Title: Aurora Rising
Series: The Aurora Cycle, Book 1
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 7, 2019
Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction
Told: First Person Multiple, Present Tense
Content Rating: Older Teen (strong innuendo, language, violence, some gruesome images)
Format Read: ARC (publisher)
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Summary:
The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…
A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering
And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.
They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.
* * *
Review copy provided by publisher for an honest review.
Thank you, Penguin Random House!
Aurora Rising is sadly yet another last-picked team of misfits story that, once a favorite premise of mine, I'm now growing weary of. Although this set-up can have a plethora of mix-and-match plot options,
Aurora Rising (like most) unfortunately stuck to the popular (overused) storyline and checked most of the popular (overused) subplot boxes: A
"special" girl and her mysterious quest get the misfit team into trouble and
send them on the run whereby they
seek refuge on a criminal space station and are
forced to stage a heist that leads to the discovery of
governmental cover-up and a
universal conspiracy.
Been there, done that more times than I care to count. Despite a colorful team of diverse, snarky characters and an intriguing space setting, I found myself bored around the halfway mark and considered throwing in the towel. It didn't help that there were over half a dozen
FIRST PERSON point of view characters, and all those "I's" had me unsure whose head I was in at all times.
But I persevered, and eventually finished. Am I glad I did? Sure. The beginning was pretty good, the action eventually picked back up during the heist, and the Kal/Aurora bond relationship (my favorite kind) added a certain sweetness to the otherwise violent plot. There were also a few small twists at the end that diverted from the overused norm, and with its "We're off to save the universe" conclusion I'm now curious enough to try the next book if I get my hands on a softcover.
Do I recommend it? If you love
Firefly reboots and really enjoyed M.K. England's
The Disasters (which I sadly never finished due to almost exactly the same reasons I barely finished this one),
Aurora Rising may be just the read you're looking for.
STRENGTHS:
✔ The snark
✔ The Kal/Aurora bond relationship
✔ The way the team meshed while still maintaining individuality
✔ Magellan
✔ Hitchhiker's Guide-esque entries between chapters
WEAKNESSES:
✘ Overused premise, story, plot and subplots
✘ Over half a dozen first person point of view characters I couldn't tell apart
✘ Choppy writing style
For Fans Of:
Firefly;
The Disasters by M.K. England
Scribble Rating:
3 of 5 Scribbles
