AURORA RISING by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Published by Oneworld Publications

AURORA Rising is the first of a new series called The Aurora Cycle. Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff have worked together in the past on a trilogy of books and a short prequel novella, beginning with Illuminae. Their previous collaborations were also classed under the genre of science fiction. When writing science fiction, especially for young adult readers, it’s important to have enough in it that’s more human and easier to understand – something to hold their attention along with the more exciting, far-off ideas. The use of more classic drama themes with relatable characters and relationships helps to solidify this as a series for YA readers.

At the beginning we’re introduced to one of the main characters, Tyler Jones, a confident and organised student spacecraft pilot at the Aurora Academy who while on a short trip when he can’t sleep decides to answer a distress signal that changes everything. He rescues Auri, a mysterious girl that’s been cryogenically frozen and, due to this, misses the opportunity to pick his new squad and is left with a group of misfits, his twin sister and of course the girl he’s just rescued.

The story is told through switching between the perspectives of all seven members of the group and I found it wise to have started with Tyler as his position in it is a little different to the others. He’s viewed widely as a sort of golden boy and establishing him as the captain of a less than desirable group is an interesting concept.

It’s established quickly that the group sort of mimics the idea of The Breakfast Club and takes it to a whole new level. The moral I gathered from this story is one of learning to accept and grow with vastly different backgrounds and personalities, and this is one seen all over modern media and one I’ve always loved seeing new takes on. One of my problems however, is that using the backdrop of a futuristic space mission seemed to fall flat more often than it should have. With common, tired tropes of both young adult fiction and typical science fiction adventures sneaking their way in at the least opportune moments, I felt like it was easy to get confused and these less fortunate points made the plot and themes more confusing.

The concept and ambition that I saw in Aurora Rising was astounding and I’m certainly interested in what Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff intend to do with the rest of this series. My concerns with having seen a lot of it before, and occasionally getting tangled up in a plot that didn’t hold my intention quite enough, remain but there were parts of this book that I really enjoyed. For example, how the characters and the way they related to each other was handled. The use of multiple perspectives made it easy to become attached to them and the drama and romance subplots that young people can relate to and find intrigue in often overshadowed the main sci-fi plot on their own.

As it is common with YA books I read, I found myself much more attached to the ensemble than the situation and world that they were in. The futuristic setting is relevant to their backstories and character development that I loved to read about so much, but if this main plot was elevated a little more it would be the perfect read. Despite finding it a little to easy to put down at times, I’ll be reading the next book in The Aurora Cycle with hope.