Crenshaw's Books & Decks

The city of Ember is the first episode of a series of four novels narrating the adventures of Lina & Doon. They are two teenagers who live in a mysterious and isolated city-state called Ember just assigned their profession at the end of their school days. They start to question whether the life in the city is good for them and become unhappy when the power outages and food shortage become increasingly frequent and they discover that the mayor is involved in some serious activities. After finding and deciphering a broken note with instructions on how to exit the city, they decide to escape. 

THE STORY
 The novel has the format of a traditional serial novel, with a lot of slow pace that builds up to the end, when the real action commences and a cliff-hanger is provided for you to hold on until next episode. I have never heard of read the original Jeanne DuPrau's novels or seen the movie, so I cannot comment on Dallas Middaugh's adaptation. However, I expected, a priori, a bit of chopping off for having done for the graphic book. Although I enjoyed the graphic novel, I felt that the story was a bit hurried at times, a bit too slow others, and a bit superficial others, especially with regards to the relationship between the characters.

Although I enjoyed the novel, I felt that the story was a bit hurried at times, a bit too slow others, and a bit superficial others, especially with regards to the relationship between the characters.  Also, I found some of the "next morning" text unnecessary, as the story itself and the images tell you that without the need to write it all the time.

The City of Ember, nevertheless, is a delightful science fiction story that is not just what it looks like. 

EXPLORING THE BOOK 

Many themes are touched in this novel and you can use the book to start a conversation with your children or with your students on different subjects. Some of the questions that came to mind were:
~~ Is it OK  to question authority?
~~ If affirmative, in which circumstances?
~~ In which way/s can a Government keep its citizens in the dark? Any examples in your country, region or the world nowadays you think of?
~~ Do you think of any circumstances when keeping somebody in the dark about something could/would  benefit them? 
~~  If you are kept in the dark, how do see what is real and what is not?
~~ Which government system does build a better society and makes individuals happier?
~~ Why do we fear a future of doom instead of dreaming of  a future where society is better?
~~ Can individuals help change society?
~~ Which things would surprise you in your daily life if you didn't take them for granted?
~~ How would you describe the things that surround you if you saw them for the first time ever?
~~ What is needed for any person to *see* the world for what it really is?

~~ Would society be better if instead of choosing our professions, the Government randomly assigned those needed and available?
~~ Would your life be different if instead of following a profession of your interest you were assigned another for life? Could you still develop your talent and qualities in any circumstances and profession disregarding which one is?  Could you still be useful or more useful to society?  Could you be happy?
~~ Do the plot, themes or characters in this book remind you of any others you have previous read?
~~ In which way does this novel relate to the Platonic allegory of the cave?  
~~ In which way is the escape of the womb of a city similar to leaving the parental home when you become an adult?

Niklas Asker is the illustrator of this graphic novel. I love his artwork. He has created an expressive world and a visual narrative that doesn't need of much text to be understood. I never take that for granted. The book feels very cinematic, the composition and arrangement of the vignettes and visual frames is varied and interesting, with interior, exterior and landscape scenes that are always appropriate and feel right to me. I especially love the indoors images as they feel warm and cozy, like a real home. The characters are very expressive as well.

The colouring by Niklas Asker & Bo Ashi is wonderful. The shadow work is amazing and very detailed, and helps tremendously to create ambience and mood. Ember is an underground city so one expects the images to be dark and lighted at the same time. This sort of colouring and lighting is always my cup of tea.

Chris Dickey's lettering is quite classic and, mostly, non-invasive. Dialogues are included in classic balloons, and narrative references in square marquees at the top or bottom of the page; the start of a chapter has a lovely broken piece of paper that mirrors the broken instructions sheet in the story. On the contrary, I didn't like the noise and ambience lettering, which was invasive, too bold, too large, and too much of a fracture. Although it has a narrative value and captures well what is happening in the scene, it is out of tune with the rest of the book's imagery.
  
THE NEXT GRAPHIC EPISODES, ARE THEY COMING  OUT ANY SOON?
There is nothing that I find more frustrating and irritating that  realising that a book I'm reading is just the first part of something that we don't know if is ever to be continued. DuPrau published the other three books in the series a while ago, so I wonder why making a graphic novel just out of the first book and not out of the whole series, or why not publishing the other volumes at a reasonable pace? Is this an ongoing project and other volumes will see the light (pun!) soonish? Or is this just an isolated graphic book that will never been continued? 

RENDERING FOR KINDLE
I am quite happy on how this graphic novel works on Kindle, the quality of graphics and colours in my tablet, and the fact that the size of the downloadable file is reasonable. There is no index in the lateral bar, something that I don't see why not and that could be easily fixed in the electronic edition.  


MIND
This graphic book is just an abridged version on the first book of the series.  This book is mostly for mid-grade children and young teens. If you want to read the whole series you better grab the written books.