Cinder (novel)

Cinder

Book cover of Cinder
Author	Marissa Meyer
Cover artist	Rich Deas
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Lunar Chronicles
Genre	Young adult, romance, science fiction, dystopian
Publisher	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date	January 3, 2012
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages	390
ISBN
OCLC	714726042
LC Class	PZ7.M571737 Cin 2012
Followed by	Scarlet

Cinder is the 2012 debut young adult science fiction novel of American author Marissa Meyer, published by Macmillan Publishers through their subsidiary Feiwel & Friends. It is the first book in The Lunar Chronicles and is followed by Scarlet. The story is loosely based on the classic fairytale Cinderella.Cinder was selected as one of IndieBound's Kids' Next List for winter 2012.

The story is set in a futuristic city, New Beijing, when the countries of the world have re-organized to form various new empires and alliances and the moon has been colonized. Asia is now an emperor ruled country known as the Eastern Commonwealth. Letumosis, a disease started by the Lunars and had been nicknamed the "Blue Fever," is raging throughout the world and the cure is unknown. The protagonist, Linh Cinder, is a cyborg who operates a mechanic stall at a local street market in New Beijing and lives under the guardianship of her stepmother, Linh Adri. Early in the story, she meets Prince Kai, who asks her to fix a personal android. Cyborgs are treated as second class citizens, so Cinder hides her identity from Kai. Soon, one of Cinder’s stepsisters, Linh Peony, falls sick with letumosis after accompanying Cinder to a junkyard to collect spare parts for a repair. In anger, Cinder’s stepmother "volunteers" Cinder for plague research. When Cinder is injected with the strain of letumosis, it is discovered that she is immune to the disease. Dr. Erland, the head researcher, starts to do research on Cinder’s immunity, which leads to research on Cinder’s unique physiology, her cyborg implants, and eventually to Cinder’s life prior to becoming a cyborg at the age of eleven, which Cinder has no memory of.

At the same time, Prince Kai's father, Emperor Rikan, dies of the plague, resulting in the prince becoming Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth. There is pressure to create an alliance between the Earth countries and the Moon country, Luna, led by Queen Levana. The Lunars have the ability to manipulate the bioelectricity of people around them and make them see what they want them to see and even control their thoughts and actions. The proposed alliance is through Emperor Kai marrying Queen Levana, however, Emperor Kai wants to thwart this plan by finding someone else to marry first. He is also searching for information regarding the Lunar Heir. Earthens believed that somehow Princess Selene Channary Janali Blackburn survived a nursery fire set up by Queen Levana. Which is what his personal android was looking for when it broke. Soon after, Cinder's stepsister dies of the plague and Linh Cinder stores Peony's ID chip and takes it with her. Because of this, Linh Adri punishes Cinder by smashing Iko, Cinder's companion android, to pieces and selling the valuable pieces.