Monday, November 21, 2022

Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff - Aurora Cycle 1 - Aurora Rising (2019)

Audiobook Review.

Third Person Present Tense, Young Adult SF.

Most books in the YA category tend to be Fantasy, but this is a SF trilogy with some interesting aspects, and it's well written.

There are some not-entirely-believable scenes, but it ain't bad, and the character interaction is fun.


Minor Issues

I've only read the first book, and if there's anything bad to say about it, then it would be the ease with which a spaceship can land / dock somewhere, without raising any questions. It's a common problem in both YA and regular SF.

There's a second scene in which the protagonists are jailed together, but why would their capturers ever do that? Split them up from the first second is way easier, especially if they prisoners are to be killed anyway.

Then, finally, there's the enemy that's overly ultra powerful at the end of the first book. Too much, too quickly. A bit more buildup would have been nice. But maybe they can pull it off in the sequels?

Otherwise, good read.


First person present tense multi-POV

Multi-POV stories are hard to pull off, but they did it well. In fact, this is one of the better examples.

Each character has its own 'voice', both in the written book as well as the audio-books. 

Update. I've read one, and listened to the two others.


The Covers

Covers of all three books are great. I love them. Yeah, I know they shouldn't be relevant, so sue me... To me a cover is important.


Narration

Multiple voices, but done well. Here' each chapter focusses on a single character, and talks from that character's perspective. This makes listening to it less tiring than your typical 'Graphic Audio' audiobook.

If you use multiple voice actors, then this is the way I like it!


The Verdict

If you like this type of YA SF with a minor slice of romance, interesting characters, believable technology and some nice, creepy scenes then yeah, go for it.

Note that I haven't read books 2 and 3 yet...


Synopsis (Spoiler)

Taylor is an Alpha (NOT a werewolf, no hairy stuff, no moonlight or such), AKA a trained team leader and the Aurora Academy's golden boy. On a semi-legal trip into fol-space he rescues a girl named Aurora, and loses his chance to pick his own, perfect team. He gets assigned two losers / last picks, and ends up being chased all over the galaxy by the anonymous Earth Security agents... who turn out to be evil plants.

Who says vegetables are good for your health?


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