Last week I wrote about Marie Lu’s latest book, Warcross; today I’m writing about her debut trilogy, Legend. The series consists of three books: Legend, Prodigy, and Champion. If you haven’t read them yet, you are missing out. Go read them right now. I’ve read them several times myself, and I love this universe so much that I have published three fanfics about it on Archive of Our Own (with a fourth sitting unfinished on my desktop). Since this is a completed trilogy that I’m not reading for the first time, I’m reviewing the trilogy as a whole, and not the books as separate entities.
Plot
The story begins on November 28, 2031 (which is a Wednesday, in case you’re curious). Legend begins with the memorable line “My mother thinks I’m dead,” which immediately hooks you into the story. Daniel Wing, now known as the notorious criminal “Day”, is hanging out with his best friend Tess. They both live on the streets, eking out a living as best as they can. The plague patrols are coming through, and Day is watching his family’s house, worried that his family might be sick. It turns out, his younger brother Eden does have the plague. Being the loving brother that he is, Daniel breaks into the hospital in order to try to steal some plague cure, setting off a chain of events that will change his life (and the country) forever.
June (our other protagonist) is a brilliant girl in her final year at the military academy. She doesn’t fit in with the rest of her classmates because over the course of her childhood, she’s skipped several grades, and everyone around her is older than she is. Her family is also about as wealthy as Day’s family is impoverished. When tragedy strikes her family, she is sent to track down the person responsible. In the process, she ends up meeting Day, and they develop a relationship with each other.
The trilogy deals with political corruption, deception, love, and war. It deals with the problems caused by class disparities when the privileged aren’t aware of the plight of those that are less fortunate than them (while I was reading Never Stop Walking, I thought about this story and how there are people living lives similar to what Day had, except in reality, not fiction). If I go into too much detail, I’ll give away spoilers, but there is a lot going on in this story; you’ll just have to read it until its exciting conclusion.
Characters
The story is told from Day and June’s points of view. These two characters (as well as the supporting characters) make the story come alive. Day is street smart and agile, able to climb buildings in a single bound (okay, that’s a little of an exaggeration). He suffers from a few physical problems (courtesy of the government), and when his world intersects with June’s, the cultural differences can cause a few problems. June is wealthy and wickedly smart. She has an almost obsessive-compulsive fixation on time and minute details (which is why I can tell you when the story begins, even though the book never outright states it). She’s a good fighter, and her attitude can sometimes get her into trouble.
The supporting characters are also great. Tess, Day’s best friend, is a caring healer. Metias, June’s older brother, teaches June not to judge people just by their life’s circumstances. Thomas, Metias’s friend, is a soldier that is blindly loyal to the government. Joining them is a whole host of other characters.
Themes
The Legend trilogy has many themes underlying the story, which is one of the things that makes it so enduringly lovely. It speaks of sacrificing your own wishes because of your love for other people. It speaks of not holding someone in judgement just because they’re not as well off as you. It speaks about how blind loyalty to a cause can be dangerous.
I guess that one of the themes in this story can be summed up by these two lines of dialogue between June and another character:
“I will die with honor for sacrificing everything — everything — for my country. And yet, Day is the legend, while I am to be executed.”
June’s response to his confusion about why Day, a criminal, was being held up as a good guy, and why the other character was being sentenced to death for following orders, was “Because Day chose to walk in the light.”
One Final Note
Legend has a very… complex… ending. It’s not a story where the ending leaves you seeing flowers and rainbows and puppies and kittens, but it’s also not an ending that leaves you crying as you crawl into bed at 4 in the morning (yes, I’m still talking about you, chapter 50 of Allegiant!). When I initially reviewed Champion on Goodreads, I gave it four stars. I have since upgraded my review to five stars, because the ending grew on me a little (it helps that I write fanfiction in this fandom). After reading the ending, I wanted more, which is why I chose to create more on my own. I didn’t want to let the story go as it was.
If you like dystopian YA stories and haven’t read this one yet, you’ll want to read these. All three of them. I absolutely love this trilogy, and I think you will too.
