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The Looking Glass Wars #1
The Looking Glass Wars
Alyss of Wonderland?
When Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, must flee through the Pool of Tears to escape the murderous aunt Redd, she finds herself lost and alone in Victorian London. Befriended by an aspiring author named Lewis Carrol, Alyss tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusts this author to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere will find her and bring her home. But he gets the story all wrong. He even spells her name incorrectly!
Fortunately, Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan knows all too well the awful truth of Alyss' story and he is searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland so she may eventually battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges our Wonderland assumptions surrounding mad tea parties, grinning Cheshire cats, and a curious little blond girl to reveal an epic battle in the endless war for Imagination.
When Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, must flee through the Pool of Tears to escape the murderous aunt Redd, she finds herself lost and alone in Victorian London. Befriended by an aspiring author named Lewis Carrol, Alyss tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusts this author to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere will find her and bring her home. But he gets the story all wrong. He even spells her name incorrectly!
Fortunately, Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan knows all too well the awful truth of Alyss' story and he is searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland so she may eventually battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges our Wonderland assumptions surrounding mad tea parties, grinning Cheshire cats, and a curious little blond girl to reveal an epic battle in the endless war for Imagination.
358 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
1039 people are currently reading
39018 people want to read
About the author
Frank Beddor
22 books1,545 followersLiterary Sleuth and world creator Frank Beddor dared to expose the true story of Wonderland in the New York Times bestselling young adult trilogy The Looking Glass Wars. To satisfy the awakened curiosity of his readers he continued to tell the parallel adventures of Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s search for the lost princess in the graphic novel series Hatter M. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,135 reviews
October 26, 2023
it is my curse in this life to read and dislike every retelling of my favorite book.
so i did the absolute bravest thing i could do: reread this one, which i had near nonexistent trace memories of from youth.
and...it didn't go well. maybe "bravery" is just a nice way of saying "why did i do this, why did i think this was a good idea, this was never going to go well, am i unconsciously seeking out unpopular opinions to bolster my imaginary reputation as the edgy mean girl of goodreads, etc."
regardless, this book's central thesis is that my favorite book of all time was a big lame lie, so this wasn't exactly a recipe for success.
and it ultimately was much lamer than it ever thought my favorite was!
bottom line: not for me. in fact, almost expressly created against me.
so i did the absolute bravest thing i could do: reread this one, which i had near nonexistent trace memories of from youth.
and...it didn't go well. maybe "bravery" is just a nice way of saying "why did i do this, why did i think this was a good idea, this was never going to go well, am i unconsciously seeking out unpopular opinions to bolster my imaginary reputation as the edgy mean girl of goodreads, etc."
regardless, this book's central thesis is that my favorite book of all time was a big lame lie, so this wasn't exactly a recipe for success.
and it ultimately was much lamer than it ever thought my favorite was!
bottom line: not for me. in fact, almost expressly created against me.
Read
November 12, 2022For most people I know this book is a blast from the past, but for me it wasn’t. I actually didn’t realize that this book is more than 15 years old, I just knew it had been recommended to me quite a few times over the years. Finally, I’ve gotten to it! I thought this was such a unique and inventive twist on the Wonderland world. I’ve read probably every Alice retelling there is, but this was still a refreshing twist. It was a combination of historical and fantastical that worked very well. I feel like out of the retellings I’ve read this one has the most unique take on certain favourite characters. It reminded me quite a bit at times of the Tim Burton adaption, but it’s definitely not exactly like that. It kept me intrigued and on the edge of my seat the whole time. I know there are sequels so maybe I’ll read those soon!
November 8, 2013
So I'm a little late coming to this, as it's been out for a while, but I enjoyed his alternate take on the Alice in Wonderland story. The problem with doing a new treatment of such a classic tale is that you will have the purists up in arms, but I thought the story had a lot to recommend it. I found Alyss a believable character and who wouldn't like Hatter Madigan? I want his backpack.
September 14, 2009
So, I'd heard of this book before, and when I saw it in the bin marked "free" at my old library, I kind of thought I might put it in my middle school classroom for students to read. Then I realized: what might I be giving my students? So I read it.
I cannot think of enough negative things to say about this book.
First, I have to admit something: I've never even read any of Lewis Carroll's books. Not a one. So I'm no Alice purist. But Mr. Beddor is just straight-up mean-spirited. If you're going to write a metafiction (which is perhaps putting lipstick on the Looking Glass Wars pig), you certainly owe a certain reverence, or even just a bit of politeness, to the source material. Casting Lewis Carroll himself in the book as a bumbling, nervous idiot is just poor form.
Dayenu, that would have been enough.
Let's get to the meat. Character naming. King Nolan? This is only slightly a tougher name than Lord Poodlepants. Princess Alyss? I have an article Mr. Beddor should read, but let's just leave it that Alyss will probably not become a neurosurgeon. And so on. There were moments of charming creativity there (I'll admit, calling the elite card soldiers "the Cut" was cute), but really.
Dayenu.
I have an ARC, so I will hope the writing and grammar improve. But things ultimately got so bad that I started bookmarking pages specifically with the purpose of listing them here. ". . . and out of the vacuous dark stepped a girl." Vacuous does not mean what he thinks it does. ". . . with the play of the suns on their caps and the multihued shadows they cast on the valley floor, the Alyssians were greeted." The subject of the beginning part of this sentence? Mushrooms. Not delightful headgear being worn by our heroes. But, sadly, the misplaced modifiers kill us dead. Heartbreaking.
Dayenu.
The dialogue! This is the sort of book in which we get full quotation marks for stupid things, like a character's "yeah" of assent. Also, is it just me, or do you fall totally out of the story when the author bothers to include things like "whoa" and "duh" on a regular basis? Maybe I'm too picky. Also, there's this really bizarre scene with the assassin "the Cat" going all Travis Bickle on a bunch of trees. Full on "I don't see anyone else here, so you must have been talking to me." How are we, as the readers, supposed to respond to this? Are we supposed to think a (bioengineered? animatronic? I have no damn idea?) cat in an alternate dimension is the inspiration for Taxi Driver? (Remember, this book takes place in (the equivalent of) the 1850s-1860s.) Are we supposed to think he's witty in quoting a kind of played out line of dialogue he has no way of knowing? This takes place maybe 70 or 80 pages into a 300+ page book and it stands out to me now. I have no idea where Mr. Beddor was going with this, but he's the creative mind who produced "There's Something about Mary," so we know he's up on pop culture.
Dayenu.
We meet Hatter Madigan, who has nothing at all to do with the Mad Hatter except a similar name and the ownership of a top hat. I'm of the impression that we're supposed to think he's terrifically cool, given his being real quiet and being good at fighting. After all, pop culture is full of this kind of stuff -- we love quiet dudes who are tough. The problem is this: he has no actual personality. We see him brood by a fire once. We see him chuck around his hat a lot. We get no dialogue (or monologue) explaining anything about why he's supposed to be interesting. (I also have the sense he may be supposed to be a little something for the ladies, but once again, this is my reading of a book that makes no damn sense, and hell if I can figure out why or how, unless we're just supposed to remember that quiet, tough guys generally = James Dean or Dirty Harry.)
