[ENG&RU] Lunar chronicles #1: "Cinder" by Marissa Mayer. Book review

English

Hello, friends! I'm sharing with you my impressions of the book "Cinder" by author Marissa Mayer. This book is a retelling of the fairy tale of the same name and the first part of the "Lunar Chronicles" series:

1 Cinder
2 Scarlet
3 Cress
3.1 Fairest: Levana's Story
4 Winter
4.1 Stars Above

General information

Year of publication: 2012
Country: USA
Original language: English
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Science Fiction, Romance
Age Range: 12 and up
Pages: 390

Plot

The entire series of books is set on Earth in the third millennium, 126 of the space age. This is a distant futuristic future in which cyborgs, robotic androids and flying cars are commonplace. After the Fourth World War, new states were formed: the Eastern Commonwealth, the European Federation, the American Republic, etc. Earth's satellite, the Moon, is also an inhabited planet. There live the Lunars who have special abilities, like hypnosis, which allow them to manage the thoughts, feelings and bodies of people. However, among the Lunars there are also some "shell" who have no lunar gift and are immune to its effects.
The relationship between the Earth and the Moon is on the brink of war. Attempts to establish diplomatic relations between the tyrant queen, who rules on the Moon, and the rulers of a number of Earth nations are fruitless.
The situation is also aggravated by the spread on Earth of the dreaded disease Letumosis or "Blue Fever", from which hundreds of people die every day and an antidote has not yet been found.
The plot of "Cinder" is set in the futuristic city of New Beijing, in one of the Eastern Commonwealth countries. The protagonist of the book, Linh Cinder, is the best mechanic of her city and a cyborg. Because she isn't quite human, the girl is discriminated against by her adoptive family: her guardian stepmother and her two sisters and those around her. Cinder is forced to spend entire days in her mechanic's tent until the very day when Prince Kai shows up on her doorstep with a request to fix his personal android. Thanks to this, Cinder finds herself in the midst of events that turn her life upside down.

Characters

Cinder is a 16-year-old cyborg girl with a metal arm, a leg and a computer nervous system. The main character is a fairly adequate, emotional, hard-working, intelligent and brave girl who knows how to stand up for herself. Of course, she isn't the Cinderella from the fairy tale we used to read about in our childhood. However, it's also a character one wants to empathise with, as she has her own tragedy and a troubled and complicated fate full of secrets from the past.
Kai is the prince of the Eastern Commonwealth. At first glance, this character seems like a classic prince from a fairy tale: noble, responsible, intelligent, kind and slightly naive. But the author also shows all the difficulties and difficult circumstances with which he has to deal, and this allows us to look at the character from a different angle.
It's no secret that there is supposed to be a romantic relationship between Cinder and the Prince, but in this book their feelings are only budding. I liked how the author gradually develops the relationship between the characters.
Levana is the Queen of the Moon, a conniving and cruel ruler with impressive powers of manipulation over people. In my opinion, this personage is incompletely revealed in this book.
Dr. Erland. Throughout the book, my opinion of this character completely changed. At first I saw him as someone who goes after his goals despite the sacrifices he makes. But by the end of the book, he revealed a completely different side and left a positive impression.
The stepmother in contrast to the fairy tale is not presented as a truly negative character. Rather, she is an unhappy person whose life has not turned out well. Her actions are unpleasant, but quite logical and understandable.
Peony is one of Cinder's stepsisters. One of the pleasing changes to the Cinderella tale is that Peony is introduced as a positive character and befriends the main character.
Iko is a robot android who is Cinder's friend. A character who defuses the atmosphere of the book well with her jokes and dreams of a prince.

My impressions

I learned about the book "Cinder" by Marissa Meyer a long time ago, but the fact that the main character is a cyborg discouraged me from reading it. Still, the positive reviews have done their job, and I decided to get acquainted with this work.
It would seem, who can surprise us with another retelling of the fairy tale familiar to every person from childhood? The story of Cinderella has already been filmed and adapted thousands of times. However, Marissa Meyer, in my opinion, managed to eclipse all previous attempts.
The author created not another "Cinderella" in a different setting, but a completely new story, with familiar themes, in which cyborgs, androids, the Lunars and the plague epidemic are skillfully intertwined with the essential attributes of history: the slipper, the ball, the evil stepmother, the stepsisters, the carriage, the prince.
The book is written in simple language, so it reads quickly and easily. The plot is quite dynamic and exciting, but obviously predictable. The atmosphere is not as fairytale-like as it may seem at first glance. Instead of magic, pumpkins, carriages and a crystal slipper there is deadly disease, political conflict, themes of human equality, selflessness and finding oneself. Despite this, there is enough misery and amusing moments within the pages of the book. Everything seems organic to the circumstances described by the author and conforms to the rules of the fictional world.
The main downside I can point out is that the whole book feels like a prologue to a story that will develop in the following parts. Initially after reading "Cinder", I had no desire to immediately start reading the next part of the series. But after reading the entire series, this book started to feel different to me mainly due to the fact that I know how the story will unfold next.

Overall I enjoyed the book, my rating is 9/10.