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 Illuminae 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 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!