By Quentin Monasterial
Courier Staff Reporter/Columnist
Are you a fan of Science-Fiction and fairy tale retellings?
Though an odd, seemingly paradoxical combination, Marissa Meyer manages to stitch a story that falls under both of said genres. The product was Cinder. (Notice how it is derived from “Cinderella,” already foreshadowing the nature of this book).
The book is the first in a series comprised of four books, each one based on a different fairy tale. However, they all have one thing in common: they are each futuristic, with a science-fiction twist.
Meyer introduces us to the world in which Cinder lives (the Earth that she envisions in the future): a world where cyborgs exist, there are more spaceships than planes, the world’s political bodies have united to form the Earthen Union, and humans have inhabited the moon for so long, they’ve separated politically, socially, economically, and biologically and have become the body known as Luna, and its constituents, Lunars.
Cinder is a cyborg, but there is stigma surrounding cyborgs, which fits hand-in-hand with the evil-stepmother trope that Cinder has in common with Cinderella. As a result, Cinder lives a troubled life, though not miserable. She has her youngest step-sister, Peony, and android, Iko, to thank for that. The story opens up with Prince Kai showing up at Cinder’s mechanic shop, asking for her assistance.
From here, the story follows the romance that brews between, but by becoming closer to Kai, Cinder becomes closer to the palace, where a series of events domino off of one another, until finally secrets about who Cinder really is are revealed.
First off, I want to note how the explanation for the aforementioned “biological” separation, more formally known as speciation,was very implausible and unconvincing; apparently, they adapted to the elements specific to the environment of Luna (the moon) and, in doing so, have gained the ability to see and manipulate bioelectricity, the essence inherent to all living things.
Even if exposure to these elements could cause such an extreme change in humans, there was a huge hole in these claim: the Lunars were living in domes of which created environmental conditions similar to the that of Earth, bringing me to question how extensive the exposure to these “elements” was, or if Lunars were exposed to them at all. She never addresses this. Rather, she continued on with the sketchy explanation of elemental exposure, sacrificing credibility for the sake of literary substance.
She continues with this negative trade-off by constantly referencing the “galaxy” in order to amplify the effects of her figurative language and simultaneously complementing the science-fiction atmosphere. Brilliant, right? Wrong. The only thing in outer space that is mentioned is Luna, literally. Other planets aren’t even mentioned in the novel.
Furthermore, this unfaithfulness to the genre of science-fiction downplays the quality of the novel itself, because a lot of its plot is predicated on this biological difference between the Lunars and humans. Even as I am nearing the fourth book, this shortcoming is, personally, proving to be a grave hindrance to the pleasure I derive from reading it.
Fortunately, however, the real conflict between humans and Lunars exist because of their political and social differences; the power that Lunars gained from their biological adaptations only stipulated it. So the other elements of the story still stand.
The characters are well portrayed and emotional connections between them and the reader are easily forged. For me, I was most attached to Cinder and could relate to her in more ways than one, unlike with most of the other characters. The plot, though it wasn’t bone-dry, wasn’t dripping with anticipation either. Again, every time Lunars and their abilities entered the equation, skepticism overpowered my attempt to withhold bias when regarding the plot.
Also, the romance between Cinder and Kai was subtle, genuine and not overwhelming. So that is a huge plus.
The one element of the story that I liked other than the character portrayals, was the representation of diversity. The novel takes place in Beijing, China, meaning many of the characters were of Asian descent. Being a person of color, I know first hand the importance of representation of diversity. Marissa Meyer does this beautifully throughout the entire series.
All in all, I had trouble getting through it. The few things that I enjoyed were what prevented me from giving up on it entirely: the characters were great and the diversity was on point. And though I wasn’t a huge fan of this novel, its sequel was a major improvement. So I definitely recommend it you are willing to persevere through the first novel and want a story whose characters are amazing.
