Rockstar authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff ( aka geniuses behind the brilliant epistolary experimental fabrication series The Illuminae Files ) team improving again in this beginning book in a sword newfangled YA SFF series following a rabble group of misfits that stumble across a much larger conspiracy and hidden history that could destroy the population. Written in a more traditional prose manner, with alternating point of opinion characters, Aurora Rising takes seat in the class 2380, in which cadet Tyler Jones finds an emergency pod on the eve of his graduation–and by choosing to save the young womanhood trapped in stasis, he loses his opportunity to pick the angiotensin converting enzyme squad he should have gotten as the top of the class. sure, he ’ s still got his sister as his diplomat envoy and his best friend Cat as his fender, but the remainder of the team leaves a little to be desired .Aurora Jie-Lin O ’ Malley, said young woman awakened from a 200 class napoleon, finds herself in a new earth completely alone–and besides the wielder of some bizarre new space/time warping superpowers that could be the spark that ends the universe. fortunately, she has some new protectors ( who besides become her friends ) to help out in that last department…
One of my all-time darling tropes in film and literature is Assembling The team. It should come as no surprise, consequently, that I was immediately predisposed to like Aurora Rising with its version of Avengers Assemble : Ragtag Misfits Edition™. One of the most comfort things about this trope is the fact that each character has to get over their baggage and form connections with each other in order to complete their heist/objective/universe-saving tax ( normally after respective failures ). In this regard, Aurora Rising delivers in spades. What starts as a smaller mystery involving a single character out of time and her uncertain past blossoms into a roar ‘ this could mean the end of everything ’ secret–Aurora, Tyler, Cat, Finian, Kal, Scarlett, and Zila all have key roles to play in this drama. And that ’ s cool.
While I am a huge fan of this general trope, the reason a book or movie is successful within its bounds relies heavily on the military capability of its characters. If you ’ re going to give us the Fellowship of the Ring, the audience has to care about the individual members, correct ? unfortunately, Aurora falters in this department. There are seven different characters ( each with a POV chapter ), each has some kind of relationship drama with another member of the frame ( with the exception of one character who is wholly disengaged and besides a sociopath ), and each exploit archetypal character tropes. There ’ s the tomboy combatant fender desperately in love with her best supporter ; the alpha aureate boy drawing card who actually is dear and responsible ( think : Steve Rogers ) ; the gorgeous redheaded woodpecker who can do kung-fu but besides lasciviously uses her sex to get men to give her what she wants ; the initiate technical school eccentric extraterrestrial being who pushes everyone away with his bite sarcasm because he, like, doesn ’ t even NEED friends ; the warrior elf estrange that is strong and dumb and despised by his own kin but now finds aim and ( insta ) sexual love with his fresh team ; the Chosen Girl with the Superpowers who must Be Protected at all costs ; and the aforesaid sociopath scientist who observes them all. besides : instalove is the worst. besides besides : it ’ second incredibly frustrating that each major pair ( because of course about every member of this rabble team is paired off into a romance ) is heterosexual .
To make things flush harder, the ratio of action to character development is deplorably unbalanced–it ’ mho hard to very nail down multiple POV characters in a single book, particularly if the parole count is relatively low, and Aurora precisely doesn ’ thymine spend enough fourth dimension with any single character to truly build a connection with the lector. Plus, with so much happen in the fib ( flying from one localization to another to find one artifact/answer or another ) it ’ mho hard to focus on actually understanding these characters–instead, Kaufman and Kristoff play up each characters ’ idiosyncrasies in stead of development. ( possibly one of my biggest pet peeves in fabrication : picking a “ far-out ” trait for a fictional character and compulsively waving it in readers ’ faces ad nauseam. )
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And however.
If you can get past the character muppetry, and if you ’ re a sucker for a fast pace diagram, Aurora Rising truly starts cooking around the novel ’ sulfur center, leading to a triumphant stopping point act… and, while the emotional affect of the ending of the record is reasonably dulled by the aforesaid miss of quality connection, there ’ randomness adequate to compel me to come bet on for script 2. ( good thing it ’ s out in truth soon. )
Rating: 6 – Decent (with some major reservations), but I’ll tune in for book 2
