Author:
Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman
Release
Date: October 20, 2015
Pages: 608
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook, Audiobook
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.
This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
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Now on to the interview!
Hi Amie and Jay! First I want to say welcome to Two Chicks on Books! ILLUMINAE was f*** awesome and am so happy that you could stop by for a visit!
Jay: Huzzzaaaah, glad you liked
it!
Amie: Thank you for having
us!
For the readers: can you tell us a little bit about
ILLUMINAE and the characters?
Amie: It’s a horror action
romance thriller mystery, told through a series of hacked documents, like IM
conversations, emails, video surveillance, medical reports, etc. In
spaaaaaaaace.
Jay: Everything is better
in spaaaaaaace. The main characters are Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, two high
school kids who broke up the same day their remote colony was invaded. They’re
hustled onto an evacuation fleet and end up on different ships. Kady is a bit
of a nerd grrl, who uses her computer skills among the fleet’s hacker
community. Ezra is something of a jock, who gets conscripted into the military
to bolster their depleted fighter pilot crews. Hijinks ensue.
What about book 2? Is there a title yet?
Jay: Book 2 is a sequel,
picking up where ILLUMINAE leaves off. It’s set on a space station, but we
can’t talk too much about it without getting into huge spoiler territory, and
most people haven’t read book 1 yet!
Amie: What we can tell you
is that although you’ll definitely want to know what happens in book 2, book 1
doesn’t end on a terriblehorrible cliffhanger either. Book 2 does have a title,
but if we told you, Random House would send out one of its Ninja Death Squads
and we couldn’t have that on our conscience. Those guys have no mercy.
If you had to evacuate earth on a spaceship right
now what is the one thing that you MUST take with you?
Amie: Chocolate.
Jay: Bourbon.
Were any of the characters in the book inspired by
people from your real life?
Jay: I think all authors
take inspiration from their own lives, whether it’s the people around them or
their own experiences. But there’s no-one overtly based on anyone we know.
Considering what we do to most characters in this book, that’d just be mean.
Amie: There are lots of “bit
parts” in the book. Innocent bystander #3 and Hapless Victim #6 and so on. So
whenever we were stumped for names, we’d use someone we knew. The Copernicus
casualty list is full of our friends, booksellers we know, people who work at Random
House. And a few of our author friends who were early advocates of the book
also got guest roles. Marie Lu got to be a famous movie producer. Laini Taylor
is the subject of some medical experiments. We had a lot of fun filling the
book with easter eggs for clever readers.
Who was your favorite character to write? What
about your least favorite?
Amie: Kady, I’d say. Kady
goes through a LOT in this book, and one of the things we
focused on was
ensuring she didn’t become superhuman in the process. She’s kicking ass and
taking names, but she’s absolutely freaking out while she’s doing it, and that
was important for me. Also, getting to direct that amount of sass at everyone
within range was pretty liberating.
Jay: Probably AIDAN for me.
We didn’t really expect our broken little AI to become the character it
did—initially it was just a way for us to introduce some really interesting
design elements to the book, by having its madness effect the formatting of the
files. But as we got deeper, AIDAN really evolved into one of the coolest
characters I’ve ever written. It asks a lot of heavy questions, about morality,
humanity, immortality. And watching some of the debates already springing up
about it online is a lot of fun. People end up quite stumped about how to feel
about AIDAN, which is always the sign of a deep character. Not bad for a bunch
of ones and zeroes.
What is your favorite passage/scene in ILLUMINAE?
Jay: Oh, wow. Really hard
to pick. There are so many parts of this book I just love in the pants. I think
the IMs between Kady and Ezra are probably up there for me. You see so much of
their characters and the way they feel about each other in just a few lines of
text. Amie and I adlibbed all those scenes—we’d start with a rough idea of what
needed to happen (ie, “K&E have a fight here”) but the dialogue was all
completely unscripted. Watching us bounce off each other’s ideas and pick up
each other’s threads and run with them is just the most fun I’ve ever had
writing a book. There’s one scene where Ezra was musing about all the times he
thought about kissing Kady before he actually worked up the courage to do it,
and Amie picked up that idea and wrote this killer, slam dunk ending for the
scene that still makes me smile two years later.
