The City of Ember (The City of Ember Book 1)

I love this book series. The concept is outside the box for a dystopian universe. The characters a well Developed for the age range of this book. It’s easy to read and understand .

I remember reading this book in middle school .I am now 25 years old and I enjoyed this book even more then I did back then . its very easy to read if you aren't good at reading great story line too !

Engaging story for the genre. Had higher expectations for character development.

The City of Ember is a rule-bound place, where all the lights go out at 9 each night, everyone rises early for breakfast, and careful recycling is a way of life. Lately, though, the lights have begun flickering. Supplies are shorter each year, and some foods are no longer available. Until their 12th year, the children of the City of Ember go to school. But at the end of that year, they are assigned the jobs they will do for years after, perhaps to the end of their lives. Lina yearns to be a Messenger, running free in the streets, learning the secrets of the city. Doon wants desperately to be an electrician's assistant or a pipeworker, because he dreams of fixing the ancient, failing generators of the city. When each receives the assignment the other wants, they switch jobs, and begin a conspiracy that will not end until they learn how to save the entire city. Along the way, they solve an ancient puzzle, defeat the greed and subterfuge of the Mayor and his minions, and discover a much wider world than either had ever dreamed existed. When I read children's literature, I look for more than a tale well told. Juvenile science fiction is not hard to come by, especially today in the age of Harry Potter. But fiction that lauds heroism (particularly the kind of courage which every child will have an opportunity to demonstrate), extolls the value of friendship, and shows when adult precepts and rules are worthwhile, and how to tell when they are not - that is uncommon. (Those qualities form the foundation of the Harry Potter stories, too, and explain the widespread appeal of the boy wizard and his friends.) The City of Ember has that same appeal. Doon and Lina are courageous; they do things children would do, yet also show judgement, persistence and intelligence. These are kids who love their parents, and still see that they must take extraordinary steps outside the regimented life they have led. In the end, they do save their city, and if they do not battle great evil, they do encounter and overcome the kind of petty nastiness that is far more common in the world. On Kindle, the book loses none of its original charm, with the possible exception of the maps and notes. Where these extend across the page, they are difficult to enjoy, even in Zoom mode. The book works best in tandem with its sequel, The People of Sparks: The Second Book of Ember (Books of Ember) . Together, they are an interesting story - even for an adult. I recommend it highly for boys and girls who want something better than comic-book heroes and video-game battles, and for readers who are no longer children, but still yearn toward the hero we can each become.

My classroom loved the book and it was a great way to learn about electricity in our integrated science unit! 😊

Item as described, fast delivery good price, seller AAAAA +, thx

I had seen the movie on cable not long ago, so bought the Kindle version of the book to see if it added any more world-enrichment, character development, or backstory, as I expected the movie had had to leave out quite a bit. In that hope, I was disappointed. The book adds little to the movie, the movie being quite true to the book, but in the book the logical world-building problems stand out more vividly. There were many points in the book where I was taken out of the story completely by the ridiculous problems of improbabilities and impossibilities in the creation of the city of Ember itself. Hard-wired electrical only? Really? No batteries? Batteries are a very old idea. No concept of fire as a light source or how to sustain a fire? These people are isolated and ignorant, certainly, but in the book they were presented as being incredibly stupid. I really felt the author had not done sufficient research into what would be needed to sustain and power an underground city of this type. That doesn't mean the nut-and-bolts of the science need to be spelled out in the story, but the author thinking them through and figuring out what works and what can't work are critical to having believability. Where did fresh air come from? How did other things not fall through that painfully convenient, easy-to-find hole in the roof? Being a book aimed at children doesn't mean it ought to be exempt from making sense. If anything, it ought to hold to higher standards. Young readers should not be treated as if they're stupid. That said, the basic scenario is intriguing, though not particularly original. The isolated population who has forgotten, or never knew, its origin is a very old tale done many times better than this. Just the original Star Trek episode from the 1960s, "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," does this same 'Ember' scenario much better and more believably in a one-hour episode. The main character is compelling and is the strongest feature in the story. A few of the peripheral characters are also interesting. But this is one of those rare cases where the movie really is better than the book.

My son and I read this every night before bed, I was as captivated as him! Great early reading book!