Each squad at the academy is comprised of six individuals: an alpha, diplomat, scientist, warrior, pilot and gearhead. In addition to the rescued mystery girl, each individual gets a chance to narrate.
Tyler Jones is the alpha, the leader of the squad. It is his job to turn this dysfunctional group into a cohesive unit and to make the best out of every situation. Somehow, he manages to do this extremely well, adapting with every new situation and making the best out of what he is given. Other than his surprising adaptability and leadership his only other “characteristics” are his good looks and an anal attentiveness to following rules and regulations.
Tyler’s sister, Scarlett Jones, is the diplomat, a specialist at communicating between individuals of various species and negotiating resolutions between individuals at odds with each other. As a kind and motherly character, she often finds herself breaking up conflicts between characters. She is extremely perceptive and intelligent, but like her brother, her most notable “characteristic” is her attractiveness.
Catherine Brannock is the confident and stubborn pilot. Unsurprisingly, given her specialty, she can be reckless and headstrong. She says what is on her mind and follows her gut, even if it brings her into direct conflict with her leader and love interest Tyler Jones.
Zila Madran is the quiet, but intelligent scientist. She says very little, but is unafraid to act. While her actions and words can often be blunt and hurtful, she is often the only one to come up with the most effective course of action. Her perceptiveness and quick thinking gets the team out of several dangerous situations, but her tendency to not talk makes her easy to overlook.
Finian de Karran de Seel is a sarcastic engineer. He is an undeniably talented and brilliant, but was crippled at a young age. As a result, he wears an exo-suit to help him complete basic tasks. Unfortunately, he finds that his disability doesn’t make him the easiest to be around and never had any close friends. Over the course of the book, he is the only character to receive any form of development as he realizes that maybe it is his caustic attitude that turns people away rather than his disability.
Kaliis Idraban Gilwraeth is the warrior and is actual elf. With long silver hair and an aloof, arrogant attitude, much of his characterization and can be summed up simply by calling him the stereotypical conceited elf. The only glimpse at an actual character can be seen in the way he accepts the racism of his species without a fight, preferring to say little unless it affects the squad.
Aurora O’Malley is a girl out of time and out of her depth. In her lifetime, mankind had just begun to explore the reaches of space and had not yet encountered other intelligent lifeforms. Now, she finds herself hurtled 200 years into the future, where everything she once knew is a lie. In addition to being completely out of touch with her current time period, she also has strange abilities and little control over. As she attempts to navigate a strange new world where all her loved ones are dead and nothing seems to make sense, she must figure out where her powers come from and why she has them.
Aurora Rising is a disappointment. Almost everyone reading this book has read the Illuminae Files, an amazing series with constantly high stakes, interesting characters, and an enthralling plot. Compared to that book, Aurora Rising was a mess. The pacing was adequate, starting off fast to catch the reader’s attention, slowing down to establish the world, then speeding back up as the characters were launched head first into the plot. Unfortunately, the plot moves much too fast for any meaningful character development or for readers to truly have any idea how the actions of the characters fit into the world of the Aurora Cycle.
The plot itself was worse than the pacing. While upon first glance, it can elicit some level of concern or emotional investment, a second look reveals the plot for the contrived mess that it is. The characters are often forcibly guided to each new situation, often with little say or, often, open defiance at the new direction of events. None of the characters had any agency, motivations, or goals, instead acting as vehicles for the plot instead of real people. By prioritizing the plot over personal character goals, they turned what should have been a character driven book into a confusing plot-driven one.
This would be alright if the plot was good or if the characters were interesting, but unfortunately neither is true. All of the characters were bland and fit directly into archetypical slots. The only possibly interesting thing about the characters is their sarcastic quips that not only get tiring very quickly, but make it impossible to grasp the severity of their situation. To make matters worse, almost every single character has a sarcastic streak, making their POVs extremely difficult to distinguish. The only character that did stand out was Zila as she said very little, causing her chapters to be short. Despite saying the least, this anti-social scientist became the best character in the book.
Another issue with this book is the setting and genre of this story. The story advertises itself of as a science fiction story adventure, however, in reality, the book is simply a fantasy story taking place in space. With the existence of literal elves, mating, and unexplained magical powers, the authors are not attempting to disguise the fact that this was meant to be a fantasy novel. In fact, the story could easily be rewritten into a story set in a medieval period without any story details lost in translation. There are very few attempts to make plot points scientifically sound and Aurora’s powers aren’t given any explanation at all. Given that this duo was responsible for the masterpiece that was The Illuminae Files, it baffles me that they were unable to carry that level of care for science and logic into this book.
I give this 470 page book 3 stars.