The Queen's Army (Lunar Chronicles, #1.5)

by Marissa Meyer

It is time. The boy must leave his family to serve in the Queen’s army. To be chosen is an honor. To decline is impossible. The boy is modified. He is trained for several years, and learns to fight to the death. He proves to the Queen -- and to himself -- that he is capable of evil. He is just the kind of soldier the Queen wants: the alpha of his pack.

• ISBN10: 1466833793
• ISBN13: 9781466833791
• Publish Date: 20 November 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 June 2014
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Tor Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 32
• Language: English

Reviews

[anastasia]

A perfect novella of Wolf's past.

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

Wolf is one of my favorite characters from The Lunar Chronicles, and Scarlet+Wolf is definitely my favorite couple. I loved seeing more of Wolf's background, of what his family was like before he became the soldier we know in Scarlet. The details about how exactly he and his pack were commissioned/trained were pretty cool, too.

My only complaint is that it seems rather rushed, to condense SO much time into such a short story. We needed more time to really feel Wolf's pain and growth. I think his story could very well be an entire book on its own! Also there's so much potential to grow the series up a little. I love the Lunar Chronicles, but I feel like they are kind of...tame. Wolf's back story is less so than most of the other characters' and would be a great spinoff. Of course I'd also love to see what he and Scarlet get up to in the future too!

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[angelarenea9]

This review is full of spoilers!
I didn't actually like this short when I started it, it was too fight club and I'm just not into that, but I ended up really liking it. I have already read the first three Lunar books so I'm not sure how much about the army I'm supposed to know. I am guessing (maybe it's obvious? I don't know, but it seemed like it fit to me) that this was about Wolf. I thought that the army was very sad in the primary novels, but I just found this short to be so heart breaking. Basically this was an incredibly short and I would recommend it to anyone who likes the Lunar Chronicles series.

[Berls]

My Initial Reaction...

The second I heard about The Queen's Army in Cinder, I was thinking werewolves - and I was so excited to open this up and discover that I was right! This was a fun, quick novella that held me over until I could get Scarlet from the library.

The Good...

Marissa Meyer did a really great job developing characters with such a short book. I felt like I really got to know and understand Z - who is the main character in "The Queen's Army." He's been pulled away from his family against his will because he has exceptional lunar gifts... basically he's been drafted into the army and this isn't any ordinary army. The Lunar Queen has been running experiments on her own people, turning them into werewolves to be a particularly vicious army. Anyone who likes weres I think will enjoy this twist on weres - Marissa Meyer really emphasizes the ways that they are like the real wolves, as well as what makes the different in fun ways.

I also really liked that we got a glimpse of how the Lunar Queen's subjects are living. Through this short we get a glimpse of the ways she and her thelmaturges are using their lunar abilities to manipulate the people and force them into obedience. We already suspected it and now we know - she truly is EVIL.

The Bad...

I wouldn't say there's anything particularly BAD about "The Queen's Army." But since we're getting our first real glimpse of the Lunars, I would have liked to get more of a view of their world. Marissa Meyer didn't really stop to SHOW it to us. I wanted details about what living on the moon looked like - how are their homes and clothes and everything different? But since we leave the public world almost immediately we don't really get to see that. I was bummed, but in the end, still loved this short.

Concluding Sentiments...

Sometimes reading these little shorts & novellas doesn't seem to matter for the story - and while you could totally read Scarlet without reading "The Queen's Army" and fully understand it, I can't think why you'd want to miss out on this background story for some key characters moving forward. The novella is free, short and a fun read- so I wouldn't skip it!

[Angie]

That was kind of disturbing, but definitely interesting.

[inlibrisveritas]

Another great little short story and teaser for the Lunar Chronicles! Not only do you get a glimpse of a new character for Scarlet but you also get a small glimpse at Luna and how things work there. I personally love the whole pack mentality that the group featured in this has and I'm really looking forward to more from Z as well as Levana.