Red Star Rebels

Classic space-opera-esque YA science fiction is back baby!

Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman is a YA science fiction novel that condenses a space-opera narrative in the span of eight hours. 8 HOURS TO STOP AN EXPLOSION... 8 HOURS TO FALL IN LOVE. From the NYT bestselling co-author of Illuminae and Aurora Rising comes a high-stakes, high-chemistry sci-fi romp about a stowaway girl and the richest boy in the galaxy, racing the clock to outwit a gang of mercenaries. It’s 2067, and the Graves family has transformed Mars from lifeless rock into a chaotic patchwork of settlements—and everybody wants a piece. Enter Hunter Graves: handsome, ambitious, and with spectacularly bad timing. He shows up at the United Nations base just as an emergency evacuation sends everyone scurrying for safety. Except he’s left behind. Uh oh. Also stranded: Cleo, a sharp-tongued stowaway with no intention of dying today, and even less patience for overconfident trust fund boys. But the enemy of your enemy might just help you survive, so here we are. Turns out the evacuation was just a cover for the mercenaries who came next, and they plan to blow up the base—and every trace of their crime—in eight hours. Now, Hunter and Cleo have one shot to stop the explosion, escape alive, and deal with the inconvenient fact that they’re falling for each other. The clock is ticking.

I have loved Kaufman's work since she co-wrote Illuminae, Aurora Rising, and These Broken Stars (with a clear favoritism towards the latter over the former). But I am glad to see she is publishing a science fiction novel solo. And I hate to admit it, but I think Red Star Rebels is 100 times better than Illuminae and Aurora Rising combined. The vibes are there, the characters are amazing, the plot is tight knit and cohesive, and the setting is unlike anything I've read. I highly enjoyed it, and can't wait to see what else Kaufman will put out without a coauthor attached.

One thing that did bug me about Red Star Rebels, is just how short it was. Sitting at a meager 288 pages (I saw begrudgingly after finishing Alchemised's 1000 pages in under three days), Red Star Rebels doesn't have the room to properly world build or explore plot lines beyond survival and romance. Which is to expected from a YA space opera, yet I wish that we got just a little more meat to the story without making it expand much past the 350 page mark. Not every science fiction novel needs to be over 500 pages long (I'm looking at you, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars).

Regardless, Red Star Rebels is a fantastic starting point for any reader looking for a quick and easy to understand science fiction novel. And here's to me, anxiously waiting to read more Amie Kaufman in the next few years.

In 2067, the Graves family has transformed Mars into a bunch of settlements. Hunter Graves, estranged from his mother and twin sister, arrives at the United Nations base just as an emergency evacuation hits the planet. No one knows he's there.

Stowaway Cleo is also on the planet and helps Hunter, thinking that maybe by doing this, it might save her in the end. Only they both find themselves running from mercenaries who are planning to destroy the planet in eight hours. Now it's up to Cleo and Hunter to put their differences aside and work together while also dealing with the fact that they might be falling for each other. Talk about bad timing.

What worked: Fast-paced Sci Fi adventure where two unlikely protagonists have to work together to survive a hostile takeover. There's also obvious chemistry between Cleo and Hunter right from the start. Hunter, though, is the rich, entitled guy, and Cleo is on the run.

The action is constant right from the start. Throw in futuristic pirates who plan to destroy a planet and an unlikely romance.

Both characters' wounds drive them throughout this story. Cleo has a trust issue and dislikes the GraveUp corporation, which she blames for the death of her father and ruining her life. Hunter comes across as naive and sheltered from those not as entitled as himself. The attraction between the two grows, even when Cleo's lie about her true identity comes to the surface.

It's a cat-and-mouse race with a ticking clock that quickly forces Cleo and Hunter to put aside their differences to survive.

Unlikely protagonists team up to save Mars while fighting a growing attraction amidst betrayals and corporate greed.