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Author Crush: Jay Kristoff

If you love science fiction and fantasy, Jay Kristoff is absolutely your guy. I picked up Illuminae, which he co-authored with Amie Kaufman, and ended up reading the whole book in one sitting! A great mixture of humor, action, and intricate plotting, this series is not to be missed by any sci-fi fan. He’s written for both teens and adults, so if you enjoyed Illuminae and want to venture out of the teen section – or if you just want to read everything by Jay Kristoff – Nevernight and The Lotus War series are also fantastic reads.

Conspiracies, invasions, interplanetary war; Illuminae has it all. Told through stolen files, reports, IMs, and more, this tells the story of a tiny, icy planet that is caught between two warring megacorporations, but no one told the inhabitants that the fight would be coming to them. Kady and her ex-boyfriend, Ezra are forced to evacuate together with a warship in pursuit, but the AIs they thought were there to help them might turn out to be their enemies and they have to avoid getting sick with the strange and terrifying plague that has broken out. Illuminae will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page, at which point, I would highly suggest picking up Gemina, the sequel in the Illuminae Files series.

In The Lotus War series, the Shima Imperium is dying slowly. It is an island nation being destroyed by pollution and industry; the machine worshipping Lotus Guild is only making things worse. When Yukiko goes with her father on the Shōgun’s hunt for a thunder tiger (half eagle, half tiger), she finds herself stranded, alone with her talent that the Guild would execute her for having and the injured thunder tiger she had been hunting. She can hear his thoughts and knows he wants her dead, but they have to help each other if they want to survive to take down the empire. Stormdancer is the first in an excellent dystopian steampunk trilogy that totally reminds me of How to Train Your Dragon meets clockwork Japan.

Nevernight is not for the faint of heart, but it is a wild, nonstop story from start to finish and the next book can’t come out fast enough! When the three suns almost never set, being an assassin hiding in the shadows is a much harder job than you’d think. After her father was killed for starting a rebellion, Mia Corvere wants revenge, but the Senate and her father’s men are searching for her, so that will have to wait until an opportunity presents itself. After becoming an apprentice to the Red Church – the deadliest assassins in all of the Republic – she has to survive initiation before she can even think of revenge.

If you’re looking for out of this world science fiction or fantasy, give Jay Kristoff a try! He’s working on some new books that look absolutely amazing! You can find him on his website, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

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