Amie Kaufman’s Gemina is the second book in the Illuminae Files.
After the destruction of the Lincoln and the Alexander, the Hypatia rushes to the Heimdall space station for help. Nothing interesting happens at the Heimdall Station. Other than the delightful fact that the station lies on a rip in the universe, a wormhole, there is nothing remarkable about the station. With Terra Day, quickly approaching on the station, the Heimdall is extremely short-staffed and the small staff there is excited for a day of partying: the perfect time for an assault. Without warning, a mysterious band of highly trained terrorists sneak into and commander the station. The entire staff is either locked up, scared into submission, or dead, except for three teenagers. It is up to rich girl Hanna, reluctant criminal Nik, and hacker Ella to save all the passengers and possibly, the entire universe.
Kady was the primary lead of Illuminae. She was smart, head-strong, and kickass. In Gemina, Kady has to abdicate her title as lead protagonist and give it to a new girl, Hanna Donnelly. Thankfully, Hanna does not disappoint. As the daughter of the Heimdall’s commander, Hanna Donnelly is not only rich; she has spent her life training. Through constant training, she has developed a strategic mindset and an array of awesome self-defense moves. Throughout the story, she proves to be strong and level-headed. Her ability stay calm in the face of danger is not only admirable, but unbelievable, occasionally shattering suspension of disbelief. Despite literally experiencing horror movie like situations as well as seeing and causing death for the first time, Hanna keeps her resolve. She is the literal embodiment of grace under fire. Although this is amazing, it can make her hard to relate to.
Gemina is an awesome sequel. When it comes to YA books, sequels either go one of two ways. They are either a better version of their predecessor, or a disappointment. Fortunately, Gemina completely blew Illuminae out of the water. As it was the first book in the series, Illuminae suffered from a lengthy, exposition, and the strange story-telling did nothing to improve the monotony. Gemina, on the other hand, did not need nearly as much exposition. It begins slow, establishing the setting and the characters before exploding into action with the spark of the inciting incident. Borrowing elements of its predecessor, Gemina includes a non-human antagonist that harms everyone, protagonists and antagonists alike. Unlike Illuminae, however, Gemina has clear human enemy for the protagonist to fight. There is not a slow build of mystery and “wrongness”. There are simply terrorists on a space station and the protagonists must do their best to stop them. Both leads Nik and Hanna are strong and not opposed to killing. This is unexpected noting there age of the characters and fact that this is a YA book, but completely fitting with the you-or-me situation in the book. The book pits three teenagers against 24-trained professionals creating a huge emphasis in strategy and outsmarting your opponent. Hanna’s logical and analytic mindset makes this a perfect scenario for her and her less strategic but contributive foil Nik. Once again, the format and art style is absolutely gorgeous. Many of the pages are beautiful masterpieces and the addition of drawings by Marie Lu adds another unique dimension to the story.
I give this book 659 page 5 stars.
The Illuminae Files
Told through a collection of hacked emails, video, and various other files, Illuminae tells the story of the survivors of the Battle of Kerezna. It tells the story of how survivors escaped the planet, how the were pursued by a BeiTech dreadnought, and how one girl fought