American independent booksellers recently voted 2012’s “dazzling dozen” novels by first time authors and named a novel based in ‘New Beijing’ one of the top 12. “Cinder: Book one in the Lunar Chronicles” by Marissa Meyer was recently announced to be one of the final 12 of the “new voices”. The novel, which is based on the tale of Cinderella, describes a world in which “humans and androids live side by side in on the dense tumultuous streets of New Beijing” where a plague has taken control of the population. Cinder, “a cyborg complete with a wicked stepmother, a mysterious past, and a part in an intergalactic struggle” is the protagonist of the story and bears some resemblance to the original Cinderella, with a modern twist. Meyer, 27, who has a degree in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University claims she got her inspiration for the novel after taking part in a writing competition in 2008 which involved writing a futuristic retelling of fairytale “Puss and Boots”, and from this, got the idea for rewriting fairy tales into new versions with a futuristic twist. Currently, Meyer doesn’t have any plans for a change of career path and claims that she “very happy to be a full-time writer for a little bit” after the huge success of her first novel.
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