The book: Champion (Legend #3)
The author: Marie Lu
The rating: 3.5 stars
"Billions of people will come and go in this world," he says softly, "but there will never be another like you."
So, here we are. The end of an era, the conclusion of a trilogy, the final page in the story of Day and June. I chose that epigraph with a touch of irony; as has been the problem for the entire series, my biggest issue with Champion is that there will always be plenty more like it. It's not that I'm expecting the Earth and the stars, but in every novel, I hope to find something fresh. A unique idea. A unique voice. A twist. A spark. Champion and the Legend series as a whole are everything you expect from the dystopian genre; they follow all the steps, but they're missing the breath of life to take them from cookie-cutter story to true adventure.
More so than either of its predecessors, Champion feels like it is just going through the motions. I was constantly struck by how little had happened in such a large number of pages; the premise may be the invasion of the Republic, but aside from that frame, there is little-to-no plot. We get to visit another country in Lu's futuristic world, Antarctic, itself replete with a ridiculous government system heavy-handedly engineered to give readers their daily dose of Diet Theme. We see the continuation of Day's soap-opera storyline, and... I'm at a loss to list much else that happened until we reach the 3/4 mark. June goes to a senate meeting. We spend copious amounts of time in a hospital setting. There's a sex scene. I'm actually kind of impressed by how much space Lu manages to fill with so little. The plot coasts off the events of the previous two books; there's no wild adventures, no intriguing ideas, no exciting premises. Lu's just killing time until we get to the conclusion.
The conclusion. Based upon what I've written thus far, it seems a bit weird for me to be giving the novel a higher rating than Prodigy. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the conclusion, but it's Champion's saving grace. It's fresh. It's well-written. More happens in the epilogue than in the novel's entirety. For once, Lu brings something fresh to the table, something beyond the cliched happy ever after or textbook bittersweet ending. Upon inspection, the ending did have some considerable flaws: I'm not a neuroscientist, but I don't think people work that way; that relocation seems to go against our daily theme injection; does the future-Internet magically disappear or something? These sort of flaws don't bother me much, though. This may seem hard to believe, especially considering the ratings I've been doling out, but I'm not really a harsh critic. If a book's enjoyable, so what if there are a few plot holes along the way? It's a story, an adventure; if you're too caught up in the hard science of it, you're not going to enjoy the ride.
While Champion was not all that it could have been, the ending was. It was distinct, mature... it had that sense of both realism and magic that had enchanted me in Legend but had been missing from the series since. Plus, Day gets a haircut; it's everything I'd wanted all along. I'm not sure if I'll be willing to pick up any of Lu's future efforts, but all in all I'm glad to have taken the chance on the Legend series.
Showing posts with label Marie Lu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marie Lu. Show all posts
Monday, 10 February 2014
Thursday, 30 January 2014
5. The Legend Continues
The book: Prodigy (Legend #2)
The author: Marie Lu
The rating: 3 stars
Well, it's New England that gets flooded, not Canada, so I guess I'll give Lu points for originality.
Prodigy was a bit of a disappointment for me. As I mentioned oh-so-long-ago in my review of Legend, I had high hopes for the world-building, but those hopes fell flat. Social commentaries are great, or any kind of commentary - too frequently YA writers neglect to have these deeper messages in their works, as if teens can't handle interpreting profound themes - but I didn't find that Lu integrated hers well into the novel. Prodigy definitely seems as if it has something to say about classism and class culture, but instead of really doing anything meaningful with those ideas, it ends up culminating in a second-rate Romeo & Juliet star-crossed lovers shtick. Similarly, the Colonies appear as if they were intended to be an emphatically exaggerated version of today's American consumer culture, but this allegory came across clunky and without finesse. It's almost as if Prodigy is Diet Theme (TM) -- tastes pretty much like actual Theme, but with zero calories of brainpower required.
Another thing I had loved about Legend was the strong supporting characters, but Prodigy completely disregards this strength. Aside from Day and June, the cast is all either killed off, sent away from the plot, or they are simply boring cardboard cut-outs, without the depth that I had loved about Legend's characters. Throw in some artificial-tasting love triangles (yes, plural, although I guess that might just make it a love square?) and a completely cliche 'twist' ending that seems more at home on a daytime soap than in an adventure-dystopia novel, and you've got a recipe for a disappointing sequel.
With these reservations aside, the overall plot was enjoyable enough; I'd go as far as to say Prodigy was stronger than the original in the plot department. Instead of relying on old dystopian cliches, Prodigy had its own flavour and twists. Some worked and some did not, but they did succeed in making an entertaining enough story. Despite this more original plot, I wasn't as enthralled with Prodigy as I was with Legend, but that's mostly attributed to characters and pacing. We spend a lot of time watching characters sit around, worry, and do nothing; reading about your protagonists wringing their hands and whining for pages on end does neither them nor the pacing any favours.
