Illuminae cover art

Illuminae

The Illuminae Files, Book 1

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Illuminae

By: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Narrated by: Olivia Taylor Dudley, Lincoln Hoppe, Jonathan McClain
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About this listen

Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and Warner Bros are set to bring YA sci-fi novel Illuminae to the big screen.

The year is 2575, and two megacorporations are at war over a planet that's little more than an ice-covered speck. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it.

With enemy fire raining down on them, Ezra and Kady have to make their escape on the evacuating fleet. But their troubles are just beginning.

A deadly plague has broken out on one of the spaceships and is mutating, with terrifying results. Their ship's protection is seriously flawed.

No one will say what is going on. As Kady hacks in to a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her: Ezra. And the only problem with that is they split up before all this trouble started, and she isn't supposed to be talking to him.

A fantastically original, heart-stopping adventure where everything is definitely more dangerous than it seems.

©2015 Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (P)2015 Listening Library
Classics Fantasy Fiction Heartfelt Science Fiction

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All stars
Most relevant
Great story, and well narrated, except for the poor enunciation of one of the line-up.

However, even the most innocuous profanity was 'bleeped out' by suppressing the volume of such words. The irony was that it was totally ineffective in making the words and just proved to be extremely irritating.

Either remove the words from the script, or man-up and read the ******* words precisely how the author ******* intended.

Pretty good, but....

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I listened to this when it first came out and am revisiting it again as book 3 has just been released. I am pretty sure I have reviewed it before, but here goes anyway.
It's awesome, the whole thing from the story to the production of the audio book are done so well that if you fail to at least appreciate that about it, then I feel there is no hope for humanity after all!! (only kidding)
I am sure this is not for everyone, for me it’s been a very large gulp of breathable very fresh air! Heart warmimg and even more heart breaking in parts (ok yes I cried) The whole story, that has been masterfully constructed by way of files (thus the title ) which are in the form of personal accounts, messages, recordings and investigations, is just brilliant. This is basically a story of the tragically horrifying disaster that starts at an illegal mining colony that is caused by corrupt corporate greed what follows is the lengths they will go to cover up the deed . As the story continues the ripple effect of the situation unfolds in all it's vile glory. Book 2 continues the story from another place in the galaxy that unfortunately becomes an unwilling part of the plot to cover up the facts, again it's also a great listen. I highly recommend reading or listening to them back to back if possible as it gives you the best experience of the complexity and quality of these books.
Jay Kristoff is a particularly great writer and if you enjoy sci-fi /fantasy then I would also highly recommend the Nevernight books.
I hope you enjoy this sci-fi series as much as I did............I just wonder when this will become a movie or three??

@#!*@$# BRILLIANT!!!!

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Great space zombie virus adventure very clever and its production hints of 2001 space Odyssey with the few rage zombies of course .. i’m looking forward to listening to the other books in the series not just listening to books read but being performed with the backing of music and sound effects not overly done but just enough to add to the experience highly recommend this book

Adventure space Odyssey

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What did you like most about Illuminae?

There was such a variety of very interesting and well-developed characters, you felt for each and every one of them.
The Setting- who doesn't dream of going to space?

What was one of the most memorable moments of Illuminae?

There were so many great moments in this book; that I found it really hard to choose just one.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

It added a whole new dimension to the story- i loved the descriptions and sound effects, made me feel as if you were actually there. You feel like part of the story and it helped you really engage with each character. Plus, the creepy/sinister edge to the AI's voice was spot-on

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

There were a couple;either
"The Space-Chase", "Fear is the Killer"(spoiler) or "Love Bytes"(computers play a big part in the story).

Any additional comments?

Can't wait for the third(and final) book in the series!! Would make a great movie or TV show.

An Exhilerating Thrill-Ride

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I wanna scream at my phone and then punch a hole through the atmosphere and go and explore the universe.. if you can find a word to describe that then... I love every second of it and will definitely listen/read it again in the future, this book is beauty encapsulated in words, no more no less. I've only ever fallen in love with one other book than this one (soldier of the legion) and illuminae blew it out of the water

uh... well... can I swear on this?

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