All posts tagged Marie Lu

The Kingdom of Back

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
The Kingdom of Back cover

I was SUPER excited when Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back showed up on Bookish First! Thank you thank you thank you Bookish First and Penguin Teen for this ARC! I have a lot of things to say about this book. But first, if you want the chance to get amazing ARCs like this one, you can sign up with Bookish First too (my referral code is 56cf541090ca608b4 if you want to help me out). I bought this one with points that you can earn on the web site, but you can also win books too (I have good luck with their drawings).

The Story

Nannerl was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s older sister. She was a gifted composer and clavier player in her own right, but because she was female, once she grew up and married, it was no longer appropriate for her to pursue her musical gifts. She invented an imaginary land called The Kingdom of Back which she shared with her brother.

The above paragraph is true and if it stopped there, would be a nonfiction book. A boy in The Kingdom of Back, Hyacinth, started visiting them through dreams… or were they real? Nannerl doesn’t want to be forgotten, and Hyacinth promises her that she’ll be remembered forever–if she completes a few tasks for him. The tasks test her bravery, and ultimately, what she truly thinks is important in life.

What I Loved

I love history, and The Kingdom of Back is full of it. I knew prior to reading this book that Nannerl and Wolfgang had an imaginary place called The Kingdom of Back, because in my NaNoWriMo19 book, my main character plays one of Nannerl’s compositions, and I had to research them. In real life, her works supposedly don’t survive, but my book is set in the future and they discovered them. I looked up some of the history to see if it was true, and almost all of it was (the only discrepancy I saw was when the Empress Maria Theresa died of smallpox, and who cares). Something I found interesting was that the Queen of the Night and Hyacinth are both characters in Mozart’s works.

The characters in this book were great too. Nannerl was a complex character who is torn between various desires: the desire to please her parents, the desire to be remembered, her love for her brother. This story has a great sibling relationship. I had feelings about the father and the brother and the mother. Hyacinth himself had an interesting transition.

This book had some beautiful prose, almost in the vein of Laini Taylor at points. There were places where the story had this dreamlike feel to it that was absolutely gorgeous. Oh, and the maps and the cover! The photo of the cover doesn’t do the actual cover justice. The maps are going to be part of the front and back papers of the finished copies, and they are gorgeous. I hope they’re printed on blue paper.

Finally, The Kingdom of Back had a beautiful message. The message is especially applicable for artists: most of us want to be remembered, for our work to live on. It also has a message for girls, who have historically been invisible and in some places, still are.

What I Liked Less

I have a what I liked less section for a Marie Lu book? I know, that’s shocking. Although the beginning is beautiful, it does have a slow start. For a while, I considered giving it four stars. The final 1/3 of the book was exciting and I didn’t want to put it down though. The last couple of chapters made me weep. And oh! The final line took this book full circle and it was so lovely.

This book is unlike every other Marie Lu book I’ve read. There were a few similarities to her short story “The Journey” (from A Tyranny of Petticoats) and some fantasy elements from The Young Elites (including some similar phrasing), but for the most part, this is a completely new genre for Ms. Lu and although you might like some of her other books because you love dystopians or fast-paced fantasies with morally gray villains, this is different. This is like a historical fantasy with a little Brothers Grimm mixed in.

There really wasn’t much shipping going on in this story. One of the things I like about most Marie Lu books is that she usually has a couple I can root for. It’s not in this book.

Conclusion

I liked this book. Will it be my favorite Marie Lu book this year? My guess is that I’ll like Skyhunter later this year more, mainly because it’s going to be in a different genre with (I’m guessing) a little bit older characters and probably a little more kissing. Am I happy that I’ve pre-ordered both a Kindle copy and a hardback of this book? Yes. The finished copy is going to be gorgeous and I’ll definitely reread this book at some point.

So the question is, will you like The Kingdom of Back? If you like historical fiction, beautiful, dreamlike descriptions, and don’t mind slower pacing at the beginning, probably. The book shares its beautiful insight and compassion into people and their emotions that other Marie Lu books have. Don’t expect a lot of fighting, political intrigue, or couples you love to ship; if you need that, we’ll probably see that with Skyhunter later this year.

Rebel: The Legend Finale

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
Rebel cover

At 10 PM my time, the stunning conclusion to Marie Lu’s Legend tetralogy, Rebel, came out. I stayed up all night to read it, and I wasn’t disappointed.

This review contains spoilers for the rest of the series.

When we last left Day and June, it was July 11, 2142. It had been ten years since Daniel (going by Day at the time) had nearly died and woke up with amnesia. After ten years living in Ross City, Antarctica, Eden was interviewing for an internship back in the Republic. At a train station, Daniel “met” June for the second time.