I'm a strong proponent of the 'Middle Novel Weakness' theory, in which the second novel in a trilogy is typically the poorest; the first has the benefit of originality, the third has the thrilling conclusion, but the second is that awkward middle child that has to bridge the gap, not able to pique interest or present resolution. Therefore, my hopes for the third book in this trilogy remain unshaken: Prodigy may have had its rough spots, but perhaps Champion will finally allow the saga to reach its lofty potential.
The author: Marie Lu
The rating: 3 stars
Well, it's New England that gets flooded, not Canada, so I guess I'll give Lu points for originality.
Prodigy was a bit of a disappointment for me. As I mentioned oh-so-long-ago in my review of Legend, I had high hopes for the world-building, but those hopes fell flat. Social commentaries are great, or any kind of commentary - too frequently YA writers neglect to have these deeper messages in their works, as if teens can't handle interpreting profound themes - but I didn't find that Lu integrated hers well into the novel. Prodigy definitely seems as if it has something to say about classism and class culture, but instead of really doing anything meaningful with those ideas, it ends up culminating in a second-rate Romeo & Juliet star-crossed lovers shtick. Similarly, the Colonies appear as if they were intended to be an emphatically exaggerated version of today's American consumer culture, but this allegory came across clunky and without finesse. It's almost as if Prodigy is Diet Theme (TM) -- tastes pretty much like actual Theme, but with zero calories of brainpower required.
Another thing I had loved about Legend was the strong supporting characters, but Prodigy completely disregards this strength. Aside from Day and June, the cast is all either killed off, sent away from the plot, or they are simply boring cardboard cut-outs, without the depth that I had loved about Legend's characters. Throw in some artificial-tasting love triangles (yes, plural, although I guess that might just make it a love square?) and a completely cliche 'twist' ending that seems more at home on a daytime soap than in an adventure-dystopia novel, and you've got a recipe for a disappointing sequel.
With these reservations aside, the overall plot was enjoyable enough; I'd go as far as to say Prodigy was stronger than the original in the plot department. Instead of relying on old dystopian cliches, Prodigy had its own flavour and twists. Some worked and some did not, but they did succeed in making an entertaining enough story. Despite this more original plot, I wasn't as enthralled with Prodigy as I was with Legend, but that's mostly attributed to characters and pacing. We spend a lot of time watching characters sit around, worry, and do nothing; reading about your protagonists wringing their hands and whining for pages on end does neither them nor the pacing any favours.
I'm a strong proponent of the 'Middle Novel Weakness' theory, in which the second novel in a trilogy is typically the poorest; the first has the benefit of originality, the third has the thrilling conclusion, but the second is that awkward middle child that has to bridge the gap, not able to pique interest or present resolution. Therefore, my hopes for the third book in this trilogy remain unshaken: Prodigy may have had its rough spots, but perhaps Champion will finally allow the saga to reach its lofty potential.
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
4. Legend-ary?
The book: Legend (Legend #1)
The author: Marie Lu
The rating: 4 stars
"There are dozens of them out there," he snaps. "You'll never make it."
I just wink at him.
Legend, much like Cinder, is a book that I've walked past at the 'popular' YA section of the bookstore thousands of times, and for some reason never opted to pick up. Back before I read Cinder this summer, I thought that cyborg-Cinderella story sounded unpromising, despite the many gushing reviews I read or recommendations I received. However, a university bookstore with a meager supply of YA fiction for sale pushes a girl to her limits, and I soon found Cinder to be one of my favourite reads of this year. After having misjudged Cinder so grievously, I figured I'd do well to give Legend a shot too.
Now for the title question: was Legend legend-ary? No, not really. It was a good read, though--one that had me shoving my other commitments aside (like studying for a certain chemistry exam) to indulge in Lu's comfortable prose and witty characters.
That was definitely a highlight for me: both of Lu's protagonists are extremely intelligent and capable, and unlike so many authors, she writes smart characters that have more of a personality than being 'the smart one'. I'll admit, June irked me for pretty much the entire first half of the book. Her 'extraordinary' intelligence seemed to amount to nothing more than an ability to perform half-baked Sherlock Holmes-style scans of the situation, but as she began to break out of the whole 'good-little-soldier' mould she grew considerably more tolerable. That said, the standout for me is definitely Day. Steetwise and savvy, his intelligence was something that was constantly shown, not told. Reading from his perspective was always a pleasure; he was someone so tactical, so deliberating, yet with such a strong sense of loyalty at odds with that calculating side of him. He's your classic loveable rogue, but Lu makes him more than just an archetype; he's truly compelling. Yes, I may just have a wee literary crush on Daniel Altan Wing, but moving on...
I was also pleasantly surprised by Legend's supporting characters. Quite often in a trilogy-opener like this everyone except the protagonist and their love interest(s) seem to be underdeveloped, but I found Lu's treatment of her supporting characters to be quite skillful, particularly with Tessa and Kaede. Sure, Day's family may be used a bit too exclusively as plot devices (don't get me started about John), but all in all I found the character roster to be happily well-rounded.
