Gemina is book two in the Illuminae Files, a high sci fi novel focused around an illegal mining hub in a supposedly empty planet gone wrong, and the political fall out in the shape of... well... trying to kill everyone and a space race, mixed with alien creatures who kill humans.

Every time I got this out of the library I never got around to it, based of it's sheer size, but I finally did and holy smokes, I loved this!! Yes, it is big, but I found it a relatively quick read thanks to the diverse range of ways the story was told. If you've read Illuminae you'll know what I'm talking about as this series is written with a new take on the epistolary novel. There's pictures, radio transcripts, messenger like chats, AI kind of poetry and so much more. In fact, I think I enjoyed Gemina's style more than Illuminae's somehow?

Then there's the story itself. Book 2 has it's own solid plot but about half way through you start to see the connections between it and Book 1. I found this exciting as it meant that actions and events had follow through and consequences, they weren't just left to float in space so to say.

This isn't to say it's not without it's faults. The romance in this seemed a bit quick burn in order to have more reader buy in... tbh it worked so not mad. I also found the pace a bit off in the first quarter too, but overall it picked up to be an entertaining roller coaster of a read.