I’ve had a long break and now I think it’s time to get back to reviewing. This time I’d like to go a little into the young adult direction and shed light on “the Ruby Red trilogy”, both on books and screen adaptations. I admit that young adult thing might be a little odd choice for me to review since I’m not in that certain age myself. But this one really stands out for me among other young adult fantasy fiction. You’ll understand my point of view along the way if you choose to stay with me.
For those of you who haven’t heard of the books, I should reveal that it was written by German writer Kerstin Gier and the trilogy consists of the “Ruby Red”, “Sapphire Blue” and “Emerald Green” installments. As you may have guessed, the movies were produced under the same titles.
Let’s begin with what the books are about first.
There’s this one ancient society the Lodge - almost like the Masons judging by their confidence in self-importance – and their sole purpose of existence is to find all carriers of the time-traveling gene to fulfill the old prophecy.
The Master of the Lodge is a count from 16th century whereas his subordinates are from our current time. You’d think there will be some difficulties in communication considering the time gap, but there’s a catch. There are two time-lapsing machines that help to communicate and exchange messages through those with time-traveling genes. One was stolen and used against the Lodge which complicated their affairs.
According to the prophecy throughout the ages there may be only twelve of the gene carriers and they’re all to be found so as to insert their blood drops into the time-lapsing machine and therewith fulfill the prophecy that promises to uncover the secret to an eternity. So far eleven were found in one or other century and only one is left to be found and initiated into their “club”. Each of the carrier is somehow pertained to one of the precious stones. The last one to be found is ruby. That’s where the interesting and intriguing part begins. You see, the Lodge has been training one girl Charlotte for a while now believing she’s their “ruby” (there’s a formula to calculate the date of the gene carrier), but apparently it’s been someone else entirely all along. It’s the cousin of Charlotte, Gwen. So all their training that included such arts as acting, etiquette, fencing, history, languages and so on, - all of it was for nothing.
Gwen herself is reluctant to do bidding of the Lodge and has reservations. She understands that she’s being manipulated and at the same time she’s got no one else to trust but her best friend from school who’s not even supposed to be let on any information on the Lodge’s business.
Gwen is determined to find the source of the Prophecy and hear it herself instead of believing what she’s been told by the Lodge. But when she’s reached her goal there’s a price to pay that can cost her something vitally important. Trained or not, all she knows is that she’s on her own.
Before reading the books I had doubts about the series because we’ve already been fed some good time-traveling stories before and it’s hard to surprise us in that regard. But when I opened the first book I was instantly immersed into the plot and only came back to my normal life after I finished all of the three books in three or four days. Yeah, I’ve been reading day and night until my eyes were sore.
It has everything a reader needs. There is a good balance of humor and drama, intrigue and fantasy. Even romantic line felt natural and on its place. I even felt for characters that were into each other but couldn’t find it in them to put trust into one another. So conflicting but beautifully pictured.
But what really drove me were the time-traveling schemes. There were a lot of them and they all came together along the way and fell into place for me. It was brilliantly written.
I swear I can imagine how the author made time diagrams at home office just to put all missing pieces of the puzzle together to build up an unforgettably clever story. And I have to say that I admire the work mostly for the cleverness of all this time pool rather than for romantic part although the romance is an essential one in this plot. It’s just that I’m taken away with the diligently sequenced time-lapsing lines more than the romantic line since it took so much brain work and time to organize and make it come together as it did. The hardest part was to make them look natural instead of somewhat farfetched just to fit into some previously laid-out picture.
Well, I hope you’ll consider reading the books because they’re surprisingly good.
Now let’s talk about the screen adaptations made for each of the installments.
“Ruby Red”, “Sapphire Blue” and “Emerald Green”, released in 2013, 2014 and 2016 accordingly.
“Ruby Red” film was actually the first thing I found about the trilogy. First I watched the movie, I liked it and as a result I ended up reading all of the books. The film is dynamical, although is mostly directed to the teen audience. The main character Gwen is funny and clumsy most of the times so time-traveling seems more like a death sentence to her at the beginning. It’s also a plus that the creators didn’t take another skinny girl to play the leading role. Gwen has a healthy-looking body and I like it.
The main male character Gideon de Villiers “the Sapphire” is played by a handsome young man. Perfect choice for this role of course))
Basically the movie repeats the events of the first book omitting just a few insignificant things which I can’t even remember. Those that like when the movie is an accurate repetition of the book will be satisfied.
As for the other two, “Sapphire Blue” and “Emerald Green”, I can’t say anything good or bad. They were a major step back. It goes for the visual effects as well as for the script. There was just something missing for me. But as a true fan of the books I went through all of the movies without complain and consoled myself with the thought that at least I know that the books are much better. The good thing about them is that most of the locations were real and they used visual effects only when they couldn’t go without it, so there’s a minimum of them.
If you wonder why I didn’t make a link for the trailers I have an explanation. I simply don’t like how they’re executed. Take my advice, if you consider watching the movies or reading the books then just proceed straight to it instead of wasting time on trailers.
To cap it all let me summarize everything that’s been said above.
The books are awesome, the movies are not as much and the first film is actually better than the last two. Although all of them would be fun to watch at least once if you don’t mind the poor visual effects once in a while.
Thank you for reading the post and I hope you enjoyed it. I wish you more good books and movies!