Review in PortugueseLegend é uma trilogia que me surpreendeu positivamente.Apesar das suas paginas cheias de acção (coisa que não costumo apreciar em livros)acabei esta distopia com um sentimento de satisfação.Dos 3 livros, Legend (o primeiro) é de longe o meu favorito por se focar mais na construção da relação entre as duas personagens e nos seus problemas pessoais e menos em toda a politica envolvida nos dois livros seguintes.Prodigy foi aquele que menos gostei pelo factor acção. Como já referi não sou fã de enredos cheios de "BOOMS" e "BAAMS" sendo que Prodigy é um livro cheio de explosões. Porém este livro tem como positivo o factor surpresa. Damos por nos sem sabem em quem acreditar ou em quem confiar.Quanto a Champion devo confessar que achei o primeiro terço do livro bastante lento, até aborrecido. Nesta parte do livro não acontece nada que realmente contribua para a historia. Porém após essa fase mais lenta não tenho nada de mal a apontar ao capitulo final da trilogia. Tem acção na quantidade suficiente e um final feliz o que vem contradizer outras trilogias do género.Resumindo gostei bastante deste livros. Pessoalmente não parei até ter lido os três livros! Gostei também do facto desta historia ter sido contado sob dois pontos de vista que no inicio são completamente opostos.Concluído aconselho; uma boa leitura para o Verão bastante leve e viciaaante!PS: Só eu é que achei estranho estas personagens agirem como agem apenas com 15 anos? Disclaimer: This review is long. As in, the 2,000 words kind of long. You have been warned. Also, the following review is technically a “joint review” of all three books in the Legend trilogy, so I'll post it here and under the boxed set.First off, I’m really not a fan of a lot of books in the YA genre. Especially, especially, especially the dystopian subgenre. I’ve read The Hunger Games, Divergent, Delirium, Variant (the first one), Ashfall, and Maze Runner trilogies, as well as the Gone series by Michael Grant. If the 54 Animorphs books count, then there's that, too. Out of those, only The Hunger Games, Ashfall, and the Gone series were worth it. (Animorphs, too.) The Divergent and Delirium trilogies were some of the worst books I’d ever read, particularly Delirium, which is odd considering that Lauren Oliver’s “Before I Fall” was an amazing book on so many levels. But, for the most part, the YA dystopian subgenre falls flat. So enter Legend.I started the first book last year, and then gave up before Day and June met and set it aside for many months. Then, a good friend who’s a critic dilettante of the dystopian subgenre sent me a letter (yes, some people actually still use snail mail) with a list of book recommendations—The Book Thief, The Phantom Tollbooth, Enclave, etc. And then. .there was “Legend.” Had it been anyone else, I would’ve turned down the recommendation, but this was an exception, so on February 14th, I pulled out my copy and, somewhat grudgingly, got back into it. I finished the first book that same day. I started “Prodigy” on the 15th, finished it the next day, and devoured “Champion” in less than 36 hours. All I can say now is “Wow.” Really, where do I begin? There’s an amazing, intricate plot that, while loosely based on the “revolution-rises-up-against-tyrannical/diabolical-government/scheme” plot found in most books of its kind, creates something organic and original, complete with a very real cast of characters that aren’t difficult to empathize with—not sympathize, mind you, but empathize; there is a difference. So let’s start off by briefly looking at the characters.We’re first introduced to Day with the sentence “My mother thinks I’m dead.” Thus enters Daniel Alton Wing, a 15-year old revolutionary who’s ostensibly failed the Trials and now lives on the streets, focused solely on destroying the Republic. His hatred towards the government that ruined his family’s lives, killing his older brother, mother, and father, and then throwing him out on the street and experimenting on both him and Eden, is so powerful that it’s his main driving force throughout the trilogy. Up to the very end, the memory of what the Republic has done continues to influence him and affects June. Day’s a fiercely protective teenager who’s got a way with girls—though none are like June, as he reflects on in the final book—but he’s also quite arrogant. While some might say it’s more an attitude of bitterness he’s fostering, I say it’s arrogance: the way he calls the Senators and other higher-ups “trots” and his constant attitude that blinds him to seeing clearly is nothing short of arrogance, not unlike the Republic officials. I like this because it’s made clear that it’s not the “rich” or the “poor” that have attitude problems; instead, we all are arrogant. However, Day is a very believable, layered character that has his share of weaknesses—and man, they’re weaknesses. That said, I much preferred June, which is not the author’s fault in any way whatsoever. I merely found June more likable and I was rooting for her throughout the series.So let’s move on to June Iparis, Republic Prodigy. While I had trouble getting used to June at first (more on that later), it didn’t take long for me to rapidly get won over by her. Her internal struggles as she wavered between her lifelong loyalty to the Republic and the new evidence she unearthed, her relationship with Day and Metias, and then Anden, (I’ll get to Metias shortly), and her general badassery and ultra-alertness was absolutely wonderful. I found myself looking forward to reading the June sections far more than Day’s, probably because June had this well-rounded view of the Republic and the struggles between the various entities. She somehow managed to remain level-headed, logical, and empathetic throughout the entire series, all while never losing her uncanny ability to absorb in the minutest of details, and for that, she won my heart. If I had any doubts in the first book, she made up for it in the end, with so many raw scenes so real and vivid I could clearly see an all-too-real picture in my mind. Moments include when Thomas revealed the truth about what happened on the night of Metias’s death (more about Thomas in a bit, as with Metias) and after Commander Jameson shot Day and June thought he was going to die. Oh. My. Goodness. Even though the trilogy is set in a future dissimilar from our current society, there were many relatable moments that I was able to connect with that made June this amazing character.Now, for Metias. For a character that dies at the start of the first book, I was impressed at how his legacy and essence was carried out throughout the