Rebel starts a month later. Daniel and June hadn’t talked much since that night, but June and the elector were going to visit Ross City. Despite their years apart and the amnesia thing, deep down, Daniel never stopped loving June. But are they too different now?

Eden

Rebel begins with Eden. I just want to give him a hug. He’s been living in his brother’s shadow his whole life. He’s hella smart, and shares the Wing boys’ compassion for the little guy. Even though Antarctica’s gamified level system is supposed to create a meritocracy, the way it’s implemented is unfair. Eden is bothered by this and is drawn to the dark side. Is he going down the path to self-destruction? Can his brother save him, or will their relationship be irreparably harmed? There’s some really great brother moments in this story.

Worldbuilding

I loved the worldbuilding in Rebel and how this book ties into the other books in the Luniverse. The Antarctican level system was obviously built on programming developed by Hideo Tanaka for the Warcross game. The book subtly mentions this game that once took the world by storm. The characters return to Los Angeles, which beautifully illustrates what the world might be like if it was recovering from a backwards dictatorship.

Daniel + June

If you read Champion (which you probably should before reading Rebel) then you’ve probably wondered whether Day and June really get back together.

So what happens? Daniel has never forgotten about her. There are some really cute moments in this book. Daniel, who has probably never had an awkward moment with a girl in his life, doesn’t know how to react around his former love. It’s absolutely adorable. They still have feelings for each other, but has too much changed? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Conclusion

If you didn’t pre-order this book (and have already read the other three books in this series) then run to your nearest bookseller and buy it. I’m definitely going to read this book again sometime after my hardcover edition has arrived. Rebel has the satisfying finale that we’ve all been waiting for. I loved it.  How much did I love it?  It’s a contender for my favorite book this year.  I stayed up past 7 AM to read it.  To quote page 376, after reading this book, “the final puzzle piece of my heart has fallen into place.”

Champion (the Graphic Novel) is Cute

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

The third book in Marie Lu’s Legend series is Champion. I bought Champion the Graphic Novel with some of my Christmas money. It was well-done, stayed true to the original, and is a pretty quick read.

In both the original book and in Champion the Graphic Novel, the Colonies are winning the war against the Republic. The colonies are angry because the Republic’s biological warfare has unwittingly unleashed a disease that nobody has a cure for. They think Eden might have the cure in his blood… but Day doesn’t want the Republic touching him again.

Day not only has to worry about his little brother, he also has to worry about his own mortality and perhaps even June’s life as well. There’s a lot of political maneuvering at the end of this book, but I won’t give it away. I will say that this book does end in a little heartbreak, but there’s hope too. Life after Legend (I and II) and the Rebel quotes I have seen just tell me that it’s only temporary heartbreak. The ending didn’t leave me unhappy like the ending of Allegiant did (although it did make me want to write fanfiction).

The graphic novel doesn’t go into as much detail as the original Champion does. It doesn’t touch on how Day is upset that the wealthy people get preferential treatment in the evacuations, nor does it reveal who the true patient zero is for this strain of the virus (and neither will I because spoilers) but it does cover most of the big points in the book. Both books end the same way, so you’ll be ready to read Rebel this fall after reading this book (although Prodigy the Graphic Novel doesn’t have the scene where Day talks about how he wanted their story to begin so it’s not quite as sweet).

If it’s been a few years since you last read Champion and you don’t really want to spend a lot of time reading the whole Legend series before Rebel comes out, I recommend this book. I might let my boy borrow this series. It takes him a lot longer than it takes me to read a book, and he was enjoying Legend the other day on audiobook when we were in the car together, so this might be a good way for him to become acquainted with the series.

Although the graphic novel isn’t a complete replacement for reading the original books, it is a lot of fun. I recommend it.

Prodigy (The Graphic Novel)

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment
Prodigy Graphic Novel cover

This week, I’m reviewing the Legend series graphic novels by Marie Lu. Today, I’ll be reviewing Prodigy The Graphic Novel, which is the second book. Since this is the second book in a trilogy, there are some spoilers for the first book here.

In Prodigy, June has just helped Day escape from his execution, but what’s already been done cannot be reversed. Day will never get his brother and mother back. As the book begins, they’re on the run from the colonies, and they need help from the Patriots, a group that Day has always shunned because of their more violent methods. When the Elector Primo dies, things are about to change. Should Day and June support the new elector, or should they support the Colonies? You’ll have to read either Prodigy the Graphic Novel or the original book to find out.

