Marie Lu

It also raises the question of how the next generation inherits this broken system.

Arnona includes Marie Lu's Warcross to demonstrate how cyberpunk tropes adapt into the young adult space.

Warcross centers on a global virtual reality game that has completely consumed the culture.

The protagonist, Emika, is a teenager surviving by working as a virtual bounty hunter.

Well, let's examine two established authors who are doing exactly that, bravely dropping standalone novels on the exact same day the Maas behemoth arrives in stores.

It is an incredibly bold scheduling maneuver, but both Marie Lu and Ann Leong possess the specific kind of established track records and distinct authorial voices to justify holding their ground on that date.

Yeah.

Let's begin with Marie Lu's new release, Mortal Things, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This is a young adult standalone novel, which immediately sets it apart from the massive ongoing adult series we've been discussing, and the premise is so incredibly sharp and distinct.

It really is.

So to harvest that energy, they are forced to hire human agents called Harbingers.

Our protagonist, Roselyn Fairchild, is the Harbinger employed by Raven, who happens to be the god of death.

It is about a young person realizing they have to dismantle the establishment to uncover the truth.

And speaking of dismantling the establishment in YA fantasy, let's look at the immense ethical stakes in Mortal Things by Marie Lu, also releasing October 27th.

Marie Lu is an incredibly versatile established writer.

She's known for crafting deeply immersive and high-stakes worlds.

This book mixes mortal and immortal worlds.

I think it's dual narration and I just, I need that vibe to come alive and be an actual thing and not something I've just made up in my head.

The next book is Mortal Things by Marie Lu.

I believe Marie Lu is the person who wrote Legend, Red City.

I'm hoping it's that same Marie Lu because I've heard incredible things about that book, those books.

I've never read them, but I've heard great things.

This comes out on the 29th of October and is 368 pages long.

I think those adaptations are almost perfect.

Um, but I, this is like in a more, I guess, contemporary context, one of the better, um, book to movie adaptations especially because like this genre was such a big deal when we were like after The Hunger Games and I kind of talked about this last episode but there's like kind of this uh race to try and replicate what The Hunger Games was able to do through a lot of those other books whether it's Divergent or The Maze Runner or Legend by Marie Lu I was partial to Delirium that series was like really got me but like All of those film adaptations, and not all of them got film adaptations, but The Maze Runner and Divergent certainly did.

And, like, they don't come close to this.

I also don't think those books come close to this, but that's just a personal preference, I guess.

read the full Bladed Self trilogy.

Another book that Cass is not going to be reading, even though she read the first one, but I absolutely love is Silver Dawn by Marie Lu.

This is the second book to Red City.

I really like the Red City a lot.

Yeah.

By Marie Lu.

Check it out, people.

[laughs]