The Prophet of Yonwood (2006)

Didn't like it as much as the other ones. It kind of lacked the same style, and you didn't get to care for the characters as much as you did for Lina and Doon, and the people of Ember and Sparks.
Took me longer to finish it, since I wasn't happy reading it and just wanted to skip it to go for "The Diamond of Darkhold" and get back to the story. ( )

The third volume in the Ember series is a prequel, though nominally so: We learn at the end what protagonist Nickie's relationship is to Ember, and the terms for Lina's visions of the magnificent city are set by the Prophet's vision and subsequent speculations about nearby parallel universes. Other than that, the novel is reasonably self-contained, and other than a few pages at the end that fast-forward to the Ember period, it could stand alone. I would argue that it should have been allowed to do so; a prequel that's thematically related but has a separate plot is a much more interesting proposition. However, I'm not the target audience, and I can't say whether I'd have liked a prequel that separated when I was 8-12 years old.

As in [b:The People of Sparks|3467|The People of Sparks (The Ember Series, #2) |Jeanne DuPrau|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1163789085s/3467.jpg|2529035], here we see well-intentioned but rigid people make things worse and inadvertently threaten their community while attempting to protect it. ( )

I haven't been much of a fan of the other books in the Ember series; as far as children's books go, they're okay. However, even for children's books I find them too simplistic and the characters too stereotypical. The same holds true for The Prophet of Yonwood. I was able to get through this book, because it wasn't Nickie that bothered me; it was all the adults. I know that children's books often put adults in the background, which can seem strange, but I hate it when they make the adults look stupid and clueless. I couldn't believe that the village followed Brenda Beeson, when she was obviously discriminating against people and taking control of the town. To some extent, this would have been believable, but most everyone followed this lady's every word. To put it simply, it drove me crazy.

The Prophet of Yonwood is the prequel to the Ember series, before the City of Ember has been created. A woman named Althea sees the apocalyptic future and pretty much goes crazy. As she rants, the villagers take her words as what they need to do to prevent doomsday. This includes a bunch of restrictions such as no dancing and no music that eventually escalates into there being a restriction against having dogs. Nickie takes things into her own hands at that point and tries to both get her dog back and understand why the prophet Althea would forbid dogs.

Like I said, the characters were all stereotypical and the adults were simply stupid. They were sheep being herded around by Brenda's crazy proclamations. Nickie's aunt is clueless throughout the entire novel, to the point where she doesn't even realize that another person and a dog is living in her house for quite some time. I also thought the ending was a bit too glossed-over happy. It ends with Nickie being an old woman going down into the city of Ember. No mention of her kids, which I was curious about. And there's only one reason (and not a very good one, I think) that is mentioned for why she is allowed to go to the city. As an old woman, and since they have limited supplies and room, I wanted there to be some sort of special reason Nickie is allowed into the city -- some sort of area of expertise or something. But none of that information was given.

The narration was average. While I didn't hate the audiobook, I don't feel like Baker truly brought it to life. She did the normal things like change voices for each character, which I admit was well done, but other than that, there was nothing outstanding about the narration. Like the previous book, The People of Sparks, this one had sound effects, and I disliked them for the most part. At times they enhanced the story, but they were mostly distracting.

If you're reaching for books to get your kid to read, and they seem to like dystopias, I think this series would be appropriate. It's at an easy reading level, and kids might enjoy it a little bit more. However, I don't think that it's a timeless children classic or even a good children's series. It's okay. Adults might not get much enjoyment out of it, although I will admit that the previous two novels are much better than this book. ( )

Enjoyable tale In the run up to city of ember but stands alone, great book for young people. Love the way the author makes you think about the big questions in life. ( )

This one isn't my favorite in the series. It serves as a prequel to the other two books and, like the previous two books, is a vivid look at human behavior. The ending saved this book for me. It had you almost sure that things would turn out one way, but instead, it turns out slightly different, which makes it somewhat more enjoyable. Looking forward to the fourth (and final) chapter. ( )