I’m a man who likes a good adventure.

With the occasional explosion and death and secret society.

If any of that stuff interests you, then this book could be right for you!  Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, includes all of these subjects on a much greater scale. How great of a scale? I’m glad you asked.

We’re talking about the future (2575), where the human race is living on multiple planets and AI (artificial intelligence) is a very scary thing. We start off simple enough, a girl named Kady and a boy named Ezra are in a relationship.

(*spoilers*)

Just kidding! Yea, sorry. Unfortunately, they broke up.

Kady thought that the break-up would be the hardest thing she’d have to do. But she was quite wrong. Soon, a multi-corporation on her planet starts a war against another multi-corporation. They’re fighting over a planet that is honestly just a speck at the edge of the universe… But who cares! They want it! So bad actually, that the multi-corporations don’t really care who dies.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh well, you say. But this isn’t oh well for Kady, who now kind of regrets breaking up with Ezra, although she never actually tells him. Even as their world crumbles before their eyes and they’re on some space-war-ship being chased by another space-war-ship, they avoid contact as things get worse, and worse, and worse, and…

Yea, you get it. I like that this novel is very creative. Dialogue and text are presented in multiple forms (sometimes in the shape of its subject matter, like a love letter in the shape of a rose). It captured my interest quite a bit. Not to mention, this is a “top-secret” style kind of book, so the information obtained is supposed to look shady and it’s mostly in third person. But all of these little quirks make this novel that more interesting.

At only 608 pages, you can finish this quickly. Just kidding, but if this book captures you well enough, no one is stopping you.