hanna's end, they quickly grew close and by the end, didn't want the other one dead or left behind. Nik was kinda middle ground in this. Not the techie, not the one removing the assault team or helping get back into the stations systems, just the on helping where he can or waiting for the moment he can get something done. Since he was locked in the docks for a while, he was doing more waiting and checking in than anything. But he still wanted to know what was happening and updated them if anything suspicious happened near him. He did get to get in on the action later on though. He actually plays a key part in the ending. 

I have to admit I was surprised with the incident with the wormhole. I should have expected it, I mean everything in me from my Star Trek watching says if theirs a wormhole, somehow its gonna play some huge part in the story. But I was just so focused on the BeiTech assault I didn't think to wonder. I was not expecting the multi-universe idea to come into play. I was genuinely interested in the Gemina particles and their role in the multi-verse incident. I was also surprised at the fact Nik was the thing switched between the universes. It made sense after everything was put together. I did wonder why it seemed like nothing happened when that live rod hit the wormhole opening, but we found out something did happen, we just didn't realize it. The whole thing with the wormhole was probably my favorite part of the book because it was so interesting. 

I also loved the fact we got some Kady, Ezra and the Hypatia interactions. I mean, I figured we would since the Hypatia was headed towards Heimdall, I just didn't expect them to play big roles in the last 1/3 of the book. It was super cool though. I loved seeing Kady's smarts helping figure out the situation. I loved that we got to see Aidan come back online and that he didn't destroy everything. Super cool. I'm also happy that we'll see Kady and her dad reunited since Kady thought he was going to be dead. Very excited for Obsidio!