Hello Droogs!
Been a long time between posts, I know. but I’m sure you’d rather me write books than blog posts. I mean, who the smeg reads blog posts anymore 😛
ILLUMINAE has been on the NYT bestseller List for 8 weeks running now, which is all kinds of awesome! Thanks to everyone spreading the word about our strange little bookthing!
SO, in case you missed it, we put together a video of our ILLUMINAE tour through Oz and the States, and you can find it here. As an added bonus, at the end of the video, you’ll find the name of the second book in the ILLUMINAE series. If you tweet about it under the hashtag #illuminae2, you’ll be in the running to win a signed copy of the (amazing) ILLUMINAE audiobook. Cast of 20. Amazing effects. The guys at Listening Library did an amazing job.
Competition will run until Jan 17.
SO, now that the name of ILL2 is out in the world, we can start to answer a few questions about it.
BE WARNED – SOME SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ ILLUMINAE YET, YOU MAY WISH TO GO MAKE SOME KIND OF DELICIOUS SANDWICH OR MAINLINE THE FIRST SERIES OF DAREDEVIL (it’s really good) INSTEAD.
So here we go:
Is ILLUMINAE2 a sequel or companion novel to ILLUMINAE?
Both. Chronologically, it picks up about 5 minutes after ILLUMINAE ends. The book continues the story of the invasion of Kerenza IV, and many of the important questions asked in ILL are answered in ILL2, ie “The Hypatia was sending distress calls all through Illuminae, why did help never arrive?” and “Can there possibly be a dude in the universe hotter than Ezra Mason?“
This is important: how do I pronounce the title?
Soft G. Like so: JEM-ih-nuh.
Is ILLUMINAE2 still set aboard the Hypatia?
ILL2 is primarily set on Jump Station Heimdall, the space station that Battlecarrier Alexander and Science Vessel Hypatia were trying to get to for most of ILLUMINAE. Heimdall, incidentally, is the name of the god who guarded Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge, which connected Midgard and Asgard in Norse mythology.
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. But I love Kady. Is she in ILL2?
Yes.
I mean really in it? Not just a cameo?
Yes. She’s in it. Sassier than ever.
And what about the rest of the ILL gang?
Well, as you know, ILL has a pretty high death toll, and we don’t want to issue any potential spoilers at this point. So all we’ll say is that the folks who survive book one will be seen again in book two.
But the book is primarily focused on two new characters?
Correctamundo. Our heroine this time is Hanna Donnelly, the daughter of Jump Station Heimdall‘s commander. She kinda looks like this gal. Our “hero” is Nik Malikov, a reluctant member of a criminal syndicate operating out of Heimdall station. He’s kinda like this guy. You can thank us later, ladies.
Hey, doesn’t Kady’s dad work on Heimdall station?
Bingo.
So what’s ILLUMINAE2 about?
Official jacket copy will be released in early 2016. Until then, we can say we pitched the book to our publishers as DIE HARD meets ALIEN. Use your imagination 🙂
Is ILLUMINAE2 going to be the same format as ILLUMINAE?
Yes. Just like ILLUMINAE, ILL2 is a collection of documents, such as emails, IMs, security camera footage (and yes, Security Camera Footage guy is back in this book, too). But in the interests of making things bigger and better for the sequel, we also have a couple of new document styles in ILLUMINAE 2. One of which is going to BLOW YOUR GODDAMN MINDS. But we can’t talk about that one yet.
Where do babies come from?
Uh uh. Spoilers.
 
OKAY, that’s it from me. Hope you all have awesome holidays and a brill new year. Thanks for all your support this year – 2015 was one of the most amazing years of my life, and you guys were a HUGE part of that.
Stay amazing, be safe, see you in 2016!