Dear Author... } “Aurora Rising” by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

Humanity has come a long way by the year 2380 in “Aurora Rising,” written by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman. Countless alien species and planets have been discovered, wars have been fought and humanity’s presence has stretched across galaxies. Aurora Academy is a military training academy located millions of light years away from Earth, and Tyler Jones is at the top of his class. At graduation he should theoretically be able to pick the best of the best for his squad, but his plans go awry when he rescues a girl from cryosleep on a strange spaceship.

Tyler is not only stuck with this girl, Auri, but also the rejects that no other squad leader wanted. Auri discovers she has strange powers, and the earthen government declares her and the squad fugitives.

The squad is pursued across the galaxy by the government and during this, they discover a secret that could destroy the entire galaxy.

It was interesting to see how the authors imagined life 300 years into the future. Different alien species were involved with the entirety of the book, and in a way it reminded me of Star Wars. I wish more of the galaxy was shown in the book though. As it was, “Aurora Rising” felt a little bland, in more than one way.

The characters needed a bit more work; one of their traits were too similar to the other characters. At first, each character’s narration was unique, but over time these grew to be similar and uniform too. The authors needed to include more backstory for each character to help diversify them.

The entire book was action packed, and I never knew what was going to happen next. The very end of the book was the best part because a lot of things that happened earlier finally made sense. The ending easily held my attention and was most definitely not bland, unlike the rest of the story.

While “Aurora Rising” may not have been the best book, there is plenty of room for improvement later in the series. I am looking forward to seeing how the characters develop and how they deal with the obstacles the universe throws their way.

Signed, Rita Nicholson

Copy Editor