[BOOK REVIEW] Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)
By Marissa Meyer
Published by Feiwel & Friends; January 3, 2012
Hardcover, 387 pages

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, the 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. (from Goodreads)

Review:

Cinder is a book with a great concept but poor execution. There is so much potential here-- cyborgs, fairytale retelling, political intrigue-- but it is wasted on all counts. Concepts aside, the overall storyline is boring and predictable, so simplistically written that I feel like this is more of a children's book than a teen novel, and sorely lacking in depth.

The East Asian nations have merged as one large Eastern Commonwealth, ruled by a royal family. Cinder is a cyborg living with her adopted family in the capital city New Beijing and working as a mechanic. Cyborgs are treated with suspicion and fear, and generally considered second-class citizens by humankind. When a royal visitor comes seeking her expertise at her mechanic's booth, Cinder becomes entangled in a conspiracy and a looming war involving the mysterious Lunar nation, whose people have supernatural abilities.

Aside from some discrimination towards cyborgs, there isn't any real exploration of exactly what an existence as a cyborg entails. Cinder is 32% cyborg, has a metal hand and foot, an enhanced brain and a silicon heart. Can she still be considered human? What about her brain chemistry, which regulates emotions? Does she feel things differently than other humans? Can she even feel or is it programmed into her? What about artificial intelligence? The cyborg concept was poorly used, seeming more like an excuse to make Cinder an outcast, much in the vein of other popular YA paranormal/dystopian fiction, except that rather being a loner due to having special powers, Cinder is an enhanced human (which, in a way, is kind of like having special powers). Sure, her enhanced brain with its data-processing does come in handy quite a number of times, but Cinder being a cyborg doesn't add any real depth to her character or the book overall.

Furthermore, it makes no sense that there would be so much discrimination towards cyborgs that even higher ups would not want to deal with them. Wouldn't the royal family be interested in cyborgs for reasons of national security? They should be pouring money into cyborg research and development in order to bring up a cyborg army to defend themselves, especially at a time when Earth has such a precarious relationship to the Lunars with their supernatural powers.

As a fairytale retelling, the book didn't really add anything new or put a new twist onto the Cinderella storyline aside from placing it in a sci-fi world. That might be acceptable if the worldbuilding wasn't shoddy at best. There are throwaway mentions of a Fourth World War that changed the Earth, entire continents as conglomerate supercountries formed from their separate nations, and various new technologies such as the many robots running around working for humans. However, nothing was really developed or explained, and even the physical/visual descriptions of the world were sparse (we aren't even given a description of what the main character looks like). Chinese culture is used only shallowly to give life to New Beijing; there are mentions of dumplings, of pagodas, and many usages of Chinese honorifics, but these are only the most superficial aspects of the culture. There were also mentions of geishas and kimonos, which are some of the most obvious and stereotypical aspects of Japanese culture. In other words, Asian culture was only used as a gimmick without any true understanding of them, and made me think of these posters that criticize racist and insensitive portrayals of non-Caucasion cultures.

The political aspects of this book could have been really interesting but were instead boring and juvenile. Who ever heard of politicians openly threatening each other the way Prince Kai and Queen Levana do? Kai was completely immature in all of his interactions with the Lunar Queen; no matter how much you can't stand the other person, a good politician should still know to be diplomatic! And saying he is young doesn't give him an excuse-- you'd think that someone who'd grown up around politicians and diplomats would know how to behave in such situations. Wouldn't his father, the Emperor, have taught him a bit about diplomacy, seeing that Kai is the only heir to the Eastern Commonwealth? Also, why was Kai so intent on chasing after a girl he barely knew when there were all sorts of major problems going on in his country that need to be urgently dealt with? I doubt that he'd have so much time on his hands, what with trying to find a cure for a plague sweeping his country and defending from Lunar invaders and all.

