The Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu is a dystopian novel set in a futuristic world where the United States has been divided into two countries: The Republic and The Colonies. Overall, the writing of the story is very simple and easy to understand. It lacks complexity but it is well written. The plot is easy to follow and the main characters are well developed. However, the side characters and "villains" are not as well written. As the story progresses and gains more characters, the simplistic writing format affects the story telling since, the new characters seem flat, forgettable and disposable. The story does not lack villains. Instead of fully developing a threat to the heroes, Lu offers way too many villains that are interchangeable and not threatening at all. Furthermore, the romance, one of the main plots of the trilogy, feels rushed and way too convenient at times. The main characters, Day and June, change their belief systems based on the love they have for each other that has developed way too quickly. By the time the author realizes and tries to fix this instant love and devotion, it feels too late. However, all of these conflicts are not so major that they make the book unreadable. They can be attributed to the author's "greenness" and like other debut stories can be ignored in order to enjoy the story she's trying to tell. I was able to ignore these in order to continue with the story. My major problem with this trilogy is that it can feel very familiar. The characters and plot points are very similar to other dystopian series like "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent". Even the conflicts in story writing and development is similar to those in other dystopian series. The similarities can be distracting and cause the reader to get bored with the story, especially if the reader has read more sophisticated and complex dystopian stories than the Legend trilogy.
Overall, the series do not lack creativity but development. Therefore, in my opinion, as the author gains experience, her writing will get better and so will her stories. I would recommend the trilogy to young readers since they will be able to enjoy and appreciate it more than seasoned readers. I would also recommend it to older readers who have not read a lot of dystopian work since they won't be able to see the similarities between it and other books in the genre and hence will be able to enjoy it without it being predictable, comparing it and/or getting bored.
A More In Depth Review
***SPOILER ALERT***
"Legend" is the first book in the series. The beginning of the book is well written and the main character's, June and Day, have a likeable and interesting introduction. Day's chapters are a little more interesting than June's but not by much. However, as the story progresses, the reader will be able to notice some conflicts. First of all, June and Day act way out of character when their relationship is concerned. June is a trained soldier that acts too innocent and feeling oriented when making decisions, especially when they involve Day. She renounces her government and beliefs way too easily for a boy she has just met! On the other hand, Day has been living on the streets for many years and has therefore, been forced to grow way too early and should not have trusted June so easily. Furthermore, even after her betrayal, he still loves and trusts her. It is hard to believe that a person would forgive so easily, especially since their meeting and love is so fresh. The reader and author may attribute these discrepancies to their young age but it still feels wrong and awkward. After all, teenagers often hold grudges for far stupidest things than causing the death of your family.
In "Prodigy", the conflicts with the antagonists start. In the first book, Lu established and started to develop an enemy that had the power of becoming a formidable foe: The Republic and its Elector. However, in "Prodigy" she discards the Elector in order to establish a new possible villain, his son Anden. Anden's intention are not as obvious as the previous elector and therefore its introduction becomes a tool for Lu in order to insert more complexity to her story by introducing a morally ambiguous character. However, this intentions fail spectacularly when it becomes obvious very early in the story that Anden's intentions are pure and the Patriot's leaders are the true new villains of the story. In my opinion, if Lu had written Anden as a more mysterious and cold character, the story would have been far more interesting. Furthermore, the beginning of the book is extremely slow. It's not until Day and June reunite that the story's pace quickens and thus, it becomes more interesting. As I said before, the similarities between the series and other Utopian stories made it very predictable, less exciting and slow to get captivated by it. The reader has too read way too much boring exposition and uninteresting predictable plot in order to get to an interesting finale.
The antagonist conflict of the series gets even worse in the third and final installment, "Champion". Once again, the author has discarded the "villains" of the second book in order to try to introduce a new one: The Colonies and its Chancellor. This rapid introduction and discard of villains affects the development of the story in the sense that the reader never gets to feel the emotions an antagonist are supposed to evoke. None of the villains are developed enough for the reader to feel genuinely afraid for the heroes faith and the future of the Republic. Commander Jameson is the most developed antagonist of the story since she is a main villain in all of the three books but even then she is a plain a flat character that conveniently appears when the plot requires the heroes to be in trouble. She is almost like "Swiper", the fox on "Dora the Explorer", in the sense that she is an Easter egg villain that appears out of nowhere and then you forget about her until she appears again. The saving grace of the book is the scene of "Day's death" where the author finally manages to portray to the audience the terror and urgency of the world she has created. "Champion" also somewhat fixes the instant love and unconditional devotion of the first two books by exploring Day's hesitation to loving and being with someone who is partially responsible for his mother and brother's death.
Comments