Champion (novel)
 champion | |
| Author | Marie Lu |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Legend (series) |
| Genre | Dystopian, young adult |
| Published | 5 November 2013 |
| Publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons |
| Pages | 384 |
| Preceded by | Prodigy |
Champion is a dystopian young adult novel and the third and final book in the Legend trilogy by novelist Marie Lu.[1] It was released on 5 November 2013.[2]
Plot
After Day has a severe headache (caused by his disease), he reveals to June that he has months to live. However, while they are talking, Denver gets attacked by the Colonies. After making it to a bunker reserved for the wealthy, they discover that Tess and several other Patriots are being held there. Day gets the authority to lead them on a mission to sabotage the Colonies, and they destroy a nearby Colonies airbase. Meanwhile, June and Anden head to Ross City, Antarctica in hopes of finding allies. The only offer Anden receives, however, is to give up some of the Republic's land in exchange for military support.
After another severe headache that was triggered by an explosion, Day is contacted by the Chancellor of the Colonies. He is blackmailed, and if he doesn't tell the people to revolt against the Republic, June and Eden may die. The Chancellor gives Day a three-day ceasefire. Right after the call ends, Tess is put into quarantine because she has become infected by the plague running rampant in the Colonies.
On the first night of the ceasefire, June and Day are reunited. They profess their love for each other and have a bed affair.
In the middle of the night, Day wakes up from a nightmare. He leaves June's apartment to visit his old home in the Lake sector, not knowing that June followed him. There, he reminisces what happened to his family. Then he breaks down in tears, because he doesn't want to feel the pain of losing his family, which June had been involved in.
On the second day of the ceasefire, Eden is admitted to the hospital for testing. After the testing is done, Day gets a call about June - she's been attacked by Commander Jameson, who is feeding the Colonies information about the military strengths and weaknesses of Los Angeles. Knowing the need to buy time, Day convinces Anden and June to pretend to surrender - who in turn convince the Senate. After the Senate meeting, Anden tells June he gave up Dakota, the Republic's largest territory, in exchange for military support (and treatment for Day) from Antarctica.
At the same time, Day plans to use the people to help fight against the Colonies and puts out a message across LA using spray paint - "LISTEN FOR ME." When he gets back, the lab technicians tell him that Eden cannot provide a cure for the plague, because the virus is a mutated version of the one Eden was infected with.
Anden officially announces the Republic's surrender when enemy airships begin to approach LA in anticipation of the end of the three-day ceasefire. During the announcement, June heads to the hospital to check on the cure progress. When the lab tech explains why the cure isn't working, and where it originated, June realizes that the infection she caught (in Prodigy) might be the same disease as the plague. While June goes to be tested, Day heads out to sabotage the landing bases being used by the Colonies to dock their ships.
Once the mission is complete, he receives a call from the Chancellor telling him that the speech to make the people revolt must be given on board one of the Colonies airships.
The results come back from June's testing - she isn't the origin of the virus, but she's close enough. June calls Day on her earpiece, but the frequencies are being jammed by the Colonies. The hospital is attacked, and soldiers begin to search for Eden. June attempts to defend him, but is knocked down by the soldiers. Before the last one can strike and knock her unconscious, Tess attacks him. The cure engineered using June had worked well enough for her to recover in a short span of time.
By this time, Day is on board giving his speech to the citizens of the Republic. At the last possible moment, he tells the people to revolt against the Colonies instead of the Republic, then flees. On cue, the bombs attached to the bases explode. This provokes the Colonies to action, and fighting begins in LA. June opts to fight instead of escaping to safety, and leaves Eden with a nurse. June disables several soldiers and then discovers one of them is Commander Jameson. Jameson is attempting to kill Day, but June attacks her. June, with the help of soldiers on the ground, kills Jameson.
When June rushes down to see Day, she finds that he is fatally injured. Day is soon taken to the hospital, where the doctors stitch up his wounds. Day would have died from the infection in his hippocampus, so the doctors also perform surgery on his brain.
Antarctica saves the Republic, and Day remains in a coma-like state for five months. When he wakes up, he has retrograde amnesia. He roughly remembers the happenings of the last year he spent with June; only remembering major details, such as his mother's death and how Eden was sick and managed to survive. The sad and terrible truth that he forgets who June is. June thinks the situation over and decides that she will not remind him of who she is and leaves after visiting him and acting as a stranger. After Day recovers, Eden is offered a place in one of Antarctica's engineering schools, in which Eden accepts and they both leave the Republic. This leaves June to reminisce about her time with Day and how she'll never forget him.
Epilogue
Ten years later, Eden and Day return to the Republic so that Eden can be interviewed for an engineering job in LA. It just so happens that to be June's birthday, and she is on her way to dinner, when she gets a message from Tess telling her that Day and Eden are in town. Almost to her destination, she runs into Day and Eden. Day stops and recognizes June, (not completely though). He stops June after catching a glimpse at her asking if he knows her. Convinced he's seen her before, he decides to start over and introduces himself saying, "Hi, I'm Daniel." June responds, "Hi, I'm June."
[3]" This is symbolic because it was a dream between them in Legend that they had met each other under normal circumstances instead meeting as sworn enemies.
Characters
June Iparis- A seventeen-year-old prodigy, who scored a 1500 on her trial. She decides at the end of the book to not tell Day whom she is, as she thinks that his suffering and pain is caused by her. When he appears dying, she pleas for his survival. She lets go of Day, telling herself that it is for the best. She is good at appealing to other's emotions and understanding people's backgrounds, as well as observing things around her. In the epilogue, Day and June meet again, when they are both twenty-seven, and re-introduce themselves.
Daniel (Day) Altan Wing- A seventeen-year-old boy, who is also a prodigy, scoring a 1500 as well. Throughout the book, he experiences several headaches, which comes from the experimentation on him when he was ten. During the ending sequence, he is shot twice. He ends up in a coma, as he also needs surgery on his hippocampus.
Eden Bataar Wing- Day's younger brother, who Day will do anything to protect. Day is adamant of not letting the Republic experiment on Eden again, but Eden agrees to do it.
Captain Thomas Alexander Bryant
Anden Stavropoulos
Tess
Commander Natasha Jameson
Pascao
Chancellor of the Colonies
Azir
Reception
Critical reception to Champion was favorable and gained a favorable review from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.[4] Commonsensemedia gave the work four stars, writing that "Action-packed sci-fi series reaches rousing conclusion."[5] Publishers Weekly gave the work a starred review, comparing Lu to Charlotte Brontë.[6]
References
- ↑ Truitt, Bryan. "Marie Lu's 'Legend' ends with a 'Champion'". USA Today. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
- ↑ Lee, Stephan. "Marie Lu answers burning questions about the final Legend novel 'Champion'. Plus, the cover! -- EXCLUSIVE". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
- ↑ "Book Review: Champion by Marie Lu". Between My Pages. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
- ↑ "Legend Trilogy: Legend, Prodigy, and Champion by Marie Lu". Smithsonian APA. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
- ↑ "Champion: Legend, Book 3 (review)". Commonsensemedia. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
- ↑ "Champion (review)". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 24 August 2015.