Dayenu.
The worst thing Mr. Beddor could think of about Jack of Diamonds was to give him a big butt? Seriously? The man is clearly a creep and everyone is dumb enough to trust him, against all odds and against any normal human behavior. Are all the characters idiots? Are they supposed to be fooled by his giant hiney? (PS: How do you SPELL the word pronounced "hiney?" Because I thought it would be funny here but can't quite type it.)
Dayenu.
Last one, I swear. And this is totally leaving out the big villain Redd, who deserves to be left out for sucking so badly. But. "Wondertropolis?" This sounds like some sort of lame facebook-based game where you'd click on things in exchange for points. From the second I read it, I WANTED Wondertropolis to fall. (When I was growing up, I lived near a day camp called "Camp Wonderfun." I felt the same way about that.) And the Wonderlanders in Wondertropolis? Did Mr. Beddor never say these names aloud? They're freaking tongue twisters. I hate Wondertropolis so bad. And it's a magical land fueled by imagination! With a "Heart Crystal" (which you would totally click on in the Wondertropolis facebook game). And the characters have magical powers of imagination. This is lame when it's hawked by Figment at Epcot, and he's cute and has all of Disney behind him. But when you have two characters battling it out with their all-powerful imaginations? You're getting into territory best left unentered.
Anyway. I hated this book. A lot. It's not going into my classroom, ever.
I cannot think of enough negative things to say about this book.
First, I have to admit something: I've never even read any of Lewis Carroll's books. Not a one. So I'm no Alice purist. But Mr. Beddor is just straight-up mean-spirited. If you're going to write a metafiction (which is perhaps putting lipstick on the Looking Glass Wars pig), you certainly owe a certain reverence, or even just a bit of politeness, to the source material. Casting Lewis Carroll himself in the book as a bumbling, nervous idiot is just poor form.
Dayenu, that would have been enough.
Let's get to the meat. Character naming. King Nolan? This is only slightly a tougher name than Lord Poodlepants. Princess Alyss? I have an article Mr. Beddor should read, but let's just leave it that Alyss will probably not become a neurosurgeon. And so on. There were moments of charming creativity there (I'll admit, calling the elite card soldiers "the Cut" was cute), but really.
Dayenu.
I have an ARC, so I will hope the writing and grammar improve. But things ultimately got so bad that I started bookmarking pages specifically with the purpose of listing them here. ". . . and out of the vacuous dark stepped a girl." Vacuous does not mean what he thinks it does. ". . . with the play of the suns on their caps and the multihued shadows they cast on the valley floor, the Alyssians were greeted." The subject of the beginning part of this sentence? Mushrooms. Not delightful headgear being worn by our heroes. But, sadly, the misplaced modifiers kill us dead. Heartbreaking.
Dayenu.
The dialogue! This is the sort of book in which we get full quotation marks for stupid things, like a character's "yeah" of assent. Also, is it just me, or do you fall totally out of the story when the author bothers to include things like "whoa" and "duh" on a regular basis? Maybe I'm too picky. Also, there's this really bizarre scene with the assassin "the Cat" going all Travis Bickle on a bunch of trees. Full on "I don't see anyone else here, so you must have been talking to me." How are we, as the readers, supposed to respond to this? Are we supposed to think a (bioengineered? animatronic? I have no damn idea?) cat in an alternate dimension is the inspiration for Taxi Driver? (Remember, this book takes place in (the equivalent of) the 1850s-1860s.) Are we supposed to think he's witty in quoting a kind of played out line of dialogue he has no way of knowing? This takes place maybe 70 or 80 pages into a 300+ page book and it stands out to me now. I have no idea where Mr. Beddor was going with this, but he's the creative mind who produced "There's Something about Mary," so we know he's up on pop culture.
Dayenu.
We meet Hatter Madigan, who has nothing at all to do with the Mad Hatter except a similar name and the ownership of a top hat. I'm of the impression that we're supposed to think he's terrifically cool, given his being real quiet and being good at fighting. After all, pop culture is full of this kind of stuff -- we love quiet dudes who are tough. The problem is this: he has no actual personality. We see him brood by a fire once. We see him chuck around his hat a lot. We get no dialogue (or monologue) explaining anything about why he's supposed to be interesting. (I also have the sense he may be supposed to be a little something for the ladies, but once again, this is my reading of a book that makes no damn sense, and hell if I can figure out why or how, unless we're just supposed to remember that quiet, tough guys generally = James Dean or Dirty Harry.)
Dayenu.
The worst thing Mr. Beddor could think of about Jack of Diamonds was to give him a big butt? Seriously? The man is clearly a creep and everyone is dumb enough to trust him, against all odds and against any normal human behavior. Are all the characters idiots? Are they supposed to be fooled by his giant hiney? (PS: How do you SPELL the word pronounced "hiney?" Because I thought it would be funny here but can't quite type it.)
Dayenu.
Last one, I swear. And this is totally leaving out the big villain Redd, who deserves to be left out for sucking so badly. But. "Wondertropolis?" This sounds like some sort of lame facebook-based game where you'd click on things in exchange for points. From the second I read it, I WANTED Wondertropolis to fall. (When I was growing up, I lived near a day camp called "Camp Wonderfun." I felt the same way about that.) And the Wonderlanders in Wondertropolis? Did Mr. Beddor never say these names aloud? They're freaking tongue twisters. I hate Wondertropolis so bad. And it's a magical land fueled by imagination! With a "Heart Crystal" (which you would totally click on in the Wondertropolis facebook game). And the characters have magical powers of imagination. This is lame when it's hawked by Figment at Epcot, and he's cute and has all of Disney behind him. But when you have two characters battling it out with their all-powerful imaginations? You're getting into territory best left unentered.
Anyway. I hated this book. A lot. It's not going into my classroom, ever.
November 9, 2011
Some of my goodreads friends loved it, some seemed ambivalent, and some seemed to have hated it. Unfortunately very few of them wrote reviews though so I don't know much of what they thought about the book. Well, besides the number of stars they gave it.
After a few seconds of mindful hand-wringing, and thinking about what I would rate this book while reading it, I have decided on three stars, although I enjoyed it quite a bit and had quite a bit of fun reading it.
I really liked the re-telling of the Alice story as a dark and violent palace revolt. I found most of the book to be very quick paced and kept me reading in a longer stretch than I would have thought this book would have done. I actually thought I'd do something a bit more productive this evening than read an entire teen book, but as the professional reviewers say when they want to get their names on the cover of books for their blurbs, it was difficult to put-down. If I shut off the critical parts of my brain and just enjoyed the book as pure entertainment I probably would have given this book four stars and if it were a movie I probably would have sat through it and had no complaints, but then most of the movies I see these days are not ones that people would say are, um what's the word? Good? As I said in some other review though movies are movies and books are books and I expect more from the the printed page than the medium of light and sound.
(But it's a teen book? or a kid book, right? can't you just fucking enjoy the thing?)
