Starred Review In this final book in the Lunar Chronicles, the stepdaughter of the wicked Queen Levana joins Cinder, Scarlett, and Cress to defeat the queen and restore Cinder a Selene the rightful ruler of Luna. Yes, it's another one of Meyer's very fractured fairy tales, in which she offers a new amalgam of Grimms' fairy tales, science fiction, violence, women's lib, and romance. Our Snow White stand-in, Winter, is beautiful in spite of facial scars, kind to all she encounters, mentally fragile, and in love with her lowly guard, Jacin. Her sweet, admirable qualities are exactly what it takes to organize the abused workers living outside the capital into a motley army that helps take on Levana to gain control of Luna. As always, Meyer combines just enough veiled references to the original stories to spur intellectual and emotional connections. For instance, Levana "glamours" herself into an old crone to entice Winter to eat a sour apple, after learning that Jacin has failed to kill her beautiful stepdaughter, and Emperor Kai returns Cinder's cyborg foot to signal his intentions at series end. And, yes, it is the end: Meyer bestows all four heroines with individual "happily ever afters," before she herself moves on to tackle another childhood story, Alice in Wonderland. A new series? We shall see.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Meyer's series has sold well and achieved a degree of acclaim. This conclusion's cinder-block size should only drum up further interest.

Meyer stays true to her characters--sci-fi revisionings of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and here, with damaged Lunar princess Winter, Snow White--as she builds to this series-ender's climax: an epic battle between evil Queen Levana's army and cyborg Cinder's motley crew of allies. Loyal fans will appreciate how Meyer ties up every loose end--romantic, political, folkloric, and otherwise.

The fourth and final installment in Meyer-s fairy tale-inspired SF series Lunar Chronicles finds Cinder plotting a revolution against the exquisitely evil Lunar Queen Levana. Readers meet Levana-s stepdaughter, Winter, whose debilitating visions are kept in check by Jacin, her beloved personal guard whom she is forbidden from marrying. Reader Soler is one of those magical voice actors who can create a seemingly endless supply of memorable voices. Here, she offers an appropriately sweet, fluttery Snow White-esque voice for Winter; a deliciously purring, cooing -popular mean girl- voice for Queen Levana; a French accent for Scarlet; a strong, manly hero-s voice for Jacin; and many, many more. Even background characters who appear for just a line or two get distinctive voices, such as an Australian-accented guest at the wedding banquet. Soler-s pacing is excellent, and she skillfully navigates listeners through Meyer-s 23-hour story. Ages 12-up. A Feiwel and Friends hardcover. (Nov.)