I received an eARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Sci-Fi Age Range: YA Star Rating: 4 stars Series: Yes - book 2
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for AURORA RISING*
Synopsis:
First, the bad news: an ancient evil—you know, your standard consume-all-life-in-the-galaxy deal—is about to be unleashed. The good news? Squad 312 is standing by to save the day. They’ve just got to take care of a few small distractions first.
Like the clan of gremps who’d like to rearrange their favorite faces.
And the cadre of illegit GIA agents with creepy flowers where their eyes used to be, who’ll stop at nothing to get their hands on Auri.
Then there’s Kal’s long-lost sister, who’s not exactly happy to see her baby brother, and has a Syldrathi army at her back. With half the known galaxy on their tails, Squad 312 has never felt so wanted.
When they learn the Hadfield has been found, it’s time to come out of hiding. Two centuries ago, the colony ship vanished, leaving Auri as its sole survivor. Now, its black box might be what saves them. But time is short, and if Auri can’t learn to master her powers as a Trigger, the squad and all their admirers are going to be deader than the Great Ultrasaur of Abraaxis IV.
Shocking revelations, bank heists, mysterious gifts, inappropriately tight bodysuits, and an epic firefight will determine the fate of the Aurora Legion’s most unforgettable heroes—and maybe the rest of the galaxy as well.
Synopsis taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
AURORA BURNING is a great second installment in this sci-fi space opera.
It starts with a series recap written like a brief overview of the characters. It’s both full of humour and super helpful as I wasn’t able to re-read the first book before picking this one up. It’s in the same tone as the book, which doesn’t make it stick out like a sore thumb.
It then dives right into the action, with the same humour and sharp banter tossed out between gun fights as the first book. I really liked the way the story split up at points because it gave characters a real chance for development when they couldn’t just fall into their specific roles – they had to fill in for others. Plus it played into the sense that the story was growing in scale to match the size of the galactic evil they were trying to fight.
There are quite a few twists, some of which I saw coming, but they’re blended well into the action and raise the emotional stakes (particularly when you can predict a twist later in the story that will make the characters have all the feels).
The ending is a real cliff hanger, the action speeding up to a point where you want the next book now. And I do – which is pretty impressive considering I was very on the fence about even starting this series at the start of the year. You can just imagine the authors cackling to one another when they wrote it.
Read my reviews of other books by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff:
Written together:
The Aurora Cycle (this series):
- AURORA RISING (#1)
The Illuminae Files:
By Jay Kristoff:
The Nevernight Chronicles:
- NEVERNIGHT (#1)
- GODSGRAVE (#2)
- DARKDAWN (#3)
By Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner:
The Other Side of the Sky:
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 