Review - The Little Android

The Little Android (The Lunar Chronicles #0.6)
by Marissa Meyer
Date: 2014
Publisher: Wattpad
Reading level: YA
Book type: short story
Pages: 35
Format: e-book
Source: Wattpad

The Little Android is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, set in the world of The Lunar Chronicles by New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

When android Mech6.0 saves the life of a handsome hardware engineer, her body is destroyed and her mechanics discover a glitch in her programming. Androids aren’t meant to develop impractical reasoning or near-emotional responses…let alone fall in love.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

WARNING: Minor Spoilers! To read this review with the spoilers hidden, check it out on Goodreads.

Full disclosure: I haven't read the entire Lunar Chronicles series. I stopped after slogging through Scarlet because I just wasn't enjoying the books. This short story highlights some of my issues with the main series, and adds a couple more.

Meyer's insistence on calling all small robots "androids" still drives me to distraction. An android is, by definition, a robot that has a human-like form. From what I can tell, Mech6.0 is not human-like at all in the beginning (nor was Iko in the main series, but she was still called an android). So this bothered me... but perhaps not quite as much as how the robots in the story are actually portrayed. "The Little Android" actually reads more like fantasy than science fiction, because some of the plot points are more magical than scientific. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that a robot's AI could evolve to the point where it experienced something akin to feelings. However, the whole thing with Mech6.0 feeling actual pain (something that's supposed to be impossible for a robot) isn't plausible. You might be able to build and program a robot to feel something like pain, but if those physical structures aren't there to begin with, they're not going to suddenly appear out of nowhere. I get that the author was trying to follow the story of "The Little Mermaid" by having Mech6.0 feel pain when she walked, but it was just a little too unscientific for me.

Just like in the regular series, the cyborg discrimination is present and prominent. I still don't understand what that's all about, and the more I come across it in Meyer's stories, the more uncomfortable it makes me. If you're going to write about a society that basically views amputees as "other" and something to be feared and loathed, there had better be a damn good reason for it. After reading two novels, one graphic novel, and a short story set in this world, I've yet to come across a satisfactory explanation for this dehumanizing prejudice.

I also think the ending is ridiculously simplistic and actually creates a new problem... that would probably be resolved in the next few minutes, rendering the final sacrifice meaningless, other than as a nice gesture. Needless to say, the ending didn't satisfy me.

Maybe it's because this was published on Wattpad, but it's got quite a few technical problems with the writing. I don't see why it couldn't be cleaned up a little, especially since it's now part of the official TLC canon.

I'm not sorry I read this one, but mostly because it just reaffirmed for me that TLC just isn't the series for me. I've contemplated continuing the series at different times, but now I think I'd just be punishing myself with books I wouldn't enjoy. If you like the novels in the series, you might get more out of this than I did.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.43 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Wires and Nerve, Volume 1

Wires and Nerve, Volume 1 (Wires and Nerve #1)
by Marissa Meyer
illustrated by Douglas Holgate
Date: 2017
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Reading level: YA
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 238
Format: e-book
Source: library

When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers' leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity. With appearances by Cinder and the rest of the Rampion crew, this is a must-have for fans of the series.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

First, a disclaimer: I'm not a huge fan of The Lunar Chronicles. In fact, I could only push myself to get through the first two books. But since I'm on a graphic novel kick at the moment, I thought I'd give this one a try.

Presumably, you don't have to have read any of the books in the other series for this one to make sense. All the characters are introduced at the beginning, and we're given a basic run-down of the events that took place in TLC. So even though I hadn't read Cress or Winter, I still understood what was going on.

Unfortunately, however, I just didn't care what was going on. The whole thing fell kind of flat for me, and I think that if I hadn't read Cinder and Scarlet, it would've been even worse. The characters are so underdeveloped that it made it really hard to care about them (especially the ones I wasn't familiar with). Iko herself was actually one of the worst. I knew her as a fun little robot who loved to gossip and play dress-up and dream of a certain handsome prince. But that's not really what we get here. I'm assuming her personality is supposed to be the same as before, even though she's in a new body, but I didn't really get that. Maybe it's the graphic novel format, but I didn't think any of the characters were developed particularly well. Iko, as the main character, should have more personality; unfortunately, her character development seems to rely too much on her arc in TLC... so if you haven't read any of those books, she's probably going to come across as quite dull.

As for the plot... well, there sort of is one, but it cut off at the weirdest place, just after the main conflict had been set up. I don't know if this is a comic book thing or what, but it just seemed weird to me. I'm used to stories having some sort of resolution to the main plot; even if there's a cliffhanger, there are usually other ends that are tied up before the next book. That's not the case here. We're introduced to the main problem (which is pretty much summed up in the blurb for the next volume), and then the book just ends.

I wasn't a fan of the art. It seemed too simplistic, and way too comic-bookish. The onomatopoeia didn't need to be written out as much as it was. The text was difficult to read, even on a 21" monitor, so trying to read this one on an e-book reader would probably be next to impossible. I also didn't like the monochrome palette; it was kind of boring (though I've just come off of two beautifully illustrated, full-colour graphic novels, so that may be colouring my judgment a little).

All in all, this is a series that will probably only appeal to fans of The Lunar Chronicles. If you haven't read any of those books, I'd recommend doing so first before trying this series.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Illustration: 1/5
Originality: 2/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.13 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Scarlet

Scarlet
(The Lunar Chronicles #2)
by Marissa Meyer
Date: 2013
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 464
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I decided to read Scarlet for three reasons: 1) I didn't absolutely hate Cinder; 2) I am intrigued by the whole sci-fi fairytale theme; and 3) I'd been told that Scarlet was much better than the first book in the series.

