Marissa Meyer
Feiwel & Friends, 2012
We all know I'm a fairy tale nut, and when I saw this one showing up in the blogosphere a few months ago, I was intrigued. Not hunt-it-down-and-devour-it-curious, but intrigued enough that when my library purchased a copy, I put it on hold.
Marissa Meyer's first installment in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, is the classic story of Cinderella with a sci-fi, dystopian twist...I must say, it's unlike anything I've read before. And quite honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I didn't hate it, but neither did I fall in love. Obviously, going into it, I knew that Cinder (a cyborg) was the Cinderella-figure, and that Prince Kai was supposed to fall in love with her, just like Prince Charming did "back in the day." The whole cyborg-thing was a little weird, in that my basic understanding of robots and etc. didn't identify cyborgs as being able to feel. But apparently, in the world of Cinder, cyborgs are humans who've been injured, or "damaged," somehow and have steel/robotic parts installed. (Sort of like high-tech prostheses, with a slightly creepy twist).
So basically, we have a Cinderella story set in a world with droids and cyborgs, and other crazy advanced technologies, that still has a major weakness: the inability to cure or even treat The Plague ravaging the country. Not to mention some crazy tension between Earth and the Lunars (a colony of people living on the moon. And I thought the cyborg bit was weird; these people are creepy-devious!). It's a complex little environment, and obviously deals with a lot more issues than "just Cinderella" - but Meyer does a good job of integrating Cinder's story into the bigger picture. Even though I figured out the twist of the story very, very early on in the book, it was an interesting read. I'm nowhere near fangirl-status, but I will pick up the next installment of this four-part series (random: I love the titles for the rest of the series!), and see what happens next.
Book provided by my local library.
Yeah, see the "not hate but not love" part was what got me when reading about it too. Gotta admit the cover is an eye catcher though....and fairy tales, well of course! Don't know that I'll be picking up the series, but I will definitely keep a close on on the reviews for the next installment. Who knows? I've been "convinced" before. ^_^
ReplyDeleteI really liked Cinder, but it wasn't quite all the way to love for me. I didn't get as connected to Kai's character as I would have liked, for example. However, I loved the world and the concept, and am totally stoked for Scarlet.
ReplyDeleteI think you'll find that most books about cyborgs will be about how, even though they're perceived as emotionless robots, they're totally not. :-p
GMR: Yeah, the cover is quite attention-grabbing. I'm interested to see how they'll design the rest of 'em!
ReplyDeleteChristina: I liked aspects of it, and didn't like others, and still others I had no real feeling about...I think I just really have a hard time getting into the "Robot Side" of sci-fi, haha... I don't read much of it to begin with, and when I do, I'd rather read space-y stuff :o)
It makes more sense to me after reading your review, cyborgs being human with robotic parts! Gotcha! I'm not a big SciFi fan myself.
ReplyDeleteI just read another review of this book and it is good to hear another opinion. I am definitely adding it to my list, but I don't think it will be a major priority for me. I am curious enough though!
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