Prodigy (Marie Lu novel)

Prodigy

Author	Marie Lu
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Legend, the Series
Genre	Dystopian, young adult
Publisher	G. P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date	January 29, 2013
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	374
ISBN	0399256768
Preceded by	Legend
Followed by	Champion

Prodigy is a 2013 dystopian young adult novel by Marie Lu. It is the second book of a trilogy, preceded by Legend ^[1] and followed by Champion.

Plot

Prodigy begins with Day and June traveling in the military city of Las Vegas to make contact with the Patriots. Day acts like he is a drunk soldier to hide his injured leg in order not to blow his cover; June acts as his consort. When they arrive in Vegas they are shocked by an announcement from the Republic government that the supreme leader, the Elector Primo, has died. According to regulation, the Elector's successor, in this case his son Anden, immediately assumes office without a period of mourning.

They are discovered by the Patriot rebel Kaede and brought to the office of a high ranking Republic officer, Agent DeSoto, who leads the Patriots under the name Razor. The two use their statuses as celebrities to work out a deal with the Patriots: in exchange for helping to find Day's younger brother Eden, fixing Day's severely injured leg, and migrating to the Eastern Colonies of America, Day and June agree will aid the Patriots in assassinating the new Elector.

June is taken to a Vegas airship hub, wherein she is discovered on purpose by a team of Republic officers, led by her former friend Thomas, whom she despises as he murdered her brother Metias. Day, after having his leg fixed, is sent to the northern warfront city of Lamar. Before they part, Day gives June a ring that he has fashioned out of paperclips.

June is handcuffed and questioned by Thomas. June realizes that Metias loved Thomas, although this relationship was forbidden as they served in the military together. This only inflates her fury at Thomas for the murder. June requests to be taken to the new Elector, as part of the Patriots' plan, but she disguises the request by saying she has important information for him.

Kaede shows Day a series of tunnels running under the warfront between the Republic and the Colonies. Day also gets a glimpse of the world outside the Republic, as Republic citizens live lives sheltered by their country's lies. Much of the world is underwater, due to a shift in the sun that saw the South Pole melt away. The major world superpowers are Africa, China, and Antarctica. The Republic is viewed as a heavily militarized secretive aggressive state.

June is taken to the capital city of Denver, a snow-covered city protected by a large shield war known as the Armor. There, she meets the new Elector, Anden, and is surprised by how different he is from his late father. Anden faces heavy opposition from the Republic Senate, who wish to maintain their control over the nation. June informs him of an assassination plot, a decoy to gain his trust, and works to do just that so that she can lead the Elector into the real assassination location.

June eventually manages to convince the Elector that the decoy assassination is real, and receives a pardon from the Republic. As she spends more time with Anden she realizes how different he is from his father and the power-hungry Senate and how he wishes to change the nation. She also notices that he is falling for her, a fact which becomes obvious after he kisses her. Anden wishes to remove the Trial system that divides the nation and also make the Republic a better place. June begins to have doubts, and attempts to send a signal to Day to stop the assassination attempt.

Anden tells June about how the Republic began and how its intentions were good in the early years. Global flooding submerged most of the Eastern United States under water, and anarchy reigned as thousands fled into the west. The Republic was formed by the military to establish order, and the Easterners were blocked off. Soon, though, the military gained too much power and the Trials, originally optional and fair, became mandatory, biased, and were used as a means of population control as all who failed were killed. Anden wants to change the Republic and bring it back to the way it used to be. June is further convinced that Anden is not a threat and repeats her signal to Day.

Day, meanwhile, is sent on a mission by the Patriots to make a fake attack on a train to provide proof that there was in fact an assassination attempt. Day makes himself known to soldiers to feed the rumor amongst the people that he lives. He has mixed feelings about June's warning signal–how far does he mean for her to go? After seeing Anden and June's kiss on camera (audio was unfortunately removed) he suspects she might only want him to stop because she is in love with Anden.

While Day is jealous of Anden, Tess is jealous of June. Day protected her while she was on the streets for years and has been influenced by a Patriot Runner named Baxter that June is a double agent. Tess's feelings for Day only make the tension between the two even worse. The two argue and never fully resolve their issues, but Tess forgives Day.

