The City of Ember

DuPrau, J. (2003). The city of ember. A Yearling Book. 270 pages. ISBN 9780375822742

Primary genre: science fiction

Other elements: survival, coming of age, friendship, family,

Intended reader age: 8 and up

Synopsis:

The City of Ember was created to ensure human survival in the wake an event that had the ability to destroy the world. To safeguard against the residents leaving the city before the correct time, time the Creators hid instructions of escape. These instructions were not to be accessed for at least 200 hundred years. But, they went missing. As the city begins to fail it is luck that Lina Mayfleet comes across these instructions. But there are almost completely incomprehensible. Will Lina and Doon be able to solve the mystery and save their community before the city is completely thrown into darkness?

Review:

This post apocalyptic story follows a trend similar to The Hunger Games and The Giver. At the age of 12 citizens are indoctrinated into the adult world and given their job assignment. Although The Hunger Games did not have these 12 years necessarily starting jobs they became eligible for selection in the games, almost indicating their ability to survive on their own. Unlike The Giver the society of Ember does not take the time to watch these budding adults to find the ‘perfect’ fit, the students draw from a bag with possible jobs.

I read this when it first came out and I did the whole ‘suspension of disbelief’ for that first reading. This time, though, I did question the inability of the residents to figure out their situation after 200 years. The book does address the attempts of some of those people to fix their living situation, most of which centered on finding a way to make moveable light sources. Its not like these residents had to learn what electricity was and find ways to make it happen. The ‘Creators’ set them up in a city with electricity in place, but they spent their 200 years doing small fixes on the problems that cropped up. At least the story was consistent with Doon, who was absolutely sure that his tinkering’s with small appliances qualified him to fix the generator. That wake up call he had when standing before the generator lent a great deal to humanizing the character. But, I digress, the residents knew how to start fires (they had stoves) but they could not find a way to move the fire to explore the outer reaches? I think not. Yes, these elements gave the main characters the chance they needed to find out the truth but, as I said, not really believable.

This is the first in a four part series. The other three books are: The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, and The Diamond of Darkhold. I found it interesting that this series did not follow that ‘traditional’ SciFi trilogy sequence, with the prequel being the fourth book. In this series the third book is the prequel and the fourth is a continuation of the original story line. There was a movie made for The City of Ember but it did not do very well, although now I feel inclined to watch it again. 

Movie Poster