The world building... has potential. I wasn't exactly thrilled with how it's been handled so far, but as only the first in a trilogy, I'm optimistic that my opinion on this will improve over the next two installments. As a connoisseur of dystopian and science fiction, I've formulated a theory. 90% of far-flung futures have one of two histories between our present day and theirs: 1) There's been a massive conflict between superpowers China and the United States, with varying results (in Firefly they unite; in The Selection, China takes over the US; in Legend, the US apparently has taken over China) or 2) No country remains in existence except a future-version of the United States (Hunger Games, Whispers in Autumn, etc). I call this theory the "Americans Believe they are Better than Everyone" Theory; bonus points are awarded if it's mentioned that everywhere north of future-USA is now flooded (authors love flooding Canada), or has been annexed. This is going on a bit of a tangent, but the point is that I didn't find Lu's worldbuilding to be anything special. A futuristic class system that is a thinly veiled commentary on today's societal structure; your obligatory 'the government is EVIL' conspiracy that is kind of needed to put the 'dys' in 'dystopia'; the occasional injection of FutureTech; some good old 'Big Brother is Watching You'... For a dystopian fan, it's an enjoyable enough formula, but nothing that hasn't been done countless times before.
All in all, Legend was more than okay. Day was everything I look for in a good protagonist and the plot has potential, even if it is your standard government-conspiracy with the heroes on the run. The book's sequel, Prodigy may have just jumped to the top of my to-read list.
The author: Marie Lu
The rating: 4 stars
"There are dozens of them out there," he snaps. "You'll never make it."
I just wink at him.
Legend, much like Cinder, is a book that I've walked past at the 'popular' YA section of the bookstore thousands of times, and for some reason never opted to pick up. Back before I read Cinder this summer, I thought that cyborg-Cinderella story sounded unpromising, despite the many gushing reviews I read or recommendations I received. However, a university bookstore with a meager supply of YA fiction for sale pushes a girl to her limits, and I soon found Cinder to be one of my favourite reads of this year. After having misjudged Cinder so grievously, I figured I'd do well to give Legend a shot too.
Now for the title question: was Legend legend-ary? No, not really. It was a good read, though--one that had me shoving my other commitments aside (like studying for a certain chemistry exam) to indulge in Lu's comfortable prose and witty characters.
That was definitely a highlight for me: both of Lu's protagonists are extremely intelligent and capable, and unlike so many authors, she writes smart characters that have more of a personality than being 'the smart one'. I'll admit, June irked me for pretty much the entire first half of the book. Her 'extraordinary' intelligence seemed to amount to nothing more than an ability to perform half-baked Sherlock Holmes-style scans of the situation, but as she began to break out of the whole 'good-little-soldier' mould she grew considerably more tolerable. That said, the standout for me is definitely Day. Steetwise and savvy, his intelligence was something that was constantly shown, not told. Reading from his perspective was always a pleasure; he was someone so tactical, so deliberating, yet with such a strong sense of loyalty at odds with that calculating side of him. He's your classic loveable rogue, but Lu makes him more than just an archetype; he's truly compelling. Yes, I may just have a wee literary crush on Daniel Altan Wing, but moving on...
I was also pleasantly surprised by Legend's supporting characters. Quite often in a trilogy-opener like this everyone except the protagonist and their love interest(s) seem to be underdeveloped, but I found Lu's treatment of her supporting characters to be quite skillful, particularly with Tessa and Kaede. Sure, Day's family may be used a bit too exclusively as plot devices (don't get me started about John), but all in all I found the character roster to be happily well-rounded.
The world building... has potential. I wasn't exactly thrilled with how it's been handled so far, but as only the first in a trilogy, I'm optimistic that my opinion on this will improve over the next two installments. As a connoisseur of dystopian and science fiction, I've formulated a theory. 90% of far-flung futures have one of two histories between our present day and theirs: 1) There's been a massive conflict between superpowers China and the United States, with varying results (in Firefly they unite; in The Selection, China takes over the US; in Legend, the US apparently has taken over China) or 2) No country remains in existence except a future-version of the United States (Hunger Games, Whispers in Autumn, etc). I call this theory the "Americans Believe they are Better than Everyone" Theory; bonus points are awarded if it's mentioned that everywhere north of future-USA is now flooded (authors love flooding Canada), or has been annexed. This is going on a bit of a tangent, but the point is that I didn't find Lu's worldbuilding to be anything special. A futuristic class system that is a thinly veiled commentary on today's societal structure; your obligatory 'the government is EVIL' conspiracy that is kind of needed to put the 'dys' in 'dystopia'; the occasional injection of FutureTech; some good old 'Big Brother is Watching You'... For a dystopian fan, it's an enjoyable enough formula, but nothing that hasn't been done countless times before.
All in all, Legend was more than okay. Day was everything I look for in a good protagonist and the plot has potential, even if it is your standard government-conspiracy with the heroes on the run. The book's sequel, Prodigy may have just jumped to the top of my to-read list.
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