For a sneak peek, view the trailer at: Reviewed by : JF. Readers will want to follow Lina and Doon in the sequels, The People of Sparksand The Diamond of Darkhold, and read the prequel, The Prophet of Yonwood.Īnd viewers, take note: the movie version, City of Ember, starring Tim Robbins and Bill Murray, is due out in October, 2008. Can two mere children figure out how to save Ember before the lights fail for good?Īsk your children to contemplate what it would be like to live in a place where such things as cars, computers, air conditioning, oceans, trees, and the sun were unknown. Ember is running out of all the supplies that has kept it running for 241 years, with only darkness beyond it in the Unknown Regions. It's a frightening and dangerous job, but Doon, looking for the chance to do something to help his city, wants to learn all about the generator that powers everything. In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city. Doon becomes a pipeworks laborer working in the tunnels that contain Ember's water and sewer pipes, down by the underground river. ![]() Lina becomes a messenger, delivering spoken messages for people in the city. When this year's two dozen twelve-year-old graduating classmates are assigned their lifetime jobs, two of them, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, secretly switch their assignments. Whenever the lights go out, the city is plunged into terrifying darkness. The city is old, and everything, including the power lines, needs repair. The electric lights come on every morning at six, and go out every night at nine. It isn't a complex story, but I found the politics of greed horribly fascinating, laid out for me in simple language, that I couldn't fail to understand.In the City of Ember in year 241, the sky is always dark. Survival turns out to be ajoint thing.But it isn't easy. The point is, it doesn't really work if you simply try to save yourself. Possessions couldn't save him - how could he have forgotten that? What was he thinking? If he still had light bulbs when everyone else in Ember had run out, would he enjoy sitting in his lit room while the rest of the city drowned in darkness? And when the power finally ran out for good, all his light bulbs would be useless. She thought of his great stack of light bulbs and shook her head in bewilderment. ![]() But something else is bothering Lina too: She thought about the mayor, down in his room full of plunder, gorging on peaches and asparagus and wrapping his huge body in elegant new clothes. Blackouts are becoming frequent.and won't there come a moment when the lights go out and simply never come on again? It frightens Lina. Light bulbs are scarce, and the generator is a bit ropey. The tinned pineapple gave out a long time ago. When Lina's granny was young the bulging storerooms were such a splendid sight that schoolchildren were taken on tours of inspection. In deep vaults below the city vast storerooms were built which stocked everything the people of the city might need: food, clothes, tools, stationery. The City of Ember was built centuries ago to protect the last of the human race from extinction. That's what this story is about, literally. What will you do, when the supermarket is empty and you're about to be left standing in the dark, cold and hungry? Will you be one of the angry mob, standing around waiting for someone to tell you what to do next? Will you be one of the last greedy ones, busy stockpiling for yourself up to the last minute? It won't help of course, you'll still starve in the end.Or will you be off the starting block trying to sort something out for everyone, to make the world a better place again? There is very little left on the shelves. Now the bad news:the supermarket is running low on stock. ![]() Try this.Here's somegood news: think of the world as a well-stocked supermarket. Do you worry about how quickly the rich countries of the world are gobbling up all the natural resources?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |