Customer Reviews

The Prophet of Yonwood: The Third Book of Ember (Books of Ember)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you're a fan of Duprau's two Books of Ember, don't be fooled by the advertisement. The Prophet of Yonwood is not exactly a prequel, as the ads claim. Most of it was babble and nonsense and the storyline was stale and downright boring. The events in the story -- even the so-called prophecy -- do not lead the reader to a better understanding of the underground City of Ember nor does it have anything to do with it. In fact, the only thing remotely premonitory didn't occur until the epilogue.

I am glad to see that Duprau is still writing. She's a talented writer and storyteller. But aside from the misleading premise of the story, The Prophet of Yonwood did not live up to the author's standards. Hopefully she'll come out with another Book of Ember as a sequel to the second and redeem reputation.

I was extremely disappointed in this book. I only finished it because I started it and thought eventually it might get interesting. I expected to hear about how the city of Ember was built, but instead, all we know is Nickie's dad goes off to work on a "secret project", which turns out to be Ember, 50 years later. I appreciate it was written for a younger crowd, but after the other two, I expected so much more. This book would NOT inspire me to read the City of Ember or the People of Sparks, which were much more interesting books.

Like most people I read the "city of ember", the first book in the series and was hooked. The city of ember is wonderfully creative and keeps you turning pages quickly. The second book in the series "the people of sparks" is less captivating with a slower story, but still readable and enjoyable. This third book is awful. It is slow and uninteresting. There is little plot conflict to compel the reader. The characters are thinly developed. What plot does exist is often bizarre. The author has obviously run out of creative ideas. It seems to me the problem is that everyone loved the underground city sci-fi setting of the first book, but that book ends with the abandonment of the city. So the author had no room for a sequel. The author should have started this prequel with the apocalyptic end of civilization and the population of the city of ember. Then the book could have focused on the people struggling to colonize the new underground city. Perhaps that will be book number 4. If so, that may be worth reading. This slow moving thinly plotted and down right boring book that is wholly disconnected from the other 2 books should be skipped. You are missing nothing, trust me.

NOTE TO AUTHOR: HELLLOOOO, we all loved the under ground city and the sci-fi nature of book one. Get back to that QUICK or this will be your last book. I am quite sure you have disillusioned many in your original audience with this bland tome. You could easily have a long running series of books if you set them all in the city of ember.

I was disappointed in this book. I loved City of Ember and even read it aloud to my 7th graders. People of Sparks was a great book showing what happened after they left Ember. This book didn't tell me anything. I wanted to know more about what led up to Ember, but it wasn't there. Yes it showed how the world was in battle and things weren't going well, but that's about it. I kept looking for hidden clues to people in the other stories, but there just wasn't anything there. I will make sure to make this clear to my students when they want to read this book. Read it for it's own merit, but not to link to the other two books. Even then - I don't think it's a very good book. It dragged while waited for something big to happen. It never did. Too bad too.

The City of Ember and The People of Sparks depict life in "post Disaster" cities. One of the strengths of the books is the ambiguity of The Disaster that overcame Earth. The reader can speculate. Was it nuclear war or Bird Flu or bioterrorism? In The Prophet of Yonwood, DuPrau offers us a prequel, which concerns another city in crisis.

Althea Tower of Yonwood, North Carolina falls to the ground in terror as a vision of fire and destruction fills her mind. Her vision (or was it a stroke?) leaves her incapacitated allowing town busybody, Mrs. Brenda Beeson, to become her interpreter. Mrs. Beeson translates Althea's mutterings as messages from God and armed with her divine mandates, sets about to deliver the town from evil.

News of worldwide strife adds to the climate of fear as nations issue ultimatums and prepare for war. Televisions stream the news with mounting hysteria and citizens prepare for the worst.

Eleven-year-old Nickie views Yonwood as an idyllic community when she arrives with her aunt to prepare a family home for sale. Her father has been called away by his mysterious job but is sending her coded messages as to his where-abouts. She adopts a dog and meets Grover, a boy her age, who is a snake enthusiast.

As the national news becomes more intense, Mrs. Beeson's pronouncements become increasingly bizarre. Nickie is torn between her common sense and her desire to do good. When called on to make a terrible personal sacrifice, Nickie (like Lina and Doon) takes matters into her own hands to awaken the town's conscience and save its soul.

As a fan of the first two books, I was anxious to read this one. Frustratingly, aspects of the book felt like they were inserted from some other tome. Several very interesting plot elements, such as the mysterious entries in Nickie's grandfather's journals and what Hoyt McCoy saw through his telescope, remain oddly unexplained.

As a prequel, Yonwood does not directly connect the dots. The characters' links to Ember are only sketched out in the last chapter, "What Happened Afterward."

Although not nearly as compelling as her first book, DuPrau's stong storytelling and well-developed characters still leave room for the reader to fill in some of the blanks.

After mowing through the City of Ember and People of Sparks I was geared up to reading another great book in this series. However, this book is a prequel. It SHOULD NOT be the 3rd book in the series. If you are hoping to read the next adventures of Lina and Doon don't look here.

This book have very strong messages/meaning with the people of Yonwood and their belief in right and wrong. Trouble is the entire town is letting one person make dramatic decisions for them. The best I can describe it is fanatical. For the younger reader it makes you question what is right and wrong. It makes it clear towards the end, to the reader, that following right/wrong isn't black and white. You should follow your heart and what it tells you.

I felt this book was terrible and has no place in this series. The only part of this book worth being in the Ember series are the last 2 pages which explain who Nickie really is (in the big picture) and the diary found in City of Ember. The rest of this book was terrible. Nickie spent the whole book following an idiot and their idea of right and wrong. I can't even explain how terrible I felt this book was.

After purchasing the next book, Diamond of Darkhold, I quickly read the cover to see if it was the story of Lina and Doon or more garbage like this book was. Thankfully the next book is back to the characters you met from the start.

Don't read this book as part of the Ember series, you will be disappointed. Just skip it and move on to the 4th book.

THE PROPHET OF YONWOOD by Jeanne DuPrau is the third book of Ember. In this book, an eleven-year-old, Nickie comes to Yonwood, North Carolina to help her aunt sell an old mansion they've inherited. At this time rumors of war and terrorism are happening. A woman in Yonwood has visions of a terrible future, while another takes it upon herself to interprete these dreams.

I found myself comparing alot of this book to the recent terrible events in our own country. I liked how the author showed this through the eyes of a child. And the conflicts she went through wanting to be good and follow the woman's advice for the town even when it hurt those around her.

The only thing I was disappointed about was the ending. I've read the other two books of the series and wanted to know more about how the city of Ember came into existence. The author gives us only a glimpse of this in the ending chapter. Still I found this book worth my time. If anything, it shows that war and terrorism affects children too. No matter how much we shield it from them.