Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

 

**This review will contain spoilers for the first book in this series, Illuminae**

I read Illuminae last week as part of my Finally in 2022: Series Edition Challenge, and I really enjoyed it. Naturally, I decided to move onto the second book in the trilogy, Gemina, next. I was curious to see if Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff could continue on the story established in the first book in a way that was still exciting and suspenseful. They established a pretty high bar in book one, so my hopes were up heading into this one.

This novel is set immediately after the events in book one. It starts on the Heimdall, a large space station that functions as a jump point for other ships using wormhole technology (think Deep Space 9 from Star Trek). This station is where the Hypatia is returning to after escaping the Lincoln. As the story begins, Kady and the rest of the group from Illuminae are currently on their way there, but no one on board the Heimdall actually knows that. A double agent from BeiTech working inside the station has been deleting all messages from the Hypatia as they come in, so no one on board has any idea that BeiTech forces launched an attack on Kerenza IV, that they released a dangerous pathogen as part of their battle strategy, or that thousands of people have been slaughtered. BeiTech is desperate to hide its crimes, so they have hatched a plan to take over the Heimdall and use it to destroy the Hypatia once it arrives, hopefully keeping the whole invasion a secret.

To accomplish this, they sneak an elite squad of agents on board the station, and their initial seizure goes as planned. However, a trio of tough-as-nails teens quickly get in their way. The first is Hanna Donnelly, daughter of the station commander and expert at martial arts. The second is Niklas Malikov, member of the House of Knives, a gang specializing in sales of a hallucinogenic drug called Dust on board the station. The third is Ella Malikov, Niklas' cousin and an expert hacker. Together, they manage to evade initial capture by the invaders and set about trying to save the station using a combination of computer trickery, battle strategy, and combat. BeiTech operatives aren't the only thing they need to worry about though. Part of the Malikov drug trade involves harvesting a toxin from dangerous parasitic eel-type creatures, and in the chaos of the takeover, several of these creatures have escaped their secret holding area and are attacking everyone they come across. Hanna, Nik, and Ella must band together against incredible odds to try and win back their home and expose BeiTech's multiple atrocities to the rest of the world.

I'm happy to say that Gemina was just as good as Illuminae, and an excellent, suspenseful sci-fi adventure in its own right. This one was a mix of Die Hard and Alien, and the combination was great fun. Hanna, Nik, and Ella were good protagonists; each were very different from each other and the banter between them was fun to read. Much like with the first book, I moved through the pages quickly and was engaged the whole time. Of course, the teen heroes were way too smart and capable to actually be seventeen, but this is a YA story after all, so that comes with the territory. I was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the ride.

This novel continues on using the same narrative structure as book one, presenting the events through a collection of transcripts, recordings, and chat logs . This time, we open with a BeiTech executive sitting in a court hearing, and the evidence presented against her are the documents we read. In addition to the unique text layouts that I enjoyed exploring last time, there were several illustrations from Hanna's journal included, which were a pleasure to look at and a great way to freshen up the format. Kaufman and Kristoff use an excellent visual of a bloodstain on the journal pages getting larger and larger as the story goes on to keep up the suspense. It's clear that someone will be getting hurt, but how hurt, and when, and who isn't clear right away. You keep reading and the pages get bloodier and bloodier until you're just bursting to know what happens. I thought that was a pretty cool, and effective, strategy.

Much like the previous novel, there are many twists and turns in the plot that are genuinely surprising. The ending is especially intense and uses a clever dual storytelling technique that I really enjoyed. As I mentioned in my previous review, these stories are full of classic sci-fi tropes, but the way they are put together and presented make them special. I am definitely looking forward to picking up the third and final book in the series and seeing how the story turns out.

Challenge Tally

Finally in 2022 - Series Edition: 2/28

Total Books Read in 2022: 7