Day finds a train carriage where a young boy is contained in a large glass enclosure. At first Day thinks the boy is his younger brother Eden, but he is wrong. He figures out that the Republic is using victims of the mutated plague as biological warfare against the Colonies. When Republic soldiers begin approaching Day is forced to abandon the boy, but swears that he will kill Anden.

The day of the assassination arrives and June decides that she must prevent the assassination. June, who has been ill, pretends to faint, but against the orders of the Elector, Commander DeSoto (Razor) orders the car to continue along the assassination route.

June makes an appearance and stops the assassination, forcing her and Day, only just reunited, to flee. They make their way to one of the tunnels that connects the Colonies and the Republic. They destroy the Republic entrance and make shelter in a bunker.

June and Day have a fierce fight. Day tells June he is jealous of her relationship with Anden, annoyed that she forced him to separate from the Patriots, and angry because a part of him still holds her responsible for his mother's and his brother's deaths. He also thinks June is still on the Republic's side. June argued, but nothing she says changes his mind and they seek peace a bit away from each other. In an attempt to soften him, June teaches him to fight. It works and they forgive each other, but June grows very ill.

Day carries June to the other end of the tunnel and out into the Colonies. The Colonies city they emerge into is much like they dreamed, an enormous shining metropolis. However, they realize that it is not as perfect as they thought, and that the Colonies is a heavily consumer dominated, corporate police state.

They are taken to a hospital, and Day is ousted due to his being a celebrity. Day discovers that Kaede has come through to the Colonies as well. As June dreams and works it out for herself, Day is informed that the leader of the Patriots, Razor, is in fact working for the Republic. The Republic Senate, angry with the new Elector's changes, wished to remove the Elector, and used Razor to do so. However, Anden survived, and many Patriots were arrested.

June passes out at the hospital in Tribune City, Colonies of America. Later when she wakes up, she is captured by Colonies soldiers, June is handcuffed to a bed and she manages to escape from the cuffs using the paperclip ring. Kaede, June, and Day escape from Colonies soldiers who wish to sell them to a military company as prisoners of war. Kaede, a former Colonies pilot, takes them to a jet, and flies to the Republic.

Kaede maneuvers the jet through a train tunnel in the great Armor wall and the trio crash in Denver, though Kaede does not survive the gunfire that follows. It is obvious that something is amok, and they realize that the Elector is losing control while the Senate sits back and lets the Republic fall as the public revolt.

Day climbs to the top of the Capitol building (the same building Anden is in) and wins over the Republic by telling them he supports the new Elector.

In the aftermath, most of the Senate is arrested, and the military is shaken by the removal and arrest of many high-ranking officials. Day is reunited with his younger brother Eden. But he is also informed by a doctor that the experiments done by the Republic when he was younger have left him with an illness that will imminently kill him.

June is asked by the Elector to become his Princeps, the leader of the Senate and his second in command. She wishes to deny as she would never see Day, but Day informs her that she should take the position, and that a relationship between them would be impossible, leaving out the truth that he is dying. June is confused and upset, but Day doesn't want her to have to deal with the pain of his death. He kisses an agonized June before he leaves.

