Illuminae by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff

Rating: Awesome!

Series: The Illuminae Files
Hardcover: 608 pages
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; 1St Edition edition (October 20, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553499114
ISBN-13: 978-0553499117
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.9 x 9.5 inches

Summary:
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 a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit. But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again. Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

This book has been receiving a lot of buzz on the blogger verse and when "Ticket to Anywhere" raved about it in her review, I knew I had to give it ago. The raving is well deserved, it is a thrill ride of a book that is action packed and I was hooked the minute I started reading. I am afraid this review might just be full of me raving about how much I enjoyed it and less about the actual book.

This has to be one of the best science-fiction books I have read in a long time. Definitely one of my top reads for the year. I was hooked and invested the whole way through.The pace was fast with the characters bouncing from one disaster to another. t was well crafted to reveal just enough information at the right time building the story till you get to the action packed ending.

Format wise the story is told from data sources rather then a straight single or multiple person point of view. So the reader is reading transcripts, reports and chat log records which tells the story. I find this style of story telling hit or miss but his time it was a big hit. It suited the story perfectly. The book pages are also formatted this way as well. This formatting was a problem a few times when reading it as an ebook on a small screen. The font was super small and as it was an image not font I couldn't enlarge it. So there were a couple of pages where i had to guess what was going on. I don't think I missed anything of significance though.

I really liked Kady as a character who was tough and nerdy. Ezra was the loveable jock. The two made an interesting duo who counterbalanced each others weakness and strengths.

There were some difficult scenes to read and there is quite a death toll (as you would expect when a town is attacked, then refugees flee for their lives with the enemy chasing them and a plague out break happens). While the violence isn't super descriptive or unnecessary there were definitely a few scenes in the book that were on the squimish side.

If you like Sci-Fi and Young adult then this book should definitely be on your to read list.

Cozmo's Day Off - ebook

Rating: 5 out of 5

Application: iPhone/iPad

Seller: Ayars Animation Inc

Price at time of Review: $4.99 AU (there is also a free lite version)

I have not been a huge fan of ebooks for children on the iPhone/iPad. Most of the ones I have downloaded were literally a slide show with pictures. For me this is was just a wasted opportunity. But Cozmo's Day off is not a narrated slide show, it is a fully interactive experience for kids and adults alike. THIS is how a children's ebook should be.

Cozmo is a little green alien who is having one of "those" days. He is trying to get to work and everything is going wrong. The story follows Cozmo's journey as he tries to get to work.

The story:

• The illustrations are amazing, they are bright colourful and incredibly detailed. Also the quality of the images and graphics is evident.
• Cozmo is incredibly adorable and likable.
• The narrator has a wonderful animated voice, it reminds me of those voices on the tv adverts from the 50's. I loved it and its the first narrated children's ebook I haven't wanted to change.
• The story is told through rhyme and is lyrical which makes it fun to read aloud. It is simple and cute with lines.

The cool stuff:

• Virtually everything on the screen can be animated. Just touch around the screen and you will be amazed at what happens. Things play music, move, jump, or in the case of the space ship steal alarm clocks. Some things need to be touched first to activate other things, and some things will say/do different things every time you touch them.
• Some pages have puzzles and games to play. I had way to much fun playing the "whack the alien" type game on one page.
• You can play with the narrators voice. By moving the slider you can have a normal voice, or you can have a robot or squeaky alien! I kept mine in the middle with the normal but slightly over the top narrators voice.
• You can record your own voice if you so wish.

My thoughts:

I am not sure if children over 5 would get much out of the story. The story is simple and cute, like wise the games are very basic. But for kids under 5 (my son is 15 months) they will love it. My son was entranced with the story and kept giving me big broad smiles as each new thing happened.

There is a free lite version which has some very basic animated features, if you want to give it a try first. I got this one first but fell in love with the story and pictures, and more importantly my son adored it so I happily paid for the full version. I would heartily recommend this ebook to anyone who has an iphone or ipad.