Book Review

Book Review: Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning

May 30, 2020 /

Aurora Rising
by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

A Short Review

This was actually a reread for me. I read this about a year or two ago and it instantly sent me down the rabbit hole of Space Operas. My previous familiarity with the genre had been limited to the TV show “Firefly” and the Video Game series “Mass Effect”, both of which I have a deep fan-girling love for. This book opened up a whole new world for me because it never occurred to me that this could be a literary genre as well! I ended up reading 15+ books in this genre, probably right in a row. What can you do.

Anyway, Aurora Rising begins when Tyler Jones, a legionnaire on the brink of his Draft, takes a trip into the Fold and discovers an ancient, derelict space craft and one girl inside miraculously still alive in cryo-sleep. When he brings her back, he triggers a succession of events that pull him and his crew far away from their legion and the paths they thought they were born to follow. Soon they discover an ancient plot, startling truths about the forces that govern them and others and a mission to save the galaxy.


Dedication from the book

I give this read 5 stars because it has everything you could want from a Space Opera and a series beginner—fascinating characters, multiple alien species and the conflicts that come when vastly different cultures collide, interpersonal tension and attraction on the crew, and so much sarcasm. What would a space crew be without a member or two with big mouths right? It even has a cheery AI with only slight tendencies toward galaxy domination. 

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crazy adventures, tangled plots, good characters, and a trip into space. Sci-fi, Space Opera, Science Fantasy, if you like it, this book has got it. Did I mention Space Elves? Because there are Space Elves. So dive in! You’ll be glad you did.

Aurora Burning
by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

SPOILERS FOR AURORA RISING FOLLOW

I reread Aurora Rising in preparation for this book’s release, and I am so glad I was able to jump back into this world. For this one, I decided to go with the Audiobook since I have a commute to work and I had a credit ready. This…I regret. More to come.

Aurora Burning picks up with Squad 312 reeling from the discoveries they’ve made and what it cost them. Now that they understand what is at stake, they are eager to pursue any information they can find about the Weapon that will help them save the galaxy. The book opens, however, with the Squad trying to get rid of their Legionnaire ship. Wanted by the GIA, they have to keep a low profile. News comes out, however, accusing them of galactic terrorism and now even more people are after them and no one is willing to lend them a hand. The story follows the squad as they pursue lead after lead and trip from one bad situation into another. Will they be able to find the Weapon before their enemies find them? And if they find it…will Aurora even be able to wield it? It seems each step brings more questions and more challenges for them to face.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR AURORA BURNING

This is a longer story, with many twists, and nothing seems to be easy or right for our squad. I love that you get to delve deeper into each character. We finally see Zila’s backstory and it’s as compelling as I had hoped. Finian is as charming and hilarious as ever; Scarlett is her effervescent self. We are introduced to new characters that are connected in unexpected ways to our crew. There is plenty of plot here and plenty of character development. I want to go through the story again, this time actually reading the book because I think that the audio distracted me from the story so much that I can’t give a full review for it.

Also, the ending. I don’t want to spoil anything I’m just going to warn you that it ends on a pretty big cliff-hanger. If that’s not your cup of tea, I would highly recommend waiting until the next book comes out to enjoy this series.

So, to sum up. I recommend READING this to fans of the first book who don’t mind a cliff-hanger ending. And if you aren’t sensitive to people’s voices and accents, feel free to give the audiobook a try.

Final Notes: The Audiobook

About my experience with the Audiobook:

If you are sensitive to or easily irritated by people’s voices or the accents they use, I do not recommend the audiobook. Some of the narrators are great, and it was easy to listen to them. At the risk of sounding mean (please forgive me) I could not stand the way Auri’s narrator did her voice. She made her sound completely weak and pathetic for 90% of the book. It was a struggle to get through her chapters. Her voice trembled like 90% of the time. It made me want to reach in and slap her, which is not something I remember from Aurora Rising. It could be that this was how Aurora was written and was intended to be this way, but I could not tell because of how she narrated it.

Also, the accents are distracting. When Tyler’s narrator would do Kat’s voice, she had this weird cockney or Australian sounding accent that did nothing except distract me. Why did she have that accent? If they had known her from the time that she was 5 why would they have different accents? Also, Kal had an accent, which made sense because he’s Syldrathi, but it did throw me off in the beginning. I liked his narrator, however, so it was not a big deal. Finian’s narrator, Scarlett’s narrator, and Zila’s narrator all did wonderful jobs and I enjoyed listening to them. But the other accents and vocal choices bothered me so much that I felt like I was misinterpreting or missing entire sections of the story because of it.

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