Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
So today is a special guest review from my mom! I am trying to win an advanced copy of Cress and for it I had it to loan somebody and have them do a review. I loaned it to my mom since we like a lot of the same type of books. Plus, she doesn’t read as much YA as I do, and I honestly think she really needs to remedy that 🙂 Cinder is definitely an awesome one to make her read since it is one of my absolute favorites and one of the first I recommend to anybody.
I read the back of the book, and when it said cyborgs, I was like cyborgs? Really? I thought it was going to take me forever to read it since it was science fiction, but once started, I didn’t want to put it down!
My daughter told me I needed to read this book that it was so good. I read the overview and thought – great a science fiction I will never finish it. Believe me when I tell you when Marissa Meyer combined a modern day Cinderella and a toned down Star Trek influence she produced a Marvelous work of fantasy fiction. I could hardly put it down, it was wonderful! Ms. Meyer was able to write and create this story as if it was completed in one day. The story flows from beginning to end.
The character Cinder has a chip on her shoulder but not for the obvious reason. You fall in love with her in the beginning and at times you wish you could just thump her on the head for making some of the decisions that she makes. She can be a bit sarcastic and at times it can go over your head and make you do a double take. She is used to getting the blame for many things she has no control over and so she blames herself for her sister’s illness, so she risks her life to try to save her.
Prince Kaito is portrayed as most princes are. Great looking and all the girls are in love with him. He seems very humble, yet wants to claim to be a bit spoiled. He is concerned about the evil Lunar Queen Levana, who tries to make the common people see her as a good and caring queen. The Queen is trying to get him to agree to marry her and he is totally against it. He has the weight of his kingdom on his shoulders so he worries the outcome of his decisions that concern the queen and her possibility of retaliation against his people, and I as hoping she would fall off the balcony, she is so evil.
The personal androids add a bit of a different kind of personality, emotion and logic to the science fiction part of the story. You have a companion that has emotions and opinions such as a friend would have. The medical androids have all the logic and very little personality. The role for them is matter of fact and emotion has no part for them and it works. Except for Iko, who had a lot of personality and was very funny. She was certainly different than the rest of the androids!
As for the sisters, Pearl is awful to Cinder, but Peony is nice and not like the typical evil step sisters. And I couldn’t stand Adri, she is such a horrible, wicked stepmother, I really enjoyed this book and it was not what I expected, but so much better than what I thought it was going to be. Great book, even for people who aren’t big on science fiction!
I hope everybody enjoyed the guest review from my mom and have a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
On The Shelf 