So I read the reviews on this only this weekend, and immediately ran out to the bookstore to pick it up. This is another book which gets five stars for presentation only. I loved the idea behind it- reading a story told through an assembled portfolio of surveillance footage, interviews, IMs, emails, and journal entries. The pictures and illustrations were beautiful and evoked the space opera theme very well. 
 What failed here, was the angsty teenage romance. I just couldn't get behind it. It was typical teenager crap. There were way too many "luv u"s. Too much Romeo and Juliet, "I'll die or kill myself without you" type stuff. Listen- I get it (sort of). What is happening is pretty horrific. Not only are most of their friends and loved ones dead, but thanks to this Phobos virus, they must actually be the ones to deliver the killing blow in some instances. There are hard choices here. The drama was indeed opera level. 
 But the romance part of it, though I suppose was a catalyst for many things, was just too over done, too much. It's the same reason I avidly avoid Twilight. Declarations of undying love at 17 and 18 just isn't something I can connect with on a personal level. Nothing against those that do, and I'm not even saying I don't believe that kind of love can be found or known at that age, I'm just saying as an "old" person and mother of one, I didn't buy it. It seemed preposterous to me. 
 Finally, the problem in general with telling a story this dramatic in this way, it gives you too much distance between reader and characters. There is a point around the four hundred page mark, where AIDAN reveals a vital piece of information to Kady. I don't want to spoil it, but after it was revealed, I had two hundred pages left and absolutely zero reason to care. Kady herself didn't seem to care if she lived or died, and I didn't see any reason to care if the entire colony of Kerenza was vanquished. You didn't "know" but one person on the Hypatia at that point and her, only briefly. 
 So the story, I felt, was kind of lame. I'm a little baffled by all the five star reviews. Hell even the bookstore clerk was gushing over this book. I really thought it was a sure thing. But then again, people gushed over Twilight too. They gushed over 50 shades. They gush over lots of stupid things. I should know better at this point. (To be fair, I enjoyed this lots more then the other two I've mentioned here, and I don't think it shares the same level of hype yet, but damn, those reviewers that gave it five stars fooled me.) 
 What redeemed this book, is that thanks to the disconnect with the characters, it posed many interesting questions. Whereas it's so easy in a movie or in other books to be angry with commanding officers or military police for making hard decisions to essentially murder people who may be infected with a killer contagion, in Illuminae, I found myself more sympathetic to the "Murderers." I just couldn't see any other way. Captain Boll made the right choice. McNulty made the right choice. Hell even AIDAN in his "psychosis" made the right choice with the Copernicus. The virus had to be contained and stopped. There wasn't any other way. Sure the writer could invent some happy antidote at the end of it, but given the circumstances, this was just the right choice. 
 Additionally, there are some points here when we are forced to examine AI. The ethical and moral implications that come from making it. Can AI feel? Can AI love? Will it's almost limitless computing potential allow it to adapt into something else? Something more? 
 Could we liken it to God? At least the God of the Alexander anyway. Omniscient and omnipresent. Doing things perceived as cruel or psychotic when in actuality acting only to save the many? Is this how the God or gods of ancient times were perceived? (Better yet- is God still perceived this way anywhere? Please forgive my religious ignorance.) Perhaps widespread disaster and hardship does serve some greater purpose that we can not ever know because our computational power is so insignificant. We are ants to AIDAN. Unimportant insects. Does God think the same? Would God sacrifice himself to save his people? Better yet- is God a creation of men? These questions, the thoughts AIDAN provokes, are what get the book three stars. I'd recommend this as philosophical read honestly, but not much else. 
 I loved the format though it did become tiresome after a while. For anyone saying "Unipedia made me feel like I was studying for class", that is only THREE PAGES of the entire book. It's cool if you didn't like it, but to discard the book based on that one entry alone, was ridiculous. I think it even says in the snippet on that page that it is just the one entry. Anyway, I think this format would work much better for a psychological thriller or spy story, or hell even a paranormal mystery. Like the X-Files in book form. One where the fun is in solving the mystery, not connecting with the characters. 
 Final thoughts: the book's description is misleading to me. AIDAN is offline for much of the book. He only really comes back on in the last couple hundred pages. He's only really "insane" for a total of twenty pages. The rest of it is the characters calling it a psycho. I was expecting more of what the end of the book was and less of the hacking for hackings sake. It's definitely young adult, it's definitely space themed, and heavy on the romance. 
 Amended: "Am I not merciful?" Is a quote from the movie Gladiator (in an outstanding performance by Joaquin Phoenix), and though I'm not saying it's plagiarism, it's also not original. I don't even know that it was original in Gladiator, but every time it was written in the book I just heard Joaquin screaming at me with a sad but murderous look in his eyes.