Cress

The third book in Marissa Meyer's series which began with Cinder, Cress retells the story of Rapunzel as set in the dystopian world of the future. Cress has been kept on board a satellite of Earth by the Lunar Queen's thaumaturge, Mistress Sybil. Her ability to hack into computers has proven her to be a valuable asset, but it's a lonely existence, broken only by the occasional visits of Sybil over seven long years. Until Cress makes contact with the spaceship Rampion, where Cinder, Scarlett, Wolf, and Captain Thorne are hiding until they can work out how to return to Earth and defeat Lunar Queen Levana. At this point for Cress, it's all or nothing, so she works out an escape plan that somehow becomes a survival journey for she and Thorne. Meanwhile, Cinder tries to figure out how to get to Emperor Kai before he can marry Levana, and somewhere along the line, Scarlett is abducted by Sybil's forces.

You'd think there's a lot of action going on, and there is...at least after the halfway mark. Until that point, there's a good deal of planning, stalling, and events not working out that had me thinking I needed to fast forward. While I was still engaged, I just needed the story lines to converge and get to a point. However, once I read on past the halfway mark, the plot takes a definite upswing and Cinder and Company are in almost constant peril. It was after that point that I truly became vested in the story and had to keep reading to know what would happen next.

The characters are well done, and Thorne is an absolute delight with his cunning and arrogance. I really liked Cress; she's got brains and a human side that is very endearing. I did grow a bit weary of all the glamouring going on but since that's part of the Lunar world, it's understandable. Meyer takes the essence of the fairy tale and while keeping it generally recognizable, entwines it into her universe in such a way that you forget it's actually a fairy tale. I'm eager to see where we're headed next.

~taminator40

Scarlet

Scarlet picks up pretty much where Cinder left off--Cinder is in jail and Levana has Kai precisely where she wants him. But Cinder being Cinder, she's not going to just rot in jail until she's exported to Luna; using her new found Lunar "gifts", Cinder escapes from jail with a rather hapless accomplice named Thorne and takes off in a stolen air ship, hoping to discover more about her existence on earth and her life as Princess Selene. Meanwhile, far away in France, Scarlet is tending her missing grandmother's farm, frustrated that no one will take her seriously when she claims her grandmother has gone missing. Enter Wolf, a street fighter who happens to intrigue Scarlet, and the two set off on a journey to find said missing grandmother...who is also the woman responsible for saving Princess Selene. Nice tie-in there.

Scarlet got off to a bit of a slow start for me, but once Scarlet and Wolf go on the run, things pick up quickly and the back and forth between the two main characters kept me saying "just one more chapter" until I was done. I liked how Scarlet felt betrayed and yet was willing to trust her instincts; I love Cinder and her sarcasm, and once I got used to Thorne, he rapidly became a favorite character. Meyer's world-building is meticulous and layered, with many not whom they seem to be and lots of wrenches being thrown into play. Nothing is ever easy and most of the time I was breathless waiting to see how on earth they were going to get out of the predicaments they found themselves in. From the nastiness of Cinder's stepmother, to Kai's sacrifice, to Thorne's irritating self-delusion, all of the characters shine with life. Excellent read and ready for number three!

~taminator40

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I picked up Cinder on the advice of a couple of good reading buddies, though I wasn't so sure it would be anything new in the world of fairy tale retellings. I'm beyond delighted to report that it far exceeded my expectations! Not wasting time in recounting the plot, I will simply list what I enjoyed so much about this well-written book.

Likes: Cinder herself. Despite being part cyborg, she's amazingly real with authentic human emotions. I loved the interaction between Cinder and her little sister Peony (and that was only reinforced by what happened later). I liked how Cinder took responsibility for Iko who was really nothing more than a machine, and I thought the relationship between Cinder and Kai was fun and teasing. Unlike some reviewers, I didn't feel it was too rushed because occasionally we meet someone and we just click with them, and I felt that was what happened between those two. I liked Cinder's sarcastic sense of humor, and I loved her mechanic skills! The plot, while never losing sight of its general theme of a retelling, did move in unexpected, if somewhat puzzling, ways, and the true evil of Queen Levanna has me wondering just how she's going to be ultimately defeated. And the way Cinder met challenges? Brilliant, even when she seemed to have given up. I will never count her out.

Dislikes/Quibbles: Cinder did get into the ball a little too easily, even if I could explain it away by her "gift"; in fact, she really did have a lot of freedom of movement in a city under siege. Oh well...big deal. It's a fairy tale, right? And I did figure out the big reveal amazingly early, though my interest never wavered despite knowing where we were headed. And yep, that's all I can think of as far as dislikes.

Cinder is such fun and such an original take, mixing fantasy and sci-fi, that the pages turned themselves. I'm in this series for the long haul--Ms. Meyer's writing has captured me fully. On to the next one!

~taminator40