Illumicrate #28: December 2024

Time for book 6 of the 7 backlog bookboxes, and this one isn’t really that backlogged, considering I received it not that long ago. Well, a month ago, but considering the period, it is understandable that updating about this box wasn’t my priority 😉 . I am talking about the Illumicrate box from December, as you could already deduce from the title.

The theme of this box was Ride or Die with an adult Science Fiction debut.

Even though my kitchen cupboards are already overflowing, I’m always super happy with new coffee mugs by @rosiethorns88. This one was inspired by Jade City, a series that remains popular and has moved up my never-ending TBR ever since I bought it through my The Broken Binding sub.
The green colour in the illustration makes the link to this book series immediately clear, but I have to say that the characters don’t quite look like I expected. They look more white than Asian to me (if I may say so)?

An item I look forward to every year is a bookish calendar, so I was super happy that Illumicrate kept up their tradition for the December box by including one. This calendar is quite similar in layout and design (by @chattynora) to this one from a couple of years ago: A desk calender with beautiful illustrations by @polarts_. This time, the illustrations show iconic best friends. I didn’t recognize most of them, but the artwork is still very beautiful.

The third item is a beautiful, and surprisingly large, embroidered pouch in a kind of velvet fabric. Inside there is a washable lining, so it can actually function perfectly as a toiletry bag!
The design is by @justelfit and was inspired by last month’s book, The Last Hour Between Worlds.

The last item is more of a filler, after the other fairly large items, but no less fun to receive. A set of bookmarks illustrated by @merwildandco and inspired by Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys, a series that has been on my bookshelf for way too long and that I’m really going to try to get to this year!

Finally, that Science Fiction debut book: Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto

HAMMAJANG | adjective. Definition: In a disorderly or chaotic state; messed up. Chiefly in predicative use, esp. in all hammajang. Etymology: A borrowing from Hawaiian Pidgin. Source: Oxford English Dictionary.

Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person – costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most.

And it’s all Angel’s fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station – of home – to spend the best part of a decade alone.

But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting – and she has an offer.

One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time. There’s just one thing Edie needs to do – trust Angel again – which also happens to be the last thing Edie wants to do. What could possibly go all hammajang about this plan?

Ocean’s 8 meets Blade Runner in this trail-blazing debut science fiction novel and swashbuckling love letter to Hawai’i about being forced to find a new home and striving to build a better one – unmissable for fans of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

Hmm, yeah, this summary does not immediately make me super enthusiastic, but there’s potential for a more adventurous, action movie-like inbetween read. Sounds to me more like a book that I’ll (hopefully) like while reading, but that will not leave that big of an impression. Which is not meant negatively, because I need books like that too. We’ll see!

The Illumicrate cover is another variation on the standard cover, with the same illustration in different colours. They went for a more purple shade instead of the bright apple blue sea green and I like that. Purple always has a leg up with me, lol. The yellow lines were all replaced by gold foil in the Illumicrate version, which of course always lifts a cover up. What I especially like is that because of the gradient of colours, the gold foil is sometimes almost iridescent, which you can see on this picture especially on the spine.

Oh, I like this! On the hardcover there are printed illustrations by @hollydunndesign that mimic a blueprint, the plans of the heist the book is about. The blue drawings are again heightened by the use of gold foil in strategic places. Nicely done!

The edges are sprayed all around with a digital print on a gradiënt of colours matching the dust jacket.

On the endpapers are two different illustrations that depict the main characters of the book. Since I’m a reader who can’t really visualize people (everything remains very vague and foggy in my head) I always find illustrations of characters very helpful, and the choice of putting them on the endpapers is perfect in my opinion! The illustrations are by @kelsgottschlich and while I do like the style, I have to say that it feels more YA to me, while the book is supposedly for an adult audience.
Now, I do notice that there are often so-called “adult” books in these book subscriptions that are just on the edge, so I’m already adjusting my expectations a bit, lol.
The book also comes with a bound letter and signature from the author.