Gemina is the second book in The Illuminae Files, and the authors added Marie Lu as a contributor to this high-adrenaline sequel.
While the people of Kerenza IV are running for their lives in a hobbled spaceship, the messages they send to the Heimdall way station are being intercepted. Life is continuing as normal at the wormhole, and the WUC base built around it. Hanna Donnelly thinks living here with her father is so boring, she might die. She doesn’t expect that the day it gets exciting, she actually might die.
Hanna Donnelly and Kady Grant are the same. While we’re at it, Nik and Ezra are also the same. Don’t get me wrong, I like them. But they’re stock characters. Spunky, sassy teens with little substance behind them. This both works and doesn’t. Typically, I find a change in perspectives between books disorienting; I get attached to characters, which is probably why I like books in series. But a switch in characters is hard because I don’t know these new folks. Why do I care what’s happening to them?
In this case, I care because Kady & Hanna and Ezra & Nik are the same people. They make the same jokes, have the same sense of humor, and have the same determination. The difference is in their Tragic Backstory ™. Even Isaac Grant comments that he’s terrified for the day Hanna and Kady meet. This is helpful, in a way, because it provided the continuity I like.
I want to know what these authors’ obsession with the nightmare fuel is? WHY? And they narrated it through AIDAN. Which is also terrifying because he’s terrifying. Writing about/worshiping the lanima in verse did not make it suddenly palatable. Looking at them as the perfect predators through a demented, killer AI’s mind made it even spookier.
These authors do not shy away from violence, and they’re pretty clear about what’s happening. If that’s bothersome, consider whether to read this series. I understand Kady’s revenge mission, I do. The assault BeiTech planned was unimaginable and horrific to begin with, and it went even worse than it should have. On its own, BeiTech’s acts were a war crime. In the end, it turned into genocide.
For me, the hardest part of reading this book was thinking about what happens after. The point of this book was surviving a hit-team on the Heimdall station, but I kept thinking about the people who were killed. It felt like the characters had no one left at the end, which was hard to conceptualize. For me and the characters. The reader can see Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik all grapple with the reality that many of their loved ones would not survive this attack. It all felt so heavy and impossible.
Regardless of how painful this book can be to read, I find myself needing to know what happens next. What is left for them on Kerenza? What does their supply level look like – will they even make it back to Kerenza alive? Does BeiTech have any other nefarious act planned for the refugees? So I’ll be looking forward to finishing out the series with Obsidio.
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