The Little Android (Lunar Chronicles, #0.6)

by Marissa Meyer

[angelarenea9]

This review is full of spoilers.

I thought that this little novella was incredibly sad. It is set in the Lunar Chronicles world, and we have a brief interaction with Cinder, but it is pretty well separate from the plots of the main books (at least thus far, and as far as I could tell). I didn't actually know until I read the description on the goodreads page after I had already finished this book that it is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but not that I know, it seems pretty obvious.

This is the story of a little android who, due to some glitch perhaps, longs for the stars, and later to be loved by the head engineer at the spaceport she works at. Unlike the other Mech droids that work on the space ships, she is distracted by Dataran. When he falls into a large container of oil, Mech6.0 rushes to his rescue, saving his life, but destroying her body in the process. When she realizes that they are going to dismantle her, she rushes off into the streets of New Bejing where she comes across a mechanic stall owned by Cinder.
Cinder helps her by giving her an escort droid's body until she can earn enough money to buy something more compatible, but unfortunately the escort droid is mute. Compelled to return the little locket that contains a hologram of the universe to Dararan, Mech6.0, now Star, returns to his place of work and get's hired as an electrician. She develops a friendship with him, only to find he is in love with one of the customer's daughter. Star bides her time until Miko will leave, but when she realizes how heartbroken the two would be without each other, she returns the locket, allowing them to buy a ship and leave together. She also poses as Miko when her father takes off. As the last of her dying body's energy leaves her circuits, she finally sees the skies open up to her.

Now that I've read it, and know, I'm not sure how I missed that it was a Little Mermaid retelling, but it was excellently done, tragic and beautiful. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Lunar Chronicles.