Friday, August 24, 2007

The City of Ember and The People of Sparks

I’m writing about The City of Ember and The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau together since they’re the two parts of one story. I want to thank Anji for recommending them and letting me borrow her copies. I love when people are enthusiastic enough about books to recommend them and I’m always looking for something new and interesting to read, especially when it comes complete with someone who’s already read it for discussion. I’m pretty compulsive about recommending books to people and always delighted when someone asks to borrow or picks up a book I suggested. I think it’s a pretty big complement when someone makes the effort to read a book based what you thought of it. That’s my long winded way of saying that I’m going to try to mention when someone recommended a book to me and that I always want to hear about it when someone else has read the same books I have. I guess I should add that Fingerprints of the Gods was both recommended and lent to me by Jenny, so thanks to her too.

The City of Ember is a dystopian young adult novel. I’m a huge fan of the dystopian genre and City of Ember is just the sort of thing I love. The story is about two children, Lina and Doon, who live in a city that is lit entirely by electric lights. Thing are getting scary in Ember because there have been blackouts due to problems with the generator and the stock of light bulbs is dwindling along with the other supplies. Lina finds a mysterious torn letter and asks Doon to help her figure out what it means. They interpret the letter and make some very startling discoveries. *I’m going to go ahead and spoil the ending here and talk about the plot of the sequel so don’t continue if you don’t want to know.*

They find out that Ember was built to be a temporary hiding place for a group of people chosen to ensure that the human race continues in the event of a “Disaster.” After 200 years the mayor was supposed to lead the people back above ground, but a corrupt mayor stole the box containing the critical information. They escape through the river and drop a message to let the remaining people know how to follow through a hole above the city.

The People of Sparks picks up right where The City of Ember leaves off, with Lina and Doon waiting to see if the note that they dropped was found and if anyone was able to escape. They are soon joined by those who were brave enough to leave and survived the journey through the river. The citizens of Ember walk until they find a small village called Sparks which has only recently begun to prosper following the Disaster that occurred 200 years ago. The inhabitants are reluctant to allow the refugees to stay as they already have a difficult time providing for themselves, but they do not feel that they can send them away to starve. Over time resentment grows between the two groups and Doon must attempt to avert all out war between the two groups.

I enjoyed The City of Ember tremendously, but was less enthusiastic about The People of Sparks. The City of Ember is very dark and the central mystery of who these people are and where they are is interesting and leads to a satisfying conclusion. At the beginning I thought I was in for an Anthem style, people being forced to do assigned jobs with no regard for their wishes, for the good of all, screw the individual type of book. However it quickly proved to be a much more complex comment on the folly of man and abuse of power. There are some coincidences that strained my suspension of disbelief a little, but all in all it’s very well written. The People of Sparks is not as dark and much more heavy handed. I often felt that I was being beaten over the head with an anti war sledgehammer. It was very reminiscent of Wesley’s “If drugs are bad then why do people take them?” scene from Star Trek TNG. War and prejudice are bad, I get it! I was also disappointed that there was no resolution for the question of Lina’s dreams of a grand city, which had been teased from the first book. Perhaps it represents the city they might build some day or the grandeur that was lost due to war, I really don’t know.

I’m interested to see how The City of Ember works as a movie. They’ve got a pretty impressive cast signed up. Who knows, I might even go see it.

No comments: