Book Review #3 - Cinder, Scarlet, & Cress (The Lunar Chronicles)
Hello and welcome to book review number 3 for the 2016 Reading Challenge!
This week's review is brought to you by: the future!
This last week I read three of the (#?) books from The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. I was doing some research and realized I have no idea how many books are in this series. I could'v'e sworn when I finished reading Cress last night, I saw five books on the back cover... but on Goodreads, I only found 4, plus several side-story books. So I'm not really sure how many more there are to go.
(Edited to add: After finding TheLunarChronicles.com I have discovered that there are six books in the series! The remaining three are: Fairest, Winter, & Stars Above)
Anyways! I bought these three books to cover three different categories in my reading challenge list. A Book Based on a Fairytale, A Romance Set in the Future, and A Dystopian Novel. They are in the young adult section at Hastings, and I'm assuming would be there in most large book stores as well.
The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder, Scarlet, & Cress by Marissa Meyer
Categor(ies): A Book Based on a Fairytale, A Romance Set in the Future, and A Dystopian Novel.
Rating: 9/10
Summary: Fun, cute, and exciting series.
The Lunar Chronicles are, much to my surprise, a great series of books. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the first three. I read them pretty quickly... in 7 days. That's what happens when I enjoy good books! The book takes place after WWIV, the main location being New Beijing; a new city that had been developed after the massive destruction from the war.
There are three types of "people" in this book: Earthens (a.k.a. Earthlings), Cyborgs (part human/part robot), and Lunars (beings from the Moon that have supernatural capabilities). Cyborgs are actually held to a Cyborg Protection Law that does not allow them freedom; they have to be "owned" by a human, even though they are technically human anyway. Cyborgs are thought of as less than humans and looked to do more service/maid work for the Earthens. Then there are Lunars, which basically no one on Earth likes. They live on Luna (a.k.a. the moon) and have mystical powers.
Without ruining the book and writing a novel about what happens, essentially the Queen of Luna wants to rule the world. She has set a biological warfare (a disease called Letumosis) on Earth without anyone knowing about it and it's slowly killing off the human race. In the first book, the new Emperor, a young boy, is trying to find a way to stop the disease being spread while keeping peace with Luna. The Queen of Luna insists the only way to bring peace is by marriage. The Emperor believes that there is another way to bring peace between Luna and Earth, and that is to find the missing Princess Selene and bring her to rightfully rule on the Lunar throne.
This is the basis of the first three books. There are multiple roles interchanging throughout the books, a writing technique that I enjoy. This is also done in Game of Thrones and The Dark Tower series. The character development is quite impressive for there being so many of them, and the plot has a great way of wrapping itself around all of the characters like a glove.
I only have one problem with this book: It's kind of predictable.
The book is obviously written for young adults and teenagers. Of course, I consider myself neither, so the plot was pretty obvious about 3/4 of the way into the first book. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the series, and I will most likely buy the other three books and read them, but I could probably just guess what would happen to each character and be right.
This books reminds me a lot of Harry Potter, but I feel like Rowling put more into the books that adults would also appreciate. I don't consider Harry Potter to be a YA book series by any means. There was a lot more depth and detail going into the darkness of the wizarding world that I haven't come across yet in The Lunar Chronicles. Maybe in the next three books, more will be revealed and I'll be totally wrong. That would be a nice change of pace!
The best part of the book, for me, is the group of misfits that are the primary characters throughout the series. Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and the other characters are the epitome of awkward and goofy outcasts. The reason I love this is because I could relate to them so easily. Being a teenager or young adult, I can imagine how awesome it is to read that the awkward citizens of the world are ones that are going to save it.
So to wrap this review up: I am impressed with The Lunar Chronicles and Marissa Meyer's writing style. I've enjoyed these immensely and I would definitely recommend these to someone who is looking for a series that has action, sci-fi, romance, humor, and heroic tendencies.
This week's review is brought to you by: the future!
This last week I read three of the (#?) books from The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress. I was doing some research and realized I have no idea how many books are in this series. I could'v'e sworn when I finished reading Cress last night, I saw five books on the back cover... but on Goodreads, I only found 4, plus several side-story books. So I'm not really sure how many more there are to go.
(Edited to add: After finding TheLunarChronicles.com I have discovered that there are six books in the series! The remaining three are: Fairest, Winter, & Stars Above)
Anyways! I bought these three books to cover three different categories in my reading challenge list. A Book Based on a Fairytale, A Romance Set in the Future, and A Dystopian Novel. They are in the young adult section at Hastings, and I'm assuming would be there in most large book stores as well.
The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder, Scarlet, & Cress by Marissa Meyer
Categor(ies): A Book Based on a Fairytale, A Romance Set in the Future, and A Dystopian Novel.
Rating: 9/10
Summary: Fun, cute, and exciting series.
The Lunar Chronicles are, much to my surprise, a great series of books. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the first three. I read them pretty quickly... in 7 days. That's what happens when I enjoy good books! The book takes place after WWIV, the main location being New Beijing; a new city that had been developed after the massive destruction from the war.
There are three types of "people" in this book: Earthens (a.k.a. Earthlings), Cyborgs (part human/part robot), and Lunars (beings from the Moon that have supernatural capabilities). Cyborgs are actually held to a Cyborg Protection Law that does not allow them freedom; they have to be "owned" by a human, even though they are technically human anyway. Cyborgs are thought of as less than humans and looked to do more service/maid work for the Earthens. Then there are Lunars, which basically no one on Earth likes. They live on Luna (a.k.a. the moon) and have mystical powers.
Without ruining the book and writing a novel about what happens, essentially the Queen of Luna wants to rule the world. She has set a biological warfare (a disease called Letumosis) on Earth without anyone knowing about it and it's slowly killing off the human race. In the first book, the new Emperor, a young boy, is trying to find a way to stop the disease being spread while keeping peace with Luna. The Queen of Luna insists the only way to bring peace is by marriage. The Emperor believes that there is another way to bring peace between Luna and Earth, and that is to find the missing Princess Selene and bring her to rightfully rule on the Lunar throne.
This is the basis of the first three books. There are multiple roles interchanging throughout the books, a writing technique that I enjoy. This is also done in Game of Thrones and The Dark Tower series. The character development is quite impressive for there being so many of them, and the plot has a great way of wrapping itself around all of the characters like a glove.
I only have one problem with this book: It's kind of predictable.
The book is obviously written for young adults and teenagers. Of course, I consider myself neither, so the plot was pretty obvious about 3/4 of the way into the first book. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the series, and I will most likely buy the other three books and read them, but I could probably just guess what would happen to each character and be right.
This books reminds me a lot of Harry Potter, but I feel like Rowling put more into the books that adults would also appreciate. I don't consider Harry Potter to be a YA book series by any means. There was a lot more depth and detail going into the darkness of the wizarding world that I haven't come across yet in The Lunar Chronicles. Maybe in the next three books, more will be revealed and I'll be totally wrong. That would be a nice change of pace!
The best part of the book, for me, is the group of misfits that are the primary characters throughout the series. Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and the other characters are the epitome of awkward and goofy outcasts. The reason I love this is because I could relate to them so easily. Being a teenager or young adult, I can imagine how awesome it is to read that the awkward citizens of the world are ones that are going to save it.
So to wrap this review up: I am impressed with The Lunar Chronicles and Marissa Meyer's writing style. I've enjoyed these immensely and I would definitely recommend these to someone who is looking for a series that has action, sci-fi, romance, humor, and heroic tendencies.
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