The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Recently, a friend and I were at Barnes and Noble when she picked up a book called Cinder. Having already read the full series and loved it, I immediately recommended it. She then asked what it was about. Anyone who’s felt the pressure of trying to explain a full series in only a few sentences, and really sell it, understands why I faltered and simply stated “It’s a cinderella story, but in China, and Cinderella’s a cyborg.” True, but not that most persuading description of a book. Especially with so many fairytale adaptations saturating the market. It just doesn’t do the series justice.

This friend was a romantic. If I really wanted to sell the series to her, I should have told her this. Two star crossed lovers, kept apart by societal expectations, prejudice, arranged marriage, and a war fight to keep the earth safe. The book features four different couples, all of which are very cute and feature some nice kissing scenes.

If I were selling the book to someone focused on diverse and feminist books, I would explain the story like this: The series features a majority female cast, with both female protagonist and antagonist. The female characters have diverse interests and are not all cut from the same cloth. Some are more dependent on others, some are less, some have more feminine traits, some have more masculine traits. None of these things are seen as a bad thing. There are characters with real disabilities. At least half of the narrators are people of color, and the story doesn’t center around the U.S. The story follows the characters from China, to France, to North Africa. It’s a very diverse story with great female characters.

But what about the fans of dystopian and sci-fi? Will this book appeal to them? Yes. The various fairytales all revolve around a singular plot. A few hundred years in the future, Lunar, an ex-colony of Earth’s- is threatening to attack. The Earth is being weakened from the inside out by a mysterious plague, and the Lunar people are being kept under control by Queen Levana’s gift of mind control- possessed by most Lunar’s in some shape or form after evolving for a hundred years on the moon. Without spoiling too much, the story culminates with war and bloodshed.

Hopefully one of these descriptions of the book series will persuade people to read it. It is quite amazing and Marissa Meyer has artfully woven for fairy tales into one amazing sci-fi adventure.