Complaint one. The book veers into the dangerous terrain of Dungeon Master Bullshit. This is a danger whenever unfettered imagination is allowed as a rule in a fictional universe. I need restrains of some kind put on things like this. Without rules a sort of whimsy takes over where you know that good will beat evil but it's only because the author says so. This book doesn't completely fall into this problem but it's enough of a problem that I had a hard time with believing some of what was happening in the book. I can accept walking cards and fighting chess pieces, and all of that kind of fantastical world-built stuff, but unfettered imagination just doesn't work for me. Why wouldn't Redd have been able to just ferret out the remaining Alyssians? Why couldn't she spot the real Alyss amongst constructs? How could Redd be duped by anyone in her inner circle? Too much power is given to some of the characters but then that power needs to be circumnavigated by other characters for there to be a story. It's too much like that ridiculous fight in the second Matrix movie where Neo is fighting a bazillion Agent Smiths, it doesn't make any sense how the fight can be won by either side, it should have just been a recursive loop by the rules set up. Actually the two sequels to The Matrix are prime examples of Dungeon Master Bullshit. I hate those movies.
Complaint two. This is a minor one and in a way it's not a complaint, but big narrative chunks are missing in the book. They are the boring parts where characters get from point A to point B, but there are quite a few moments where chunks of what would need to happen is just missing. This is good to the readability of the book because it cuts out what is possibly 'boring' and keeps the action moving at a swift pace, but it's also kind of jarring. It would be like I created a story where I had to get from New York City to California on foot. In New York I have to fight some zombie or something to escape the city and I do that in spectacular fashion and my victory ends a chapter. Next chapter I'm stepping over the state line into California where a zombie bird is waiting to do battle with me (which I also vanquish), but what about the middle stuff? A mention at least?
Complaint three. This is sort of a combination of the first two complaints. I'm going to put it in a spoiler. It's not really too much of a spoiler, but,
Complaint four. Star Wars. Too much here reminded me of the George Lucas films that have traumatized me because of their continued production after Revenge of the Jedi. The card soldiers resemble those droid fighting things from the unbearable episodes one through three. The imagination thing starts off as something creative and morphs into basically The Force, with all of the possible trappings that The Force has in the Lucas franchise. This isn't a major complaint, but it makes me fearful when I see too much Star Wars stuff start popping up (not that Star Wars was overly original, you know, it basically being a modern re-working of many myths and legends blah blah blah)
On the plus side though, even if there is some pretty obvious Star Wars borrowing going on, at least there is no trade war nonsense. Maybe that is being saved for a later book though.
Now if you've read through all of my whining I hope it doesn't scare you off of the book, if you were interested in reading dark and entertaining re-imagining of Alice. I thought it was a lot of fun while reading it, it's only when I would stop and think about some of the details that I would find fault with what was going on.
After a few seconds of mindful hand-wringing, and thinking about what I would rate this book while reading it, I have decided on three stars, although I enjoyed it quite a bit and had quite a bit of fun reading it.
I really liked the re-telling of the Alice story as a dark and violent palace revolt. I found most of the book to be very quick paced and kept me reading in a longer stretch than I would have thought this book would have done. I actually thought I'd do something a bit more productive this evening than read an entire teen book, but as the professional reviewers say when they want to get their names on the cover of books for their blurbs, it was difficult to put-down. If I shut off the critical parts of my brain and just enjoyed the book as pure entertainment I probably would have given this book four stars and if it were a movie I probably would have sat through it and had no complaints, but then most of the movies I see these days are not ones that people would say are, um what's the word? Good? As I said in some other review though movies are movies and books are books and I expect more from the the printed page than the medium of light and sound.
(But it's a teen book? or a kid book, right? can't you just fucking enjoy the thing?)
Complaint one. The book veers into the dangerous terrain of Dungeon Master Bullshit. This is a danger whenever unfettered imagination is allowed as a rule in a fictional universe. I need restrains of some kind put on things like this. Without rules a sort of whimsy takes over where you know that good will beat evil but it's only because the author says so. This book doesn't completely fall into this problem but it's enough of a problem that I had a hard time with believing some of what was happening in the book. I can accept walking cards and fighting chess pieces, and all of that kind of fantastical world-built stuff, but unfettered imagination just doesn't work for me. Why wouldn't Redd have been able to just ferret out the remaining Alyssians? Why couldn't she spot the real Alyss amongst constructs? How could Redd be duped by anyone in her inner circle? Too much power is given to some of the characters but then that power needs to be circumnavigated by other characters for there to be a story. It's too much like that ridiculous fight in the second Matrix movie where Neo is fighting a bazillion Agent Smiths, it doesn't make any sense how the fight can be won by either side, it should have just been a recursive loop by the rules set up. Actually the two sequels to The Matrix are prime examples of Dungeon Master Bullshit. I hate those movies.
Complaint two. This is a minor one and in a way it's not a complaint, but big narrative chunks are missing in the book. They are the boring parts where characters get from point A to point B, but there are quite a few moments where chunks of what would need to happen is just missing. This is good to the readability of the book because it cuts out what is possibly 'boring' and keeps the action moving at a swift pace, but it's also kind of jarring. It would be like I created a story where I had to get from New York City to California on foot. In New York I have to fight some zombie or something to escape the city and I do that in spectacular fashion and my victory ends a chapter. Next chapter I'm stepping over the state line into California where a zombie bird is waiting to do battle with me (which I also vanquish), but what about the middle stuff? A mention at least?
Complaint three. This is sort of a combination of the first two complaints. I'm going to put it in a spoiler. It's not really too much of a spoiler, but,
Complaint four. Star Wars. Too much here reminded me of the George Lucas films that have traumatized me because of their continued production after Revenge of the Jedi. The card soldiers resemble those droid fighting things from the unbearable episodes one through three. The imagination thing starts off as something creative and morphs into basically The Force, with all of the possible trappings that The Force has in the Lucas franchise. This isn't a major complaint, but it makes me fearful when I see too much Star Wars stuff start popping up (not that Star Wars was overly original, you know, it basically being a modern re-working of many myths and legends blah blah blah)
On the plus side though, even if there is some pretty obvious Star Wars borrowing going on, at least there is no trade war nonsense. Maybe that is being saved for a later book though.
Now if you've read through all of my whining I hope it doesn't scare you off of the book, if you were interested in reading dark and entertaining re-imagining of Alice. I thought it was a lot of fun while reading it, it's only when I would stop and think about some of the details that I would find fault with what was going on.
June 6, 2007
This book is terrible.
In theory, I like it. The idea behind it intrigues me, but the reality is that it is just so badly written. Good idea, very poor execution! Cliche characters! Stupid names! A writing style so awful it was almost physically painful to read!
Yet I'll probably read the sequel (sequels?) when it comes out. Clearly, I've learned nothing from reading this book.
In theory, I like it. The idea behind it intrigues me, but the reality is that it is just so badly written. Good idea, very poor execution! Cliche characters! Stupid names! A writing style so awful it was almost physically painful to read!
Yet I'll probably read the sequel (sequels?) when it comes out. Clearly, I've learned nothing from reading this book.
December 10, 2018
To the Carroll/Alice purists, don't read this book as a tribute/spin-off/etc and you'll be fine. To the rest of you, enjoy.
