Why I love THE LUNAR CHRONICLES

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My next review is going to be Marissa Meyer’s graphic novel, WIRES AND NERVE, but I can’t really talk about that book without talking about her previous series, THE LUNAR CHRONICLES. For me the entire series is what I consider a VIB, which are books that have a permanent place on my keeper shelf and will continue to do so for several years to come. In sum, I want to tell you why I love Marissa’s Meyer’s LUNAR CHRONICLES series. This entry is more of a retrospective than a regular review, so there will be spoilers.

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES is a series that contains four main books, a prequel about the big bad of the story, a short story collection and now a graphic novel. For something that just premiered in 2012 it actually has a rather substantial universe built for it already. Despite this I didn’t come across the books until about Summer 2014, shortly after CRESS, the third book in the series came out. I’d seen the books around stores and came across a review or two, but dismissed it as just another Young adult series that is poorly written, probably in first person, present tense. I was wrong, when I finally did pick up the first book, CINDER, I was hooked immediately.

Each book is a retelling of a classic fairy tale with a science fiction/post-apocalyptic twist. A new main character and their love interest in introduced every book while a greater tale that follows a lost princess’s journey to take back her throne from and evil queen bent on taking over the world is woven. What really sells it though, are the characters. The Main nine heroes s are: Cinder-a Cyborg Cinderella and Kai-Cinder’s love interest who tries his best to protect his kingdom despite his mostly distressed dude status. Scarlet- a Bad ass Little Red Riding Hood and Wolf her beastly love interest with a heart of gold. Cress- A Rapunzel-like hacker who spent her entire life locked in a satellite forced to do the evil queen’s bidding since she is immune to powers of manipulation the elf-like moon people(called Lunar) possess( the evil queen is one of these elves of course). Next there’s Thorne, Cress’s love interest, a handsome rogue and ace pilot. He’s followed by Winter, the evil queen’s step daughter who is based on Snow White and naturally the fairest in the land even without using her powers to hide the scar her step mother gave her. Winter’s love interest is Jacin,a Lunar guard and her childhood friend. Lastly, there’s Iko, who’s the resident Pinocchio android. She was mostly a side kick character in the original series and didn’t even meet her love interest or get a “real” body until the end of the CRESS . However, she takes center stage in the graphic novel. All of the characters are multi-layered and you will choose your favorite and find something in common with at least one of them.

Even the villain (although she’s a complete monster) has reasons behind her actions beyond taking over the world for the hell of it.Despite the large cast everyone gets plenty of screen time and the books never feel crowded or unevenly paced.

Another element I love about the series is the world-building. The kingdom on the moon (called Lunar) is well-developed with more than a little influence from Sailor Moon, but it definitely doesn’t feel unoriginal since the descriptions are detailed enough that they create sense of place all Meyer’s own. You can almost feel the grit and grime of the lower class cities on earth and you can practically see the reflective surfaces all over Lunar. There is also quite a bit a blood and a high body count, although it never gets overwhelming grim due to how determined all the characters are to stop the queen and save the world.

One of the weaker parts of the series though is the plot. While it is well-paced and the characters sell it, there aren’t any big twists in the story. Besides the fact that each story is a retelling, none of the author’s twists, such as the identity of the lost princess, will surprise anyone. Unoriginal plots never bother me though, because the most important thing in any story is the characters and that’s one of the biggest reasons I love this series so dang much.

The other reason is that despite starting the series a few short years ago, it’s had a major influence on my writing. Besides reinforcing why I write character-based stories, I love the style in which it was written. I find it more fun to write a story about many characters as opposed to a single protagonist and I like stories on grand scale. Furthermore, since I’ve read THE LUNAR CHRONICLES many of my stories tend to turn into quartets. The series makes we want to write and that’s why I love it and consider it a VIB. I can’t recommend this series enough, so go read it if you haven’t already.