April 15, 2019
In 2380, Aurora Academy’s Tyler Jones has it all. He’s the most decorated cadet in his year, in line for the best missions with peacekeeping group Aurora Legion, and ready to recruit his dream squad—he just has to get through the Draft. But when a late-night flight reveals a ship that disappeared more than 200 years ago, he follows protocol and rescues a cryogenically frozen human girl, missing the Draft entirely. Stuck with his twin sister and a squad of misfits no one else wants, Tyler resigns himself to making supply runs for the foreseeable future. Then Auri, the girl he rescued, turns up as a stowaway. Now on the run from the Global Intelligence Agency, which will stop at nothing to capture Auri, Tyler and his squad must bring her to safety and probe deeper into her visions of Octavia, a lost human colony in a different solar system. The story is told from seven perspectives, which can make for uneven character development, but coauthors Kaufman and Kristoff (the Illuminae Files series) maintain an exciting, fast pace; a steadily coalescing band of crewmates; and plentiful romantic tension in this entertaining space opera. Ages 12–up.

Starred review from May 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* At the Aurora Academy, in the year 2380, cadets train to become part of a six-member squad. Tyler Jones is a born Alpha?a squad leader?but as the day of the Draft arrives, when he's supposed to get first pick of his squad members, he's in space rescuing a girl frozen in cryo on a ship full of bodies. Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley has been asleep for more than 200 years; part of a doomed settlers' mission, her vanished spaceship is legendary. As Tyler deals with the consequences of missing the Draft?sure, he's got his twin sister, Scarlett, and his best friend, Cat, on his side, but his squad now includes a techie with an attitude problem, a scientist that shoots people out of curiosity, and an alien combat strategist who's really, really violent?Auri tries to adjust. When she reencounters Tyler and his squad, the whole crew find themselves wrapped up in a mission that's bigger than any of them?and maybe a little bigger than they can handle. The brains behind the Illuminae Files team up for another high-concept, higher-�stakes sf adventure. Rotating perspectives and never-flagging energy propel this narrative forward, which, if it weren't compelling enough on its own, is given illustrious life by its ragtag, always-at-odds cast. Frequent inserts from the iPad-like uniglass provide little nuggets of detail about this future world. Now if only we could get it to leak book two.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Independently, Kaufman and Kristoff make pretty big splashes in sf; together, they made the Illuminae Files, which hit best-seller lists and garnered critical acclaim. This new series starter is already generating buzz.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from March 15, 2019
When Legionnaire Tyler Jones follows a distress call to rescue a cryogenically frozen girl from a 220-year-old lost transport ship the night before the squad Draft, he ends up with much less--and much more--than he expected. Having missed the Draft, overachieving Tyler is stuck with a squad of leftover misfits that now represent the Aurora Legion, an interplanetary peacekeeping coalition. The six teammates, each with an area of expertise, include four men and women of varying skin tones as well as two members of alien species. On the motley crew's first mission, however, they discover a stowaway: biracial (Chinese/white) human Aurora Jie-Lin O'Malley, recently rescued girl out of time. Trouble follows immediately. This first installment of Kaufman and Kristoff's (Obsidio, 2018, etc.) second series is a high-octane, thrilling, snarky adventure through space, combining the best elements of the heist genre with space opera. Nonstop action, intrigue, and drama will keep readers turning pages as the squad seeks answers to questions about Aurora's past, her superhuman powers, and why the entire Terran Defense Force is after her. Meanwhile, the seven shipmates blossom into a true cohort as their pasts are revealed and their bonds (romantic or otherwise) grow. A satisfying ending reveals the truth, both terrible and beautiful, with the promise of many more adventures ahead.This intergalactic space opera has it all: action, thrills, suspense, laughs, and all the feels. (Science fiction. 13-18)

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