Illuminae

Illuminae Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 4 / 5	Published October 20, 2015 First Sentence "So here's the file that almost killed me, Director."
Publisher's Description: 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. 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.
Dear Reader, This book's structure was unlike anything I'd ever read before. Plus, can you beat combining the delicious horror of zombies* with the vast terror of space? Because that is exactly what these authors have done. And it is done extremely well. Throw in AI with a real personality, an evil megacorporation, and loved ones torn apart, and you've got a recipe for a riveting book. It was done in such a unique way, too: the reader is told the story by reading through a stack of classified documents intended to recreate the story, collected in pieces from various places (email and chat transcripts, video feed analyses, official documents, voice recordings, debriefing interviews). And when I say "stack", I mean it - this book is 599 pages long! But it truly flies, especially when you hit the halfway mark. (Don't worry, getting to page 300 sounds daunting, but it took me no time at all. Plus - I kind of liked how every page was marked as, for example, 289/599 so you always knew exactly where your endpoint was!) I love that the true hero of this book is a 17-year-old girl who is a badass hacker. Things started off a bit iffy for me as the first thing you read is an interview transcript where the girl and her recently ex-boyfriend are mostly talking about their anger towards each other, with a bit of background "my planet was getting attacked simultaneously" thrown in. But it works itself into a great story, so stick with it for a few pages. Plus, I started imagining Ezra as a young Captain Mal, which helped when reading his parts - you can tell from the clever banter that the authors are probably big fans of Firefly. That kind of helped cement my love for the book. (Maybe it was just that they used "'verse" a lot, but I do think it was more than that.) And there were a couple twists that I didn't even see coming! Which was pretty great. You'll also be impressed by some of the art this book employs to tell its story - it's as much a visual as a textual piece of work. And a surprisingly emotional and deep one, considering some of its subject matter. You'll find yourself aligning with people you didn't think you would. Every character is memorable and multidimensional, and you often feel as if you are traveling alongside them on this adventure. So if you are in the mood for some space travel, I say pick this one up! Yours, Arianna *If we're going to be technical, they are pseudo-zombies, but close enough. P.S. This book was one we grabbed as an ARC from BEA this past year.

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Skeletons at the Feast

Skeletons at the Feast Chris Bohjalian 4 / 5	Published 2008 First Sentence "The girl--a young woman, really, eighteen, hair the color of corn silk--had been hearing the murmur of artillery fire for two days now."
Publisher's Description: In January 1945, in the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives: an attempt to cross the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine if necessary, to reach the British and American lines. Among the group is eighteen-year-old Anna Emmerich, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats. There is her lover, Callum Finella, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war who was brought from the stalag to her family’s farm as forced labor. And there is a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, who the pair know as Manfred–who is, in reality, Uri Singer, a Jew from Germany who managed to escape a train bound for Auschwitz. As they work their way west, they encounter a countryside ravaged by war. Their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–assuming any of them even survive.  Perhaps not since The English Patient has a novel so deftly captured both the power and poignancy of romance and the terror and tragedy of war. Skillfully portraying the flesh and blood of history, Chris Bohjalian has crafted a rich tapestry that puts a face on one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies–while creating, perhaps, a masterpiece that will haunt readers for generations.
Dear Reader, Yet again, this was an audiobook I stumbled across on my library's Overdrive site.  I had read some Chris Bohjalian before (and enjoyed it - Trans-Sister Radio - he's so good at making you think, and look at issues from all sides), and my sister is a big fan of his as well, so given the description, I figured I'd give this one a shot.  I was surprised to read on Goodreads that many people were shocked and disgusted by the graphic nature of this novel, but I did not find it to be sensational - just very real.  Granted, I don't know what actually went on during WWII, as I was lucky enough not to witness it, but from the accounts which I've heard before, the atrocities which Bohjalian describes are truly disturbing but not unrealistic.  He didn't want to shock people, just tell the story. The book begins by following several different people in various wartime situations: Cecile, who is a concentration camp prisoner; Callum, who is a Scottish POW in Germany; Anna, a young German girl who grew up on a beet farm which belonged at different times to Germany and to Poland; and Uri, who is a Jewish German who escaped the trains and lives his life on the run, taking on various personas (Nazi soldier, Russian soldier, or simply melting out of sight) as need be, in order to survive. I found it fascinating to read WWII from the German-citizen side, which is something you don't hear a lot about.  The reader got to watch the Germans start off as strong Hitler supporters (the dictator brought Anna's farm, which had been part of the annexation of Poland, back into Germany, and thus was a hero to many citizens in the east), and then as they began to recognize what was going on.  There were definitely atrocities on both sides of the war, too many to count - and there were good people who had morals no matter what, and bad people who took advantage of their power.  The book explored all sides of the war and of its effects on the people - it was particularly interesting to hear about the long march west that many German citizens made, as they fled from the invading Russians in the last few months of the war.  Their journeys were perilous: most suffered awfully, many died.  This was another aspect of the war I'd not encountered much of before now, so it was good to read about and get yet another perspective on the awful, worldwide conflict. One of the parts that stuck out for me was when the Emmerich family stopped at a family friend's house during their difficult trek east.  They came across women who were certain they were safe from harm, and who lived in an insulated little bubble that had thus far managed to escape the war entirely.  I found that part to be touching and terrifying at once.  Those poor, proud women - to think what must have happened to them once the Emmerichs left and the Russians arrived. I am glad I read this, and I would recommend it, despite that there were some parts that made me gasp in horror as I listened to the narrator read them.  Oh, and one last thing I think I should add: this is the narrator who read one of my favorite books from 2013, The Orchardist.  I think he is a wonderful reader, and having him "come back" for this book might have made me enjoy it even more than I would have otherwise.  I think perhaps he can make any book sound very well-written, even more than they already are! Happy reading, Arianna P.S. I had read before but forgotten that this was a work of fiction but based on real diaries kept from the war.  Wow.

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