Cinder by Marissa Meyer

*I've been really busy recently, so I didn't have time to do the "Stars of" post this week. Stop by next Thursday for the Stars of Heroic Fantasy!*

Cinder
Marissa Meyer
Lunar Chronicles #1
Published January 3, 2012 by Feiwel & Friends

Bite-sized Review
Cinder was a fun, light read whose scifi twist made it stand out from the fairy-tale-retelling crowd.

King-sized Review
After seeing so many great review of Cinder, Marissa Meyer's debut, I was definitely looking forward to reading it. This scifi take on the fairy tale Cinderella sounded like a lot of fun, and it didn't disappoint. Cinder was a fun, enjoyable story, complete with an interesting world and great characters.

Sometimes it almost felt like a Disney movie – Cinder had a cute and odd sidekick, an evil "step"-mother (of course), a prince, a witch, and so on. There were a few variations that I liked – the fact that one of her sisters, at least, was kind to her, as well as the more complex world made it stand out a bit from the rest of the herd. Being a retelling of a fairy tale, the plot "twists" were quite predictable, but Cinder was enjoyably nonetheless.

There were times that I found Cinder a bit pathetic, but for the most part she was a good protagonist. Her cyborg attributes made her really unusual and added uniqueness to her character.

The world of the Lunar Chronicles is pretty different from any other I've read, containing both advanced technology such as cyborgs and artificial intelligence and what I would call "techno-magic" in the Lunars' abilities. I do wish there were more explanation of the origin of the lunar base, because I couldn't really tell if they were supposed to be human or not, and I wasn't entirely sure of the relationship between the various Terran nations. (Yes, Terran. I do try not to be nit-picky here, but the term "Earthen" really irritated me.)

Cinder was a quick, fun read, and I'm looking forward to the next book of the Lunar Chronicles.

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Good