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jjohnsen 's review for:
The City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
Another book set in a post-apocalyptic future, I can’t get enough of them. Jeanne DuPrau sets the scene in a brief prologue. Something major is about to happen on Earth, thought we aren’t told what that is. A city is created deep underground, along with enough supplies for people to live safely for two hundred years. After the two hundred years is up, the current mayor of the city will receive instructions on how to return to the surface, and hopefully begin civilization again.
I saw the trailer for an upcoming movie based on this book, that’s what got me interested. It’s a short novel, easily read in a day or two. I didn’t realize it’s part of an ongoing series, which really bothers me. I should have checked it out a bit more before I started reading. The book stands well on it’s own, though it does leave the reader hanging a bit at the end. Everything is resolved, but it happens so quickly it’s almost as if the author was anxious to move on to the next group of characters and stories she had created.
In the early parts of the book, something goes wrong. The instructions on how the city is to begin their exodus are lost, and the city is falling apart. It was only meant to stay underground for a set amount of time, and they are running out of food, their electrical equipment is failing, and because there isn’t a path out the people have no where to go.
The two main characters Lina and Doon, are curious enough to try and unravel the mystery and figure out a way to save their city. One is assigned to work near an underground river, the other is to become a messenger. Through their jobs, and by putting clues together, they start to figure out how Ember was created and how they can save it.
The book is interesting, if not a little bit simple. The author makes some decisions that are almost unbelievable. In two hundred years people hadn’t figured out some of these things that the children figure out in a few weeks? Of course they have a major clue nobody else had, but it still seemed strange that nobody succeded in going further with it. It’s not a huge issue though, and the plot and setting are interesting enough that I’ll read the next book.
I saw the trailer for an upcoming movie based on this book, that’s what got me interested. It’s a short novel, easily read in a day or two. I didn’t realize it’s part of an ongoing series, which really bothers me. I should have checked it out a bit more before I started reading. The book stands well on it’s own, though it does leave the reader hanging a bit at the end. Everything is resolved, but it happens so quickly it’s almost as if the author was anxious to move on to the next group of characters and stories she had created.
In the early parts of the book, something goes wrong. The instructions on how the city is to begin their exodus are lost, and the city is falling apart. It was only meant to stay underground for a set amount of time, and they are running out of food, their electrical equipment is failing, and because there isn’t a path out the people have no where to go.
The two main characters Lina and Doon, are curious enough to try and unravel the mystery and figure out a way to save their city. One is assigned to work near an underground river, the other is to become a messenger. Through their jobs, and by putting clues together, they start to figure out how Ember was created and how they can save it.
The book is interesting, if not a little bit simple. The author makes some decisions that are almost unbelievable. In two hundred years people hadn’t figured out some of these things that the children figure out in a few weeks? Of course they have a major clue nobody else had, but it still seemed strange that nobody succeded in going further with it. It’s not a huge issue though, and the plot and setting are interesting enough that I’ll read the next book.