#66 Aurora Rising

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

'They are not the heroes we deserve, they are just the ones we could find' 

Aurora Rising is the beginning of a new sci-fi series by the dynamic duo that is Kaufman & Kristoff. I was really glad when picking this one up that it followed a more traditional format instead of the mixed media they do in their Illuminae Files, which i also enjoyed but my fear was that the mixed media would have felt over done if they had carried it into their new series.

Aurora Rising follows a fleet of misfits from the Aurora Academy in the year 2380. The book opens with the star pupil of the Aurora Academy Tyler, on his way to the draft in which he gets to pick his fleet, he has the first pick but has to rescue a survivor from an abandoned ship in which the passengers have been cryrogenically frozen and have been floating in the 'fold' for two thousand years but a scan of the ship shows one survivor who Tyler rescues and brings back to the academy also missing the draft and leaving him with the pupils that no one else picked.

I fell in love with the characters pretty quickly especially Zila, i found her character to be well developed and the most complex. It felt a little like Guardians of the Galaxy mixed with Six of Crows as they were a bunch of ragtags thrown together for an adventure. The world building is very subtly placed throughout the story and can be found at the end of most chapters and gives the reader an insight into the background of the society and the civilisation.

The main players in this story are:

• Tyler Jones- The star pupil/golden boy of Aurora Academy and the alpha of the fleet
• Scarlett Jones- The twin sister of Tyler who is in charge of diplomacy and negiotiation and fierce af
• Cat- The pilot who may or may not be in love with Tyler
• Finnian- the sciencey guy who is hilarious yet impulsive and very dry, possible bisexual rep? 
• Zila- The misunderstood tech hacker girl who is dubbed the smartest 
• Kal- the fearless alien warrior of the bunch 
• Auri- The girl who was found by Tyler floating in space

This story was heavy on the sci-fi and not so heavy on the romance which i heavily appreciated, there are a few hints of romance here and there but nothing that will make you roll your eyes. I found this story in the beginning to be quite similar to Skyward by Brandon Sanderson as it starts out in a space school type setting but it really found its own after this first quarter. Parts were very thrilling and edge of your seat which made for a very fun read. I read this physically but have heard amazing reviews of the audiobook as its read by a full cast. I really enjoyed this story and ultimately gave it 4 stars. 

My hopes for the next book in the series are more character development and a bit of back story for each specifically Fin, i need to know the full story behind the exo suit. A back story for Zila would be great too.