Amie: Aw, see, you CAN be
nice! I have noooo idea how to pick. There’s this scene that runs from p573-575
that I can’t tell you about because SPOILERS, which Jay wrote. In it, Kady and
AIDAN are waiting for a Significant Plot Event to take place, and I cried
buckets when I read it. (See aforementioned confusion about how to feel about
AIDAN.) But for something I can talk more about, there’s this scene where
Ezra’s in a dogfight in space—he’s been conscripted into the military—and the
combination of language and design is just beyond. Pages 275-277 are my
favourites. The line “He presses his triggers, and like roses in his hands
death blooms” is just the perfect fit for that moment, and as he then glances
at the picture of Kady taped to his console… ack, I stil get a little wobbly
thinking about it. Jay nailed it.
What kind of research did you have to do for the
story?
Amie: Lllllllots. Most of
the ideas people have about the way space works comes from Hollywood, rather
than science, and Hollywood tends to drop-kick facts for the sake of theater.
We devoured anything we could find about space—documentaries, live feeds,
histories. We actually thanked Hank Green and the team at SciShow Space in the
back of the book, because their work is incredible (and incredibly funny).
Commander Chris Hadfield’s videos from the ISS were also a huge source of
inspiration, although we forgot to thank him in the acknowledgments. We’re
terrible L
Jay: Terrrrrrible. We had a
whole team of consultants read through the text and call us on anywhere we’d
goofed. We got 25 pages of notes from an astrophysicist friend of ours. We
talked to doctors and psychologists, computer hackers (who we can’t name for
legal reasons) police officers, military people, you name it. So even though we
were writing this horror romance thriller with insane AIs and explosions in
spaaaaaaaace, all the science is 100% legit.
How was it writing ILLUMINAE together? Amie I know
you’ve co-written books before but Jay isn’t this your first time?
Jay: First time, yep.
Although my former day job actually had a lot in common with co-
authoring—I
used to work as a Creative in advertising, and your day basically consists of
sitting in a room with another person and bouncing ideas for scripts around.
Writing ILLUMINAE was by far the coolest collaborative experience I’ve ever
had, though. It was just so much FUN to write. When we were kicking the ideas
around, Amie and I knew the book was probably going to be too weird for it to
actually sell, and editors apparently weren’t buying SciFi at that stage, so we
really just wrote it for ourselves. No idea was too outlandish, no thought too
crazy.
Amie: And that idea was so
freeing—we thought hey, if we’re writing it for ourselves, let’s make no
compromises, and do exactly what we imagine. Of course, then we found a
publishing team even more insane than us, and they dived into the design and
execution of this thing like it was a pit full of chocolate. Writing together
was brilliant fun—obviously you pick a co-author whose work you admire, and
getting to see what they’ve done to this story you love is just amazing.
Lightning Round Questions
What are you reading right now? Or what do you have
on your TBR that you’re dying to read?
Jay: Six of Crows by Leigh
Bardugo
Amie: The Immortal Heights
by Sherry Thomas
What Hogwarts House would the Sorting Hat place you
in?
Amie: So very Ravenclaw
Jay: Slytherin 4 life,
boiiiiiiii
What inspired you to write YA?
Jay: I write both adult and
YA stuff. Honestly, I just listen to the story in my head. If turns out to be
YA, great. The YA community is awesome, there’s so much energy and enthusiasm.
I love it.
Amie: My stories just turn
out that way! I guess I refuse to grow up.
Twitter or Facebook?
Amie: Twittttttter
Jay: If you can’t say it in
140 characters, it’s not worth saying. Unless you’re writing a book, I guess :P
Favorite Superhero?
Jay: Silver Surfer.
Amie: Loki. By which I mean Tom Hiddleston.
Favorite TV show?
Amie: The West Wing
Jay: The Wire.
Sweet or Salty?
Jay: Salty.
Amie: Both. Chocolate and
peanut butter ftw.
Any Phobias?
Amie: I have horrible dreams
sometimes about my teeth falling out, does that count?
Jay: Old people are pretty
scary.
Amie: Seriously, Jay?
Song you can’t get enough of right now?
Amie: I’m still stuck on
Take Me To Church by Hosier
Fall Movie you’re most looking forward to?
