Wires and Nerve

In her first graphic novel, Marissa Meyer extends the world of the Lunar Chronicles with a brand-new, action-packed story about Iko, the android with a heart of (mechanized) gold. When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers’ leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity. With appearances by Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Winter and the rest of the Rampion Crew, this is a must-have for fans of the bestselling series.

I don’t think it is possible for me to get enough of the Lunar Chronicles. I just adore these women and their politically complex world. It’s like Meyer’s mission with this series was to take the idea of the one special snowflake girl and smash it to pieces. It’s like a snow storm in the Alps.

It’s weird now, having read Wires and Nerve, that it had never occurred to me that the series felt somewhat incomplete without a story written from Iko’s point of view.

Of course that needed to happen.

(Like the best writers, Meyer knows what I need before I even think of it).

This story has everything a fan of the Lunar Chronicles could possibly want – a new romance, Cinder kicking ass at the whole queen thing (with Iko and some new friends coaxing her into more queenly attire than her beloved overalls) and plenty of time spent on the Rampion with Cress and Thorne (as well as an interesting look at Thorne’s life pre-criminal mastermind phase). It was so easy to slip back into the world and immerse yourself in the dynamics of these characters.

(Lunar Chronicles re-read, anyone? I think I might have to).

There were two really interesting elements in Wires and Nerve that I’m particularly excited to see Meyer expand on as the series continues. One was Iko admitting her desire to be human, and the other, the villains of the story: the wolf hybrids.

It becomes apparent early on that in all the stories told on Earth and Luna of the now mythic takedown of the evil Queen Levana, Iko is missing. Whereas the other members of the Rampion crew are famous and in one case, queen, Iko’s role has been dismissed by the people. We get the feeling as the reader that this has served as the catalyst for Iko’s sort of ingrained self-hatred (although it feels weird to call it that since Iko has always presented as such a joyful character). She has been deeply invested in so many human experiences – loss, love, war, success, failure – and yet by people’s attitudes toward her excluded from them. Meyer explores this through Iko’s relationship with her love interest, Kinney, a guy determined to see her as nothing more than a simple robot. I love how Iko’s presence causes Kinney in particular, but also everyone who encounters her, honestly, to question what humanity really is, and whether only people who are officially ‘human’ can have it.

Speaking of complexity, I find Meyer’s approach to the new villains, the wolf-hybrids created by Queen Levana, to be super interesting. While, as the reader, we’re theoretically against them (they want to hurt Cinder! WTF?! GET THEM!), their anger and complete distrust of a government that turned them into terrifying mutants and (in their view) refuses to turn them back makes total sense. Though their actions and appearance are certainly monstrous, it’s hard to consider them monsters. They are really more the victims of the story than the villains.

My only issue is that I have to wait a year for volume 2.

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?