That said, let me say that I loved this book. I read Alice (Wonderland and Looking Glass) this past semester for a children's lit class so it was cool to approach this book with those stories so recently re-impressed on my mind. However, you definitely don't NEED those books close at hand to enjoy this book. In fact, as many Carroll lovers vehemently point out, this book is very different from the original Alice books. But then, if you want to get down to it, Beddor and the publisher make that quite clear...this is NOT the Alice you know. Lewis Carroll got it all wrong .
That's not to say you won't find it interesting to have some Alice/Carroll knowledge hanging around. Beddor does a good job of showing us tidbits of "true" history in this story. He weaves in bits of Alice's and Carroll's history throughout the story. But it's not essential that you know what is "fact" and what is "fiction" in order to enjoy this.
So, approach this book like you would any good adventure-fantasy book and prepare to be amazed. While his concepts are not entirely unique, Beddor does a great way of weaving them together in new and intriguing ways to weave together a great story. Some of the characters familiar to you from the earlier Alice books will be present, but they will take on exciting and interesting new roles. The world of Wonderland is a complex place will interesting rules and methods not present in Carroll's Wonderland.
The thrust of the plot is a political power struggle and the war that results. Even then, the politics are fairly lightweight and don't detract from the other main plot. The other main plot is one that remains strangely true to the original Alice...the heart of that plot being Alyss' struggle for personal identity. Alyss is tossed into our non-wonderful world and finds herself mocked and misunderstood for her vivid imagination and wild stories about Wonderland. After a long time of struggling, her despair gets the better of her and she denies her previous self. (possible spoiler) When she gets back to Wonderland, she has to struggle with that identity of her past and rekindle her belief and sense of wonder in order to help win the war.
The characters were great. The introspection with Alyss, particularly as we approach and climax at the final battle, is exquisitely drawn out. Hatter is a bit stoic for my taste, but believable. And I wanted a little more out of Dodge at the end of the book.
My two main criticisms with the book are: time and dialog.
TIME
Time passes VERY quickly and sporadically in this book. Sometimes spanning years in a couple of sentences and other times very drawn out (there's actually a sort of suspension of time as Alyss attempts a certain test, but I won't spoil that by explaining it). Most of the time, this worked well. But there were quite a few times where I found myself disoriented and trying to figure out 'when' I was. This was particularly the case during the main chapters following Alyss' life in 'our world.' She enters our world at age 7. I had a hard time distinguishing how long she actually spent on the (spoilers?) streets with the orphans, how long in the orphanage, how long with the Liddell's before meeting Dodgson, how long..., how long..., etc. Time whipped by.
While I admit that the "real world" wasn't the crux of the story, I would like to have seen the architecture of the timeline stabilized a bit more. It was also problematic to try and gauge distances by time as Alyss and her company trekked across the landscape of Wonderland under Redd's ever attentive eye and her Seekers. My thinking was that some of these journeys should have taken days...or weeks. And yet we're not given any indication as to duration which left it feeling like hours or minutes. This is especially true for me as the group makes their final trek to mount the final assault against Redd. Based on the descriptions of the landscape, I expected this to take a day or more. However, the reactions of Redd and her group made it feel like it was a quick trip...couple that with the way Alyss and company actually approach, and it gets even shorter.
So time was off-putting to me.
DIALOG
The dialog was generally really very, very good. Lines felt sincere and true to the characters. The tone and voice was consistent and sounded good.
My main difficulty was in lack of speaker acknowledgment at times. There were occasions where a line or two of dialog appears suddenly without any "Alyss said" or "Hatter grunted" or any of that. Usually you could figure it out by context, but I found myself having to reread some lines to be sure.
The most common were in the handful of exclamations that were more sound than dialog -- "Aah", for example. It's a great effect that jolts the reader into the sense of shock or pain of the character, but without an identifier, it distracted from the moment if I had to try and deduce which character just got slammed or whatever.
The other problem was that the words and phrases sometimes sounded too modern for the time. I can write some of this away by the explanation of the relation between Wonderland and our world. It seems that (as evidenced by the inventions sent through the heart crystal), our world is somewhat behind Wonderland and relies on Wonderland for its innovation and progress. If that's the case, then this could be presented as an explanation (albeit rickety) for the modern tone of some of the speech.
____________________________________
Still. All in all, I loved this and look forward to the next book in the series.
****
3.5 out of 5 stars.
That said, let me say that I loved this book. I read Alice (Wonderland and Looking Glass) this past semester for a children's lit class so it was cool to approach this book with those stories so recently re-impressed on my mind. However, you definitely don't NEED those books close at hand to enjoy this book. In fact, as many Carroll lovers vehemently point out, this book is very different from the original Alice books. But then, if you want to get down to it, Beddor and the publisher make that quite clear...this is NOT the Alice you know. Lewis Carroll got it all wrong .
That's not to say you won't find it interesting to have some Alice/Carroll knowledge hanging around. Beddor does a good job of showing us tidbits of "true" history in this story. He weaves in bits of Alice's and Carroll's history throughout the story. But it's not essential that you know what is "fact" and what is "fiction" in order to enjoy this.
So, approach this book like you would any good adventure-fantasy book and prepare to be amazed. While his concepts are not entirely unique, Beddor does a great way of weaving them together in new and intriguing ways to weave together a great story. Some of the characters familiar to you from the earlier Alice books will be present, but they will take on exciting and interesting new roles. The world of Wonderland is a complex place will interesting rules and methods not present in Carroll's Wonderland.
The thrust of the plot is a political power struggle and the war that results. Even then, the politics are fairly lightweight and don't detract from the other main plot. The other main plot is one that remains strangely true to the original Alice...the heart of that plot being Alyss' struggle for personal identity. Alyss is tossed into our non-wonderful world and finds herself mocked and misunderstood for her vivid imagination and wild stories about Wonderland. After a long time of struggling, her despair gets the better of her and she denies her previous self. (possible spoiler) When she gets back to Wonderland, she has to struggle with that identity of her past and rekindle her belief and sense of wonder in order to help win the war.
The characters were great. The introspection with Alyss, particularly as we approach and climax at the final battle, is exquisitely drawn out. Hatter is a bit stoic for my taste, but believable. And I wanted a little more out of Dodge at the end of the book.
My two main criticisms with the book are: time and dialog.
TIME
Time passes VERY quickly and sporadically in this book. Sometimes spanning years in a couple of sentences and other times very drawn out (there's actually a sort of suspension of time as Alyss attempts a certain test, but I won't spoil that by explaining it). Most of the time, this worked well. But there were quite a few times where I found myself disoriented and trying to figure out 'when' I was. This was particularly the case during the main chapters following Alyss' life in 'our world.' She enters our world at age 7. I had a hard time distinguishing how long she actually spent on the (spoilers?) streets with the orphans, how long in the orphanage, how long with the Liddell's before meeting Dodgson, how long..., how long..., etc. Time whipped by.
