The Illuminae Files

I'm not sure how I want to format this page yet, but working on the robots page got me in the mood to rant about this series, so here we are. I do have the ulterior motive of trying to get more people to read the series, so I will try to keep any spoilers separate from the discussions of each book.

Working in progress!

How I found the series

I'll repeat what I said on the other page here. I originally found the series when I saw Gemina on a shelf at Walmart. I thought the cover looked cool and the plot sounded interesting enough, so I bought it. Then, obviously, I realized it was the second book in the series, so I bought the first book. It really must have been fate, because I never saw any of the books at Walmart (or any other store besides BN, for that matter) ever again.

Basically all of my clearest memories of middle school are related to this book. Sitting on the floor of gym class reading my paperback Illuminae for the first time, every other page doggy-eared because I thought the writing was so beautiful and there were so many quotes I wanted to remember. Forcing all my friends to read it. Carrying it with me everywhere, like a comfort object. (And, because it's a book, it's a good thing to have in public when you don't know what else to do. Phones weren't a big pasttime for us in middle school yet.)

Illuminae

From the Wikipedia page: "Illuminae is a 2015 young adult space opera epistolary novel written by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. This is the first novel of the series The Illuminae Files. The story is told through a series of documents including classified reports, censored emails, and interviews." I think the epistolary format was the first thing that drew me in. I had never read a book like that before. The non-linear form was so interesting and....novel, if you will (hA).

Plot synopsis, taken from Goodreads:
"This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra — who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents — including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more — Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes."

Promotional materials
• A message from Ezra Mason
• A message from AIDAN
• A message from Kady Grant
• Emergency on Alexander-78V

Some trivia I like (quoted from press releases):
• To get the right level of snootiness when writing Dorian’s dialogue, Jay imagined him being voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch.
• The way the ships hail each other over the radio—using their names three times—draws from Amie’s experience growing up sailing. Names are repeated so if there’s a break in transmission that information isn’t missed.
• The arresting officers and murderer described in the arrest report on pg 151 (Randy Blythe, Mark Morton, Chris Adler) are all members of Lamb of God, one of Jay’s favourite bands.
• The bloodstains on the medical report on pg 158 were made by Jay spitting mouthfuls of red paint at blank sheets of paper in his kitchen. It did not taste nice.
• Sykes from McNulty’s squad is named for Oliver Sykes, lead singer of Bring Me the Horizon (another of Jay’s fave bands). (This one kills me.)
• All IM scenes between Kady and Ezra in the book were written in real time chat between Amie and Jay. They were completely unscripted – all the jokes, plot ideas and story hooks are ad-libbed.
• Jay wrote every word of AIDAN’s sequences listening to the same song (“Bleed” by Meshuggah) playing over and over again. He normally never listens to music when writing. (This one also kills me.)
• Even though AIDAN’s databases show no record of “Crazytown” on pg 461, there actually was a band called Crazytown in the late 90s, who played a sleazy fusion of porno jazz and nu metal. But in Jay and Amie’s dark future, Crazytown were deemed so terrible, humanity purged all record of their existence sometime in the 22nd century.

Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment, and Warner Bros originally announced their plans to make a film adaptation of Illuminae in 2015, shortly after the book was published. As far as I can tell (as of 2022), the movie is still in production. There hasn't been any official news about the project being abandoned (that I can find) but the most recent article that mentions the movie is from the end of 2018.

Gemina

Obsidio

Memento