Author: Marissa Meyer
Paperback: 387 pages (ARE version)
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends/ Macmillan
Published date: January 3, 2012
FTC: received from publisher for review
Yippee skippee! I love books like this. I got the dreaded cold a couple days ago and stayed in bed and tried not to kiss my little baby boy. But the good news was that it gave me time to
I first heard of Cinder over at Shelf Awareness. Head over there because they devoted a whole Maximum Shelf to it back in November.
Let me just say that Cinderella as cyborg = awesome. I loved her classic fairy tale story mixed with science fiction and fantasy.
Back of the book:
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.
In this thrilling debut young adult novel, the first of a quartet, Marissa Meyer introduces readers to an unforgettable heroine and a masterfully crafted new world that’s enthralling.
My thoughts:
I thoroughly had fun with this book. I think the only problem is that I was trying to explain to my husband the plot and he just gave me a blank look. Ok. It IS a lot to pack into a story line.
Cinderella is a cyborg. For those of you who may be confused, Cinder was in an accident when she was little and had to be fitted with a ton of machine and computer parts. Does this make her any less human? Apparently this society believes cyborgs are second class citizens.
There's a plague. There's a Prince. There's the evil step-mother and the step-sisters. There's a ball. There's a cool spin on the glass slipper. There's an evil queen -- from the moon! See. Quite a bit to pack into a book. I'll admit that the evil queen aspect starts getting a little weird, but it works and I'm curious to see how the story progresses with that.
Most people have given this book an amazing review and loved it - I am among those. I did read one review that there was a lack of Asian culture references even though it was set in New Beijing. Honestly, I didn't really think that was the case. I think this would have to be a much bigger chunkster and possibly a non-YA book if it became that detailed.
I'm already looking forward to the subsequent books. It's definitely one that ends with a "What??!! I want to know what happens next!!" I also want to see this as a movie. I love that it's set in New Beijing and I envisioned the Bladerunner movie when I read about hovercraft and cyborgs being second class citizens.
As for the story, I love Cinder's humanity. She wasn't perfect. She got pissed, annoyed, scared, angry -- I love my heroines to be un-perfect. I also loved the side characters. Often we get to read Prince Kai's perspective which I loved. His struggle to basically man-up, grow up, and become a leader all while going through personal tragedy. My other favorite characters were Peony, one of Cinder's step-sisters, and Iko, Cinder's android friend.
Yay! I just read this on Shelf Awareness:
I thoroughly had fun with this book. I think the only problem is that I was trying to explain to my husband the plot and he just gave me a blank look. Ok. It IS a lot to pack into a story line.
Cinderella is a cyborg. For those of you who may be confused, Cinder was in an accident when she was little and had to be fitted with a ton of machine and computer parts. Does this make her any less human? Apparently this society believes cyborgs are second class citizens.
There's a plague. There's a Prince. There's the evil step-mother and the step-sisters. There's a ball. There's a cool spin on the glass slipper. There's an evil queen -- from the moon! See. Quite a bit to pack into a book. I'll admit that the evil queen aspect starts getting a little weird, but it works and I'm curious to see how the story progresses with that.
Most people have given this book an amazing review and loved it - I am among those. I did read one review that there was a lack of Asian culture references even though it was set in New Beijing. Honestly, I didn't really think that was the case. I think this would have to be a much bigger chunkster and possibly a non-YA book if it became that detailed.
I'm already looking forward to the subsequent books. It's definitely one that ends with a "What??!! I want to know what happens next!!" I also want to see this as a movie. I love that it's set in New Beijing and I envisioned the Bladerunner movie when I read about hovercraft and cyborgs being second class citizens.
As for the story, I love Cinder's humanity. She wasn't perfect. She got pissed, annoyed, scared, angry -- I love my heroines to be un-perfect. I also loved the side characters. Often we get to read Prince Kai's perspective which I loved. His struggle to basically man-up, grow up, and become a leader all while going through personal tragedy. My other favorite characters were Peony, one of Cinder's step-sisters, and Iko, Cinder's android friend.
Yay! I just read this on Shelf Awareness:
At this point, Szabla has the manuscript for the second book, Scarlet (inspired by Little Red Riding Hood and scheduled for winter 2013), but has not yet seen a draft of the third book,Cress (based on Rapunzel, slated for winter 2014). Winter, the conclusion rooted in Snow White, will be published in winter 2015. "The intertwining starts right away in book two," Szabla said, referring to the way the other fairytale heroines will enter Cinder's story. Meyer is in complete control of her story, she said: "It's airtight."
I love that Meyer is brining other fairy tale characters into the story. I'm curious to see how she pulls it off.
Past chronicles:
On Goodreads I found there was a prequel to Cinder's story, Glitches. Head over to Tor's website for the free short story. How awesome is the artwork? There's a whole post on how the artist, Goni Montes, created the artwork.
Alternate cover:
Also while perusing Goodreads, I came across this alternate cover. While I love the red slipper with the cyborg part showing, this one is super cool too. You can see she cyborg leg and hand:
Audiobook:
Cinder is also available as an audiobook. Listen to a clip here!
Also Reviewed By:
The Book Pushers
Bookshelves of Doom
So Many Books, So Little Time
Books from Blah to Basically Amazing (History of the Lunars)
Past chronicles:
On Goodreads I found there was a prequel to Cinder's story, Glitches. Head over to Tor's website for the free short story. How awesome is the artwork? There's a whole post on how the artist, Goni Montes, created the artwork.
 |
| Glitches artwork by Goni Montes |
Alternate cover:
Also while perusing Goodreads, I came across this alternate cover. While I love the red slipper with the cyborg part showing, this one is super cool too. You can see she cyborg leg and hand:
Audiobook:
Cinder is also available as an audiobook. Listen to a clip here!
Also Reviewed By:
The Book Pushers
Bookshelves of Doom
So Many Books, So Little Time
Books from Blah to Basically Amazing (History of the Lunars)
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