The Lunar Chronicles
_by_Marissa_Meyer.png) Cover of the first book in the series, Cinder | |
| Author | Marissa Meyer |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, young adult fiction, romance, science fiction, dystopian |
| Publisher | Feiwel & Friends |
| Published | 2012 - 2015 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book |
| No. of books | 4 |
| Website | http://thelunarchronicles.com/ |
The Lunar Chronicles is a tetralogy of young adult fantasy novels written by American author Marissa Meyer. Each book entails a new take on an old fairy tale, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. The story takes place in a futuristic world where humans, cyborgs, androids, and a race of moon colonists all coexist.
Books
Cinder
Linh Cinder (based on Cinderella), a cyborg living with her step mother and her two stepsisters, works as a mechanic in a booth at the market place, where she meets Prince Kai, who requests her to fix his personal android. After someone important to Cinder comes into contact with the plague, she is forcibly volunteered for cure testing. As a result, a lot of previously unknown things regarding Cinder's origins surface. At the same time, tensions between Earth and Luna are rising with Prince Kai in the middle of that and his and Cinders ever un-known love story.
Scarlet
Scarlet Benoit (based on Little Red Riding Hood) is the granddaughter of Michelle Benoit, a farmer and former military pilot who has suddenly disappeared. On Scarlet's journey to find her grandmother, she works hesitantly with a street fighter named Wolf to find her grandmother. Unfortunately, as Scarlet's trust for Wolf grows, his old lunar gang puts them in unusual circumstances, testing Wolf's loyalties. Deeper connections surface as the gang's malicious intent is finally exposed. As the search continues, Scarlet meets Cinder and becomes an ally in her plan to stop Queen Levana's tyranny.
Cress
Crescent Moon, or 'Cress' Darnel (based on Rapunzel), is an imprisoned shell, working with Sybil to help Lunar ships. Living alone on a satellite and harboring an enormous crush on Carswell Thorne, she secretly works to sabotage the wicked Lunar queen and eventually becomes entangled in Cinder's plot to save earth. As complications arise and the crew is separated, they must do everything they can to prevent a royal wedding putting Earth into Queen Levana's hands. And all the while, the plague has begun to mutate and even the Lunars are not safe.
Fairest
Fairest is a prequel to the other books in the series, telling the backstory and past of Queen Levana (based on the Evil Queen from Snow White). Fairest begins when Levana is around 15 years old and covers about 10 years of her life, ending about a decade before Cinder is set. Levana has grown up in a poisonous household and has a cruel older sister who has been mentally and physically abusive to her throughout her entire life. After her parents are murdered by a Lunar assassin (a Shell), Levana's sister, Channary is set to become Queen. Channary's reign is short-lived, and with Channary's ascension, Levana begins an unexpected downward spiral to becoming heartless when it comes to anything but her people.[1]
Winter
Winter (based on Snow White) is Queen Levana's stepdaughter. She's lived on Luna in the palace and has been raised by her stepmother. She's seen how Levana's use of glamour has turned her into a heartless tyrant. Winter decided to never use her gift, so she has not used her Lunar "glamour" since she was twelve. A side of effect of not using glamour results in the loss of sanity for Lunars and Winter is afflicted with bad hallucinations, and as the book goes on, her mental state starts to slowly deteriorate. Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.
Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.
Short stories
- The Keeper (This tells of how Michelle Benoit received and protected Selene for eight years)
- Glitches (This is about Cinder coming to live with her new family at age 11)
- The Queen's Army (This covers Wolf and his brother Ran's past before Scarlet.)
- Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky (This tells the backstory of the ‘Kate Fallow incident’ mentioned in Cress)
- After Sunshine Passes By (This tells of 9 year old Cress being moved from the dormitories to the Satellite)
- The Princess and The Guard (This is about Winter and Jacin's friendship during childhood)
- The Little Android (This is a retelling of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid")
- The Mechanic (This is simply chapter 1 of 'Cinder' as told from Kai's perspective)
- Something Old, Something New (This short story is set about 2 years after Winter, and tells the lives of the friends during Scarlet's Wedding)