Amie Kaufman
Author of Illuminae
About the Author
Amie Kaufman graduated with honors degrees in history, literature and law, and a master's degree in conflict resolution. She is a mediator and author of science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is the co-author of the Starbound Trilogy and The Illuminae Files Trilogy. Illuminae was also show more the winner of the 2015 Aurealis Awards for Best Science Fiction Novel, the 2016 Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the year for older children (8 to 14 years), and the 2016 Gold Inky Award. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Amie Kaufman
Untitled (Andromeda Cycle, #1) 6 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 20th Century
- Gender
- female
- Agent
- Josh Adams
- Short biography
- Amie Kaufman is a New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling Australian author of science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner, for her series, The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff, and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.
Kaufman grew up in both Ireland and Melbourne, Australia. She earned undergraduate degrees, with honours, in law, history and literature. Later, she earned a Master's Degree in conflict resolution, and worked for seven years as a mediator before becoming a full-time author. She is as of May 2018 a PhD candidate in Creative Writing. She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and dog.
Literary career
Kaufman's debut, These Broken Stars, was co-authored with Meagan Spooner. The book was a New York Times bestseller and won an Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult novel of the year. The book was also shortlisted for a Golden Inky in the Australian Inky Awards and was named the Huffington Post Best YA Novel of 2013, The series was in development for TV in 2016, with Freeform in the US and Sky UK, with MGM the studio and Eric Balfour and Warren Littlefield producing. The sequel, This Shattered World was a nominee for the Aurealis Award for best science fiction novel.
Kaufman's Illuminae, co-authored with Jay Kristoff, was acquired by Random House in a preempt in 2013. The first book in the series was published in late October 2015. It debuted at #5 on the New York Times Best Seller List Young Adult Hardcover list, and eventually reached the #2 spot. In November 2015, it was announced that Brad Pitt and his production company, Plan B Entertainment, had acquired the film rights to Illuminae. Illuminae was nominated for the 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Award, won the 2015 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction novel, the 2016 Gold Inky Award for best teen fiction, and the 2016 Australian Book Industry Award Book of the Year for Older Children. The sequel Gemina, debuted at #3 on the New York Times bestseller list and won the 2016 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction novel. The third book in the series, Obsidio, debuted at #6 on the New York Times children's series list, as the #1 young adult bestseller in Australia, and as a USA Today bestseller.
Kaufman's next series with Spooner began with Unearthed in January 2018. In June 2017, ahead of the book's publication, it was announced that film rights had been acquired by Columbia Pictures, with Doug Liman as director and producer alongside Cross Creek Productions. Screenwriters were Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth.
Kaufman's first solo series and first series for younger readers, Elementals, began with Ice Wolves in March 2018. The book was a Spring 2018 Indie Next Pick, and earned a starred review from Kirkus. - Nationality
- Australia
- Birthplace
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Associated Place (for map)
- Victoria, Australia
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Found: Zombie virus on large spaceships in space in Name that Book (August 2021)
Reviews
HELL. YES.
Talk about blood-pumping action, jeez. I was legit full-on sweating toward the end, and I think my blood pressure was through the roof. That ending blew my mind and made my want to claw my face, but, like, in a good way.
Also, I want to note, that one particular scene made me so excited I started to literally pace while reading. Since it’s a spoiler I’m gonna put it under the cut.
Hanna and Kali’s confrontation was THE BEST. I’m a huge fan of the main hero having a nemesis, show more and then beating them in a dramatic fashion, but in the majority of media I consume this type of situation is always reserved for a man. Two women squaring off in the no-holds-barred fight? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Also, this quote is amazing.
show less
Talk about blood-pumping action, jeez. I was legit full-on sweating toward the end, and I think my blood pressure was through the roof. That ending blew my mind and made my want to claw my face, but, like, in a good way.
Also, I want to note, that one particular scene made me so excited I started to literally pace while reading. Since it’s a spoiler I’m gonna put it under the cut.
And at last, all the jibes, the quick talk and the subterfuge melt away, and Donnelly finally understands who she’s facing. A woman born to this. Bred for it. A woman who, after a few questionable choices and ten or so more years of hard training, Donnelly could find herself staring at in the mirror.
I haven’t read one of Kaufman and Spooner’s novels before and from all the talk online, knew to expect something noteworthy in the SF vein but nothing else. Having read this, I think I see why their books get so much buzz. The characters feel real and interesting. The world-building rocks. The writing is strong enough to not only carry the characters’ voices and keep me flipping pages, but also to build this oppressive, tense mood through the adventure. There’s diversity and talk show more about inequality without becoming One Of Those Novels. The plot is tight and unexpected things happen almost continually.
