Thursday, November 10, 2011

Cinderella, my how you have changed! Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My Cinderella how you have changed!

In the post apocalyptic city of Beijing, far in the future, there is a young cyborg named Cinder whose talents as a master mechanic has brought her notoriety and business but not much respect from her widowed stepmother and two stepsisters whom she supports. It is this talent with machines that brings Prince Kai to her booth. With the plague running through the streets, the threat of war and the secrets Cinder tries to hide from Kai, her world is crumbling around her. As Kai’s affections grow for Cinder, he must tread carefully, for the Lunar Queen Lavana is coming to Earth to set the terms of the treaty that could prevent war between the two worlds. She will settle for nothing less that marriage to the young Prince. But will it be enough?

This combination of sci-fi/cyberpunk tale is full of mystery, adventure, a bit of romance, treachery and death. Cinder is a mystery even to herself; she has no memory of her life before her eleventh year. There are the battles with her stepmother, struggles with androids, and threats of war from the Lunar people, whose mind controlling abilities could prove to be the death toll for the Earth. While Prince Kai and Cinder draw closer, the Lunar Queen Levana would rather declare war on Earth then allow Cinder to marry Prince Kai. There is more here that meets even Cinder’s technologically enhanced vision.

This futuristic Cinderella tale grabbed my attention from the first and held me right up to the last page. The characters, and there really are some characters here, are very well drawn. I found myself caring about some and wanting to smack a few. The story has a familiar center but is still uniquely different, believable. As I finished the last page all I could think of was when I could get my hands on the next edition. If you like a good story, if you like science fiction or if you simply enjoy the steampunk type of tale, this is a tale well worth reading.

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