The Prophet of Yonwood

The Book of Ember is quite a lovely imagining.

This one goes back in time and fills in some of the world, but I did not find it as well done.
I did not feel as connected to the characters or the story. It seemed not quite real even when set in a more real world. There was so much potential, too - a bit of cultish behavior, some interesting science, political upheaval, etc.

You don't have to read this one to enjoy the rest of the series.

I gave The Prophet of Yonwood a 2 star rating because it really didn't have any impact on the other Ember books. Being a prequel I expected something to be about the City of Ember before the last few pages. This was not the case. If you love the other three City of Ember books this one is simply not needed nor has impact at all on the story.

This book managed to make the first two books seem completely pointless. The first books in this series were great and fun stories but this story makes you realize there was a very stupid reason for the first two books to even have happened.

SPOILER

Basically the author couldn't figure out a way to explain how the city ended up being kept away from the outside world. She attempts to explain it by making some prophet tell everyone to make a city underground. The town goes along with the crazy prophet and BOOM. The city of ember is born.

The author shouldn't have written this prequel and instead let the readers wonder about how the city came to be.

By far, this is the worst of the first three Books of Ember. It's far too political. It has almost nothing to do with the previous two books of the series and therefore can easily be skipped. It's a prequel to the events of [b:The City of Ember 307791 The City of Ember (Books of Ember, #1) Jeanne DuPrau http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298499778s/307791.jpg 2285229] but it's almost completely unnecessary in my opinion.