Review: Life Before Legend by Marie Lu (Legend #0.5)

Three years prior to the beginning of Legend, this story is divided into two parts, the first half belonging to Day and the second to June. Both halves take place within the same couple of days, but the two characters are not directly linked at all yet.

Day's section is about his life on the streets and how desperate he has become. His story mainly concerns the circumstances of his first kiss, what led up to it and what comes of it afterwards. When he attempts to steal canned goods from a rig, he is caught by the leader's daughter, a girl several years his senior. Because of his crime, the girl punishes him by making him work for her and her father for three days. Each day he receives food and he has a safe place to sleep.

On what feels like the other side of the world, June is beginning college at age 12. Because of a traffic hold up (which is Day's doing), she is late to her first day at Drake. Immediately isolated and harassed because of her young age, June stands up to a bully and is reprimanded afterwards for 'fighting.' From this story, it's fairly clear that June has always been a highly-skilled prodigy and that her years in school did not teach her all she knows.

I personally enjoyed June's story a great deal more than Day's. Perhaps the reason for this is that Day's story seems so inconsequential. Note I said that it "seems" that way. It could be significant for a variety of reasons. It could act as the catalyst of his long series of trysts, the start of his self-prescribed isolation, or the beginning of his career in anarchy. The last sentence of his story would certainly imply that, when he says that the Republic has not seen the last of him.

June's half is just so much more engaging. From the beginning of her story, the reader can immediately make the connection between both their lives, even at such an early stage. Day's action causes a reaction in her life that may very well set the tone for the rest of her college career.

It's certainly great to see how skilled both characters are, even at the green age of twelve. June is already impeccable at tracking the passage of time in her head, reading everything about a person by scanning their body language, and literally sidestepping physical attacks. Day is a budding thief and is surviving well on his own. He's clearly crafty and clever, but the handicap of his knee is so much more pronounced, even more so than in the rest of the Legend books. The injury is much more disabling than it ever seemed before. It sort of made me wonder if the pain diminishes slightly of if he just gets used to it over time.

But, as usual, the only unbelievable thing about this is just how young the characters are. If I thought fifteen was a young age for their skill level, then they are blowing me away at twelve. I won't deny that the two of them smooth out and mature throughout the series, particularly emotionally, but it's still so difficult to swallow that people as young as this have such a stirring impact.

I'm glad this was written. I wasn't quite ready to let go of the Legend world.

Review: Champion by Marie Lu (Legend #3)

As the final installment in the Legend series, Champion picks up eight months after the end of Prodigy. Day and June have gone their separate ways; he is fighting a detrimental illness and she is a rising politician, one of the three Princeps-Elects (check spelling). Trouble is stirring in the Colonies, where there is an unknown and rapidly spreading plague. The Colonies are accusing the Republic of launching this plague as a war weapon, and they haven given the Republic an ultimatum to either find a cure for the plague or to launch an all out war.

June and the Elector, Anden, are both of the belief that Day's younger brother, Eden, is the plague’s patient zero. In order to come up with a cure, they will need to experiment on Eden. June is certain that Day will refuse to let his brother be used, but she makes the request regardless. This request is the only reason that the two of them are reunited at all.

I have to admit: both characters frustrated me immensely in this one. They're both so skittish, so proud, too proud, in fact, to admit how much they care about each other and yearn to be together. This is so frustrating it's almost painful to read. Perhaps it's so obvious to us readers because we are inside both June and Day's heads, but it seems like it should be obvious to them (and everyone else) also. I don't want to spout any sort of relationship advice or anything, but it would have been just great had one of them broken their pride and been the bigger person.

This is not to say that I have grown to dislike June or Day. There are just fewer special moments between the two of them that make all that waiting worthwhile. I still love them and still root for them. At times it just seems that their love is ill fated and will inevitably go wrong. Hence my frustration.

There are fewer love triangles in Champion than there were in Prodigy, which I am a fan of, as always. Tess is no longer tempting Day, and June's attraction to Anden seems somewhat faded. In all actuality, it feels like there are no functional relationships in this book.

Luckily, however, there is so much more to the Legend series than the romance aspect. Nearly every page of Champion is packed with incessant and thrilling action. It's one of those hold your breath while you read books, and there's so little downtime to actually recover from it.