I’m not going to talk about the story much because that tight plot means that everything after about chapter two is a spoiler and books are never as interesting if you know what twists are coming. I will say that I enjoyed the read a lot, more than I expected to, though I didn’t love it. (See: not the target audience, kind of picky when it comes to ratings.) Would heartily recommend, though, even if you’re not a Kaufman-Spooner fan already. They might just make you one.
Warnings: Threats of sexual assault.
7/10 show less
I’m not going to talk about the story much because that tight plot means that everything after about chapter two is a spoiler and books are never as interesting if you know what twists are coming. I will say that I enjoyed the read a lot, more than I expected to, though I didn’t love it. (See: not the target audience, kind of picky when it comes to ratings.) Would heartily recommend, though, even if you’re not a Kaufman-Spooner fan already. They might just make you one.
Warnings: Threats of sexual assault.
7/10 show less
Who says that art is only one thing? I think it can often be two! :)
There's one hell of a fantastic SF story in here, full of action and fantastic SF concepts building upon what we got in [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443433956s/23395680.jpg|26653661] and taking off even farther and faster (or deeper in the gravity well of a singularity) than the first novel.
And then there's also a thing that I hesitate to call a show more gimmick simply because the artists STILL pull off one hell of a hat trick with the layout.
Layout? What's so big about the layout? Um. Everything! It's a work of art! As impressive in its way as the actual story, which is no slouch!
In other words, this is a double novel, both a clever visual treat and an epistolary action-filled conflict on a space station torn apart by warring galactic corporations.
I had no problems with any of our new cast of characters, which is kind-of odd, at least to me, because I'm used to cookie-cutter YA protagonists more concerned with the states of their gonads than survival or using their heads. Not so with this one. It looks like I'm getting prepared to trust an author to pull me through no matter what she decides to write. I may just go ahead and check out everything else she's written.
Yeah. It's that good. The SF is solid. The characters are too. The story has fantastic pacing.
And our favorite misbehaving AI is still with us.
Did I mention that this is a book with a dual nature? Gemina, eh? Well it goes beyond just the layout and the text. :) I'll leave it at that because any more is just spoiler territory even if I want to just squee with how this SF got pulled off. And the tragedy. Just wow. :)
So happy! I love really great SF and I REALLY love great SF that wants to be fearless in it's expression as ART. :) Yay! show less
There's one hell of a fantastic SF story in here, full of action and fantastic SF concepts building upon what we got in [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443433956s/23395680.jpg|26653661] and taking off even farther and faster (or deeper in the gravity well of a singularity) than the first novel.
And then there's also a thing that I hesitate to call a show more gimmick simply because the artists STILL pull off one hell of a hat trick with the layout.
Layout? What's so big about the layout? Um. Everything! It's a work of art! As impressive in its way as the actual story, which is no slouch!
In other words, this is a double novel, both a clever visual treat and an epistolary action-filled conflict on a space station torn apart by warring galactic corporations.
I had no problems with any of our new cast of characters, which is kind-of odd, at least to me, because I'm used to cookie-cutter YA protagonists more concerned with the states of their gonads than survival or using their heads. Not so with this one. It looks like I'm getting prepared to trust an author to pull me through no matter what she decides to write. I may just go ahead and check out everything else she's written.
Yeah. It's that good. The SF is solid. The characters are too. The story has fantastic pacing.
And our favorite misbehaving AI is still with us.
Did I mention that this is a book with a dual nature? Gemina, eh? Well it goes beyond just the layout and the text. :) I'll leave it at that because any more is just spoiler territory even if I want to just squee with how this SF got pulled off. And the tragedy. Just wow. :)
So happy! I love really great SF and I REALLY love great SF that wants to be fearless in it's expression as ART. :) Yay! show less
Before launching into my review of the third and final volume of the Illuminae Files, I would like to share a detail of my "history" with this series: since most, if not all, of my reading happens through ebooks, I acquired the first two installments of the series in that format, and although I enjoyed the story immensely I was also aware that the peculiar narrative form chosen by the authors - which includes memos, transcripts, graphics and even sentences deployed in strange and convoluted show more patterns - did not work as well on an e-reader as it would on a printed page. For this reason I also bought the physical books for Illuminae and Gemina to see what I had missed, and once the date of publication for Obsidio was announced, I decided to directly acquire the physical book and read the story in the… old-fashioned way. And it was indeed a good decision, because this is an amazing way of telling a story.