rest of the series—and not just trite flashbacks, but something seemingly more tangible than that, letting us get to know this character who was dead and gone. His relationship with Thomas was one of the best subthemes (if I can use that term) of the series, and I was glad that we got closure and that night didn’t go down with only Thomas and Metias. While I’m not opposed to deliberately ambiguous novels, there are times where I feel like I just have to know, such as with this. And when Thomas stabbed Metias. .wow. This leads directly into some of the moral issues in the series, which will be my next point.Any good novel doesn’t just set down an obvious good guy vs. the clearly bad guy. That’s for mythology and bad soap operas. And in the Legend trilogy, more often than not, it’s not made clear—ever—what’s right and what’s wrong. (Though, it’s always nice to have evil personified in at least one character, like Commander Jameson. I mean, wow. Can you say chilling, much? Her cold, unbreakable demeanor. .even up to when she died. Impressive. But on to the moral issues.) Was Thomas justified in killing Metias? Probably not, but his undying, almost fanatical devotion to the Republic at least explained why he did what he did. No character made me feel more conflicted than Thomas, because he didn’t try to actively excuse what he did, at least not until the end. But even then, although June never explicitly forgave him, he still gave up his life for the Republic, remaining loyal to the end. If there was such a thing as faith, Thomas exemplified it in a way that’s not often depicted in literature. And while he probably could have run away with Metias—for God’s sake, Metias bloody loved Thomas—it’s at the least understandable why he did what he did. His loyalty was to the Republic, and yet he honored Metias’s selfless last wish: to not hurt June. And for that, he earned my respect.Of course, the Metias/Thomas plot wasn’t the only moral dilemma at all. I’m clearly not going to cover them all, but one of the most striking ones was whether or not it was right to potentially kill Eden in order to save the lives of all the Republic’s citizens. Yes, it would seem that avoiding a major war was a good enough reason to experiment on Eden. .but was it really? After everything the Republic had done to Day, did it make sense to put him through more torture again and possibly kill his only remaining immediate family member? Anden had good reason to want Eden; it wasn’t as if he was being completely selfish—but he was. Day had good reason to want Eden to stay safe; it wasn’t as if he was being completely selfish either—but he was. And that was what made them human.One final aspect I’d like to look at in regards to the plot is the struggle portrayed in the three books. In many dystopian novels, it’s the resistance vs. a tyrannical/diabolical power figure. While not always a government, there’s almost always a group body that’s putting the protagonist and his/her cohorts through hell. While the Legend trilogy has this a tyrannical government. .what makes it different is that ultimately it’s not Day, June, and the rebels vs. the Republic. By the end, the Republic must join together and fight the Colonies in an attempt to unify everyone. I cannot express how pleased I was to see this development in the final book of the trilogy. Kudos to the author.And now, finally, I’ll briefly look at the style the book was written in. I was somewhat hoping that we’d have a YA dystopian novel that’s not in the 1st person and/or present tense, but it delivered. The sense of immediacy and the unmistakable personal feel worked out much better than in some novels. (Let’s not talk about how horrible the alternating POVs in Allegiant was—all right, actually, let’s. Tobias sounded exactly like Tris, so if I left off in the middle of a chapter, I’d pick it up and not be able to tell who was narrating. NO. NO. If you’re going to do it, do it right. Please.) While Day and June sounded somewhat similar in the first book, their voices grew distinct and more unique as Ms. Lu got into her character’s heads, I believe. For a good part of the first book, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to like Day and that this book would read very much like the abominable “Delirium” series. Frankly, I can’t place a finger on it, but there’s just a style of writing that’s found in Veronica Roth, Lauren Oliver, and—for a short while—even Maria Lu’s works. They’re all in the first person present, and each features a female protagonist that somehow has this annoying style that makes me grit my teeth. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it reads very clean, very artificial and perfect. I find it more so in Delirium than Divergent, but it’s in all of them, and it’s very annoying. Fortunately, June’s voice took a turn for the better as the series progressed—though there was one chapter in one of the books (I think it’s the second) when the author went overboard with June’s observations. The amount of parentheses used hurt my eyes. That aside, what helped keep Day and June separate was the fact that Day was more likely to use words like “gonna” and “wanna” as well as street slang (“trot” and “goddy.”) However, I feel like, for being a street boy, Day’s language was too refined at times. Sure, he scored 1500 on the Trials, but I doubt he’d be as literate as the author made him out to be at times. But, besides a few minor qualms, I found the two voices to be distinct enough so that I wouldn’t have an Allegiant repeat.And now I come to the close of my lengthy review. We’ve got an intricate, complex plot. Layered, 3D characters. Powerful prose. Great action. Amazing covers (at least the last two books; Legend’s cover was very dull, but the others are some of my favorite book covers). What’s not to enjoy? Yes, there were a few issues I had with the book—but then again, when don’t I?) I’m going to give the first book 4/5, and the other two 5/5, which, for me, is very rare. (If there had been a 10-star rating system, the first book would’ve gotten 8.5/10, and the other two 9/10). Only Gatsby, Alaska Young, and Nick and Amy Dunne have so far been able to climb so high, so it’s time to add two new characters to such a level. Because honestly, I was impressed. Really, really impressed. And that’s saying a lot coming from the teenager who despises a good chunk of YA literature.Ms. Lu, +1,000,000.
What do You think about Legend Trilogy Boxed Set (2013)?
Good series even better with the short story. A very good and emotional ending.
—bri
Almost 4 stars but not quite there for me. How about 3.75.
—aron