While I admit that the "real world" wasn't the crux of the story, I would like to have seen the architecture of the timeline stabilized a bit more. It was also problematic to try and gauge distances by time as Alyss and her company trekked across the landscape of Wonderland under Redd's ever attentive eye and her Seekers. My thinking was that some of these journeys should have taken days...or weeks. And yet we're not given any indication as to duration which left it feeling like hours or minutes. This is especially true for me as the group makes their final trek to mount the final assault against Redd. Based on the descriptions of the landscape, I expected this to take a day or more. However, the reactions of Redd and her group made it feel like it was a quick trip...couple that with the way Alyss and company actually approach, and it gets even shorter.
So time was off-putting to me.
DIALOG
The dialog was generally really very, very good. Lines felt sincere and true to the characters. The tone and voice was consistent and sounded good.
My main difficulty was in lack of speaker acknowledgment at times. There were occasions where a line or two of dialog appears suddenly without any "Alyss said" or "Hatter grunted" or any of that. Usually you could figure it out by context, but I found myself having to reread some lines to be sure.
The most common were in the handful of exclamations that were more sound than dialog -- "Aah", for example. It's a great effect that jolts the reader into the sense of shock or pain of the character, but without an identifier, it distracted from the moment if I had to try and deduce which character just got slammed or whatever.
The other problem was that the words and phrases sometimes sounded too modern for the time. I can write some of this away by the explanation of the relation between Wonderland and our world. It seems that (as evidenced by the inventions sent through the heart crystal), our world is somewhat behind Wonderland and relies on Wonderland for its innovation and progress. If that's the case, then this could be presented as an explanation (albeit rickety) for the modern tone of some of the speech.
____________________________________
Still. All in all, I loved this and look forward to the next book in the series.
****
3.5 out of 5 stars.
August 23, 2010
In a nutshell: Fantastic idea, horribly executed.
The writing did nothing for it. I almost never start on an author's writing style but in this case, it was a significant factor in how I viewed the book. The style described too much in the wrong cases, not enough with the right ones. There was also a lot of telling rather than showing. The short, almost inconsiderate descriptions of the character's feelings made it seem false. I couldn't get a grasp on the characters at all.
This was an absolutely brilliant idea. If it had been executed differently, this could have risen to Harry Potter status--or at least, it would have had the potential to. The idea was fresh, new and incredible. It just...never took off the ground for me. I found myself skipping pages and I would still know exactly what was going on.
Writing aside, nothing anchored me to the characters. Even if you hate a character, that means that there was enough given that you're CAPABLE of hating them. It means that they were put through situations and were complete and total idiots and did a million things wrong and you hate their guts for it. But at least you have the proof. When you can't even cast an opinion on a character...oooh, well, that just goes to show that you weren't shown much. But Dodge and Alyss had such incredible potential! I just wish they were shown better. I could have really come to love them as characters. Same goes for the antagonist. Redd was downright creepy at first, but she quickly lost credibility.
The dialog required much-needed help. It was mostly in the dialog that I lost the characters. Even with the sometimes skimpy writing, dialog can pick up the slack. Not in this case, though.
I wrote a review for this now because I'm 95% certain that I won't be picking it up again. If I ever have children, I would try it out on them because it's more of a read out loud kind of book. But for readers who have a preference for more complex, lyrical writing that must be read inwardly, I don't recommend this book to you.
I gave it a B- because I respect the idea so much. It wouldn't feel right to bring it lower than "B" status. Perhaps if Frank Beddor writes another series, I would take a chance on it. Otherwise, I'm not venturing into Wonderland again.
The writing did nothing for it. I almost never start on an author's writing style but in this case, it was a significant factor in how I viewed the book. The style described too much in the wrong cases, not enough with the right ones. There was also a lot of telling rather than showing. The short, almost inconsiderate descriptions of the character's feelings made it seem false. I couldn't get a grasp on the characters at all.
This was an absolutely brilliant idea. If it had been executed differently, this could have risen to Harry Potter status--or at least, it would have had the potential to. The idea was fresh, new and incredible. It just...never took off the ground for me. I found myself skipping pages and I would still know exactly what was going on.
Writing aside, nothing anchored me to the characters. Even if you hate a character, that means that there was enough given that you're CAPABLE of hating them. It means that they were put through situations and were complete and total idiots and did a million things wrong and you hate their guts for it. But at least you have the proof. When you can't even cast an opinion on a character...oooh, well, that just goes to show that you weren't shown much. But Dodge and Alyss had such incredible potential! I just wish they were shown better. I could have really come to love them as characters. Same goes for the antagonist. Redd was downright creepy at first, but she quickly lost credibility.
The dialog required much-needed help. It was mostly in the dialog that I lost the characters. Even with the sometimes skimpy writing, dialog can pick up the slack. Not in this case, though.
I wrote a review for this now because I'm 95% certain that I won't be picking it up again. If I ever have children, I would try it out on them because it's more of a read out loud kind of book. But for readers who have a preference for more complex, lyrical writing that must be read inwardly, I don't recommend this book to you.
I gave it a B- because I respect the idea so much. It wouldn't feel right to bring it lower than "B" status. Perhaps if Frank Beddor writes another series, I would take a chance on it. Otherwise, I'm not venturing into Wonderland again.
September 30, 2018
I was a little bit disappointed by this book, not gonna lie. The idea was SO interesting and had so much potential! It’s definitely one of the most original Alice retellings I’ve read, it was unique and I loved it! But what left me feeling disappointed was how juvenile the writing was. I know it’s classified as a YA novel but at times it felt like I was reading a children’s book, that’s how juvenile the writing felt to me.
July 8, 2023
I could easily compose a rant about how this book sucks so hard that light has a hard time escaping its gravity well, but instead of just bashing let's take an objective look at why this book is so very very bad.
The Looking Glass Wars is a triumph of artistic design and marketing. The concept is immediately simple and intriguing. Wonderland is real. Alice Liddell was a princess on the run and Lewis Carroll mangled the truth. Alyss grows up and goes back to save a ruined Wonderland. The cover art is amazing, and the book is filled with things that fantasy lovers adore like maps and timelines. There is a website where you can play games related to the book, or buy a CD of atmospheric music to listen to while you read. There is even a comic book series about one of the secondary characters. How cool, right?
Unfortunately the actual book is a mess. I can't grasp why there are so many positive reviews of this book, and it seems that many of the people who like it say that the people who don't just couldn't handle the manipulation of the original story. Listen, I've got no problem with that. I think the concept is loaded with potential. It is just a bad book. And I can't even say, "But that's just my opinion." It is clearly very poorly written. I mean the author has characters say "Noooooo!" Who does that? Four times, when confronted with bad situations, characters in this novel actually shout "Nooooooo!" On film it would play as a bad joke, but in literature it is just inexcusable.
Almost nothing is sufficiently described. There are lots of talking and fighting chessmen in the book, but we're never told exactly what that means. Are they anthropomorphic rooks and bishops with arms and legs, or people that wear armor in the shapes of those pieces, or robots like Redd's card soldiers? We are never told, and they play a big part in the narrative. And orb generators. I still don't know what an orb generator does. They wield it like some type of gun, and I would imagine that it generates orbs, but apparently it just shoots orb generators. Like a bad guy can come in holding an orb generator and fire it and then it says that the good guys then had to dodge all of the orb generators flying around. I guess that means what they really are is orb generator generators, if what they really generate is orb generators. Great job, you wacky author you.