I’ve already given my opinion on the original Legend Trilogy, which is one of my favorite series ever, so I’d like to mainly talk about the graphic novel adaptation of this book. While I think it was well done, there were a couple of things that I thought it could have done better.

Sadly, one of my favorite scenes from Prodigy, where Day and June kiss in the bathroom in Las Vegas, was left out of the graphic novel. One of the things that I appreciated from the Legend Graphic novel was how much attention was paid to detail. While there was still a lot of detail in this book, there were a few things that were missing. When they get to Las Vegas, as an example, June’s hair is supposed to be spray-painted scarlet and Day’s hair is covered up by his hat, while it isn’t in the graphic novel (they do have June’s temporary face tattoo, however). Kaede’s vine tattoo seems to have disappeared as well (which I’m pretty sure was not temporary).

While tattoos and hair color are just little details, it does reflect how much attention was paid to the original novel. There isn’t any real reason to get it wrong.

Other than these small things, Prodigy the Graphic Novel stays faithful to the original novel. It still has the same basic story and the same ending. If you loved the original novel and need a quick reminder of the story before Rebel comes out, or just want to see this book in graphic novel form, I recommend it.

Legend (The Graphic Novel) Is Adorable!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments
Legend Graphic Novel cover

One of my Christmas presents to myself last year (with my gift card money) was getting a copy of the Legend graphic novels. I’m not really a graphic novel reader, but these were so adorable that I couldn’t pass them up. Besides, as a book reviewer, I’m starting to try new things.

Legend (in case you haven’t read the original novel) is the story of Day, who grew up in a poor family, and June, who grew up in a wealthy family, in the dystopian future country, The Republic. Fun fact: Day is related to Asher Wing from Warcross. Anyway, after June’s brother Metais dies, she goes to look for who she thinks is the killer. Things aren’t exactly as she thinks they are, and they end up on an adventure together.

The first thing that I notice about this book is that it’s adorable. The first few pages show 10-year-old Daniel (Day is a nickname) taking his trial, which is used to determine things like what high school (if any) you get into. 10-year-old Daniel is just so adorable you want to reach into the book and give him a hug, especially when you find out what happens to him.

Most of the book happens after they both turn 15 in this book. Legend the Graphic Novel follows he original storyline fairly accurately, although the order the story is told in had to be altered a bit to fit the format, there is less detail, and it’s not told form the 1st person perspectives of Day and June like the original novels.

One of the things that I appreciate about Legend the Graphic Novel is that it gets a lot of details from the book correct (unlike some movies that I’ve seen of popular movies ::cough cough Divergent::). The hair and eye colors seem accurate, most of the clothing seems accurate; even Kaede’s vine tattoo is correct. As someone who has written Legend fanfiction and strives to make sure I get the details correct, I appreciate that the graphic novel was done so well.

The fourth Legend book, Rebel, is coming out this fall.  If you don’t have time to reread the original series and want to review everything before you read it, you might want to try Legend the graphic novel.  It doesn’t take that long to read, goes over all the major details, and is cute on top of that.  Happy reading!

We Can Stop Calling it Legend 4 Now…

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

So, Saturday night while I was on my last break at work, I saw that there would be a major reveal from Marie Lu on Monday morning (that’s today). So this morning, first thing I did was look to Twitter to see what the reveal would be. I was thinking it would probably be the title, and I was right.

So here it is. We don’t have to call it Legend 4 anymore, we can now call it Rebel! She also revealed the publication date (October 1st, you can pre-order it now like I did) and a description of the novel:

Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel.


Eden Wing is a brilliant student. He’s about to graduate a year early from Ross University of the Sciences, with honors, and already has an internship lined up back in the Republic. But most people don’t introduce Eden this way. Instead, they say, “This is Eden, Daniel Wing’s younger brother.”


Ten years ago, Eden’s brother Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. His name was spray-painted on walls, his profile splashed on both rebel pamphlets and wanted posters. He went from being a hunted criminal to a national hero in less than a year.


Day has spent the past decade piecing together his memory of his time in the Republic, pretending to enjoy life in Antarctica’s capital, Ross City , and quietly hiding out from the world—even if it’s meant giving up June, the great love of his life. As long as he can keep his little brother safe, that’s all that matters . . .


But Eden isn’t safe. As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become, they grow more distant from one another than they’ve ever been. Eden finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into Ross City’s dark side, until even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own.


When June suddenly steps back into Day’s life, rekindling the flames of their romance, the pair team up to do whatever it takes to rescue Eden. But like the rest of the world, they may have underestimated Eden—what he’s capable of, where his loyalties lie, and how hard he’s willing to fight for what he believes.

