Tag: Marie Lu

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September Book Reviews

Finished Warcross by Marie Lu over the weekend. Solid 3/5; higher if you’re a relatively new SF/F reader. Great characterization, but both the romance and Zero’s ID were “as expected”, instead of surprising. I did gulp down the last ~100 pages instead of sleeping.

Just finished The Book of Hidden Things. It does a great job of teetering on the edge of real, surreal, and mystic. Plus South Italian small town life… really enjoyable. 4/5.

Finished Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie last night. It’s modern (rather than sci-fi, where I normally read), but it’s such a different world. It’s well worth trying! (4/5) Ifemelu and Obinze are both great characters, though I tended to prefer Ifemelu’s chapters. Their interactions at home and in the west are both bright and clarifying. You root for them, alone and together. Great book structure too.

Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon (4/5). An excellent conclusion to the 5 book series about Kylara Vatra. (I decided that I liked her fantasy quite a bit, so decided to check out her SF. It worked out nicely!)

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The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

The third book of the trilogy, set about a year after The Winter Star. The blessings of their powers have brought Adelina victory and conquest, but the whispers are stronger than ever. Raffaele leads the Dagger Society and shelters her sister… but his research on the blood fever and the consequences of the interaction of the immortal world on the mortal gives the book its pivot and shapes the second half of the book.

Tears streamed over the last couple of chapters; I really felt for Adelina and suffered alongside her as she made her difficult decisions. All in all, it was a great end to a good series.

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The Rose Society by Marie Lu

A very solid middle book, that mostly avoids the trap of feeling like a middle book. This charts Adelina and her sister coming together, gathering allies, and coming to power. They’re opposed by the inquisition at home, and are rivals with The Dagger Society.

I like the scheming and struggle; it ends on a harsh but dramatically appropriate note.

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The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Ha! I originally thought that this was a continuation series for Legend…, but nope, it’s a whole new world. It’s fantastic, but with mostly subtle magic other than the titular Young Elites.

Our heroine is conflicted; there are a lot of screws being turned on her. From the very beginning her life is pretty terrible; she’s rescued, but her rescuers have ulterior motives.

I liked it quite a bit and am queuing up the sequels. (It looks like this series is also a trilogy.)

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Champion : a Legend novel by Marie Lu

A solid completion to the trilogy. A few months have passed, and the trio are engaged in the highest levels of guiding the country… which is about to get attacked.

Day and Eden have largely detached and are living in SF; they’re trying to recover from their ailments. June is struggling to act with the senators to craft a response to the nation’s problems… and to support Anden. (This continues to be an issue in his relationship with June.)

There’s a bit of getting the band back together, a dangerous and deceptive plan to save the Republic, a visit to the futuristic feeling Antarctica, etc.

It’s a less thrilling conclusion, to me, but still a solid end to the series. (Though the act of stripping Day’s connections and recent memories at the end felt like a bad Dallas riff.)

I have another book in the world titled The Young Elites; I think it’s set a generation after these turbulent days, when the global and political realms have shifted significantly.