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68 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Perhaps this should have been a stand alone book, June 21, 2006
This is not The City of Ember, nor is it The People of Sparks, both brilliantly inventive novels. At the end, I wondered why it was included in the "Ember" series, because very little in the book actually tied directly into the other two. I didn't read this with the sense of urgency that I read the other Ember books with, and I believe wholeheartedly that if this had been the first Ember book written, The City of Ember would not have reached the large audience that it did, or been properly recognized as a work of creative genius. This is the problem with writing prequels after the fact: the reader already knows the outcome, and unless you can tell one heck of a story that gives added insight into what is coming next, then the prequel shouldn't be written. What might have made this story more compelling would have been to take the entire book, shorten it dramatically, make it the first 1/4 to 1/3 of the book, and have the last part of the book tell the story of the actual settling of Ember after the U.S. and the Phalanx Nations (odd name, that) bombed the dickens out of each other. THAT would have grabbed my attention, and made for interesting reading. We know that Ember was peopled, but we don't know how that first generation coped with losing the wind and the sky, so to speak, and those are enormous losses unless you're a mole and prefer living underground. Or, for that matter, devote maybe three chapters to events leading up to the mass bombing, have the bombing occur, then have 9/10 of the book devoted to the settling of Ember. Forget the prophet. Give the prophet her own book (which this could easily have done simply by excising the final chapter). As a stand alone book, this does have merit. There are far too many groups/people who are more than willing to follow others, no matter how whacked their ideas might be. And these ideas, which became rules, were insane. No singing, no dogs... For crying out loud, no dogs? And people went along with this? Are they insane? Good question. Is it insanity or just a need to be told what to do? They need someone in some form of authority (it isn't difficult to analogize `the prophet' to any number of people alive and breathing today throughout the world) capable of making people believe it; they follow without question, and with conviction. I enjoyed the cautionary elements of the story. People believing that there is a terrorist in the woods just because they see something a little off is hysterical - and far too often true. People see what they want to believe, or what others tell them to believe. So an albino bear becomes a terrorist, and everyone's afraid of the woods. As a cautionary tale this book works extremely well. *Extremely* well. As a book to be included in the Ember series, it fell short. As it's an "Ember book", it needs to be judged as an "Ember book", so instead of a higher rating, three is the best it can get. From me at least.
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good on themes, story and style are not as polished as other two books, June 6, 2006
My kids and I enjoyed the first two "Books of Ember" very much. The important themes of each story (community, environment, war) were integrated almost seamlessly with the narrative. We liked this one as well, but found there to be a number of "dead spots" in the story that made it more difficult to get through. If I had to guess I would say that this story was likely written first, but the City of Ember was published first because of the more compelling and novel premise of an underground city. The writing style flows less well and it is not as tightly written as the other two. On the other hand, the thematic dimensions of this story, if anything, are broader than those of the other two. In both of the other stories the overarching concern was with how an individual can make a difference to events that are happening around her. Here, the question really is what the individual can do in the face of events she is powerless to prevent. This is when people often turn either to faith or despair, and in that context this book deals very well with themes of religion and sacrifice and of tolerance or dogmatism. The fact that no one was "evil" but that their actions could be harmful provided a good opportunity for me and my children to discuss the nature of "evil." (My kids are old enough, also, to see the obvious parallels between the situation depicted in the story and the contemporary situation of the United States, and that led to other important discussions.) Strongly recommended for fans of the other two novels -- which I would recommend reading first even though this one comes first chronologically.
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I paid $17 for this?, August 10, 2006
A Kid's Review
I was in Borders, in a rush, saw The Prophet of Yonwood on the shelf, saw it was a prequel to The City Of Ember and The People of Sparks-both of which I love, and bought it. I didn't even read the inside to even see what it was about. Even after I got into the car and saw the cheesy list on the inside-"Keep Greenhaven, fall in love, help the world"-I had faith in Jeanne Duprau that she would write a great story. I hate to say she let me down, but she did. The Prophet of Yonwood starts out interesting-at least, the prolouge is. But it goes steadily down hill from there. Althea Tower, a resident in the small town of Yonwood, has a vision of Armageddon. With a war coming up, people think her senseless mutterings that began after her vision are ways to protect them from the war. But in the end, all they end up doing is making the whole town miserable, yet they still believe they are doing the right thing. An 11 year old girl named Nickie moves to with her aunt to sell her great-granfather's old house, and Nickie gets caught up in events. I waited the whole book for some mentioning of Ember, but it didn't happen until the last 5 pages, and then only briefly. This book had no action in it. Nothing happened. I got really excited because I thought there was going to be a war in the book, but there was nothing. Nothing. No description of bombings, fights, etc...I'm normally not a violent person, but after reading about Nickie moaning and groaning and talking and basically doing nothing for 100 pages, I was dying for something to happen. A lot of the extra things Jeanne Duprau put in the story didn't help the overall part of the plot at all. The last 5 pages were probably the most interesting part, but by then I was so let down by the whole book that I didn't really care. When I had finished the book, the only thing I could think was, "I paid 17 dollars for this?" Don't waste your money on this book. Wait until it comes out in softcover if you must have it, but if you don't really, REALLY want it, get it at the library. For everyone's sake, I hope the author's next book will be better.
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