And the world has blossomed. It is so intricate; everything-from the map at the front to the detailed point structure in Antarctica to the lake in Los Angeles from the rising ocean-is carefully and purposefully plotted out. This is the first YA dystopia where I have not found a fictional history riddled with holes. Although certain things feel a little farfetched, they also seem completely plausible.

One of my favorite chapters consists of June's visit to Ross City, Antarctica. The entire book is written with great imagery, but this trip to Antarctica is particularly powerful. Though it's unlike anything I've every seen or read, it is so remarkably easy to picture the towering skyscrapers connected by bridges, the floating levels over every person, and the detailed technology that transcends anything we’ve ever known. It sounds like a video game; in fact, I hope it becomes one.

I was a little disappointed we finally learn what year this all takes place in... It had been nice to imagine this world as some obscure, unknown point in the future. But at least it’s actually far enough ahead for all these advancements to be credible.

Marie Lu does an impeccable job of building momentum. Every chapter builds on the one preceding it; everything is relevant; there are no wasted pages or words. I guess I should mention that my frustration with June and Day is a good kind of frustration. As in, it means I care about them and the decisions they make, as if they are real people rather than characters in a book.

To avoid spoilers, I’m going to omit most of my feelings about the outcome of this series. I will say that I cried harder than I have for a while. I will say that the ending is a bit disappointing, but that it also fits with the characters. I will say I’m glad to get a peek into their future… But that’s all; perhaps I’ve said too much.

All in all, this has transformed into my favorite YA series, and I’m so terribly sad to see it end.

Review: Prodigy by Marie Lu (Legend #2)

I am absolutely delighted to have found a series that enraptures me so thoroughly. Usually, I find myself loving the first book in a series and either feeling indifference or disdain for the latter books, but Prodigy has thoroughly proven that this will not be the case for the Legend series.

I will admit that the story did start off a little slow for me. It shouldn't have, considering it picks right back up where Legend ends, but I guess there's always that awkward phase before a book truly blooms into itself. It doesn't take long to do that, to turn into something wonderful that is LIKE Legend but is also just like itself.

In the beginning, June and Day have traveled a long way in search of the Patriots. Day's leg was brutally wounded in Legend and they are now desperately seeking out medical help, even though they have no means of paying. Turns out, the Patriots' preferred method of payment is for both June and Day to aide in the assassination of the new Elector, The Republic's supreme leader.

June's job is to win him over, to use his obvious attraction to her as a strength and to lead him right into the Patriots' trap. Day's job is to act as a social icon, to grow in fame and seek out the public's support for the Patriots' cause. Throughout all this, both characters are exposed to a great deal of danger and are lead to ask questions concerning right and wrong, innocence and guilt, truth and lies.

That's one of the things I love about this book: the shadowy gray area that neither corroborates nor condemns any one character or movement. You think you know whom to trust, you think you know what is going to be right, but you can never truly follow your instincts in this one. I made my own assumptions, but I didn't prove or disprove them until the very end. And perhaps I still haven't, seeing how the story continues in Champion.  

The main characters themselves also live in the gray area, even as they gain so much depth throughout Prodigy. I loved both June and Day in Legend, but here they feel like such real, rounded out people with equal parts hope and fear, equal parts benevolence and resentment. Perhaps the reason they achieve that depth is because of the decisions they are forced to make throughout the story. They continue to show their true colors under pressure, such as June's refusal to go against her convictions and Day's refusal to go against June.

Can I just say that this is a great love story? The problem with love stories is that they are usually so overdone or so over the top, but this isn't the case here at all. Perhaps I'm too in love with this world to speak about it rationally, but I found myself rooting for the two of them, cheering them on, and then dying inside when they couldn't be together, and further on hating Tess for her part in taking Day away from June.

Literally, my only problem with the June and Day dynamic is that they feel so much older than fifteen. But then, I guess that's why he's a legend and she's a prodigy...

All the other characters are well rounded too. I disliked Tess, but that's only because of her attempts to seduce Day. I did not, however, dislike Anden, despite his obvious attraction to June. He is rather admirable (at least at this point) for his ambitions to turn his country around even though it is the opposite of what his politicians want.