There’s a lot of wonderful books coming out this year, but I think I’m looking forward to this one the most.

MORE Amazing Marie Lu News!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

It seems like every time I get major Marie Lu news that I can’t wait to share with everybody, I’m at work.  I spend my 15 minute breaks on Twitter; that’s when I see them.  I knew Marie Lu had some news to share with us either this week or next, but I couldn’t imagine that she was going to write a FOURTH book to Legend!  I’m so excited!

Oh, and it’s supposed to come out NEXT FALL!  I was a little disappointed last month when Ms. Lu said that Kingdom of Back wouldn’t be coming out until 2020.  Goodreads had been saying it was a 2019 release, so I figured I had over a year to wait for a new book from her.  This might be why there was the delay.  I do have some short stories to read (I plan on reviewing the Slasher Girls and Monster Boys anthology later this month, which has a story by her in it), but we get a whole new book next year. Yay!

Oh, and that’s not the ONLY good news today!  She will have another book called Skyhunter coming out!  It looks like Skyhunter is going to be a duology.

There is an article about the deal in the Washington Post.

So this last 30 days has been an AMAZING reading month for me.  Not only have I read some of the best books this year (Wildcard, Enchantée, Muse of Nightmares, more Mortal Instruments books), I get this news.  When I read this on my last break, I practically floated through the last hour of work!  And of course whenever anybody asked how I was, I told them “outstanding!” or some other thesaurus variant of the word.  If they asked why I was doing so well, I told them about the book, LOL.

Have a wonderful day!

Wildcard was a Wild Ride!

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

Wildcard coverFinally, the wait is over!  Today was Wildcard‘s release day and I was so happy to get to read it.  The wait was worth it, though, it was a great book.

As with all of my reviews that deal with sequels, this may contain spoilers to the first book.

Our book starts right after Hideo downloads a program that takes away a person’s free will to commit crimes.  This causes some trouble right off the bat.  People are turning themselves in for crimes they committed but got away with, crime was prevented… wait, how could that cause problems?  We don’t all have the same standards about what is right and wrong.  Some countries have different laws that they want enacted.  Other wealthy people want exceptions for them (isn’t that the way the world works?).  To quote page 106 “Everyone’s going to want something different from Hideo.”

Emika quickly finds herself getting tangled up with Zero.  For a long time here, it’s hard to figure out who is the bad guy and who is not.  Hideo is trying to do something good by ridding the world of crimes like those that caused him to lose his brother, while Zero wants people to be able to make their own choices.  There seemed to be nobody in this book that had power that was actually good.

Time is ticking away for those that are trying to fix everything.  The beta version of the Warcross lenses (which Emika and most of the Warcross players have, and doesn’t take away your free will) will be upgraded on the final day of the Warcross season.  Emika must rely on her friends (and put faith into people she’s not so sure of) in order to figure out what’s going on and how to set things straight before the lenses upgrade and nobody has free will anymore.

Eventually, we find out the truth… which I won’t give away… but I really wasn’t expecting that.  There is a satisfying ending to it all.

One of the things that I’ve loved about the Legend series and The Young Elites trilogy were the love relationships.  I’m a big Day/June and Adelina/Magiano fan.  While this book does have a love interest, it’s a fairly minor part of the storyline, and I was fine with that.  The Warcross/Wildcard story takes place over a span of only a few months, while Legend and The Young Elites both cover a time span of over a year, so perhaps it is more realistic for the characters to not develop a deep love for each other anyway.

This book caused me to feel anger and happiness and cry, sometimes all in the same chapter.  In chapter 20, we find out what actually happened to Sasuke, and I found myself thinking, “oh, that’s sad.  Oh, how sweet.  I’m in tears now.  I’m so angry!” And then shock.  Later on, in chapter 32, I was really tearing up.  Especially when they were talking about loved ones… about how Emika missed her father and she says “And that’s when I realize that, at the end, we’d all wish for the same thing.  Just a little more time.”  I was thinking of my grandma as I read that:  how she seemed to be in remission from cancer, and then one day I got a phone call, and the next day she was gone.

The book says a lot about artificial intelligence and computer technology, and delves into some of the issues that we may have to deal with in the very near future.  Ray Kurzweil believes that one day we’ll be able to upload ourselves into the cloud and live forever that way.  Is that something we want to do?  Is that life?  Do we live on in people’s memories?  What role should technology play in our lives?  These questions popped up in my mind as I was reading Wildcard.

This was a great story that I highly recommend.

Previously on this blog, I reviewed Warcross.

