• Cinder

  • Book One of the Lunar Chronicles
  • By: Marissa Meyer
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
  • Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (14,110 ratings)

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Cinder  By  cover art

Cinder

By: Marissa Meyer
Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
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Publisher's summary

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl....

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

©2012 Marissa Meyer (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Featured Article: The Best Fairy Tale Retelling Audiobooks


Fairy tales, mythology, and folklore have provided an endless fount of inspiration and imagination for writers for centuries. So, it’s no surprise that as sensibilities shift and these tales are revisited with a modern lens, creators feel the pull to reinvent, reimagine, and refocus. Here, we’ve gathered the best fairy and folk tale retellings of all time, from both new and best-selling writers alike. What magic will you discover within?

What listeners say about Cinder

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    9,520
  • 4 Stars
    3,374
  • 3 Stars
    899
  • 2 Stars
    203
  • 1 Stars
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Performance
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    9,133
  • 4 Stars
    2,717
  • 3 Stars
    589
  • 2 Stars
    85
  • 1 Stars
    62
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    8,367
  • 4 Stars
    3,037
  • 3 Stars
    880
  • 2 Stars
    218
  • 1 Stars
    98

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Unexpectedly good

Any additional comments?

I don’t really know what made me download this book to begin with, but I am glad I did. It is an interesting idea based loosely on Cinderella. Just remember it is a YA book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Very disappointed

Would you try another book from Marissa Meyer and/or Rebecca Soler?

Maybe

Would you ever listen to anything by Marissa Meyer again?

Maybe

Would you be willing to try another one of Rebecca Soler’s performances?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Despite a number of positive reviews, I found the book and the performance pretty boring. If I had realized that this is really a book for teenagers or younger I wouldn't have purchased. It's not that the retelling of the Cinderella story was juvenile, but the way the story was written and presented was. This is the first time I have disliked a book enough to not finish listening.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Good Fun YA Novel

Even though I love rehashes of fairy tales, I didn't expect much out of this book because it was a YA fiction. There were the standard plot holes for YA works, (For example; Prince Kai isn't exactly up to snuff on political etiquette, what he actually does is pretty vague, and he's a little too innocent to believe.)
With all this talk of a Terminator Princess, I'll admit I was expecting more carnage. But if you can set your skepticism on the back burner, this is an entertaining read. The main character is blessedly down to earth, sometimes funny and very useful. She's not all powerful or anything, it's still a girl we're reading about, with electronic parts and human instincts.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

left me angry and depressed

Well written from a technical point of view and the narration is tight, appropriate and really well done on individuating the characters.

But it is dystopian and, well, I prefer a lot less angst and a lot more hope with my fairy tales. YMMV.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Predictable, but fun.

I enjoyed this book and was disappointed to learn that her next book is coming out in about a year! Unfortunately by that time I will probably have forgotten all about this series. The book ends on a cliff-hanger for those of you who hate that. It is a good adventure/action story, which takes some predictable turns. Overall the story is entertaining and engaging. I predict a major motion picture by 2015. Think Hunger Games.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Great Story, Well Done!

This is a well-done and imaginative re-telling of a classic loosely based on the plot of Cinderella. No, it's not an exact copy. The writing is good, the characters well-developed and fleshed out...they come to life from the "pages" (or earbuds). Kai and Cinder are great characters, I really came to care about them during the course of the story. I look forward to the next book and seeing what unfolds for them. The threat to Kai's sovreignty, indeed the threat of war between "countries" and even planets in the author's imagined world, and the battle against an insideous disease enhances the plot, making it about much more than relationships. The narration is good, the voice is appropo of the main character and delivers the story well. The only thing I would say could be done a little better is some of the male voices, particularly that of Kai himself. To me his voice should have been a little more distinguished and indentifiable. (That is a minor complaint, however.) Overall, I would highly recommend this. It is one of my favorite stories (overall) and favorite Audible listens that I have experienced recently.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring YA

I had hoped this would be something more than a teen angst story wrapped in a different skin. Nope--not here. Couldn't finish it as the presentation was too 13-year-old-ish.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Thin plot, weak and whiny characters, YA only

I'm surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reviews. The framework of the story could have been interesting: a future with cyborgs, people living on the moon that have become quite different than Earthlings, a plague. I liked the fact that the main character was a strong female and that the relationship developing between the two prime characters wasn't overly sappy as can happen in YA novels. But the characters are so incredibly thin. How can a prince that's first in line to be emperor be so politically unsophisticated? How can a cyborg and mechanic who's adoptive father was a cyborg specialist have no interest in his work? How can persons under 18 be given over to medical research? How do they not even know the transmission vectors of the plague? The clues are so obvious it's hard not to trip over them, making the book unfold in a plodding way. And even just silly things are annoying --- like somehow the English monarchy is once again in power in this futuristic Earth. And the writing itself is strictly ho-hum, which doesn't help.

I would describe the narrator as "Valley Girl" - a tone that sounds more or less entirely like an annoyed teenager. I don't think that helps the book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fabulous Fresh Story on an Familiar Fairytale

Marissa Meyer rides a tight wave between creating something completely new and fresh whilst acknowledging a well known fairy tale. She rides the crest with panache and perfectly brings the story home; this story is loosely based on Cinderella, which for Ms. Meyer, turns out to be just the right amount. I've been on a YA spree of late and am perfectly happy to remain in it with writers like Ms. Meyer. Her blend of SciFi, adventure and romance is spot on. She uses well written, tight dialogue to bring out and develop her characters, deep and rich description to build her world, consisting of a future Earth and Lunar (Moon) and number of difficult scenarios to build interesting relationships. All of this wonderful writing however, is just so much gas for the engine of her fabulous story. Ms. Meyer is fundamentally a storyteller - it is the narrative arc that compels us to stay up much too late into the night reading her novel

As is my practice, I went back and forth between the Kindle and Audible versions (using the magic of Whispersync for Voice to keep moving), although I did a lot more listening than reading given the fabulous narration of Rebecca Soler. She has definitely entered the pantheon of beloved narrator. Her voice is a natural for Cinder so her talents truly shine when she voices Dr. Erland, Prince Kai and the impolite tones of Queen Levana. I also love her enthusiastic Iko. She maintains each character's voice in the the quick give-and-take dialogue Ms. Meyers uses. Overall her pacing gives you a sense of the urgency and excitement of the story while being able to follow it easily. I'm really glad she narrates the other books in the series.

For full review: wp.me/p2XCwQ-Rl

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Liked it

Cinder is a very unique take on the fairytale genre - transporting it cleverly to a science fiction settings but retaining the storybook feel. Elements of Cinderella, Snow White, and several other fairy tales are cleverly woven into a complete story in a way that makes an engaging story.

Plot: Cinder is a cyborg - considered less than human and very expendable by a prejudiced society. So she exists quietly on the fringes of society, doing mechanical jobs to make money to support her step mother and step sisters. When a chance encounter with Prince Kai leads to the possibility of attending the big ball, will Cinder take the chance? For she may not just be a simple Cyborg and her fairy godmother may know enough about her to change the course of her life. If the evil Queen Levana doesn't get her first.

I liked the science fiction setting and it is very accessible science. There's a bit of the supernatural in a form of the Lunars (who possess psychological powers). And of course you have the cyborgs, androids, and more. I would never have thought anyone could put all that together and make it work but Meyer does manage it.

In all, I liked (but somehow didn't love) the book. To be a 5 star review, I would have liked to see far more depth in the characters. They were just thin enough to never really be able to get into any of them.

Note that I listened to the audible version of this book and the narrator did a decent job.

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