By Jeanne Duprau
Back to the Post-apocalyptic stories. This is a young adult (ages 9-12) book series that for the most part I found to be engaging. It pulled me right into the world.
How the world ended: four wars three plagues. We learn this in the 2nd book. The world ended in the late 21st century.
I'll quickly cover each book separately.
1st the Emberits don't even know they have been underground for past 250ish years. Really? Come on? They are now almost out of supplies and the struggle of what to do is looming. Their hydroelectric generator is failing and without it they will be plunged into darkness. Who put them there? Who built everything? They only known it was done by the builders.
Doon and Lina, two of the almost teenagers in the story find a way out of Ember. This in an interesting society. All kids are assigned jobs at 12. It is three years before they can change. The city has most of comforts of modern society. Electricity. Running water.
2nd book. The action moves to the topside. We meet, surprise surprise, the people of the town of Sparks. They live in a post-disaster society. There are roamers who scavenge from left over cities. No electricity, running water. Mostly agrarian. Friction between the 400 Emberites and 300 Sparks. Fighting about food. Work out differences and come together by the end.
4th book. A few pages are left from a book that is titled "Instructions for the people of Ember." Bought by Doon, it indicates that there was something left for the Emberites when they exited the city. So Doon an Lina head back to Ember. The town is dark. Or is it? The Troog family, a group of roamers, has set up camp living in the abandoned city. The father shows Doon a diamond he found outside the top entrance to the cave. We later learn that the diamonds are a type of solar cell that can be used for electricity. The book would have been a book of detailed knowledge on how to recreate the world that has ended.
The 3rd book? Yeah skip it. It is billed as a prequel but is it? It sort of has a brief connection to the other books. There are two items that connect it to the tale of Ember. It was a quick semi-interesting read. Well, seeing that you could read all four books in probably three afternoons you might as well read this one as well.
Of all the PA books I've read this one really has a positive ending for humanity. It did a nice job showing how humanity might survive after the apocalypse. Using leftover items, creating new, trying to figure out what was left and how it was used.
An interesting tidbit that takes a while to explain is that above ground there are songs passed down that tell of hidden treasure below the cities. What is it? It's the Emberites! Something else that lets you know this was geared towards younger children was no mention of alcohol or smoking. There is talk of bandits but no killings.
The first book has been made into a movie. I haven't seen it but you might give it a shot.
The books (except for the third) read as one continuous story. Sure, if you stop and think about it there are quite a few problems with the initial scenario in the first book which doesn't really get resolved in the later books. I'm still bothered how no one has figured out how that they are underground. I guess the vitamin D deficiency is explained by their taking vitamins? I don't know. If you don't look to deeply into the books and accept the story as is I think you'll like these.