That's another thing I like about this novel: how political it is. At least it seems political for YA. The fact that the present politics are so well thought out and mentioned consistently leads me to the conclusion that this is a good dystopia. Seriously, I oftentimes dislike when dystopias try to explain away how the world came to be in it sorry state. If it's going to be a poor explanation, I'd prefer there be no explanation at all and to let me just enjoy the world as it is. There were moments early on in Prodigy where I was dreading the upcoming explanations, particularly when they talked about the technological advancements of Antarctica.

But it turns out this world was very well planned-politics, history, and culture all included. Marie Lu definitely doesn't launch into heavy explanations, but she presents her world with such consistency that you really wouldn't dare to question it.

Review: Legend by Marie Lu (Legend #1)

Legend takes place in the future United States, but the states have been divided into two separate countries, the Republic and the Colonies. Within the Republic, all children at age 10 take a Trial, to assess a number of things, including their physical and mental abilities, and to find a place for them within society. The ones with high scores are privileged, given access to education, wealth, and thorough medical attention. The ones with lower scores are sentenced to a life of poverty, menial labor, and sickness. The ones that fail are said to go off to work at labor camps; however, they are never seen nor heard from again.

June is a young elite, the first person ever to score a perfect 1500 on her Trial. At the ripe age of fifteen, she has already finished college and military training and is well on her way to working up the ranks. Day, on the other hand, is the Republic's most elusive and wanted criminal. After he fails his own Trial, he manages to escape and has been giving the Republic grief ever since, carrying out elaborate heists and slews of perfect crimes.

"Sometimes if feels like we're the same person born into two different worlds."

And that about sums up the character dynamic. The two protagonists come from opposite ends of the spectrum, but they manage to essentially be the same person.

It is not a bad thing that these two people are so similar. For one thing, they are both fiercely loyal, highly intelligent, and, best of all, absolutely lethal. For another thing, they both hold strong ties to family, and these ties represent their singular weaknesses. I personally did not find it unbelievable how they make minuscule perceptions that lead unerringly to the truth. I overlooked the unlikeliness of this kind of perceptiveness, because, quite simply, it fit with both of their characters.

The only thing I find unbelievable about the main characters is the fact that these two geniuses are fifteen years old. Because of their smarts, their skills, and even their social graces, both Day and June seems years older than what they are. But I guess that is why they are called legends, why they are called prodigies.

As far as this dystopian world goes, I for one am glad that Marie Lu left so much to the imagination. I detest nothing more in dystopia than the author trying to explain everything away with little trinkets of fictional history that don't actually make sense. Many of them try to get us from Point A (our current time) to Point B (the world of their story), but this is just exhaustive and counterproductive. In Legend's case, only the date of the month and the day of the week are given. There is minimal history and no implication at all of what year it takes place in. 

Furthermore, I don't think this book actually needs to be a dystopia. In fact, it may be better if the Future USA took no part in it at all. This world does not need the states (or any other real country) to be a complete story. The world could stand on its own. Because of the overpopulation of dystopia in the book pool, I think Legend would've had more potential had it separated itself from the genre.

The story passes in a whirlwind, but it is never too rapid to follow. Rather, it is so compelling that the pages just slip by. Aside from a few minor questions, like what happens to Day's father and what the Colonies are like, I think the amount of information provided is perfect. It does not get bogged down in the details, but almost everything is provided for you if you pay attention. Sure, elements of the story are predictable, but, in this case, that does not make it any less enjoyable.

Perhaps for the first time in a long time, I am greatly looking forward to reading the sequels. I have a love-hate relationship with series, as they take a good deal of dedication and time when there are just so many other great books to read. It's been a while since I've finished a book and have been hungry for more of the same characters, of the same world, and of the same story. This book did that for me. This is by no means my favorite book, but I am still highly impressed with it. It has been a refreshing taste of dystopia. And here I thought the genre was dying out. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone that has the faintest interest in dystopia or even science fiction/fantasy. Even if you end up disliking it, the story blazes by so quickly there's no excuse for not reading it. If all of Marie Lu's other books are as good as this one, I intend to read every single one of them. I still can't believe it took me so long to read this one.