Cress

By: Marissa Meyer

Narrated by: Rebecca Soler

Soon to be adapted into a major motion picture!

The third book in the #1 New York Times- and USA Today-Bestselling Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer! The evil space queen gives an imprisoned hacker orders to track down our cyborg heroine and her team of reimagined fairytale characters. Can the Rapunzel-like hacker break free and help them instead?

"An interesting mash up of fairy tales and science fiction . . . a cross between Cinderella, Terminator, and Star Wars." —Entertainment Weekly on the Lunar Chronicles

Because if there was one thing Cress knew about heroes, it was that they could not resist a damsel in distress. And she was nothing if not in distress.

Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together they're plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, who has been trapped on a satellite since childhood with only her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker; unfortunately, she's just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing stop her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only ones who can.

Find out what happens in another richly imagined adventure in Marissa Meyer's world of fairytale (with characters based off of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel), science fiction, and intergalactic intrigue.


Don't miss the other books in The Lunar Chronicles series:
Cinder
Scarlet
Cress
Winter
Stars Above
Fairest
Wires and Nerve Vol. 1
Wires and Nerve Vol. 2: Gone Rogue

Critic reviews

“Rebecca Soler returns with another skilled performance, navigating multiple story lines in the fast-paced adventure while expertly distinguishing between characters with changes in pitch and accent.” —School Library Journal

“Narrator Rebecca Soler delivers a take-no-prisoners performance for the third title in The Lunar Chronicles. Her instinctive delivery of Meyer's humor makes the story an addictive listen. Series fans and new listeners will be equally entranced.” —AudioFile Magazine

Very clever story (and series)

STORY (YA fantasy scifi) - Cress is the third book in The Lunar Chronicles series. Like the first two, it is a futuristic twist to a classic fairy tale. Cinder(ella) is a cyborg mechanic with a mean step-family who dreams of attending a ball and meeting Prince Kai. Scarlet (similar to Red Riding Hood) has a boyfriend named Wolf and has been searching for her lost grandmother. Now we add Cress, who is a long-haired computer hacker trapped in a lunar satellite (like Rapunzel in her tower). The characters are all working together to foil an attempt by the evil Lunar Queen Levana to extend her reign to Earth, and the author has done a masterful job of combining the characters and stories together into one clever plot.

This is a fun, easy listen which works well as a break between "heavier" books. It is fast-paced, with lots of action and touches of romance. You should listen to the books in order, as each one introduces a new fairy tale character to the overall plot. Cress comes to a nice stopping point, but the adventure will continue into future book(s) as the plan to thwart the conquer of Earth by Queen Levana continues...

NARRATOR - Good job, but nothing special.

OVERALL - Recommended for listeners of all ages -- a great story for family listening.

Wonderful!

Would you consider the audio edition of Cress to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the print version yet, but I loved the audio. The different voices are excellent.

What did you like best about this story?

Impossible to say. It was fast-paced, engaging, funny and touching.

What does Rebecca Soler bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her voices are really good (much better than in Scarlet, whose voice in book 2 drove me nuts because it seemed inconsistent). You know who is speaking just from the voice Soler uses, and she has excellent timing.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me chuckle a few times, and I almost ran out and got the print copy just to have it. I've listened to parts of it again since I enjoyed it so much.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to the last in the quartet!

Unlikely heroes forced into an unwanted adventure

I loved Cinder, couldn't relate to Scarlet as well and found her character a bit two dimensional, but Cress was just so much fun. In this story the characters grow and find more inner strength and courage than they knew they had. (Except Scarlet, she's just bad tempered, and easily angered, and her anger has no degrees or subtleties it's just on full blast or off. When it's off she can be nice, but her character never seems to have much depth.)

Overall, a fun ride. Cress is my favorite book in this series so far.

amazing

Very good. It had a slow part in the middle, but after that i was engulfed in the story. Every ending of the page kept you wanting to read the next one. The narrator did a great job portraying each charector. The only reason it was a little difficult to get through was because of the length of the book, it did end up taking me about a week and a half. I would say that you need to get through the slow part and after that it will be worth it.

Good progress on the story

This one I enjoyed heaps more than the 2nd book because I appreciated the titular character. Cress had such tragic and traumatic things happen to her, and I loved that she has remained strong, capable and bright even with that.

Even how Thorne was written here was pretty good. Both him and Cress show that being heroic is trying to do the right thing, no matter how hard.

Sometimes the narrators voice gets a bit too shrill. Also, there's very little differentiation in the voices. Much of it has to do with how the female characters voices are bot unique in the writing, but the performance doesnt help.