As for the plot itself, it was completely and utterly predictable. This is a very typical write-by-numbers YA book-- outcast girl meets boy, outcast girl discovers her secret powers/deep dark secret/evil conspiracy (usually this information is given to them by some other, older, minor character, Dr Erland in this case), girl realizes boy is in danger, girl saves boy by sacrificing herself, boy finds some reason they can't be together, end with a cliffhanger to ensure you will buy the next book in the series. (Sometimes I think I should really stop reading YA but I keep finding myself pulled in by the hype.. sigh.)

All in all, Cinder wasn't the worst read ever, and will definitely appeal to those who like easy-to-read, fast-paced stories that require little brainpower. There are some intriguing concepts here but they all feel like gimmicks and are never explored enough for the story to have any modicum of depth. If you are looking for thought-provoking science fiction, interesting twists on fairytale retellings, realistic and well-developed characters or good writing, skip this book. You're not going to find any of those things here. However, if you like half-baked young adult romances with wooden characters and a predictable plot, then this book might be for you.

2 stars out of 5

Books I'm Excited About (2)

It's been a while. I've been super busy with work that I haven't been able to update. Reviews are coming soon though! Here's just a quick post-- some books I really want to read.

The Child Thief by Brom. I love retellings of fairytales and classic stories so this dark and twisted update of Peter Pan piqued my interest immediately. The author previously worked as an illustrator, and apparently his own artwork is featured in the book (and I believe the cover is done by him as well).

Days by James Lovegrove. A science fiction surrounding a large department store called "Days", where anything can be bought as long as you have the right amount of credit. I wonder if happiness is on sale there?

Wraeththu by Storm Constantine. According to a member of Goodreads, this book is about "gay hermaphrodites with magical powers" and they have some sort of magical sex. Sounds like a really bad yaoi manga. ...I'm sold!

Movie Adaptations I'd Love to See

I just recently came across a post by the bloggers over at Big Books Tiny Voices with a list of over 60 YA/MG book-to-movie adaptations that have been optioned or are already in the making. You'll have to pop over to their blog to see the full list and not all of these may actually be made into films, but I picked out 5 that I'd most love to watch on the big screen:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Laini Taylor really has a way with words. Her unique, mellifluous writing style caught the attention of many readers, myself included. The book follows a fairly typical YA paranormal storyline but Taylor's lyrical and whimsical writing brought new life to an old plot. I really want to see the designs for the demon characters in the book; Taylor's writing is quite descriptive but seeing the characters would be a different experience.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I actually have this book out from the library right now and will be starting it soon. It's a YA dystopian that takes place in a world where love is a disease that must be eradicated, and before she has a chance to undergo treatment to prevent her from ever succumbing to the disease, the main character Lena falls in love. It's such an intriguing concept and I'm curious to see how the story plays out both in the book and on the movie screen.

The Giver by Lois Lowry. I actually played the Giver in a short film made by my friends and I in middle school as part of a class project, so there is a lot of nostalgia connected to this book for me. It was a lot of fun and nobody minded that a tiny Asian girl played the role of an old man... hahaha! Apparently Jeff Bridges has already been cast as the Giver... we'll see how his performance stacks up against mine! LOL

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. After the breathtakingly awesome Lord of the Rings film trilogy, I'm sure a Hobbit adaptation will be equally stunning. Maybe this time I'll finally buck down and read through the book as well.

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. Although the book left some things to be desired (here's my review of it), I think it'll translate well as a movie; I've always thought that many of the scenes in the book have a very cinematic quality to them. Also, I have another reason for wanting to see this as a movie: I want to see an Asian actress playing the lead. Hollywood rarely makes movies with Asian protagonists, and if when they do, it tends to be with stereotypical characterizations. Allison, the main character of The Immortal Rules doesn't really fit into the typical Asian female stereotypes though, so I'm really interested in seeing what Hollywood does. Being of Asian heritage myself, I'm particularly invested in this.

[BOOK REVIEW] vN by Madeline Ashby

vN
By Madeline Ashby
Published by Angry Robot; July 31, 2012
Paperback, 448 pages

Amy Peterson is a self-replicating humanoid robot.

For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android mother’s past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks her mother, little Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.

