Book Review - Tony DiTerlizzi's A Hero for WondLa
A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: May 8th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)
Eva Nine thought that her search for humans had ended. That like New York City they were an ancient civilization whose time had passed. But just as she was ready to admit defeat a ship appeared in the sky and a boy walked out. A human boy. Hailey. Hailey Turner is the pilot of the Bijou and he's going to take Eva Nine to New Attica. New Attica is the hub of the Human Repopulation Project and where all the humans live in a utopic society led by their benevolent leader Cadmus Pryde. It's everything Eva Nine has been looking for, which makes her friend Rovender Kitt warn her to be wary. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. But Eva Nine is ready to embrace her new life, getting a tour of New Attica from Cadmus Pryde's own daughter, Gen. She even gets a makeover to make her more like the three Gens, aka Gen and her friends. But soon she starts to see that not everything is perfect in New Attica. What's more shocking though is finding out she has an older sister! Eva Eight was raised in Eva Nine's sanctuary by the same Muthr. Eva Eight left the Sanctuary for New Attica hoping to start a family which sadly never happened. At one point she even returned to the Sanctuary for Eva Nine, but Muthr refused her the child. But Eva Eight knew that one day Eva Nine would come to New Attica and there they would meet. And one night, in the Aviary, Eva Eight approaches her sister and tells her the dirty secrets of New Attica. The aliens held captive, Cadmus Pryde's plans for the human race to once again spread out over the globe destroying all other life. Eva Nine agrees that this isn't right. They need to flee New Attica and free the prisoners. They need to warn the world about what Cadmus Pryde has planned. Eva Nine might have just discovered the wide world around her, but it's already time for her to step up and save it.
The middle book in a trilogy is always tricky. You have to advance the plot enough to make it worthwhile but simultaneously keep the really big action for the finale. For the most part A Hero for WondLa does this nicely. We get to see Eva Nine experience interacting with humans for the first time and learning what it is to have peers. What's more we learn she has family with her radical sibling Eva Eight. But we also learn the lesson humanity has learned over and over, that supposed utopias come at a cost. That those who are "different" or "other" aren't part of this ideal society and they must be exterminated. So yes, it explores the dark human need to expand and control, colonialism and all it's evils. Which makes sense here, but at the same time I felt it was too much of the same. We've heard this all before, sure turning Eva Eight into a sentient tree is something new, and yes, that does happen if you think I'm making it up, but humans killing everyone off is just the same old same old. The thing is, I'm trying to think if there are any dystopian novels that don't do this... And I'm coming up blank. It's kind of the go-to trope, survival at any cost. And the one trilogy in particular I keep thinking about is The Hunger Games. Now I'm a huge fan of that series and oddly enough think the middle book is the strongest, but all I can think about with the three Gens is that they belong in The Hunger Games. I mean, come on, robotails? When they take Eva Nine out to do her makeover I couldn't help thinking of when Katniss Everdeen met Cinna. Sure, lots of dystopian books have the elite wear impractical and fanciful clothing, but I felt like this was too much of a similarity with another franchise so that it made A Hero for WondLa a little less than it could have been. On the whole it's so original in how it uses the building blocks and tropes of dystopian fiction that I felt let down a little. And seriously, it's just a little. But it was enough to make a difference.
