Cyberpunk and Steampunk - Legend by Marie Lu

In the book, the Republic, once the United States, is always at war with its neighbors and uses a misguided test, called the ’Trial’, to pinpoint prodigies within the country. They are also dealing with plagues that seem to only affect the poor districts, in reality, the government is in fact purposefully infected these areas as experimentation. Depending on where this prodigy came from, they are treated very differently. June Iparis is a fifteen-year-old prodigy who is the ’supposed’ only person to ever score a perfect score on her Trial. "A few others are tapped for politics and Congress, and some are chosen to stay behind and teach. But Drake is the Republic's best university, and seeing as how the best are always assigned into the military, our drill room is packed with students.” (Ch. 2, Legend) when June scaled a building at her school and her classmates' gossip in awe due to her skills in many activities given on campus. "I glance behind me and manage a smile for them. "Fourteen floors," I call back. That gets them buzzing again. Somehow, this has become the closest relationship I have with the other Drake students. I am respected, discussed, gossiped about. Not really talked to.” (Ch. 2, Legend) However, prodigies born in poverty, like Day, are lied to, being told that they failed their ’Trial’ as an excuse to use them for experimentation. The idea of a person with intelligence beyond the norms being used for the government's military gain, is, unfortunately, something we do see in our lives today. Anyone who fails the test given by the government in the book is immediately killed, or experimented on, depending on the person’s wealth. "An inferior child with bad genes is no use to the country. If you're lucky, Congress will let you die without first sending you to the labs to be examined for imperfections.” (Ch. 1, Legend)

This reality of our world centers around inequality between the poor and wealthy, the unrealistic idea of perfection and the fear of a dystopian future ruled by a militaristic government. We all have this paralyzing fear of the government experimenting on people, and over zesting the unnecessary use of war. The primary fear many share in our world is the government taking over control using war, violence, and fear. This reality depicted in Legend is centered around two characters from two very opposite sides of the world. June is from the wealthier side of the Republic, her family being more military based. Day, on the other hand, is from the poverty-stricken area, where an unnamed plague is specifically being caught from the poor residents. At age 10, Day took his Trial given by the government and supposedly failed it. Due to failing, he and other failed kids are sent to labs to be experimented on for imperfections. In actuality, Day passed his Trial, but due to him being from a poverty-stricken family, he was used to be experimented on, in an attempt to isolate the prodigy gene to create more prodigies. June, however, is treated with praise and expectations, being trained and guided into the life of a soldier loyal only to the Republic government. The only reason they join sides is due to June realizing Day was innocent of his supposed crime of murdering her brother Metias. And as she investigates her brother’s murder, she discovers that her brother found out the truth about the Republic and was in fact killed under orders of the ladder by his fellow officer, Thomas. Afterward, Thomas and the Republic did everything they could to pin the murder on Day to utilizes absolute control over June due to her prodigy skills.

This idea about using a test of sorts to test the intelligence in a child is done in our world now, through SAT’s and other standardized tests. Tests that are in fact designed to make a child fail, using aspects from past tests that children failed to create a harder and more difficult to pass a test to impose the idea that the child must get a specific score in order to succeed in the future. That is a horrible and traumatic ideal to imprint on impressionable children. We should not let the idea of perfection grow like this because it is unhealthy and is not even working. Another thing we must stop doing is imposing the idea to kids that war is good or necessary. I cannot explain how many times I get ads on YouTube or on TV about going to the army, navy, airfare, etc. because it is the right thing to do. It is not. Because we do not need to be in War. But the government is imposing the idea that going the army is fun or is a duty that all must do for our country. It is not, it is a choice. A choice that is being taken from children and teens because they’re being told that it is a must that they have to do eventually. That’s the reality the Marie Lu is depicting in Legend. That is the future she is warning us about. That is the world that we are dangerously inching closer to with each passing decade.

This is a very fascinating book, the first of a trilogy, that I believe opens up the fact that this fear of a dystopian future very much exists. That this future could happen, and that we can stop it. The book also highlights societies unrealistic ideals in perfection in people, particularly children, especially through unnecessary tests created to bring children down. I recommend this book as something to read during your spare time. It is a great book and has an interesting concept. There aren't robots, aliens or weird grotesque monsters, but there are more real-life kinds of science used in this sci-fi book. With gene manipulation and dystopia riddled with war.