Books of Ember

[nella]

Whose read the books of Ember? What'd you think of them?

The City of Ember: Great read! I think this one was my favorite. The characters, conflict, and all that worked together well. The author does a good job of building suspense up to the climax of the story. It had an excellent moral tone. As far as I recall, their wasn't any objectionable content or anything. Then again, it has been a while since I read them.

The People of Sparks: This one was good too, but a little monotonous. However, it wasn't by any means a let down from the previous book. I couldn't put this one down. This book had a lot of good instances of people who were fighting against one another finally realize that they weren't accomplishing anything, and that together they could do something.

The Prophet of Yonwood: I just finished this one yesterday. I'm trying to figure out what I think about the whole Prophet thing. The conflict did have a great resolution, and that was my comfort. If the Prophet had been real, people reading the book would get the impression that Christianity was a strict, legalistically based religeon. While it isn't quite established that the opposite is true, it still comes through clearly that the Prophet wasn't really speaking through God.

~Nella

[Geberia]

I have never even heard of the series. What is the general plot?

[nella]

*Spoiler Warning* I tried to take some out, but they are still there.

Modified version of Amazon's The City of Ember summary: It is always night in the city of Ember. But there is no moon, no stars. The only light during the regular twelve hours of "day" comes from floodlamps that cast a yellowish glow over the streets of the city. Beyond are the pitch-black Unknown Regions, which no one has ever explored because an understanding of fire and electricity has been lost, and with it the idea of a Moveable Light. "Besides," they tell each other, "there is nowhere but here" Among the many other things the people of Ember have forgotten is their past and a direction for their future. For 250 years they have lived pleasantly, because there has been plenty of everything in the vast storerooms. But now there are more and more empty shelves--and more and more times when the lights flicker and go out, leaving them in terrifying blackness for long minutes. What will happen when the generator finally fails?

Twelve-year-old Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet seem to be the only people who are worried. They have just been assigned their life jobs--Lina as a messenger, which leads her to knowledge of some unsettling secrets, and Doon as a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city where a river roars through the darkness. But when Lina finds a very old paper with enigmatic "Instructions for Egress," they use the advantages of their jobs to begin to puzzle out the frightening and dangerous way to the city of light of which Lina has dreamed. As they set out on their mission, the haunting setting and breathless action of this stunning first novel will have teens clamoring for a sequel.

Modified version of Amazon's The People of Sparks summary: When teenagers Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow lead their people up out of the Earth, fleeing their dying underground city of Ember, everything is new and a little frightening to the refugees--the sun and the moon, birds, trees, fire…and the people of Ember are strange to the 322 citizens of Sparks, one of the few towns on Earth to survive the time of The Disaster. How can they feed and house the 400 Emberites, the leaders of Sparks wonder, when they have just begun to be able to feed themselves comfortably? But if they don’t, these underground people with no survival skills will surely die in the wastelands. They take them in as best they can, but grumbling and bad feeling grows on both sides. Lina has seen the devastation left by The Disaster, and so she risks a brave move of reconciliation.

In this exciting and solidly constructed sequel to The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau moves the story on entrancingly, bringing along her cast of characters from underground and adding new dimensions and relationships as the action escalates to a satisfying conclusion that still allows for further volumes in this fine fantasy.

Modified from Amazon's Prophet of Yonwood summary: In this prequel to The City of Ember (2003) and The People of Sparks (2004, both Random), 11-year-old Nickie accompanies her aunt to Yonwood, NC, to help get her great-grandfather's house ready to be sold. Months earlier, a woman in the community named Althea Tower had a vision and collapsed, muttering about fire and disaster. The townspeople interpreted it as a premonition of events since war between the U.S. and the Phalanx Nations is eminent. Althea is hailed as a Prophet and an ambitious Mrs. Beeson appoints herself Althea's interpreter. Soon she's urging everyone to give up sinful things like singing. The townspeople believe that by being virtuous they will build a shield of goodness around themselves and not be harmed. Nickie eventually confronts the Prophet to demand the truth behind her pronouncements. This novel has a great deal of immediacy in light of current world events. It sharply brings home the idea of people blindly following a belief without questioning it. However, it's really more of a stand-alone title. The plot details that tie it and Ember together are only revealed in the last chapter, entitled What Happened Afterward.

~Nella

[Geberia]

Hmm....intresting. Are the books supposed to have any kind of spiritual theme? For instance, I can see some things in the summary that may be considered alligorial to the Christian life ( I;m not exactly sure of all these big words I'm writing lol).

[nella]

There is no clear Christian plot. I am not sure the author is a Christian.