Champion, the third and final book in the series came out on Tuesday (and your NV library has two copies!), so you can read the whole series now--no waiting for release dates months away!What I love about Legend and Prodigy--and I'm hoping Champion will be just as amazing--is the two main characters. A young man named Day is the most-wanted criminal on the streets, famous for crimes meant to thwart The Republic, the government that took over after the United States crumbled because of environmental disasters. June, who narrates the book in alternating chapters with Day, is a highly trained solider in the Republic, and she begins the series hunting for Day--her brother's killer. These two characters feel more real to me than Tris and Four in Divergent, and I honestly care what happens to them.
I read somewhere that author Marie Lu was inspired to write this series after thinking about the premise of so she created the criminal-on-the-run character of Day to parallel Jean Valjean and the defender-of-the-law character June to parallel Javert. As far as I can tell, the parallels to Les Mis end there, but I still think Lu has created a really gripping dystopian world with original flairs.
Another cool thing about Marie Lu is her website: she posts a few examples of her early writings and her self-described mediocre poetry, there's a link to her artsy blog, and there's also a Legend-inspired game! (Note: I haven't previewed the game, so use your best judgment before playing!)
In short the verdict is: put Legend hold today!