And let's talk about Redd and Alyss' imagination powers. Apparently they can imagine anything and it happens. Like Green Lantern, but better. So can they imagine money or jewels? If so why do they need workers in the mines? Alyss can't imagine a fire into being, but she can imagine a solid metal lid that floats down to put out the fire. What? If they can simply imagine food into existence, why are people going hungry? Why can you not imagine someone dead, but you can stab them to death with imaginary knives? It is implied that if Alyss' imagination was strong enough, she could imagine a whole army of soldiers. Then why do they have flesh and blood soldiers, and why do they have to build robot soldiers? If they can imagine guinea pigs and worms into existence, then these characters have the godlike ability to create life from nothing but these ideas are never expanded on or dealt with. Just thrown in to get the story to the next chase scene. Which there are a lot of.
Who is this book written for? The violence and expensive spin-off materials ($75 for a Looking Glass Wars themed art book!) would imply adult readers, but the juvenile sense of humor would indicate otherwise. For example one character has a fat butt, and the book just goes on and on about this like I'm supposed to be giggling every time it is mentioned. He gets stuck in a chair and other characters have to tug him out. Hilarious, right? I share with you an exchange between prophetic caterpillars while they're getting high off their hookahs:
"I'm having the weirdest sense of deja vu right now," said the green caterpillar.
"Duh!" said the yellow caterpillar. "Do you think, just maybe, that's because you predicted this?"
"Oh, yeah."
The caterpillar council tittered.
I'm wrapping this up, because if you actually found that funny then there's not much I can do to change your mind. SOUND EFFECTS! Who does sound effects in literature? I mean come on! Here are some of my favorites:
Kabooooooorrrchk!
Thimp thimp thimp! Thimp thimp thimp!
Kraaaaawbooosh!
Zzzomp!
Clangk! Skrich-onk!
And from the big climactic battle:
Krrrrrkkkchsss! Hissszzzzl! Krrrch! Zzzzssszz!
I'm not making this up. I wish I was. In summation, this book is not fun, entertaining, or well written, and you should not read it.
The Looking Glass Wars is a triumph of artistic design and marketing. The concept is immediately simple and intriguing. Wonderland is real. Alice Liddell was a princess on the run and Lewis Carroll mangled the truth. Alyss grows up and goes back to save a ruined Wonderland. The cover art is amazing, and the book is filled with things that fantasy lovers adore like maps and timelines. There is a website where you can play games related to the book, or buy a CD of atmospheric music to listen to while you read. There is even a comic book series about one of the secondary characters. How cool, right?
Unfortunately the actual book is a mess. I can't grasp why there are so many positive reviews of this book, and it seems that many of the people who like it say that the people who don't just couldn't handle the manipulation of the original story. Listen, I've got no problem with that. I think the concept is loaded with potential. It is just a bad book. And I can't even say, "But that's just my opinion." It is clearly very poorly written. I mean the author has characters say "Noooooo!" Who does that? Four times, when confronted with bad situations, characters in this novel actually shout "Nooooooo!" On film it would play as a bad joke, but in literature it is just inexcusable.
Almost nothing is sufficiently described. There are lots of talking and fighting chessmen in the book, but we're never told exactly what that means. Are they anthropomorphic rooks and bishops with arms and legs, or people that wear armor in the shapes of those pieces, or robots like Redd's card soldiers? We are never told, and they play a big part in the narrative. And orb generators. I still don't know what an orb generator does. They wield it like some type of gun, and I would imagine that it generates orbs, but apparently it just shoots orb generators. Like a bad guy can come in holding an orb generator and fire it and then it says that the good guys then had to dodge all of the orb generators flying around. I guess that means what they really are is orb generator generators, if what they really generate is orb generators. Great job, you wacky author you.
And let's talk about Redd and Alyss' imagination powers. Apparently they can imagine anything and it happens. Like Green Lantern, but better. So can they imagine money or jewels? If so why do they need workers in the mines? Alyss can't imagine a fire into being, but she can imagine a solid metal lid that floats down to put out the fire. What? If they can simply imagine food into existence, why are people going hungry? Why can you not imagine someone dead, but you can stab them to death with imaginary knives? It is implied that if Alyss' imagination was strong enough, she could imagine a whole army of soldiers. Then why do they have flesh and blood soldiers, and why do they have to build robot soldiers? If they can imagine guinea pigs and worms into existence, then these characters have the godlike ability to create life from nothing but these ideas are never expanded on or dealt with. Just thrown in to get the story to the next chase scene. Which there are a lot of.
Who is this book written for? The violence and expensive spin-off materials ($75 for a Looking Glass Wars themed art book!) would imply adult readers, but the juvenile sense of humor would indicate otherwise. For example one character has a fat butt, and the book just goes on and on about this like I'm supposed to be giggling every time it is mentioned. He gets stuck in a chair and other characters have to tug him out. Hilarious, right? I share with you an exchange between prophetic caterpillars while they're getting high off their hookahs:
"I'm having the weirdest sense of deja vu right now," said the green caterpillar.
"Duh!" said the yellow caterpillar. "Do you think, just maybe, that's because you predicted this?"
"Oh, yeah."
The caterpillar council tittered.
I'm wrapping this up, because if you actually found that funny then there's not much I can do to change your mind. SOUND EFFECTS! Who does sound effects in literature? I mean come on! Here are some of my favorites:
Kabooooooorrrchk!
Thimp thimp thimp! Thimp thimp thimp!
Kraaaaawbooosh!
Zzzomp!
Clangk! Skrich-onk!
And from the big climactic battle:
Krrrrrkkkchsss! Hissszzzzl! Krrrch! Zzzzssszz!
I'm not making this up. I wish I was. In summation, this book is not fun, entertaining, or well written, and you should not read it.
September 11, 2007
Oh, by gosh by golly I loved this book. It's Alice in Wonderland on crack! Fabulous!
November 4, 2018
Audiobook #186
May 4, 2015
1 April 2015 Buddy Read with Figgy!
4-4.5 stars
Again, got distracted by loads of good books over the course of the month of April and have only just now gotten to finish this, but I did enjoy it very much. The story itself was detailed and engaging, the characters all very interesting in their reimaginings (The Cat in particular), and the whole thing just came across as so utterly creative. This is another book to add to my list of books that will always remind me of the infinite potential and strength of imagination, and for that it's beautiful.
4-4.5 stars
Again, got distracted by loads of good books over the course of the month of April and have only just now gotten to finish this, but I did enjoy it very much. The story itself was detailed and engaging, the characters all very interesting in their reimaginings (The Cat in particular), and the whole thing just came across as so utterly creative. This is another book to add to my list of books that will always remind me of the infinite potential and strength of imagination, and for that it's beautiful.
September 10, 2007
Let me say up front that I am a fan of almost anything that reworks a classic, as can probably be seen by the books on my GoodReads shelves.
I was nervous about this book for about thirty seconds, until I flipped to the full-color pages in the middle, which put my mind at ease and propelled me all the way to the check-out counter.
Princess Alyss Heart isn't really interested in being Queen of the Wonderlands someday. She's more interested in getting out of the palace with her friend from the royal guard, Dodge Andrews, and getting into a bit of trouble.
