Product Description

Many hundreds of years ago, the city of Ember was created by the Builders to contain everything needed for human survival. It worked - but now the storerooms are almost out of food, crops are blighted, corruption is spreading through the city and worst of all - the lights are failing. Soon Ember could be engulfed by darkness-But when two children, Lina and Doon, discover fragments of an ancient parchment, they begin to wonder if there could be a way out of Ember. Can they decipher the words from long ago and find a new future for everyone? Will the people of Ember listen to them?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1293702 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From the Back Cover
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

An underground city was built to save the human race. It was to last 200 years . . . Now, that time is up . . .

Food is low. Corruption is spreading. Worse of all, the lights over the city are flickering. All that now stands between the citizens of Ember and endless darkness are two teenagers desperate to find a way out - before the lights go out for ever . . .

ESCAPE IS THE ONLY OPTION

About the Author
Jeanne Du Prau:
THE CITY OF EMBER is the debut novel from an exciting new American writer, Jeanne DuPrau. Having been a teacher, an editor and a technical writer, Jeanne DuPrau now writes full-time. She lives in California.

Customer Reviews

Very enjoyable
A great YA book. Well planned and thought out. It will have you thinking all of the way through. If you like dystopian and post-apocolyptic novels then this is one for you.

The ending is fabulous. Because it's a YA book the blurb really does say it all and revealing plot details will give a lot of the ending away. All the pieces will fall into place within the last chapter. I don't know much about the author but there was clearly a sequel in mind whilst writing as the ending leads straight into the next book.

I will read the next book at some point but not yet.

Dark, Interesting, Terrifying...
I came to (The) City of Ember from the alternate, and never much-recommended route: I saw the film first, then decided to read the book. Though not usually advisable, in this case it was a blessing...though the film certainly wasn't terrible, the book is much, much better.

The premise is simple, yet refreshingly different (no magic; no unicorns; no prophecies): a community living in a city with a sky that is "always dark", lit by fading electric lights...two children long for more than their prescribed tasks, and discover ancient fragments of paper, and try to discover the way "out" of Ember.

The story is awash with wonderful, political and literary parallels (totalitarianism; Orwell's 1984; nucleur fears), though none are ever over-stated or over-wrought. The two main characters (Doon and Lina) are perfect instigators of the quest: Lina dreams of a shining city, Doon of doing something "real" to help Ember - to stop the lights going out forever.

Page-turning, exciting and full of mystery, this is a novel teenagers and children will love. I was unable to put it down, and was powered forwards towards the resolution...and it is here that I steal back the fifth star in the rating: it felt as though DuPrau lost her verve in the final fifty pages. Things become TOO easy for the kids. Personally (though it might sound callous), I would have liked a touch of something bitter-sweet at the conclusion. Perhaps a death?

Anyway, take no notice of my nit-picking.

Very, very well recommended...after you've seen the film...

A scary view of the future?
Two children live their lives in the completely dark city of Ember. Things are going wrong: electricity keeps cutting out, goods are in short supply. What will become of the people if the lights do not come on again? Then the children find bits of instructions left by forefathers showing a way out but where to?
Makes you wonder what would happen if something,a meteorite perhaps, stopped our supplies. What would happen to us then? What if we had power cuts all the time? No petrol, no oil, how would we live? An excellent and realistic tale.