Amie: The Martian. By the time you read this I will have seen it and it
will have been GLORIOUS I TELL YOU.
Jay: Jem and the Hologr . . . hahaha, no, sorry I can’t.
Probably Tom Hardy’s Kray brothers
bipic, Legend. Or MacBeth, because Fassbender.
Thanks so much Amie and Jay for answering my questions! I can’t
wait for everyone to read ILLUMINAE and I can’t wait for book 2!
Jay: <33>
Amie: What he said.
Amie Kaufman is the New York Times bestselling co-author of These Broken Stars and This Shattered World, and Illuminae, the first in a new series starting in 2015. She writes science fiction and fantasy for teens, and her favourite procrastination techniques involve chocolate, baking, sailing, excellent books and TV, plotting and executing overseas travel, and napping.
She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, their rescue dog, and her considerable library. She is represented by Tracey Adams of Adams Literary.
She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, their rescue dog, and her considerable library. She is represented by Tracey Adams of Adams Literary.
Jay is 6’7 and has approximately 13380 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell.
He does not believe in happy endings.
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a finished copy of ILLUMINAE. US/Canada Only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Check out the Tour Schedule!
Oct 1 – The Fandom. Interview and giveaway
Oct 1 – Compulsive Reader. Review and giveaway
Oct 1 – Uppercase Box. Audiobook clip and giveaway.
Oct 2 – YAReads. Review
Oct 2 – Books With Bite. Review
Oct 3 – Addicted 2 Novels. Giveaway
Oct 4 – Brittany’s Book Rambles. Review and giveaway
Oct 5 – Icey Books. Review
Oct 5 – Fantastic Flying Book Club. Review and giveaway
Oct 6 – Ex Libris. Review and giveaway
Oct 7 – My Friends are Fiction. Review and giveaway
Oct 7 – Cuddlebuggery. Guest post
Oct 8 – YA Interrobang. Interview and giveaway
Oct 8 – JessaBella Reads. Interview and giveaway
Oct 9 – A Reader of Fiction. Review and giveaway
Oct 9 – The Ravenous Reader. Giveaway
Oct 10 – Good Books & Good Wine. Review and giveaway
Oct 10 – The Reader Bee. Review and giveaway
Oct 11 – The Reading Nook Review. Review
Oct 11 – The Eater of Books! Giveaway
Oct 12 – Novel Heartbeat. Review and giveaway
Oct 12 – Two Chicks on Books. Interview and giveaway
Oct 13 – A Dream Within A Dream. Review and giveaway
Oct 14 – The Starry-Eyed Revue. Guest post
Oct 15 – Supernatural Snark. Interview
Oct 15 – Unofficial Addiction Book. Review
Oct 16 – Xpresso Reads. Guest post and giveaway
Oct 16 – Rainy Day Ramblings. Review and giveaway
Oct 17 – Effortlessly Reading. Review and giveaway
Oct 17 – Page Turners. Interview
Oct 18 – Mundie Moms Books Review. Review
Oct 18 – SFF World. Guest post
Oct 19 – Chapter By Chapter. Review
Oct 19 – Confessions of a Vi3tbabe. Review and giveaway
Oct 20 – Novel Novice. Review
Oct 20 – Nightly Reading. Review
Oct 21 – Live to Read. Review and giveaway
Oct 21 – My Bookish Ways. Interview and giveaway
Oct 22 – SF Signal. Guest post
Oct 22 – SciFiChick. Review and giveaway
This book looks so amazing!! I was brutally disappointed not to win as part of the YA Scavenger hunt. So thanks for giving me another shot. What a fun interview!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea - combining a break up story with an alien invasion. Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a fantastic new series that I can't wait to read!
ReplyDeleteTalk about an exciting premise! Wow! And I must check out The Lotus Wars too. Thanks for the giveaway and post!
ReplyDeleteThe interview was so fun to read! Jay is hilarious! So excited to read Illuminae and see all the easter eggs they left ;)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read the book!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read the book!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds amazing. I've heard lots of great things.
ReplyDeleteHeard a lot of good things about this book, Can't wait to get my hands on it.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds so good! I can't wait to read it!
ReplyDeleteI read some great things about this book and I can't wait to read it! Thanks for the chance to win! :)
ReplyDelete