REVIEW: Aurora Rising (#1) - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Title: Aurora Rising (#1)

Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Series: Aurora Rising
Publisher: Rock the Boat
Format: Hardback
Pages: 470 Pages
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Goodreads Blurb

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.

Thoughts

I received this as part of the Illumicrate subscription box last year and expected really good things from this book as I had previously read and loved The Illuminae Files by this writing duo.

The book follows Tyler, an Alpha in the Aurora Legion, who is on the cusp of graduating first in his class and having the first pick of his squad. Due to being unable to sleep he takes a ship out into the void and finds a ship floating dead in space and manages to save a girl. This makes him late and his squad is made up of what graduates are left. Here are the beginnings of Squad 312.

I always worry when starting a new series by authors I love because I always hold high expectations for them, and this delivered them and more.

I found myself really loving the pace of this story, and every chapter ended with a cliffhanger, I always wanted to continue on as I needed to know what happened next. I read the book as part of the Illumicrate read-along, and how I managed to stop each day I don't know how I did it.

I found myself loving Squad 312, how they were considered the dregs of the graduates, but as a squad, they all do work well together. I also found myself loving the inclusion of Aurora into the group, and the mystery surrounding her story.
I think out of Squad 312 (who I include Aurora in with), it is hard to choose a favourite, they all bring something to the book that adds to the whole experience.

Overall, this is a 5-star book for me and was one of my favourite books of 2019, watch out for my review on Aurora Burning, coming soon.