The Lunar Chronicles Boxed Set: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Fairest, Winter

This series is great so I bought the hard cover books, while I was reading them I noticed it kept going back to pages I already read! Then I noticed that I’m missing pages and the pages that I am missing as filled with pages from previous chapters! I’m hoping this was just a printing flaw in the series I received because it is very annoying that I can not finish the series with out skipping pages! Like in my picture it shows I’m reading 738 then the next page is 707...

We gave my daughter this box set as a gift. She just recently finished Winter, the last book in the series, and discovered a bunch of out of order and missing pages towards the back! One of the other books had pages that were cut off at the top! It’s way too late to return this item now. So disappointed for her. She loves this author. These books were fine at the library. Looks like I’ll be contacting the manufacturer.

It's delivered yesterday. Awful condition. Books and book box damaged. Terrible.

My wife recommended this set to me and I could not put it down. As soon as I finished one, I had to start the other. Marissa Meyer is extremely good at character development and her writing style makes understanding her new worlds and characters enjoyable rather than long winded. This series is one of my new favorites. Thanks

The books were in great condition and of course are an amazing read. The box was ripped underneath but I didn't take a star off because the quality of the book was still perfect and the series is one of my favorite. Other reviewers had problems with the Box being ripped like I did so I I don't know what's going on with that but they do need to take care of it because an otherwise really great book is getting not-so-great reviews because of the packaging.

I'm not a sci-fi fan, so I was apprehensive about starting this series; I had also never read a fairy tale retelling. Boy am I glad I took a chance on this. This just might be my new favorite series. Initially I read this series in paperback, but I liked it so much I wanted to own the hardcover edition as well...that's saying something. My favorites were Cress, Fairest, and Winter.

This is one of the books that I saw on display at my local library and completely judged the book by it's cover. I didn't know what it was about, but it looked interesting and I put it on my mental TBR list. Many years later, I finally got a chance to read it (and the rest of the series.) This book was completely worth the wait. As a fan of fairytale retellings, like Beastly by Alex Flinn, I had high hopes for this book. It gave the reader wonderful little homages to the classic fairytale, while weaving the story through a world and characters all its own.

The world building in this novel, while not expansive was wonderfully done. As a reader, I could imagine Cinder meandering down the dingy, packed streets of New Beijing while Kai fretted over his father in the ornate, sprawling palace. There were a number of important characters and none of them were overlooked. You were able to learn about their personalities, histories, or relationships in a way that gave each depth.

Such a great series and it only gets better as you continue to read. Recommended for anyone who liked YA, romance, fairytales, sci-fi, or good books.

Any book that has a slight hint at Disney, I am game! I bought this series having read nothing about it. A blind purchase if you will because the artwork on the covers are so eye catching. To my surprise and utter joy, this series had something of everything I love.

Set in a world where World War IV is a distant memory, you are thrown into a reality that could rival Star Wars! Androids, spacecraft and life on the distant moon that we all look a each night, is brought to fruition. This series has it all! A dreamy Prince whom all adore. A despicable Queen that everyone loathes. A lost Princess that no one expects. A daring Captain with a dashing smile. A fun loving android with a love for fashion and so much more! While the story unfolds, be sure to keep your wits about you. The people of Luna have magnificent but cruel gifts of illusion and manipulation. Allowing them to make you see what they want you to see, or even use your mind against you and snatch your will from your grasp. You may never know who is friend or foe.

Do yourself a favor and read The Lunar Chronicles. You'll find yourself smiling at the reminders of childhood characters mixed with modern day spunk! This is definitely a piece of work that was hard to put down. One of those that you can't stop reading but you are dreading when it ends.

Got this for my daughter who read the whole series through the library but wanted a nice collector's type set that was hers. This was just what she wanted and she was thrilled to get this as a gift. The day she got it, she disappeared for hours re-reading the first book. She has re-read three of them already now. So good purchase for the Lunar Chronicle Series lover in your life.

I love fairy tale adaptations, whether they're just fleshing out the original story (Robin McKinley's "Beauty") or spinning the bare concept off in a totally different direction (the anime "Pretear").

And Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series is actually quite clever in its dystopian/futuristic-steampunk reimagining of the most famous fairy tales, in particular those of Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. While they cleave to the barest storyline of the fairy tale, Meyer weaves in plenty of original plotting that gives the books their own distinct flavors -- conspiracies, brewing warfare, a plague and secret identities. In short, she allows the epic story to stand on its own two feet... or rather, one foot of its own and one robot foot.

