Cinder
by Marissa Meyer
When I was a little girl not even in kindergarten yet, I watched Cinderella 10,000 times. I dressed up like her at least three Halloweens in a row, and as a four-year-old my first choice in career when I grew up was Cinderella, even though I would probably die doing all of those chores and definitely die if I saw a mouse, even if that mouse claimed to be my best friend Jaq. And now that we've established that I love me some Cinderella, let's talk about this fractured fairytale where Cinderella is a cyborg in the future.
So yeah, um, a girl named Cinder is a cyborg and a mechanic in a post-WWIV future. She lives in New Beijing, which I'm guessing is somewhere in Asia, probably close to where Beijing is currently (just a random guess though). New Beijing is the capital of the Eastern Commonwealth, a country that's a conglomeration of all of the east-y part of the world. Yes, so, Eastern Commonwealth is hit with a huge plague with a huge medical name, and this plague kills everyone who is infected with it, and there are some doctors who are trying to find a cure, but they aren't having any success. This plague comes from the moon, because there is a population of people on the moon, ruled by the evil Queen Levana, who are immune to the plague and are known as Lunars. There's also this Prince Kai guy who is looking for a wife, so he holds an annual ball, and he also kind of has a wee crush on Cinder after he takes his droid to her shop to get fixed. There's tension between the Lunars and the Earthlings. More concisely: Cinder, plague, Prince Kai (oh la la), Moon people, Evil Queen.
It was a fun read, for sure, and I mostly liked it. In terms of the actual plot of the book it was predictable but still very interesting and fresh. There was just something about reading it that I found a little jarring, a little less-than-absolutely-satisfying. I think it was the development of everything. It was a very full story, and pretty quick-paced, but I felt empty reading parts of it. Like, sort of emotionless at parts where I was supposed feel things. I certainly liked everything about the futuristic Earth, I just felt like certain aspects of the political situation between Earth and the Moon were breezed over too much to really be convinced by them. I think that's sometimes to downfall of science fiction or fantasy writing. There just aren't enough pages for it all to feel complete: something has to be compromised, whether it's the setting or the characters. Some authors do a great job of playing that balancing game, but I just wasn't convinced with Cinder.
I thought some parts were missing, but the things that were there were all good. The twist at the end was really excellent, although I did kind of guess it a third of the way through. Apparently Cinder is a part of a four-part series in which each book is based on a different fairytale. I'll definitely be picking up the other books when they come out.
❃ ❃ ❃ - 3/5
So yeah, um, a girl named Cinder is a cyborg and a mechanic in a post-WWIV future. She lives in New Beijing, which I'm guessing is somewhere in Asia, probably close to where Beijing is currently (just a random guess though). New Beijing is the capital of the Eastern Commonwealth, a country that's a conglomeration of all of the east-y part of the world. Yes, so, Eastern Commonwealth is hit with a huge plague with a huge medical name, and this plague kills everyone who is infected with it, and there are some doctors who are trying to find a cure, but they aren't having any success. This plague comes from the moon, because there is a population of people on the moon, ruled by the evil Queen Levana, who are immune to the plague and are known as Lunars. There's also this Prince Kai guy who is looking for a wife, so he holds an annual ball, and he also kind of has a wee crush on Cinder after he takes his droid to her shop to get fixed. There's tension between the Lunars and the Earthlings. More concisely: Cinder, plague, Prince Kai (oh la la), Moon people, Evil Queen.
It was a fun read, for sure, and I mostly liked it. In terms of the actual plot of the book it was predictable but still very interesting and fresh. There was just something about reading it that I found a little jarring, a little less-than-absolutely-satisfying. I think it was the development of everything. It was a very full story, and pretty quick-paced, but I felt empty reading parts of it. Like, sort of emotionless at parts where I was supposed feel things. I certainly liked everything about the futuristic Earth, I just felt like certain aspects of the political situation between Earth and the Moon were breezed over too much to really be convinced by them. I think that's sometimes to downfall of science fiction or fantasy writing. There just aren't enough pages for it all to feel complete: something has to be compromised, whether it's the setting or the characters. Some authors do a great job of playing that balancing game, but I just wasn't convinced with Cinder.
I thought some parts were missing, but the things that were there were all good. The twist at the end was really excellent, although I did kind of guess it a third of the way through. Apparently Cinder is a part of a four-part series in which each book is based on a different fairytale. I'll definitely be picking up the other books when they come out.
❃ ❃ ❃ - 3/5
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