Amazing Aurora

I loved this book
I loved all the different narrators
and
I'd love to get my hands on the next book

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3 people found this helpful

breathtaking

Absolutely adored this book and it's reading. cannot wait to dive into book 2. highly recommended

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Best Author duo ever

I love this author duo. they bring the best stories and the audiobook production for them are beyond fantastic. they are immersive and keep your focus.

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2 people found this helpful

Bloody Brilliant!

Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman are becoming my favourite authors and their audiobooks are amazingly produced. Not just the Aurora serves but The Illuminae Files too. All fantastic audiobooks. I will continue to recommend them to everyone who loves science fiction and fantasy books!

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1 person found this helpful

Fascinating Story

I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐ if I could.

This book is set centuries into the future, when humanity has discovered a way to transition the galaxy using ‘folds’ in space. As they have explored they have met other races of sentient beings and learnt how to live with them after a few centuries of warring. To help police the galaxy is Legion formed from several races who train their youngsters to become the force that keeps everyone safe. However, if you travel through the fold, once you reach 25 years old the forces that the fold inflict on the human body start to affect the mind meaning everyone over that age must travel through the fold in stasis. Captains, pilots, diplomats and engineers and others, all must be people under the age of 25. Training ends at age 18 and they are sent out into the galaxy to fulfil the orders they receive from Aurora Academy.

On the day that the graduating class receive notification of their squads, Tyler Jones can’t sleep and heads out into the fold to rest his brain. Instead of rest he finds a ship that went missing 200 years ago and the single survivor inside a sleep pod is Aurora O’Malley. Rescuing her sets a sequence of events in motion that he could never have imagined, his life has changed forever with that one decision to go flying.

This story evolves into a fascinating adventure where a team of young people find themselves alone in the galaxy trying to find a way to save as they know it. Alone and unguided, except by their own instincts they must face dangers they don’t understand until it’s too late. Aurora has been changed by 2 centuries in the fold, everyone she knew is dead and the galaxy is a very different place to the one she knew when she went to sleep.

The world building in this book is excellent. There are different races and worlds that are articulately and imaginatively described helping bring the story to life.

The characters are all interesting and though they are all young, they are mature by today’s standards having trained hard since they were 11 or 12 years old to take on massive responsibilities at age 18. The interactions between the characters are fun with some of the characters knowing each other exceptionally well and others are strangers who have to find their way into being fully integrated members of a squad. There is the banter of the familiar interwoven with the prickliness of standers being forced into close contact. It’s well done and interesting to read.

The story is fascinating with the roots of it being set millennia in the past. The current characters are blips on the timeline, but they the most vital to it’s conclusion. This story starts simply and grows more complex with each chapter as the plot is revealed layer by layer right up until the end.

This book had several narrators which I quite enjoyed though as one of the characters had either an Australian or New Zealand accent that the other narrators were forced to duplicate when speaking with her voice there were some quite shaky parts. As they had multiple narrators I think it might have been better to have those narrators speak with their own voices throughout each chapter rather than have one narrator speak the section told from their point of view and leave them struggling with conveying the different character’s voices. Some narrators were better than others at doing this and when there was a poorly done section it detracted from my enjoyment and broke my concentration. I understand that it a lot more complicated from a production point of view, but I felt they should have made the harder choice if they were going to have multiple narrators anyway.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will definitely listen to the next book in the series, because I want to know what happens next.

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1 person found this helpful

Enjoyable and easy listen!

Loved this ragtag crew finding their way in the universe together - Great story and I’m glad there are sequels to continue on to.
I listened whenever I got a chance and got through it quickly as it was such an easy listen with the pace of the plot and just wanting to hear ‘one more chapter’ (which was usually more than one and kept me up late!)
I loved the different narrators taking a chapter based on the main featured character in that part of the story.
An overall recommended experience for those who like light-hearted, character driven sci-fi.

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Amazing character work

Everyone is memorable, different, and jump
Off the page. Jay Kristoff amazing as always, a great collab

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Fabulous story, voice acting and production

My friend had suggested the Illuminae Files to me and so I read those and LOVED them. Devoured the audiobooks in quick succession. Naturally her next suggestion was this new series and OMG I am in love. It is the perfect blend of young adult and science fiction. If you love star trek you will like this. The mixture of characters and the use of multiple narrators, performed beautifully by the voice actors, helps to really immerse you in the world. Additionally the subtle use of sound effects, music and voice augmentation really help surround yourself in the world which I feel gives another dimension to the audiobook in comparison to purely reading the text. Would highly recommend and continue on to the next book in the series Aurora Burning.

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1 person found this helpful

Great entertaining listen

This was a really enjoyable listen with a great cast of narrators. I don’t usually like too many sound effects in audiobooks but it works really well in this storyline, I especially liked the radio communications between the characters which was a pleasant surprise. This is YA so don’t expect anything too heavy going, it’s more a light fun listen/read. Now onto book 2!

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really good story

cool story different voice actors for each characters chapters instead of constantly acting one charchter Wich was a little odd but still really good

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