Category 17: A sci fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author
Cress
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Square Fish
Publisher: Square Fish
Published: January 27 2015 (first published February 4 2014)
Page count: 550
Genres: scifi, fairytale retelling
Page count: 550
Genres: scifi, fairytale retelling
Date read: November 4, 2018
Number of times read: 1
Format: paperback/audiobookSource: Bookoutlet.ca/Waterloo Public Library
Summary
Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.
Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker; unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can. -- via Goodreads
Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.
Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker; unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can. -- via Goodreads
Review
This is the third book in Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series, which in addition to being a really well-developed scifi series, is also a series of adaptations of traditional fairytales. Cinder was an adaptation of Cinderella, Scarlet retold the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and in this volume, we're treating to Meyers take on the tale of Rapunzel. One of my favourite aspects of these retellings is that Meyer has turned them into feminist stories. In the original fairytales, the aforementioned heroines had no agency of their own. They were all rescued from their respective circumstances through no will of their own but were all saved by big strong men entering their lives. Meyer's versions of the heroines, however, don't need to be rescued by men, for the most part, they're pretty good at saving themselves. Occasionally, they need the assistance of the male characters, but it doesn't happen often and it's usually when they're in a situation where it makes sense that the male character would be better at stopping the action such as the situation in Scarlet where for most of the novel the titular Scarlet is quite capable of taking care of herself. When wolf does come to her rescue it's because she's up against trained soldiers and he has the training to fight them where she doesn't. Cress is treated similarly in her point of view story. She's shown to be a capable and skilled hacker, but she acknowledges her limits and accepts Carswell Thorne's help when she needs it but doesn't rely on him for everything.
This novel does a really great job of building and expanding on the two stories that came before it. We change major point of view characters in each of the three novels introducing a new "main pair" with each book. But we never abandon the previous pair and Meyer does a good job of making sure that all of the disparate plot threads stay connected and stay in the mind of the reader. Meyer does a good job of including enough callbacks from previous books so that we can see how Cress has been connected to the story the whole time. It's very easy to see that she's had an overarching plan for where this series was going since the first book, the puzzle pieces all neatly fit together.
I also love the scifi world that Meyer has built and the way it has expanded in this book. We get to see a little more of what's actually going on in space and the Moon in this book compared to the first two books which are very much earthbound. I like the substitution of a satellite orbiting earth for what was traditionally a tower in the original Rapunzel tale. Because Cress isn't completely cut off from Earthen and Lunar cultures she is still completely informed about what's going on in both places and is actively trying to change what she can while being imprisoned. Speaking of Meyer's scifi world, I love the way in this book that she melded her futuristic world with traditions of geographic regions. Cress and Thorne at one point find themselves in remote North African villages and even though it's a scifi novel with vast technological advancements and sentient AIs you can still appreciate her use of traditional architecture and food. They even meet a group of nomads who use tech to their benefit.
If you're into fairytale retellings, this is a series of great ones. Cress is action-packed and emotionally moving at the same time.
This novel does a really great job of building and expanding on the two stories that came before it. We change major point of view characters in each of the three novels introducing a new "main pair" with each book. But we never abandon the previous pair and Meyer does a good job of making sure that all of the disparate plot threads stay connected and stay in the mind of the reader. Meyer does a good job of including enough callbacks from previous books so that we can see how Cress has been connected to the story the whole time. It's very easy to see that she's had an overarching plan for where this series was going since the first book, the puzzle pieces all neatly fit together.
I also love the scifi world that Meyer has built and the way it has expanded in this book. We get to see a little more of what's actually going on in space and the Moon in this book compared to the first two books which are very much earthbound. I like the substitution of a satellite orbiting earth for what was traditionally a tower in the original Rapunzel tale. Because Cress isn't completely cut off from Earthen and Lunar cultures she is still completely informed about what's going on in both places and is actively trying to change what she can while being imprisoned. Speaking of Meyer's scifi world, I love the way in this book that she melded her futuristic world with traditions of geographic regions. Cress and Thorne at one point find themselves in remote North African villages and even though it's a scifi novel with vast technological advancements and sentient AIs you can still appreciate her use of traditional architecture and food. They even meet a group of nomads who use tech to their benefit.
If you're into fairytale retellings, this is a series of great ones. Cress is action-packed and emotionally moving at the same time.
Overall Rating
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| 5 bolts |
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