Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman
Aurora Cycle #1
Science Fiction YA
Knopf Books| May 7th, 2019
About the Book: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.
Reading the Aurora Cycle wasn’t high on my list of priorities. When it was released I was feeling a little tired of YA sci-fi fantasy, and wasn’t even really in the mood to finish Obsidio, let alone start Amie and Jay’s new series.
Plus, I’m not really into the cover.
What eventually wore me down was the fanart Jay Kristoff shares on his Instagram. There was something captivating about the cast of alien characters in this series that made me want to know more.
What I saw was pretty much what I got, and in this case that was a very good thing. I loved the futuristic world Amie and Jay came up with, and the host of alien types that made up squad 312. There was both bonds of friendship, and unexpected romantic entanglements. Basically, it was what I hope for in a YA novel.
In fact, overall I thought the first book in the Aurora Cycle was a solid opener. The ideas were fresh, the characters were original, and the ending was unexpected. Awfully unexpected. It was awful. Good. But awful.
I feel like this is one of my worst reviews. Sci-fi, and fantasy are two of the hardest genre’s to review. I’m so aware of not spoiling anything that I end up repeating myself.
This book was good.
Read it.
Birdie Bookworm 
I just started Aurora Rising and am loving it! 🙂
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I am so happy you loved this one too Wendy!
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It was really good! I can’t wait to read the second one.
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This book WAS good! I enjoyed it. I haven’t started Aurora Burning yet… it seems to be very polarizing – you either love it, or hate it!! I might wait until book 3 is closer!!
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Eep! That makes me nervous! Do we know the release date?
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Ha, I don’t even think we know the title yet, but I assume May 2021. Amie is pretty good at keeping to timelines, but Jay’s books have been known to be pushed out a year.
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BOGUS!! I was hoping you had some kind of intel! 😀
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HAHAHAHAHA!! I wish!!
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