Please, dear author, I want some more...

I still think the idea of a series of fairytale retellings set in the future with cyborgs and androids and spaceships is a good one... just not in the hands of this particular author.  There is very little I like about this book, aside from the basic premise.

It's all a matter of taste...

I wasn't really aware that so much of Scarlet was going to be from Cinder's point of view.  But I'm kind of glad that it is, because Scarlet herself made me want to bash my head against my laptop screen.  She is so stupid.  Clueless characters seem to be a bit of a theme in this series, but Scarlet really takes the cake.  When she's not making ridiculously convenient (and inevitably incorrect) assumptions, she's waffling... which makes her come across as a rather weak character.  We're also introduced to Thorne, who I'm guessing is going to end up as somebody's love interest at some point, but who I felt absolutely nothing for in that regard because he comes across like a twelve-year-old boy.  The only half-decent character that was thrown at us is Wolf, who has an interesting back story and provides what could prove to be some interesting conflict down the road.  Unfortunately, even his character is marred by the bane of young adult fiction: insta-love.

Let's get technical...

I do not remember having this much trouble with the writing in Cinder.  In this book, however, Meyer seems to be trying to rewrite the dictionary.  My Kindle edition is littered with notes and highlights where she uses words that just don't make any sense in context.  Sometimes the word is close to correct (like in the case of homophones), but at other times the word is so far off that it's as if the author thought she could just make the word mean something else simply because she wanted it to.  (Sort of like Justin Bieber and "the Sixteenth Chapel".)  After struggling through 464 pages of this sort of nonsense, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the page count for the fourth book in the series.  I'd rather read the dictionary; at least I'd get the proper word meanings doing that.

The verdict...

Scarlet managed to: 1) make me want to avoid the rest of this series like letumosis; 2) take a break from fairytale retellings for a while; and 3) be even warier of books and series with lots of hype.

Quotable moment:

"Sorry about the whole tranquilizer thing. I thought you were going to eat her."

"I thought I was too."

Premise: 2/5
Plot: 1/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 1/5
Writing: 2/5
Editing: 2/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 1/5

Overall Rating: 1.63 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Cinder

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1)
by Marissa Meyer
Date: 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Reading level: YA
Book type: prose novel
Pages: 390
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca

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.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I read the free, five-chapter sample of Cinder, and even though I thought I'd already figured out the major "twists" in the story, I was intrigued enough by what I read (and swayed by so many glowing reviews) that I bought the full book so I could find out if a) I was right about my suspicions regarding the plot, and b) if it was really worth the hype.  I got clear answers on both counts.  Yes, I was right.  No, it wasn't worth the hype.

The premise really is a good one, setting the old story of "Cinderella" in a futuristic dystopian setting.  Unfortunately, that setting was one of my main problems with this book.  Despite the intriguing basic idea of a dystopian New Beijing, the world-building isn't strong enough.  There were too many things that just didn't make sense.  Ostensibly, this is Earth in the far distant future.  How far distant, we're never told, as the years appear to be counted from the end of World War IV.  Between now and then, humans have apparently colonized the moon, made advances in cybernetics, and figured out flying cars... but their lack of moral and emotional evolution is disturbing and never quite explained (although I guess that in itself could partially explain why they had a World War IV).  I spent the whole time I was reading this book wondering what, exactly, was so bad about being a cyborg that Cinder had to whine about it and have continual pity parties about it.  A cyborg has, for whatever reason, artificial body parts in addition to human ones.  After fighting two more world wars, this society doesn't seem to have cultivated much empathy or compassion for people with disabilities (and after two world wars, presumably there would have been quite a few).  Why are they viewed as second-class citizens?  This was never explained.  Was it just so that Cinder could be viewed as an unworthy match for a prince?  Was it some sort of commentary on the current attitudes toward the disabled in some parts of Asia (where the story takes place)?  Even so, this is a far-future story.  Why have attitudes stayed the same... and even gotten worse?  Why does having an artificial body part make you less worthy of human rights?  Why does having metal or plastic in your body turn you into something that can be owned?  (People with pacemakers or artificial hips, beware!)

My second main complaint was with the characters.  I just couldn't get a feel for them.  As a result, I didn't really care about any of them.  Aside from the cool things that Cinder could do because of her cybernetic implants, she really was unremarkable as a character.  Yes, she's a mechanic.  But how does she really feel about it?  Why did she get into mechanics?  What's her personality like?  I read almost 400 pages about her, and I still feel like I don't know.  I don't even know how she really felt about Kai.  The problem is, she was too busy trying to avoid him and prevent him from finding out her secrets.  In effect, she stayed pretty much a mystery for the reader as well... except for one important point, which was probably my biggest disappointment of all.  I figured out the big twist at the 13% mark.  I kept reading, kind of hoping I was wrong, but knowing with each heavy-handed hint that I wasn't.  So I basically read the remaining 350 pages already knowing the ending.  If you can call it that.  If you were hoping for a happily ever after (as one would logically expect from a retelling of "Cinderella"), you'll be disappointed.  Cinder ends right before the final act, and if we want any answers, we'll have to read the next book(s) in the series.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible book (in spite of what I've mentioned above), but it wasn't great and I probably won't be recommending it to anyone.  With some more complete world-building, better character development, and final polish on the writing (there were some grammar/word choice issues that really should have been caught), this would have made an interesting addition to the fairytale retelling genre.  I'm disappointed that it didn't live up to the hype, because this is one book that could have been really good.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 2.71 out of 5