The proposed alliance is through Emperor Kai marrying Queen Levana, however, Emperor Kai wants to thwart this plan by finding someone else to marry first. The Lunars have the ability to manipulate the bioelectricity of people around them and make them see what they want them to see and even control their thoughts and actions. There is pressure to create an alliance between the Earth countries and the Moon country, Luna, led by the tyrannical and manipulative Queen Levana. Erland, the head researcher, starts to do research on Cinder's immunity, which leads to research on Cinder's unique physiology, her cyborg implants, and eventually to Cinder's life prior to becoming a cyborg at the age of eleven, which Cinder has no memory of.Īt the same time, Prince Kai's father, Emperor Rikan, dies of the plague, resulting in the prince becoming Emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth at 18.

When Cinder is injected with the strain of letumosis, it is discovered that she is immune to the disease. In anger (Cinder's adopted father had died of letumosis as well), Linh Adri 'volunteers' Cinder for plague research, which no one survives from. Soon, Peony falls sick with letumosis after accompanying Cinder to a junkyard to collect spare parts for a repair.

Cyborgs are treated as second class citizens, so Cinder hides her identity from Kai. While working as a mechanic at the marketplace, she meets the son of the Emperor, Prince Kai, who asks her to fix Nainsi, his personal android. As a cyborg, Cinder is discriminated against and often looked down upon by others, despite building up a reputation as the best mechanic in New Beijing. Cinder is under the guardianship of her cruel adopted mother, Linh Adri, along with her two stepsisters, Linh Pearl and Linh Peony, the latter of which treats her as a close friend. Letumosis, a fatal disease started by the Lunars and nicknamed the 'Blue Fever', or 'The Plague', is raging throughout the world and a cure is unknown. Set in the futuristic city of New Beijing, when the countries of the world have re-organized to form various new empires and alliances and the Moon has been colonized, Asia is now an emperor-ruled country known as the Eastern Commonwealth. Cinder was selected as one of IndieBound's Kids' Next List for winter 2012. The story is loosely based on the classic fairytale Cinderella. It is the first book in The Lunar Chronicles and is followed by Scarlet. Print ( hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-bookĬinder is the 2012 debut young adult science fiction novel of American author Marissa Meyer, published by Macmillan Publishers through their subsidiary Feiwel & Friends.

The lunar chronicles