Book Review - Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Series: Lunar Chronicles #1

Publisher: Square Fish

Publication Date: 1 January 2012

Genre: YA - Sci-Fi

My Copy: Library - Paperback

 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.

Review:

This was one of those books where I had doubts that I would like it. I'm not that big into fairytale retellings, and Cinderella is probably one of my least favorite fairytales. However, I kept hearing wonderful things about this series, a coworker gushed about the series, and the cyborg aspect kind of interested me. I didn't have high expectations going into this novel, and in fact, I almost convinced myself that I wouldn't like it. I had checked it out from the library on a whim, and I waited until a couple days before it was due (roughly 54 days since I checked it out since I renewed it once) to actually read it. I'm really glad I decided to go ahead with it since I found myself loving the story!

I thought Cinder was kind of badass by the end of the book. She took care of herself and stood by her stepsister who was obviously the less important daughter to her mother. She started a little "woe-is-me" but she ended by taking a stand for not just herself, but for Earth. Sure she had moments of self-doubt, but I think everyone does so that just made her even better. I guessed at the ending fairly early in the book, so the only thing that kind of irritated me was that she didn't pick up on it sooner. I thought she ought to put the pieces together herself quicker than she did. I like that she's a female mechanic too. The secondary characters were a little one-dimensional to me. Even Prince Kai was kind of blah. I hope to see more development out of them in the second novel, even if Scarlet is focused on a new character and different fairytale.

Despite this being a twist on Cinderella, there is plenty of unique story line. The Cinderella aspect isn't overly obvious and isn't even the main story to me. The cyborg business wasn't explained perhaps as much as I would have liked, and Cinder was the only one named in this book. I hope the next book has more about the cyborg process as well as going more into depth about the Lunars. I knew this was futuristic and had cyborgs and androids, but despite reading the synopsis, I didn't pick up on the fact that there would be a civilization on the moon as well which made the story that much more awesome to me. So many interesting dynamics and politics explored in the book. I'm really looking forward to reading Scarlet next.

Favorite Quote:

Vanity is a factor, but it is more a question of control. It is easier to trick others into perceiving you as beautiful if you can convince yourself you are beautiful. But mirrors have an uncanny way of telling the truth.

Book Review - Lock In by John Scalzi

Lock In by John Scalzi

Publisher: Tor Books

Publication Date: 26 August 2014

Genre: Science Fiction / Mystery

My Copy: Library - hardback

Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.

One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people “locked in”...including the President's wife and daughter.

Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can restore the ability to control their own bodies to the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, “The Agora,” in which the locked-in can interact with other humans, both locked-in and not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, meaning that from time to time, those who are locked in can “ride” these people and use their bodies as if they were their own.

This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse...

Review:
This was a really weird book for me. I've been trying to expand my reading horizons because every once in awhile, I need something different to read. Chris Shane is a Haden, the name for people who are locked in.  He's a famous Haden due to his father's vast collection of accolades as well as being the public face of Hadens as normal people. He wants to be able to live on his own and gets a job as an FBI agent. Hadens live with their bodies in cradles at home while a computer installed in their brains allows them to virtually live inside what are essentially fancy robots. This makes them valuable in the law enforcement field because they can record and scan their surroundings for viewing later. On his first official day on the job, he meets his partner Agent Vann who has her own set of problems. Immediately, they have a murder to solve. At first it seems like a garden variety murder, but then several things start to come to light and nothing seems to add up. Both characters annoyed me at times. Agent Shane acted like a spoiled rich kid a few times, which is actually probably realistic, but annoying none the less. Agent Vann was moody and rude, but again you kind of understand why later in the book.

The story was kind of hard for me to get into at first. I didn't really understand what Agent Shane was walking around as which made it really difficult to visualize the story (I was thinking something like R2D2, and it was more like I, Robot). There is apparently a prequel novella that explains some of this, so you might want to read that first. Once I understood a little better (about a quarter of the way through the book), I really got into the book. There is so much going on in it. Scalzi did a great job of connecting all the dots and there are a lot. I was a little worried it would seem rushed at the end since I was really close to the end and there were still way too many loose ends, but it was all wrapped up and surprisingly didn't feel rushed to me. I thought the mystery aspect of this was very well put together.

I am not aware of a sequel planned for this, nor does the ending leave it to where there has to be one, but I would kind of like to see one. There are many more story lines available here and much about the Agora and the new circumstances for the Hadens that could still be evolved further. I did take away a star for it being hard to get into and understand at first. I almost gave up on it, but I'm glad I didn't. I highly recommend this book, but you should probably read the novella first!

Rating Breakdown:

Plot: 5 stars

Pacing: 5 stars

Characters: 4 stars

Ending: 5 stars

Recommend: Yes!