But when her ostricized aunt Redd storms the castle and engages her mother, Genevieve, in a battle of imaginations, Alyss must run for her life. She escapes the castle through her mother's private looking glass, which dumps her in the forest that borders the Pool of Tears. Along with Hatter Madigan, the dark, silent captain of the Queen's bodyguards, Alyss jumps into the Pool of Tears and is carried to a land far away, where she meets a young and uninspired writer who thinks that her stories of Wonderland are quite extraordinary.
I feel like I should expound on Hatter Madigan, as he totally made this book for me.
Hatter Madigan wears a long black trenchcoat, with a rucksack on his back, silver wristbands, and a high top hat that he never takes off, unless absolutely necessary. He is quick, acrobatic, quiet, and wields the throwing knives that protrude from his hat with chilling accuracy.
I honestly giggled when I saw his illustration.
And I'm afraid to read the sequel (Seeing Redd) because I don't want to finish so quickly that I have to wait ridiculous amounts of time for the third in the trilogy.
I suppose I'll just have to take that risk.
I was nervous about this book for about thirty seconds, until I flipped to the full-color pages in the middle, which put my mind at ease and propelled me all the way to the check-out counter.
Princess Alyss Heart isn't really interested in being Queen of the Wonderlands someday. She's more interested in getting out of the palace with her friend from the royal guard, Dodge Andrews, and getting into a bit of trouble.
But when her ostricized aunt Redd storms the castle and engages her mother, Genevieve, in a battle of imaginations, Alyss must run for her life. She escapes the castle through her mother's private looking glass, which dumps her in the forest that borders the Pool of Tears. Along with Hatter Madigan, the dark, silent captain of the Queen's bodyguards, Alyss jumps into the Pool of Tears and is carried to a land far away, where she meets a young and uninspired writer who thinks that her stories of Wonderland are quite extraordinary.
I feel like I should expound on Hatter Madigan, as he totally made this book for me.
Hatter Madigan wears a long black trenchcoat, with a rucksack on his back, silver wristbands, and a high top hat that he never takes off, unless absolutely necessary. He is quick, acrobatic, quiet, and wields the throwing knives that protrude from his hat with chilling accuracy.
I honestly giggled when I saw his illustration.
And I'm afraid to read the sequel (Seeing Redd) because I don't want to finish so quickly that I have to wait ridiculous amounts of time for the third in the trilogy.
I suppose I'll just have to take that risk.
November 8, 2011
This book has a really interesting premise and a cool take on a classic story. The characters are very interesting, especially Hatter Madigan, General Doppelganger, and Bibwit Harte.
My main problem with this book is that Beddor does not do a very good job of writing the story. It is sort of as though he is writing it like a person who is very impressed with the story they are telling you, rather than telling you a story that is impressive on its own. This is sort of strange, since the subject matter and characters basically hold their own, without the sometimes ridiculous embellisments of the author.
Some of the dialogue in the story is also sort of grating, especially most of the stuff Redd says, though this may be because the dialogue in Alice in Wonderland is somewhat over the top. Also, the semi-post-apocalyptic setting that gets set up during Redd's reign seems really out of place and sort of forces the story into the 1984 mold in a somewhat unnatural way. Rather than being dystopian, where these types of themes work really well, the world is just obviously oppressive. I am sort of obsessed with dystopian societies, so I am probably judging this too harshly.
Overall, I would reccommend this book, if only because it is a good story that introduces an interesting take on Alice in Wonderland. If you really liked AiW, then definitely read this book.
My main problem with this book is that Beddor does not do a very good job of writing the story. It is sort of as though he is writing it like a person who is very impressed with the story they are telling you, rather than telling you a story that is impressive on its own. This is sort of strange, since the subject matter and characters basically hold their own, without the sometimes ridiculous embellisments of the author.
Some of the dialogue in the story is also sort of grating, especially most of the stuff Redd says, though this may be because the dialogue in Alice in Wonderland is somewhat over the top. Also, the semi-post-apocalyptic setting that gets set up during Redd's reign seems really out of place and sort of forces the story into the 1984 mold in a somewhat unnatural way. Rather than being dystopian, where these types of themes work really well, the world is just obviously oppressive. I am sort of obsessed with dystopian societies, so I am probably judging this too harshly.
Overall, I would reccommend this book, if only because it is a good story that introduces an interesting take on Alice in Wonderland. If you really liked AiW, then definitely read this book.
August 30, 2015
This was alot of fun and an interesting spin on Wonderland.
It doesn't get in too deep with character development but there's still enough depth that I grew attached to everyone and I was soon on the edge of my seat:).
I loved the concept/mythology of Mr Beddor's Wonderland and White/Black Imagination, the Looking Glass Maze. Redd's army and inventions were pretty cool too, my favorite of them was the Glass Eyes.
Hatter Madigan, <3! My new book crush haha.
He reminded me of Black Widow in regards to his fighting prowess, that Hat weapon and wrist blades of his *thumbs up * :-D
It is slow in a couple spots but it picked back up again before too long.
The final battle was tense and kept me turning the pages but also felt rushed in spots. Not enough to throw me out of the story but *shrugs *
3.5 stars, already ordered the second book off amazon :)
*excuse any typos for now, on my phone at work*
Would recommend
It doesn't get in too deep with character development but there's still enough depth that I grew attached to everyone and I was soon on the edge of my seat:).
I loved the concept/mythology of Mr Beddor's Wonderland and White/Black Imagination, the Looking Glass Maze. Redd's army and inventions were pretty cool too, my favorite of them was the Glass Eyes.
Hatter Madigan, <3! My new book crush haha.
He reminded me of Black Widow in regards to his fighting prowess, that Hat weapon and wrist blades of his *thumbs up * :-D
It is slow in a couple spots but it picked back up again before too long.
The final battle was tense and kept me turning the pages but also felt rushed in spots. Not enough to throw me out of the story but *shrugs *
3.5 stars, already ordered the second book off amazon :)
*excuse any typos for now, on my phone at work*
Would recommend
March 10, 2011
A neat spin of "Alice in Wonderland." Yet unique in its own right. This story revolves around Alys (princess of Wonderland) who escapes to Earth to avoid being murdered by her Aunt Redd and the Cat assassin. Hatter M. is a special bodyguard who travels to Earth as well to protect Alys but is separated from her. His famous weapon is his hat (which I would love to own in real life!), which can become a spinning, deadly blade.
Back in Wonderland there is also Dodge, who was the son of a royal guardsmen and is now a mercenary fighting the evil Redd. And the Alyssian army also rebels against the new, false queen. There are several other characters that are based off the original story but Beddor has added his own twists to them.
The book is filled with fun little quips that make the reader smile. The story is easy to read, and moves at a good pace (mostly at least). My only concern was that the characters were not easy to feel and get into at times. Otherwise it is an enjoyable read and I am enjoying continuing the adventure with Beddor's other novels.
Back in Wonderland there is also Dodge, who was the son of a royal guardsmen and is now a mercenary fighting the evil Redd. And the Alyssian army also rebels against the new, false queen. There are several other characters that are based off the original story but Beddor has added his own twists to them.
