Cinder, Marissa Meyer

Cinder
2012, Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan), ISBN: 9780312641894

First in a proposed set of four, with Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood) supposedly out in 2013, Cress (perhaps the Princess and the Frog?) in 2014, and Winter (most likely Snow White, or perhaps The Snow Queen) in 2015.  Of course, this far out, it's hard to say whether they'll actually happen, but it seems likely that we'll get to see at least Scarlet.


Ok - everyone knows Cinderella.  She lives with her stepmom and two stepsisters (common variation has that one sister is kind and the other is mean), dad is deceased, and she gets treated like dirt.  Somehow she finds herself at a royal ball, conveyed by the power of a fairy godmother, and usually an unusual coach.  Prince sees her, she runs, leaves the shoe, and he uses it to find her.  They re-unite, and live happily ever after.

Up until the "he uses it to find her" part, take the above summation and put it into a vaguely caste-based Indian/Chinese society, with strange biologial and biomechanical advances and social implications, and a rapidly diverging set of humans who colonized the moon about a century ago.  Got it?  Ok, that was the book.  And, that's also the main problem with the book. 

This wasn't a bad story.  It was simply entirely predictable.  In one way, that's an impressive feat.  Character traits and actions ALL led immediately to one inescapable (and ultimately all confirmed) conclusion.  That takes effort.  On the other hand, because it was a fairy tale, there are very few surprises, and by keeping so close to the original fairy tale structure, that meant that the story had a certain sense of spoon-feeding that made it ultimately less compelling than it could be.  I mean - it had an evil mind-controlling Queen of the Moon for crying out loud!  There should be some oomph there!

I liked Cinder, I felt sorry for Kai, and I thought that Dr. Erland was sadly creepy.  Iko was an amusing addition, but never really accomplished much - I felt like she could have been utilized better.

Ultimately, I'm really invested in the world, but less so with the characters.  I am very glad that the series will be switching protagonists regularly - I feel like the world itself makes for a more compelling through-line character.