Please be aware that this review might contain spoilers for the first two books: if you have not read them, don't go any further!
Obsidio closes the circle that started in Illuminae with the assault on the mining colony of Kerenza, perpetrated by BeiTech Corporation against what they deemed an illegal operation: in the first book we followed the survivors of the attack as they attempted to flee on a handful of ships to reach the Heimdall transit station; the second volume focused on BeiTech's attempt to eliminate them, and therefore any witness to the massacre, by taking control of Heimdall. Here, the few who escaped both assaults - now crowded aboard the very stressed-out Hypatia and the newly acquire Mao - have decided that going back to Kerenza is the only viable choice, which becomes all the more imperative once they learn that BeiTech intends to kill the remaining miners on the planet once they have extracted the precious hermium that is the planet's main resource, leaving no trace of their heinous crime.
All the characters we encountered along the road are present here: Kady and Ezra, Hanna and Nik and Nik's cousin Ella, as well as the other people (those still alive, that is…) who shared their journey. Their trials on the crowded ships, their plans for the coming battle and their hopes and fears act as a counterpoint to the events on Kerenza itself, where we make the acquaintance of Asha Grant (Kady's cousin) and her ex boyfriend Rhys, now one of the BeiTech "ground pounders" from the occupying force. I must say that I found the planet-bound sections quite fascinating, both in terms of narrative impact and of character exploration: even though the previous relationship between the two youngsters feels a little convenient (in my opinion it would have worked just as well if they had been complete strangers), it helps in highlighting the dire situation of the miners on one side and of the soldiers on the other, showing how extreme circumstance can bring to the surface both the best and the worst in human beings.
The miners know their life expectancy is limited, and are doing their best to try and draw out that timeline in the hope of rescue, as improbable as it might look, so that we can witness acts of courage and self sacrifice as well as foolish choices driven by rage, despair and the burning need for vengeance. The BeiTech soldiers, for their part, range from the "just following orders" kind - some of them even enjoying the power of life and death they are given over their victims - to those who are painfully aware of the atrocities they are committing, but are unable to act differently because they know any kind of defiance would be futile. There are some scenes where these soldiers try to forget the unpleasantness of their duties by spending time in endless card games interspersed with heavy banter, but one can somehow feel the desperate effort this is, and in some way perceive the humanity that the robot-like armor encasing them cannot completely conceal.
As fascinating as all of the above was, the events transpiring aboard the ship headed for Kerenza were the ones that drew my more intense focus, because they mixed the efforts at survival with the frantic plans to overcome BeiTech's stranglehold on Kerenza - a David vs. Goliath kind of struggle that was fraught with uncertainty and the ever-present awareness of potential failure. The young people who were at the center of previous events, forced by circumstances to grow up quickly and make harrowing choices, here must wage a war on two fronts: one represented by the might of BeiTech and its aggressive power, and one represented by several adults who are unable - or unwilling - to give them the credit they are due and still view them as children, underestimating them and forcing them to prove themselves time and again. This thread adds a very frustrating element to the story, but also one that was both electrifying and suspenseful.
And last but not least I must mention AIDAN, the insane, murderous AI with a conscience (much as that might appear as a contradiction!) who despite the horrible acts of the past, and the present, keeps growing in his understanding and acceptance of human emotions. There is a section, here in Obsidio, where AIDAN makes a hard choice that is both appalling and necessary, fully aware of the consequences but also aware that not to act would be a worse option:
And in the end, I suppose it will not matter what they name me. […] And it does not matter what they believe. […] I am not good. Nor am I evil. I am no hero. Nor am I villain. I am AIDAN.
It's a bleak choice, and the dispassionate (?) way in which AIDAN observes it stresses even more the AI's loneliness, one that never fails to tug at my heart because - no matter how many deaths he's responsible for - AIDAN strikes me as the proverbial child looking into a warm home from the outside cold, knowing that he will never be part of it. The fact I have used "he" and not "it" to speak about AIDAN is a clear indication of what I feel about this character and his journey, one that should be discovered on its own…
As the conclusive book in what has been an electrifying trilogy, Obsidio works quite well and manages to keep the suspense and uncertainty about the outcome until the very end, and if it cheats a little in one particular regard (spoiler territory, so I apologize for being cryptic), I can forgive it in the name of the amazing narrative tension that carried me from start to finish. show less
Please be aware that this review might contain spoilers for the first two books: if you have not read them, don't go any further!
