Lunar Chronicles, Book 2Book 1: Cinder review
Tags: young adult, sci-fi/fantasy/dystopian, France, retelling
Summary
Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother has gone missing. Everyone tells her to not worry about it, there’s nothing she can do, her grandmother is an individualistic kind of person, but Scarlet thinks there’s something more insidious behind her grandmother’s disappearance. The only person who will help her is a soft-spoken street fighter named Wolf, whom Scarlet hopes she can trust, but who may have an agenda of his own. Answers are discovered, but more questions raised, when they cross paths with Cinder, whose recent and widely publicized escape from a New Beijing prison just might start the war that the ruthless Lunar Queen has been waiting for.
Review
Cinder was my unexpected enjoyable find of last year. After experiencing how effortlessly Marissa Meyer can weave together a convoluted yet exciting tale, I had high demands for the sequel, SCARLET. And in a way, SCARLET fulfilled them. In a way, it didn’t.
The good first: everything we liked about Cinder is in here, except perhaps even a notch better. In particular, the characters, old and new, major and supporting, are easy to cheer on. I mean, there are exceptions. Kai’s role is reduced to that of beleaguered new and helpless emperor under international pressure. Wolf, I’m sorry to say, did not appeal to me so much, not because I didn’t like his soft and shy personality (I did) so much as I have known many misunderstood love interests with wounded hearts of gold (see: many adult romance male leads). But when you weigh the slightly annoying—Kai and Wolf—against the good—Cinder’s resourcefulness and empathic internal struggle, Scarlet’s ferocity at protecting her loved ones, Thorne’s much-appreciated airheaded charm lightening the mood)—the good comes out on top.
That being said, one of the issues that some reviewers noted as a weakness in Cinder is even more apparent in SCARLET, and that is the world-building. I remember thinking the world-building in Cinder was decent, but in SCARLET I found it lacking. Don’t get me wrong: Meyer does a Richelle Mead-worthy job of setting up an elaborate yet believable backstory to the world’s current state, the one involving the Lunars and Princess Selene. But settings-wise, inadequate research and/or thought was glaringly apparent. At no point did the scenes in France distinguish themselves from what could’ve been going on in any other place in a future Earth. I wanted the book to show me its vision of what a future Earth divided into regions like the Eastern Commonwealth and European Federation, and experiencing strained relationships with Lunar, would look, feel, hear, taste, and smell like. What distinguishes Rieux, Scarlet’s hometown, from other places in the world? How does Paris fare several centuries from now, and how does its altered cityscape affect the characters’ movements and experiences?
Still, SCARLET was fast-paced and exciting. My attention started wavering around the end when everyone was running around killing each other in a very blankly drawn future Paris, but I’m still curious enough about how the Lunar/Princess Selene conflict will play out that I think I’ll continue to hang around this series. Read at the surface level, SCARLET is a successful rollicking good read. But I hope the series will pick up a bit on its world-building, for fear that those cracks will end up pulling the books down.
Similar Authors
Richelle Mead
Cover discussion: Oh hey, look, a publisher that didn't feel compelled to arbitrarily change the cover from hardcover to paperback. Hooray! I do like how this cover matches the one for Cinder, which I felt was memorable and powerful in its simplicity.
Feiwel & Friends / Feb. 5, 2013 / Hardcover / 464pp. / $17.99
Personal copy.
As much as I seriously enjoyed Scarlet, I agree about the worldbuilding. However, I was so caught up in the story, that I didn't really mind all that much.
ReplyDeleteI was *very nearly* so caught up in the story that I didn't mind, either! However, when I did notice, it brought me out of my happy bubble so much, I knew that I definitely wanted to write about it in my review. I am still reading onwards in the series, for sure: I feel like I haven't been waited on the next installment in a series I know has its flaws with such bated breath since Twilight. :P
DeleteI like that the covers match, but this one just feels like a shapeless red blob to me.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and not to mention that triangle that wishes it were an arm. *unattractive snort-giggle*
DeleteWorld building, eh? That's a make or break for me, but I loved CINDER last year, and am hoping I can look past the weakness this time and fall in love with another of Meyer's sci-fi fairy tales. I'm awfully behind in reading it - will have to search my local library system!
ReplyDeleteThat's simply what I've learned to do with this series: ignore the weaknesses in world-building and just focus on how crazy-fun it is. I felt like I wanted to point it out in my review, though, because I haven't seen it being talked about elsewhere. I hope you enjoy Scarlet when you're able to get to it!
DeleteSorry to hear about the world building. I still haven't picked up this series, but I definitely want to start it soon. Fabulous review and hope it picks up for you soon! :)
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it when you can get to it!
DeleteInteresting. I've had friends who loved this book even more than Cinder. I enjoyed Cinder but didn't love it so I've been putting off reading Scarlet as other books take priority.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of world building didn't bother me when I read Cinder and Scarlet, but now that I think about it, you're right. It's a good thing the rest of the story is great.
ReplyDeleteThese books are both on my list of to-reads eventually.
ReplyDeleteYou make a very good point about the world-building, now that I think of it! I love this series, and that in part is why I can let the lack of it slide. It pretty much won me over with the awesome set of characters + this strangely twisty story!
ReplyDeleteInteresting. And I find, yet another, quote to add to my writer's toolbox. "How does Paris fare several centuries from now, and how does its altered cityscape affect the characters’ movements and experiences?"
ReplyDeleteExcellent. ;)
I wasn't much enthused about Cinder but I loved this one-I think I really appreciate the strong female characters who pulled me along on their wild adventure.
ReplyDelete