Champion is the stunning conclusion to Marie Lu’s Legend trilogy.
Champion picks up eight months after the events of Prodigy. June is training to be the Princeps-Elect and Day is working as a high-ranking military officer, while also suffering from his problematic hippocampus. The new Elector Primo, Anden, is working on a peace treaty between the Republic and the Colonies. When a new, mutated, strain of the plague rampages its way through the Colonies, the Colonies call off the peace treaty and attack the Republic with allies from Africa. Both June’s and Day’s worlds are forced to collide as they are thrown into action once more. This time, the Republic's Prodigy and its infamous Legend are working with the Republic to keep it from falling to the Colonies.
Both characters face crippling obstacles in this novel. June is training to be the Princeps-Elect and finds herself thrown into an unfamiliar, political world. Although she is one of the Republic’s brightest, many of the Republic’s Senators frown upon her because of her age. The Elector makes no attempt to hide his love for her, but as she falls in love with him, she finds something holding her back. While June is dealing with internal problems, Day’s struggles are more physical. He is being beaten down by severe headaches cause by his problematic hippocampus. Despite the efforts of countless doctors, he is dying and, likely, only has a few months to live. The Republic is also begging Day to allow experimentation on his brother, Eden, in the hopes that Eden can be the Republic’s cure to the latest plague. On top of all of this, Day is being brought back into action and is forced into several dangerous situations in order to save his country. Many of these situations trigger the headaches that act as a timer, counting down until his death.
Despite the wonderfulness of Champion, it is not without problems. Unlike Prodigy and Legend, Champion did not start off with a lot of action. The beginning was a lot slower, but it still held your interest. Day's hopeless situation paints a depressing tone throughout the entire book. This aids in making the first half of the book seem worse than the previous two books. Out of all of them, Champion was the slowest and could have been considered a disappointment it weren’t for the second half of the book. The second half of the book was phenomenal. It was full of action and high tension scenes and led up to an amazing battle at the end. All lose ends were neatly tied up in an epilogue that brought the series to a conclusion, but was full of hope for all the surviving characters. The concept of the protagonists supporting its government is almost unheard of in a dystopian novel. It was a breath of fresh air and really displayed what a dystopian novel can be like.
I give this 369 page book 4.5 stars.
Series Analysis
The Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu is a amazing dystopian book. The story takes place in the country of the Republic several years in the future. It follows Day, the Republic's most wanted criminal and infamous freedom fighter, and June, the Republic's most beloved prodigy. After the death of June's brother Metias, the two drastically different characters meet. This series is full of plot twist that no one can see coming and is action packed. It is also capable of getting the reader emotionally invested in the story line. Goodreads gives the series an average of 4.296 while this site gives the series an average of 4.666. Everyone who is a lover of dystopian books and needs a slightly new spin on an average dystopian novel, this is the series for you.
Legend Trilogy
The "Legend" Trilogy takes place in a country known as the Republic. The Republic is constantly at war with the Colonies. Both the Republic and the Colonies lie on the land that used to be the United States of America. The Patriots are a group of people who seek to see the the two countries unite and form the United States once again. The series is narrated by Day, the Republic's most wanted criminal, and June, the Republic's beloved prodigy.