Obsidio closes the circle that started in Illuminae with the assault on the mining colony of Kerenza, perpetrated by BeiTech Corporation against what they deemed an illegal operation: in the first book we followed the survivors of the attack as they attempted to flee on a handful of ships to reach the Heimdall transit station; the second volume focused on BeiTech's attempt to eliminate them, and therefore any witness to the massacre, by taking control of Heimdall. Here, the few who escaped both assaults - now crowded aboard the very stressed-out Hypatia and the newly acquire Mao - have decided that going back to Kerenza is the only viable choice, which becomes all the more imperative once they learn that BeiTech intends to kill the remaining miners on the planet once they have extracted the precious hermium that is the planet's main resource, leaving no trace of their heinous crime.
All the characters we encountered along the road are present here: Kady and Ezra, Hanna and Nik and Nik's cousin Ella, as well as the other people (those still alive, that is…) who shared their journey. Their trials on the crowded ships, their plans for the coming battle and their hopes and fears act as a counterpoint to the events on Kerenza itself, where we make the acquaintance of Asha Grant (Kady's cousin) and her ex boyfriend Rhys, now one of the BeiTech "ground pounders" from the occupying force. I must say that I found the planet-bound sections quite fascinating, both in terms of narrative impact and of character exploration: even though the previous relationship between the two youngsters feels a little convenient (in my opinion it would have worked just as well if they had been complete strangers), it helps in highlighting the dire situation of the miners on one side and of the soldiers on the other, showing how extreme circumstance can bring to the surface both the best and the worst in human beings.
The miners know their life expectancy is limited, and are doing their best to try and draw out that timeline in the hope of rescue, as improbable as it might look, so that we can witness acts of courage and self sacrifice as well as foolish choices driven by rage, despair and the burning need for vengeance. The BeiTech soldiers, for their part, range from the "just following orders" kind - some of them even enjoying the power of life and death they are given over their victims - to those who are painfully aware of the atrocities they are committing, but are unable to act differently because they know any kind of defiance would be futile. There are some scenes where these soldiers try to forget the unpleasantness of their duties by spending time in endless card games interspersed with heavy banter, but one can somehow feel the desperate effort this is, and in some way perceive the humanity that the robot-like armor encasing them cannot completely conceal.
As fascinating as all of the above was, the events transpiring aboard the ship headed for Kerenza were the ones that drew my more intense focus, because they mixed the efforts at survival with the frantic plans to overcome BeiTech's stranglehold on Kerenza - a David vs. Goliath kind of struggle that was fraught with uncertainty and the ever-present awareness of potential failure. The young people who were at the center of previous events, forced by circumstances to grow up quickly and make harrowing choices, here must wage a war on two fronts: one represented by the might of BeiTech and its aggressive power, and one represented by several adults who are unable - or unwilling - to give them the credit they are due and still view them as children, underestimating them and forcing them to prove themselves time and again. This thread adds a very frustrating element to the story, but also one that was both electrifying and suspenseful.
And last but not least I must mention AIDAN, the insane, murderous AI with a conscience (much as that might appear as a contradiction!) who despite the horrible acts of the past, and the present, keeps growing in his understanding and acceptance of human emotions. There is a section, here in Obsidio, where AIDAN makes a hard choice that is both appalling and necessary, fully aware of the consequences but also aware that not to act would be a worse option:
And in the end, I suppose it will not matter what they name me. […] And it does not matter what they believe. […] I am not good. Nor am I evil. I am no hero. Nor am I villain. I am AIDAN.
It's a bleak choice, and the dispassionate (?) way in which AIDAN observes it stresses even more the AI's loneliness, one that never fails to tug at my heart because - no matter how many deaths he's responsible for - AIDAN strikes me as the proverbial child looking into a warm home from the outside cold, knowing that he will never be part of it. The fact I have used "he" and not "it" to speak about AIDAN is a clear indication of what I feel about this character and his journey, one that should be discovered on its own…
As the conclusive book in what has been an electrifying trilogy, Obsidio works quite well and manages to keep the suspense and uncertainty about the outcome until the very end, and if it cheats a little in one particular regard (spoiler territory, so I apologize for being cryptic), I can forgive it in the name of the amazing narrative tension that carried me from start to finish. show less
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