What I'm Reading: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff + a Giveaway

Morning, all! It's been a crazy month here - conferences, conferences, conferences, twitter pitch events, and I'm up to my eyeballs with manuscripts to read. And so though I'd planned a review of Gemina today, I haven't quite finished it yet. It is providing some much needed relaxation (i.e. bathtub) reading though :)

Here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The saga that began with Illuminae continues on board the space station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of BeiTech’s assault. Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter, Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum may be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival. The fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

So yes, this is the follow up to last year's Illuminae. And yes, even though this one does focus on two new characters, you do have to read them in order - Kady is present and the story picks up IMMEDIATELY after the events in Illuminae. 

I love not only the premise of these, but the overall experience of reading them. The story itself is built as a briefing meant to explain what's happened in the wake of an invasion. So rather than a straightforward narrative, the tale is presented as interviews, surveillance footage, chats, emails, etc. And there's a great design element that goes along with all of that as well: pages that shift between the normal white with black text to black with white text, illustrations, and formatting/design elements to indicate what kind of piece you're looking at (an email, chat, that sort of thing).  

And while the books do appear to be behemoths, each weighing in at about 600 pages, the formatting actually makes for a rather speedy read. As with its predecessor, Gemina has some pages that really have very little in the way of text to read at all. Combined with a gripping story (hate to use such an overused word there, but that's what it is), that framework of compiled documents really does allow the story to move quite quickly. 

So yeah, I'm digging it! 

Thanks to the publisher, I am able to offer up one copy of Gemina for a giveaway. To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, November 7. Open US only and no PO boxes please. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway