Lina realizes that the document is instructions on how to leave their dying city. Thanks to side character Clary, friend of Lina's father, she discovers that the title of the document is "Instructions for Egress" or instructions for exit. There are many gaps and some words make no sense like "boat" since no one in Ember has seen or heard of boats. Using some glue, Lina reassembles the message as best she can. The writing on the message resembles the writing on labels and books left by the builders in the city. Lina saves the scraps of paper, thinking they must be an important message from the Builders of the city, since the message is typed and no one in Ember can write like that. When Lina comes home, she finds Poppy with torn pieces of paper in her hands and mouth Poppy has all but destroyed the instructions. The opened box is found by Lina's baby sister, Poppy. When searching the closet, Lina's grandmother finds the box but tosses it aside, not realizing its importance. By now the timer has finished counting down and the lock has clicked open. It is revealed that the seventh mayor was Lina's great-great-grandfather and the box with the timed lock is in the closet in their house. However, both are displeased with their assigned jobs so they exchange their assignments and begin work in their respective positions. At their graduation ceremony, young people are assigned jobs by lottery: Lina Mayfleet is assigned the job of "Pipeworks Laborer" and Doon Harrow is given the job of "Messenger". He then dies before he can return the box to its rightful place or inform the next mayor of its importance.Īpproximately two hundred and forty-one years after Ember is established, the city's supplies are in danger of exhaustion and its hydroelectric generator is in decay, causing the power to go out intermittently. The Builders give the first mayor of the city a box with a timed lock set to open after 200 years, containing instructions explaining how to leave Ember the box is passed successfully from mayor to mayor, until the seventh mayor, who, thinking the box might contain a cure for the deadly cough disease plaguing the city, takes the box home and tries multiple times to break it open, but fails. They build the city to last for two centuries, after which the citizens of Ember will evacuate and return to the surface world. Plot Īs Earth is being ravaged by a series of apocalyptic events known as the Disaster, a coalition of architects, scientists, and doctors (called the Builders) create an underground city named Ember, with an initial population of 200 citizens (100 elderly adults, 100 babies), to ensure humanity survives, with the intention that future generations of the city will not know about the outside world or that they live underground. Ī graphic novel adaptation by comic book artist Niklas Asker was released on September 25, 2012. In 2008, the book was adapted into a film by Walden Media and Playtone. It is the first book in the Books of Ember series, which also includes The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood (a prequel), and the final installment, The Diamond of Darkhold. The young protagonists, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, follow clues left behind by the original builders of the City of Ember, to safety in the outside world. The story is about Ember, a post-apocalyptic underground city threatened by aging infrastructure and corruption. The City of Ember is a post-apocalyptic novel by Jeanne DuPrau that was published in 2003.
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