Now she carries her malfunctioning granny as a partition on her memory drive, and she’s learning impossible things about her clade’s history – like the fact that the failsafe that stops all robots from harming humans has failed… Which means that everyone wants a piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her. (from Goodreads)

Review:

In the future, anticipating the End of Days, a megachurch pours money into artificial intelligence to develop von Neumann machines ("vN"), a series of self-replicating humanoids meant as companions for those who don't make it into Heaven. When Judgement Day fails to arrive, these human-like robots are left on Earth to live among human beings. They are programmed with a "failsafe"-- a mechanism that makes them unable to withstand seeing a human being hurt, in order to ensure that they will never harm a human.

Amy Peterson is a vN living in a mixed human-vN family. She is a replica (an "iteration") of her vN mother, Charlotte. While normally vN mature to adulthood in a year, Amy's human father has kept her on a strict diet that stunts her growth, keeping her maturation at a human rate. At 5 years old, Amy is highly unusual for a vN, with a child's appearance when most others her age have reached adulthood long ago. While trying to protect her mother from her grandmother Portia, Amy eats her grandma, integrating Portia's synthetic body into her own, which causes an instantaneous growth spurt, pushing her into her adult form. At the same time, Portia's consciousness is absorbed into Amy's own memory banks and Amy discovers her failsafe has failed as well. With her grandmother inside her head, Amy goes on the run as the police and government officials try to track her down.

There is plenty to think about in vN. In terms of scientific and technological progress, author Madeline Ashby is exploring how artificial intelligence might fit (or not fit) into human society. vN are treated as foreign entities by humans, tolerated but not quite accepted with human reactions toward them ranging from the sympathetic to disgust. An interlude in the middle of the book has Amy working at a cosplay restaurant where all the workers are vN and the customers are human. As a waitress, Amy has to wear different outfits (eg. nurse, cowgirl) and is essentially part of the restaurant's entertainment, play-acting a role for humans. I think this is meant to show how, despite their sentience, vN have difficulty finding a place in a human society where many people want to see them as merely robots and machines, placing them in an uncomfortable position between person and object.

Also explored is the relationship between parent and child. At its core, vN is really about family, growing up and belonging, and Ashby draws parallels between the parent-child relationship with the vN ability to self-replicate. A number of vN characters are compared to their "mothers" or "fathers", the vN that they are replicated from, questioning if children can transcend their hereditary influences. Amy's father Jack also serves as an example of how parents can sometimes decide things for their children, in order to ensure a good life for their child, but in reality, this decision can be damaging. By restricting Amy's food so she can grow up at the same rate as a human child, Jack hopes that it will help her intergrate better into human society, but it also hints of child abuse, since while Amy feels no pain at the lack of nourishment, she does mention feeling a constant hunger and emptiness. It is also this hunger that drives her to eat her grandma.

In terms of the plotline, vN is a fairly typical on-the-run/road trip story. The writing is somewhat disjointed, most noticeably in the first half of the book and during action scenes. There are not enough explanations or descriptions for the background and setting so the book is difficult to get into. I would have liked more information on how the world in vN came to be the way it is. A lot of scientific- and technical-sounding terminology is used without only vague allusions to their real meaning and never get fully explained until well into the story. In the second half of the book, the writing flowed more smoothly and the narrative turns toward uncovering Portia's and Charlotte's past, and the book takes on a more typical hero-looking-for-answers storyline. It was enjoyable to follow Amy through her journey as she discovers her own special qualities as a vN and learns the truth about the antagonistic relationship between her mother and grandmother. However, the plot becomes predictable at this point and while vN offers plenty of food for thought, it stays within conventional tropes and plotlines rather than going into more subversive territory. It doesn't challenge the idea of what a robot story is.

Still, there is plenty to like about this book and science fiction fans should definitely check it out. vN is full of fresh and interesting ideas and the steady pace of the plot as well as the many likeable characters will keep readers' attentions. The writing could use some polishing up, but I like that Ashby is well versed in contemporary pop culture, seamlessly weaving references to science fiction, anime and online culture into the narrative. It seems that a sequel will be coming out as well, and I know I will definitely be looking out for that.

3 stars out of 5

I received this book from the publisher via Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.