Book review - Cress by Marissa Meyer, The Lunar Chronicles

Since we got Audible accounts, we haven't bought very many physical books. This is simply because it's had to find time to read a book and very easy to listen to one. Cress was an exception that we had all along. Book three of The Lunar Chronicles, Cress continues a story that is part sci-fi, part, political thriller, and part romance. How does that all work? Easy. Just wrap your sci-fi triller romance up as a fairy tale adaptation. Each based around a different fairy tale heroine, The Lunar Chronicles give a fantastic (or should I saw sci-fi-ic) twist on stories most people are familiar with. However, our heroine are not simple damsels in distress. Well, they are in distress  and they are damsels, but one is a cyborg mechanic, the other is a fiery pilot, and Cress is a brilliant, if someone naive, hacker. I've loved these books since I first picked them up and Cress didn't disappoint. I'll provide a basic rundown of the series plot below (without spoilers) and include some basic pot points for Cress specifically.

Plot: The Lunar Chronicles take place in the distant future. Interplanetary travel is fairly common and years ago people settled on the moon. In fact, the people that now live on the moon have evolved into quite different people than those living on Earth - able to control others' perception of themselves and even able to take control of other peoples' bodies. Earth has been ravaged for more than a decade by a plague that is killing thousands. Queen Levana of Luna claims that her doctors have developed a cure but insists on marrying Prince Kai of the Eastern Commonwealth. This is less then desirable as Queen Levana is not know for her patience, kindness, or general positive nature. She's known more for wanting to rule the world with an iron fist. Needless to say, the match is less than optimal. Enter Cinder, a cyborg mechanic who can fix anything. Anything except her broken family, her 2nd class citizenship, and her crush on Prince Kai. Becoming Prince Kai's go to mechanic does have some advantages though. An invitation to the royal ball. But things go downhill when she make entirely the wrong impression on Queen Levana, who is visiting the palace. Things get broken. Very broken and it turns out that Cinder is the only one that can fix them. She leaves in search of answers and a possible solution and crosses paths with Scarlet, a young french lass with red hear and a pistol tucked in her waistband. Keeping her grandmother's farm going despite the older women's disappearance has been rough and the police are no help in tracking her down. Finally deciding to look for her grandmother herself takes Scarlet to Paris in the company of a street fighter who is surprisingly protective of her. However, it turns out that Scarlet's grandmother had secrets and those secrets are troublesome for the Lunars. Scarlet quickly finds it advantageous to join up with Cinder and see that the Lunars don't succeed with their plans. Luckily, both Cinder and Scarlet have an angel keeping Lunar's eyes off of them. Cress knows more about security systems that anyone else out there. She designed the ones used by Luna and she's hacked, cracked, and subverted every other system out there. Trapped on her satellite orbiting between Luna and Earth Cress has come to the decision that too much has been asked of her. Because of her, Luna and Queen Levana have been able to commit some atrocities that Cress wants no part of. But how do you get out of a prison floating in space? And what happens when your masters learn that you're helping the enemy? In the end, Cress gets to taste the fresh air of Earth and gets to meet her hero. But first she has to survive to enjoy both.

My personal favorites: Cress pays homage to the "damsel in distress," with Cress even thinking of herself as the DiD and waiting for her hero, but then shows us why this doesn't work. While being a very real DiD, Cress is also a very competent young woman who shines in her own ways. I particularly found her love of Italian opera a fun detail of her background. She was a well rounded character whose naivety was honest and believable. Cinder and Scarlet continued to be kick butt characters, even though we see Scarlet in a lot more vulnerable situations. The other characters were great as well. I always love Iko. The tension was certainly high, like in the last book, both from the physical danger as well as the potential repercussions, but the flow of the book was nice.

Considerations: There is very little in the way of considerations for this series. The only thing I feel worth mentioning in this section is the brutality that Queen Levana and other Luners can show. With that said there are no graphic descriptions. Scarlet ends (and Cress begins) with attacks of lunar super soldiers that kill 16,000 people in fourteen cites across the world. Scarlet also undergoes some traumatic experiences, but again, nothing graphic in nature. The writing is age appropriate for young teens.

Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, are all very good books. The characters are fun and competent and the plot is both robust and yet straight forward. The romantic elements are handled well and the political intrigue is diverting, but not convoluted. Can a book be classic fairy tale, sci-fi, romance, and political intrigue all at once. I submit that it can and these books are the proof. I can't wait for Winter to come out next year. The total length was just over 500 pages.

Audible book review - Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George

I've have this book on my audible wish list from the very beginning. I first heard if this book from the author. When asked if she had a favorite book of the ones she had written she answered without hesitation, "Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow." As I've read other books by this author I was intrigued by her rapid response. The book did not disappoint. A retelling of a fairy tale, it is a Norwegian tale and was completely foreign to me. While baring some resemblance to Beauty and the Beast, it was different enough to remain new and fresh. I used every opportunity to listen too it and finished it within two days. Here is a link to the Audible page for this book. It was read by Jessica Roland who did a good job with the different characters.

Plot: based on the fairy tale East of the sun and west of the moon, winter has not left the Northland for decades, some say a hundred years. People are able to scrape by but often not by much. It's even harder when there are lots of children to feed. Olaf, the woodcutter has nine children. When his wife gave birth to a girl instead of boy who would be able to help support the family she was upset and refused to den give her a name. Olaf, who loved the child, was disappointed by his wife's decision but as the naming of girls is the wife's duty, he could do nothing but call the girl "the Pika," which simply means "the girl." Given the nickname "lass" by her eldest brother, Hanspater, the Pika came to accept her mother's rejection and instead sought the company of Hanspater who had returned from sea after a five year voyage. However, Hanspater is not well. He only sits by the fire and carves words in a strange language or figures that he may throw into the fire. He does make some useful things that he sells to help the family, but he appears to be broken. The Pika wants more than anything to see her brother whole. In an attempt to help him she asks a boon from the White Stag, a mythical creature she helped free from a thicket. When it is unable to help her brother it instead gives her the ability to speak with animals. While this is useful and causes her to be much sought after to help with difficult animals in also brings a giant ice bear to her families house when she is seventeen. It requests that she come and live with him in his palace for a year and one day. In return her family shall have the wealth her mother has desired for years. How hard could it be, to live with such a chreature for a year and a day in a palace with servants? Harder than the Pika thought possible.

My personal favorites; This book reminded me of Beauty by Robin McKinely in all the best ways.Both are fairy tale retellings and both cover similar, but very different stories. They are both very well written and have good pacing and flow between scene and conflicts. In addition, Jessica Day George does a great job with foreshadowing. She also doesn't pull any punches. Bad things happen to good people and evil is truly villainous. The characters are fun and believable and I didn't feel like the Pika was acting older than her age, which is something I often struggle with.

Considerations: As I said, Jessica Day George doesn't pull any punches and there are characters who die, not just "disappear" or rather when they disappear we learn that they were killed. Another consideration is that as part of her year and a day in the ice bear's palace there is a man that shares her bed. This is given the proper weight in the Pika's mind and she is uncomfortable with this. However, despite the potential there is no sexual actions or references that take place because of this arrangement. I look forward to reading this to my daughter when she is ready for books of this size.

Overall the book was wonderful. It kept me guessing about some things until the very end and held me captive until the final word. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to read something that feels familiar and yet is a very different fairy tale than what they're used to. The total length was 7 hours.