Linh "Cinder" is a cyborg, a second-class citizen in the plague-riddled city of New Beijing, who toils away as a mechanic for her cruel stepmother Adri. But her life changes when crown prince Kai secretly hires her to repair an old robot for him, even as New Beijing prepares for the arrival of the cruel, powerful Lunar queen Levana. As Kai tries to find a way to avoid marrying Levana to avert a war, Cinder discovers that she is immune to the terrible plague sweeping Asia -- and begins to figure out her long-forgotten past, and how important she may be to Earth's future.

When her grandmother goes missing, "Scarlet" Benoit finds that nobody (including the French police) is willing to actually look for her. Her only ally seems to be a savage but oddly naive street fighter named Wolf -- and he turns out to have a connection to the people who kidnapped Scarlet's grandmother. As she tries to dodge the brutal terrorists known as the Pack, Scarlet must figure out the terrible secret her grandmother has been keeping all these years... and whether she can really trust Wolf.

"Cress" Darnell is a Lunar shell, trapped on a remote satellite between Earth and Luna, where she has spent the last seven years alone. Her only visitor is the cruel thaumaturge Sybil, and her only comfort is her crush on the Earthen outlaw, Carswell Thorne. Then Thorne -- and his allies Scarlet and Cinder -- contact her and offer a rescue, but Sybil disrupts the plan and scatters the crew of the Rampion. Now Cress must not only save her wounded love, but take part in a war that the Earth may not be able to win.

Levana's stepdaughter "Winter" is lost in an icy web of hallucinations, due to being unwilling to use her Lunar gifts. The only one who shows her kindness is her old friend Jacin -- and when Jacin is commanded to kill her, he instead helps Winter escape her stepmother's wrath. With the help of Scarlet and Cress, Winter is able to join forces with Cinder and her friends -- only to be infected by a mutated form of the letumosis plague. Will she finally be able to revolt against her evil stepmother, now that the revolution is underway?

And many years before the events of the series, "Fairest" shows us how Levana evolved into the monstrous monarch who ruled Luna with an iron fist. A lonely girl tormented by her older sister and mocked by the court, Levana found herself in a position of power when her sadistic sister died. But her longing and power for love warped Levana as she pursued the only man she wanted, and the throne she believed would make her happy.

To be honest, "science fiction versions of fairy tales" sounds like a one-trick pony -- lesser authors would probably just stick a few sci-fi things onto the existing plot and let it otherwise play out the same way as the original fairy tale. But part of the appeal of the Lunar Chronicles is that Marissa Meyer only takes a few elements of the fairy tales in her story (Winter's apple, Cress' hair, Scarlet's grandmother, Cinder's "glass slipper" leg), and reweaves them into a new epic tale of her own creation.

And she comes up with a very strong futuristic world, exploring different continents that have been changed by future technology while still maintaining their distinct cultural flavor. Her prose is strong and swift, full of delicate detailwork (the hallucinations of ice and death that constantly haunt poor Winter) and the odd funny moment (Carswell's roguish antics, including his penchant for "borrowing" things). And she winds together the new story of each successive book neatly into the story of Cinder, adding new characters even as she expands the scope of the plot.

She also has a brilliant knack for writing well-developed, distinct characters -- obviously the downtrodden, increasingly confident Linh Cinder is the heroine of the overall story, but each following story features a new heroine (and a new love story) with the feisty, fiery Scarlet, the lonely and naive Cress, and the fragile scarred Winter. Each one has her own story, woven with Cinder's. And the love interests are no less interesting or varied, be it the responsible and intelligent Kai, the roguish outlaw Carswell, and particularly Wolf, a gentle, rather naive boy with a spookily bestial side. Even Levana is beautifully explored -- not because she's sympathetic, but because she's identifiable while still being increasingly loathsome.

The only flaw with this boxed set is the perplexing absence of the short-story collection "Stars Above." While this collection is not essential to understanding the rest of the series, it is a part of that series -- and it contains both backstory for the characters, and a capstone to the storyline.

Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series is a richly-imagined, well-developed sci-fi series that never lets its fairy tale roots keep it from telling Meyer's own epic, romantic, exciting story. Definitely one for those who like their fairy tales with a bit of revolution.