Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

The basics

Title: Gemina

Author: and

Series: The Illuminae Files #2

- Illuminae (2015)
- Gemina (2016)
- Obsidio (2018)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel.

in short

Niklas and his family hatch aliens on the Heimdall at exactly the same time as BeiTech attack the station. A tonne of fights go down. Hanna’s father is killed. Hanna finds out that she’s been dating a BeiTech spy the entire time. Sam/Jackson is an arse. A wormhole opens up to another dimension. Kady and AIDAN are on their way on the Hypatia. Niklas1 and Niklas2 swap dimensions. Niklas2 is killed and Hanna is distraught until Kady explains that it wasn’t Hanna1’s Niklas. Hanna basically destroys the BeiTech team and saves the day. Heimdall is destroyed though, which is sad. Hanna and Niklas join forces with the Illuminae group.

what happened in Gemina?

  • Hanna is dating Jackson, but she’s got this weird thing going on with her drug dealer, Niklas.
  • Niklas is a member of the House of Knives. They get the drugs by harvesting stuff from creepy looking aliens.
  • Sam Wheaton is the Communications Officer on Heimdall. He’s working for BeiTech. He blocks the incoming calls about the attack on Kerenza, so Heimdall doesn’t know that the refugees are coming on the Hypatia.
  • BeiTech’s director, Frobisher, wants the Hypatia to be destroyed.
  • Heimdall’s wormhole is to close for seven days in order for the jump station to undergo maintenance. It’s expected that the communications will go down as well.
  • Sam Wheaton gets in touch with Niklas and blackmails him into getting a shipment onto Heimdall. This shipment is actually a container holding a BeiTech strike team.
  • This strike team starts to take over the station with Cerberus leading them. They start at the atrium, where lots of people are gathered for Terra Day.
  • Hanna and Nik aren’t at the Terra Day celebration because Hanna is waiting for Niklas to deliver the drugs, and Nik is late because of the hatching thing.
  • Jackson is in Central Command with Grant, Katy’s father.
  • Cerberus kills Hanna’s father.
  • Ella helps Nik and Hanna out by being a badass computer whiz.
  • Some of the strike team come across Hanna and she takes them out. Cerberus tells his team to go after her.
  • The aliens hatch, and since the House of Knives team were killed by the strike team, no one is there to monitor them. They escape and go off in search of something to eat.
  • The strike team is trying to start the wormhole back up again so BeiTech can send a fleet through to destroy the Hypatia before it arrives at Heimdall. They also plan on killing everyone on Heimdall.
  • It’s revealed that Jackson is actually Sam Wheaton in a twist that NO ONE (but me, obvs, because I’m a genius) saw coming. (Note: People may well have seen this coming.)
  • Hanna realises that her boyfriend has been catfishing her and gets super mad.
  • Cerberus tells Hanna to look into Niklas’ past some more, and she finds out that Niklas was imprisoned for killing two people.
  • It was actually Nik’s brother who killed the two people, and Niklas went to prison to protect him.
  • Hanna rescues Grant, who helps to keep the wormhole down.
  • Ella is attacked by an alien and presumed dead.
  • Niklas and Hanna use the aliens to kill some of the strike team.
  • They run into Sam, who is then attacked by an alien.
  • Niklas gets shot.
  • Hanna contacts the Hypatia and tells them that Niklas is dead, and there’s a strike team on Heimdall. Kady reveals that someone else is in contact with the Hypatia, and they’re saying that Hanna is dead. This person is Niklas.
  • Kady and AIDAN realise that the wormhole is messed up, and is contacting another dimension. In this second dimension, Hanna dies and Niklas lives. A particle called Gemina allows this to happen.
  • Hanna1 and Nik1 are both talking to the Hypatia in Dimension 1, although Nik1 is in Dimension 2. Nik2 and Hanna2 are dead. They goal is to get Nik1 and Nik2 back through the wormhole at the same time, so they swap back and everything goes back to normal. Otherwise, the hole will collapse and everything will go to crap.
  • There’s a race against time because BeiTech’s fleet is still on its way to attack Heimdall.
  • They manage to swap the Niklas pair back.
  • Ella is actually alive. Surprise bitches.
  • Sam sacrifices himself to save Hanna.

how did it end?

Hanna, Niklas, and Ella get to the Hypatia through the wormhole before the Hypatia is destroyed. Sam sort of redeems himself by making everyone believe that the trio are dead. Sam’s killed when the Hypatia is blown up though. The book ends with the ongoing BeiTech trial, and the Illuminae group threatening BeiTech and Frobisher.

That’s what happened in Gemina! Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!

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Comments:

  • Heidi Hanson says:

    k, first of all, I LOVED THIS BOOK. it outdid it’s predecessor, and I am currently reading obsidio and loving that one to.
    the writing style of this series Is so clever, and I have never read another book like it. love it. so much. can’t wait to see what the authors pull together next, regardless of the fact that obsidio is that last in the series.
    I recommend this book for anyone who wants a really juicy read, or to anyone who is interested in something new and refreshing from the more typical styles of writing.

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