(spoilers present!)
Ready for a sci-fi fantasy mash-up complete with space travel and evil queens? Welcome to the world of the Lunars and Earthens, where neither side can agree on who rules what!
The Lunar Chronicles, written by Marissa Meyer, is a four-book series set in the future world when people have colonized the moon and, thus, strained earth/moon relationships form. Each book is based on a fairy tale character – Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White.
The quartet starts off with Cinder which places us in the crowded city of New Beijing where Cinder, a teenage cyborg, is struggling after the death of her adoptive father. She’s forced to live with his wife and their two girls – one of which treats her terribly and the other is like the little sister she never had. As the book continues, Cinder meets Prince Kai and a relationship begins forming between them as she learns about the power struggle between the moon and the earth.
The second book, Scarlet, follows Scarlet who gains the help of a man named Wolf after her grandmother mysteriously disappears. Cinder comes back in this book and she breaks out of jail, meeting Carswell Thorne, another prisoner, in the process who escapes with her, tags along, and lends his stolen space ship. It’s complicated as Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne, and Kai try to prevent the evil queen of the moon – Queen Levana – from forcing Kai to marry her, thus gaining control of the earth.
The third book, Cress, brings back all the previous characters while introducing Cress, a Lunar born without the lunar gift – the ability to change their appearance by will. She’s been trapped inside a satellite forced to protect the moon day in and day out with no human contact save for a few visits to check in on her. Cress has become an excellent hacker and before long the group makes contact with her and attempts to rescue her as they’re on Thorne’s stolen space ship.
Finally, the quartet wraps itself up in Winter, the fourth book. It introduces Winter, Queen Levana’s stepdaughter, who is a little mentally messed up after refusing to use her Lunar gift. Her parents have both passed away and she lives in the castle with Levana. Winter’s in love with her royal guard, Jacin, and he becomes an important part of the story. The group, which has now grown to eight members (Cinder, Kai, Scarlet, Wolf, Thorne, Cress, Winter, and Jacin), works to take down Queen Levana’s evil regime.
I absolutely loved the Lunar Chronicles and finished all four books rather quickly as they were action-packed and didn’t allow for a dull moment. Taking a well-known fairy tale character and placing them in the future in a very sci-fi environment was an amazing idea that Meyer spun perfectly.