Characters

• June Iparis, a fifteen-year-old prodigy who scored a perfect 1500 on her Trial, the Republic's mandatory test system. Born into an elite Republic family, her parents were mysteriously killed in a car crash, leaving Metias, her older brother, to care for her. When Metias is murdered and Day is the prime suspect, June sets out to find him but ends up falling in love with Day. Her first encounter with Day was a ruse to find out his true identity, only seeking revenge for her brother's death. She's very analytical and smart, able to keenly survive on the streets, and a bit of an uptight person. She has long, dark brown hair usually tied back in a high ponytail. She has dark brown eyes with golden flecks in them.
• Daniel 'Day' Altan Wing, a fifteen-year-old prodigy born in the slums of the Republic. Day is the Republic's most-wanted criminal and the prime suspect of Metias's murder. He is a mix between Mongolian/White with long, light blond hair and bright blue eyes. He has a limp in his left leg and an "imperfection" (a lighter patch of blue) in one eye from when the Republic experimented on him. Day is described as being extremely agile, even more so than June. He, like June, is confident and stubborn. He also scored a perfect 1500 during his Trial, but was lied to from the Republic, being told he scored 674 (44%). In Prodigy, Day has his injured leg replaced by a mostly metal prosthesis, and he also discovers that he has a terminal illness.
• Metias Iparis, June's older brother, who was killed early in the previous novel. He was murdered by Thomas, who was acting on orders from Commander Jameson. He was twenty-seven when he died, and had dark hair and eyes like June. Metias was a brilliant hacker who turned away from the Republic after making several shocking discoveries.
• Thomas, Metias's old friend who acted like he was in love with June (and tries to kiss her) and has a special hatred against Day. It is later indicated that Thomas was Metias's murderer. June comes to believe that her brother was in love with Thomas, but does not know if the feeling was reciprocated.
• Eden Bataar Wing, Day's younger brother who caught a mutated version of the plague. In Prodigy, Eden to be used as a biological weapon. The new Elector releases Eden and is no longer required to take the Trial, but he has lost his sight.
• John Suren Wing, Day's older brother who was killed at the end of Legend by the Republic's firing squad in a sacrifice to save both Day and June.
• Commander Jameson, June's hard-core commander and sort of another parent to June, being that June's brother and parents are dead. In Prodigy it is revealed that Jameson was working with the head of the Patriots to remove the new Elector.
• Tess, Day's thirteen-year-old partner in crime and caretaker. Tess was abandoned by her parents and taken in by Day when she was only ten. She goes missing after Day is taken into custody by June but is later discovered to have joined the Patriots. In Prodigy, Tess is working to become a Medic. Tess also has a crush on Day, and her jealousy and suspicion of June add tension to her relationship with Day, who views her more as a sibling than someone he could be interested in romantically.
• Chian, Los Angeles's head Trial administrator. He administered June's and Day's Trial and used to be Metias's mentor.
• Kaede, A Patriot known to be involved in 'Skiz' fights. She helps Day and June escape the Republic after June pays her a large sum of money. It is revealed Kaede was a Colonies fighter pilot who was let go after harming an abusive peer. She insists she's in it for the money, but at points implies she just wants unity in North America. She is shot and killed upon crashing a Colonies jet into Denver.
• Ollie, June's loyal white shepherd dog who helps coax her through the tragic period of Metias' death. Thomas uses Ollie to search for June in Prodigy, and at the end of the story she is reunited with him.
• Senator Kamion, A Senator in the Republic government who opposes the new Elector.
• Anden Stavropoulos, After the death of his father, Anden became the new Elector, the head of the Republic. However, Anden's positions on many policies differed vastly from his father, and the Republic Senate sought to have him removed. It is shown that he is romantically interested in June.
• Baxter, A Patriot Runner who bullies Day because he trusts June. He was also thought to have some relationship with Tess, but ended it after Day and Baxter had a fight.
• Pascao, The undisputed leader of the Patriot Runners.
• Dr. Sadhwani, She performs the lie detector test on June, which she narrowly passed.
• Commander Andrew "Razor" DeSoto, Leader of the Patriots, but also a former Republic soldier. Razor instrumented a plan to remove the Elector Anden for the Republic Senate, whereupon he would be made the new Elector.

Critical reception

The novel has been warmly received by critics. In The Los Angeles Times, Sara Scribner wrote, "Marie Lu has beaten the curse with 'Prodigy,' the second book in the 'Legend' series...Unlike 'The Hunger Games,' which delivers its adrenaline rush by giving kids bows and arrows, this series' power is derived through its layered atmospheres and the way its characters reflect and fight their worlds — and one another. With 'Prodigy,' Lu proves that a Book Two needn't play second fiddle, providing intrigue and deep pleasure all its own."^[2] The trade publication Publishers Weekly gave Prodigy a starred review. "June and Day were once divided by ignorance and circumstance; now they are held apart by principle and choice. The portrayal of their dilemma is taut and insightful, and while the story line resembles a high plateau of tension rather than a conventional arc, there are enough unfolding questions to propel the narrative to its aching ending." ^[3] Kirkus Reviews also gave the novel a favorable review, writing that "The pathos of Day and June's erstwhile romance shines through without detracting from the tension of their rebellion; both riveting action and entertaining characterization keep their quest engaging." ^[4] Legend also went to number two on the The New York Times Best Seller list, underneath The Fault in Our Stars.^[5]

References

External links

• The Los Angeles Times on Prodigy