Batman: Nightwalker Was Good

By Brookelorren on 8 Comments

I recently finished reading Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu.  When I first heard about the book, I wasn’t planning on reading it; I am so not a superhero person.  My husband drug me to see a couple Spiderman movies a while back, and I’ve seen the Superman movies and some others… but it’s definitely not my genre.  That being said, I loved Brad Meltzer’s Book of Lies, which has something to with Superman, that I read several years ago.

Anyway, I had started saying that Marie Lu could write about the alphabet and make it interesting.  If I really believed that, then I should read her Batman book to see if it’s true.  It actually was good, so that theory still holds.  It’s probably my least favorite book that she’s done (but she set the bar really high with her other seven books), and it’s not going to make my top 10 books of 2018 list (which is okay because she might have two books on that list anyway), but I definitely enjoyed it.

The story follows Bruce Wayne right after he turns 18, about the time that he’s graduating from high school.  He’s already fabulously wealthy, and is already realizing that there are some people that just care about him because of his influence.  He’s ready to spend his last summer before college with his two best friends… until he happens to run across a crime scene.

He has a cool car that can chase down the bad guy, so he does — and gets in trouble with the police as a result.  He is sentenced to community service at the local insane asylum.  There, he discovers a little more about the string of crimes happening in the area, committed by a group called the Nightwalkers.  He ends up bending the rules a little bit, but in the process ends up saving the day.  Oh, and he also develops a thing for a criminal that may not be as bad as she initially seems to be.

One of the things that I love about this book (and pretty much all Marie Lu books in general, I’ve come to realize) is that it shows compassion for people that many would otherwise dismiss.  People sometimes can be condemning of people because they happen to be the wrong race, or had to make difficult choices because they were poor, or did something stupid in their past.  Our villain, Madeleine, might be a criminal, but there were forces that drove her there.  I love how the book delves into the reasons why she chose the path that she did rather than just writing her off as a bad person.  This book also deals briefly with sexual harassment, which is very timely in the #metoo era.

Batman: Nightwalker introduces us to Bruce Wayne discovering some of the cool Batman toys that he’ll later use as Batman.  I thought it was also cool how the book goes a little bit into his interest with bats.

I thought that Batman: Nightwalker was a good story worth reading.  My daughter is reading it now and also likes it; she enjoys superhero movies in general.  Although this book isn’t in a genre that I routinely read, I did find it interesting.

Wonderful Legend News!

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Legend coverIf you read this book for nearly any length of time at all, then you’ll discover that I love Legend, and Marie Lu’s books in general.  I’ve probably mentioned at least one of her books every week that I’ve been active on this blog.  Well, today I heard some WONDERFUL Legend news while I was on my break at work.  There is still a chance that there will be a Legend movie!

I’m certainly not an expert on how all this works, but from what I understand, a movie studio initially buys the rights to a movie for a certain period of time.  At that point, they can either make the movie… or not.  CBS Films originally bought the rights to the Legend movie, but nothing ever came from it.  BCDF Pictures now has the rights to the movie.  So evidently, there is still enough interest for this to potentially happen.

I so hope this happens.  This is a wonderful book and a movie would allow more people to hear about it.  I had never heard of Divergent until I saw the movie trailer… and the book is so much better than the movie.  The Legend fanfiction category over at AO3 is getting a little lonely.

That leads me to the other Legendy part of my day.  It really was a great day for me.  I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo this year, with a goal of 20,000 words.  I also decided to do a fun little (okay, little is a little bit of a misnomer) challenge over at the Archive of Our Own Writers Group over on Facebook.  They had a little game called “fandom roulette” where they would roll a specific type of story for me to write.  I was challenged to write a gen fusion fic in my current fandom.

Gen fics are those that don’t have a love relationship, fusion fics are those where characters are written into another fandom as if they’ve always been there.  So for my challenge (and Camp NaNoWriMo) I wrote a story where Day and June are born in the Divergent world and they both end up joining Dauntless.  On Tuesday night, I won Camp NaNoWriMo with this story, My New Best Friend.

I published chapter 1 on Wednesday morning.  Within 24 hours, I had 50 hits.  I have absolutely no idea where all those hits came from.  As a comparison, my most successful Legend fanfic, Like Normal People, only has gotten 757 hits in 2 1/2 years.  The story with my most hits ever is Selfless, which is in the Divergent fandom, and it has a grand total of 2357 hits, but that story is almost 3 1/2 years old.

So today was a wonderful day, with both the movie news and my fanfic doing so well.  It made my day at work seem to fly by, I was so happy.  Hopefully, if you like Legend as well, the exciting movie news will actually result in some sort of movie!