Marie Lu was born in 1984–and for those of us who love our dystopian fiction, this isof course an extremely significant year. Along with a boom in a certain genre offiction always comes an answering fatigue. I really do mean it though when I say that if youenjoyed The Hunger Games, you will enjoy Legend.

Legend presents us with a nightmarish future America. The states have split in two, withthe totalitarian Republic (California and other western states) locked in a seeminglyendless war with the Colonies (the middle and eastern states). The setting is a futuristicLos Angeles: a decimated urban shell full of half-destroyed office blocks, high rise car parks and giant TV screens blaring a neverending stream of propaganda. An evocative portrait of a dirty, decaying city rife with poverty, violence and militarism is the setting for a game of cat and mouse between the two 15-year-old protagonists: Day, the Republic’s most wanted fugitive and June, a child prodigy and military cadet sent to hunt Day down.

The dystopian world of Legend is reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984, which is the blueprint fortotalitarian dystopias. What makes this book stand out is the immediacy of the voices ofDay and June. The first-person narratives told in alternating chapters carry a grittyimmediacy that is enthralling. Lu is a former game designer and her ability to realise thephysical world of this nightmarish America and deliver well-staged action sequencesmean this world feels very possible.

Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne