Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Audiobook Review

Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Audiobook ReviewCinder by Marissa Meyer
Narrator: Rebecca Soler
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Published by Macmillan Audio on January 3rd 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Fairy Tales & Folklore, General, Science Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Length: 10 hrs. 6 mins.
Source: Purchase
Goodreads
five-stars
Also by this author: Scarlet

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.
An unabridged recording (10 hours, 2 minutes).

Cinder has been getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere and I’ve had my eye on it for a while, finally deciding to pick up the audiobook. I’ve never read anything like this Sci-Fi Cinderella retelling and that appealed to me as something new and different. I’m glad I tried it because it ended up being such a fun read/listen. Cinder is the first book in a new four book series that will also feature Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and Snow White and it’s Marissa Meyer’s debut novel.

Cinder is a 16-year-old cyborg mechanic who lives in New Beijing after World War IV. She was in an accident as a kid, and saved with robotic parts, including a robotic foot that stands in for Cinderella’s iconic glass slipper. Cinder is an outsider in society, though she is known as one of the best mechanics in New Beijing. Her accident left her without a memory of her time before, and her past is a mystery waiting to be unraveled. Like the fairy tale, Cinder lives with her awful stepmother and two stepsisters, though with a twist. There is also a prince and a ball, but otherwise Cinder spins it’s own story, and there are a lot of surprises in store. Some of the challenges Cinder faces are the deadly plague that’s hit New Beijing, political unrest, family drama, and managing the attention of the young and single Prince Kai.

The heroine Cinder is my favorite part of the story. She is likable, smart and brave, and very human in spite of her robotic parts and extraordinary abilities. The other characters also added a lot to the story, both the androids and the humans. The romance with Prince Kai is refreshingly done and I can’t wait to see how it develops in future installments.

The plot moves at a swift pace, and quickly pulled me in. It was fun seeing how the Cinderella story played out in Cinder’s dystopian cyborg world.  The retelling is similar enough to the original to catch the references but with enough of a twist to keep things interesting. Even though I don’t read a ton of Sci-Fi, it was easy to follow along and I could totally envision the world that Meyer creates.

I listened to the audiobook, and narrator Rebecca Soler does a stellar job with the narration. She gives a lively reading and sounds like how I would imagine Cinder to sound. Her pacing is very good and she reads with the emotion that is called for.  She handles the different male and female voices and accents with ease, and injects Cinder’s sense of humor into the reading. I actually liked the narrator so much I downloaded another audiobook that she reads to check out. This is a good audiobook to try if you’ve ever been interested to test out the experience.

Cinder is an entertaining kickoff to the quadrilogy, and it left me excited about the series and eager to read more.  I think Cinder would appeal to fans of fairytale retellings, Sci-Fi, dystopian, and romance. The next book of The Lunar Chronicles is called Scarlet, and yes it’s about Little Red Riding Hood, though Cinder’s story also continues.  Scarlet is due out next year.

Ornament

12 thoughts on “Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Audiobook Review

  1. Good review – I enjoyed it to much!

  2. mystmusician says:

    I JUST got finished reading that this weekend and my review will be up Friday. I really liked the imagination of the author…I just wanted more background on the Lunar people! 🙂 Great review!
    PS – I had no idea Scarlet was going to be about Red Riding Hood! How exciting!

    1. Lucy says:

      Can’t wait to read your review! It will be interesting to learn more about the Lunar people. You’re right, we just got a taste of it in this book.
      Scarlet does sound good! Wish it wasn’t so far away.

  3. Fabulous review. I am so glad you liked it too. Thanks for the additional info on how the rest of the series is going to play out. I’m very interested on how Cinder’s storyline will be worked into Little Red Riding Hood’s.

    1. Lucy says:

      Thanks, Amy! I’m glad that Cinder’s story will continue in the next books. I also wonder how it will work with all of the fairy tale stories going on – it sounds like Once Upon a Time.

  4. Candice says:

    I’ve read so many reviews for this book and while they made me interested, yours actually makes me want to read it! Or listen… I do need a new audiobook for my daily drive! Something that keeps me from reading Cinder is that I thought she was supposed to be a robot. But, as you pointed out, she’s not… I guess I’m not enough of a sci-fi geek to know what a cyborg is! 🙂 Great review!

    1. Lucy says:

      I had the same concerns about the sci-fi elements of Cinder, Candice. Not sure if I wanted to read about a robot. But, Cinder is very human acting, not to worry! As a cyborg, she has biological and robotic parts. Cinder has 36% robotic parts, so is 64% human.
      I’m curious to hear what you think of the book if you decide to take a chance on it!

  5. […] narrated by Jennifer Ikeda. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, narrated by Emily Klein. Cinder by Marissa Meyer, narrated by Rebecca Soler. A Million Suns by Beth Revis, narrated by Tara […]

  6. […] Marissa Meyer – Cinder is such a breath of fresh air, so unique and fun. I loaned out my copy of Scarlet and hear […]

  7. […] 7. Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Smart, fun and endearing sci-fi fairytale. Also one of my favorite audiobooks of the year. Review […]

  8. […] Cinder by Marissa Meyer. Narrated by Rebecca Soler. From my review: (Soler’s) pacing is very good and she reads with the emotion that is called for.  She handles the different male and female voices and accents with ease, and injects Cinder’s sense of humor into the reading. I actually liked the narrator so much I downloaded another audiobook that she reads to check out. […]

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