![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esmenetI've been putting off talking about Marissa Meyer's Cinder for a while because it makes me unreasonably angry. The bare-bones plot points are great -- Cyborg Asian Cinderella! partially inspired by Sailor Moon! What's not to like?
When it comes to the execution? ...everything, it turns out.
First, let's start with the setting. Cinder takes place in a futuristic-ish East-West fusion (the 'Eastern Commonwealth'), in the city of New Beijing, which is ruled by Prince Kaito. Let's not even talk about why a Japanese dude is ruling a presumably Chinese city; the author certainly doesn't.
All the actual worldbuilding -- the clothes, the social structures, the semi-secret dystopia of Fair Folk living on the moon -- feels very European. I am not terribly qualified to talk about this, being a white girl who went to China that one time, but I really was not feeling the 'East' part of the supposed 'East-West fusion' the author talks about. The structure and tone were just like every European soft-sci-fantasy I've ever read, it didn't remind me of the Japanese or Chinese sci-fi/fantasies I've consumed at all. (Though I am probably not very qualified to talk about those.) --Of course, maybe this is not surprising, since she credits Joss Whedon's Firefly with a large part of her inspiration for this book.
The romance felt tacked on. Cinder being a mechanic felt tacked on -- we're supposed to believe that she loves machines, even though she hates being a cyborg herself (*) but I didn't get that at all from her actions. All the characters were very two-dimensional, I think. Neither they nor the plot elements were built up well enough.
*Which I don't understand, because cyborgs are fucking awesome. Every time she was thinking about how she was only part-human I was going "Yes! Isn't that neat? You're a fusion of human and machine! You are the future! You are Iron Man."
Also the main character made a 100% unnecessary transphobic joke, which, just great.
The author also said Cinder was inspired by Sailor Moon. If that's true, I think she didn't really understand Sailor Moon that well -- what made Usagi the princess, the future Neo Queen Serenity, wasn't just the fact that she was re-incarnated from the previous princess; it was that she had a beautiful, strong heart. Cinder's supposed special quality is based entirely in her bloodline -- what she does hardly matters. She's just a very flat character.
I feel like Cinder, as a book, is a mish-mash of tropes that could theoretically have been done well, written by someone who has only a shallow understanding of the things she's trying to draw on.
I'm being unfair to this book. You know what? I don't care.
Bottom line: It was way, WAY less awesome than ANYTHING with the premise 'cyborg Cinderella' should be.
When it comes to the execution? ...everything, it turns out.
First, let's start with the setting. Cinder takes place in a futuristic-ish East-West fusion (the 'Eastern Commonwealth'), in the city of New Beijing, which is ruled by Prince Kaito. Let's not even talk about why a Japanese dude is ruling a presumably Chinese city; the author certainly doesn't.
All the actual worldbuilding -- the clothes, the social structures, the semi-secret dystopia of Fair Folk living on the moon -- feels very European. I am not terribly qualified to talk about this, being a white girl who went to China that one time, but I really was not feeling the 'East' part of the supposed 'East-West fusion' the author talks about. The structure and tone were just like every European soft-sci-fantasy I've ever read, it didn't remind me of the Japanese or Chinese sci-fi/fantasies I've consumed at all. (Though I am probably not very qualified to talk about those.) --Of course, maybe this is not surprising, since she credits Joss Whedon's Firefly with a large part of her inspiration for this book.
The romance felt tacked on. Cinder being a mechanic felt tacked on -- we're supposed to believe that she loves machines, even though she hates being a cyborg herself (*) but I didn't get that at all from her actions. All the characters were very two-dimensional, I think. Neither they nor the plot elements were built up well enough.
*Which I don't understand, because cyborgs are fucking awesome. Every time she was thinking about how she was only part-human I was going "Yes! Isn't that neat? You're a fusion of human and machine! You are the future! You are Iron Man."
Also the main character made a 100% unnecessary transphobic joke, which, just great.
The author also said Cinder was inspired by Sailor Moon. If that's true, I think she didn't really understand Sailor Moon that well -- what made Usagi the princess, the future Neo Queen Serenity, wasn't just the fact that she was re-incarnated from the previous princess; it was that she had a beautiful, strong heart. Cinder's supposed special quality is based entirely in her bloodline -- what she does hardly matters. She's just a very flat character.
I feel like Cinder, as a book, is a mish-mash of tropes that could theoretically have been done well, written by someone who has only a shallow understanding of the things she's trying to draw on.
I'm being unfair to this book. You know what? I don't care.
Bottom line: It was way, WAY less awesome than ANYTHING with the premise 'cyborg Cinderella' should be.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-18 09:50 pm (UTC)