The book is filled with fun little quips that make the reader smile. The story is easy to read, and moves at a good pace (mostly at least). My only concern was that the characters were not easy to feel and get into at times. Otherwise it is an enjoyable read and I am enjoying continuing the adventure with Beddor's other novels.
January 24, 2016
I really enjoyed this alternative story of Alice in Wonderland or may I say Alyss. It was lovely spending time reading this book. This is my second time reading it. The first time I was still in high school and I couldn't remember all the details so, I embarked on the Alyss journey once again. My ulterior motive albeit, was the fact that I want to read the rest of the series. To me this was the book that I enjoyed on these cold, winter nights and it was a great company that awakened my imagination. I lived through Alyss's narration the adventure and the tiny bit love story, and overall I had a wonderful time.
October 23, 2017
Imagination is power...
There are so many Alice retellings that i didnt expect much but I throughly enjoy it! The characters were all unique and new yet had the same Alice vibes that we all know and love. I also really liked the Alyss isnt like Alice but the princess of wonderland. It was very unique and an excellent read!
I really enjoyed the details, not only the writing but the visuals. All the little details on the pages and the colored pictures in the middle made the story come to life even more!
There are so many Alice retellings that i didnt expect much but I throughly enjoy it! The characters were all unique and new yet had the same Alice vibes that we all know and love. I also really liked the Alyss isnt like Alice but the princess of wonderland. It was very unique and an excellent read!
I really enjoyed the details, not only the writing but the visuals. All the little details on the pages and the colored pictures in the middle made the story come to life even more!
July 24, 2013
Read this one a while ago, but I still remember what made me love it so much. I can honestly say this is one of my all-time favorites. I'm not exactly a picky reader or rater, but to be added to my favorites shelf, a book has to be pretty damn special. And that is just what this book is. To help you decide if this book is for you, ask yourself the following:
Do you love Alice in Wonderland? (Yes)
Do you love a good, clean, real romance between childhood friends? (Of course you do!)
Do you love the Victorian era? (Duh)
Do you love strong heroines who aren't all "woe is me?" (Who doesn't?)
Are you into fantasy? (Naturally)
Do you like it when a book makes you want to curl up in the fetal position and bawl your eyes out? (I know ya do)
Do you adore hot, kick-ass dudes that actually treat girls with respect? (If you say no to this one, then you have issues, child)
Do awesome descriptions of gorgeous, magical, unique settings make you want to do a happy dance? (Absolutely)
If you answered yes to any of the above, then go forth and get this book! If it were legal to marry books, I would drop down on one knee and propose to this one...I need to get out more.
Do you love Alice in Wonderland? (Yes)
Do you love a good, clean, real romance between childhood friends? (Of course you do!)
Do you love the Victorian era? (Duh)
Do you love strong heroines who aren't all "woe is me?" (Who doesn't?)
Are you into fantasy? (Naturally)
Do you like it when a book makes you want to curl up in the fetal position and bawl your eyes out? (I know ya do)
Do you adore hot, kick-ass dudes that actually treat girls with respect? (If you say no to this one, then you have issues, child)
Do awesome descriptions of gorgeous, magical, unique settings make you want to do a happy dance? (Absolutely)
If you answered yes to any of the above, then go forth and get this book! If it were legal to marry books, I would drop down on one knee and propose to this one...I need to get out more.
September 11, 2016
Πολύ αγαπημένο μου βιβλίο!
Έχω μία ιδιαίτερη αδυναμία στην "Αλίκη στη Χώρα των Θαυμάτων",νιώθω ένα περίεργο δέσιμο,κι έτσι πάντα με προσελκύουν έργα εμπνευσμένα από την κλασική ιστορία.Κάποιες φορές είναι πετυχημένα,άλλες όχι.
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο το λάτρεψα-ουσιαστικά μας αφηγείται την "πραγματική" ιστορία της Αλύκης (κι όχι Αλίκης) και μας συστήνει σε πολλούς νέους χαρακτήρες.Βλέπουμε την Αλύκη κοριτσάκι αλλά και νεαρή γυναίκα,που παλεύει για το χαμένο της βασίλειο.Πολύ πρωτότυπη η υπόθεση,το ενδιαφέρον αμείωτο από την πρώτη μέχρι και την τελευταία σελίδα και οι χαρακτήρες εγιναν γρήγορα αγαπημένοι!Η ανάγνωση κυλάει σαν νεράκι.
Δυστυχώς,έχει αποσυρθεί από την κυκλοφορία-αν όμως το βρείτε σε κάποια βιβλιοθήκη ή πέσει στα χέρια σας,αφιερώστε του λίγο χρόνο!Μπορεί να απευθύνεται κυρίως σε εφηβικό κοινό,αξίζει όμως και με το παραπάνω να διαβαστεί από όλες τις ηλικίες.
[Είναι μέρος τριλογίας αλλά τα υπόλοιπα βιβλία δεν κυκλοφόρησαν στα ελληνικά.]
Έχω μία ιδιαίτερη αδυναμία στην "Αλίκη στη Χώρα των Θαυμάτων",νιώθω ένα περίεργο δέσιμο,κι έτσι πάντα με προσελκύουν έργα εμπνευσμένα από την κλασική ιστορία.Κάποιες φορές είναι πετυχημένα,άλλες όχι.
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο το λάτρεψα-ουσιαστικά μας αφηγείται την "πραγματική" ιστορία της Αλύκης (κι όχι Αλίκης) και μας συστήνει σε πολλούς νέους χαρακτήρες.Βλέπουμε την Αλύκη κοριτσάκι αλλά και νεαρή γυναίκα,που παλεύει για το χαμένο της βασίλειο.Πολύ πρωτότυπη η υπόθεση,το ενδιαφέρον αμείωτο από την πρώτη μέχρι και την τελευταία σελίδα και οι χαρακτήρες εγιναν γρήγορα αγαπημένοι!Η ανάγνωση κυλάει σαν νεράκι.
Δυστυχώς,έχει αποσυρθεί από την κυκλοφορία-αν όμως το βρείτε σε κάποια βιβλιοθήκη ή πέσει στα χέρια σας,αφιερώστε του λίγο χρόνο!Μπορεί να απευθύνεται κυρίως σε εφηβικό κοινό,αξίζει όμως και με το παραπάνω να διαβαστεί από όλες τις ηλικίες.
[Είναι μέρος τριλογίας αλλά τα υπόλοιπα βιβλία δεν κυκλοφόρησαν στα ελληνικά.]
November 24, 2015
Also on Inherently Bookish
I am saddened to say that this is my first 1-star rating in 2015. I was doing so well, reading books that weren't always perfect, and yet I always found something in them I could enjoy. And then my roommate recommended this book to me, and I found myself taking it. It seemed interesting: a completely new take on Alice In Wonderland, one in which Alice does not stumble blindly down a rabbit hole, but in which she is a princess of Wonderland, brought to Earth as a means of protection when her family is murdered by her evil Aunt Redd.
It could have been amazing. But was it?
No.
This was not a bad book. And yet, after finishing it, I couldn't name one thing about it in which I enjoyed.
While the premise may have been intriguing, the execution was not handled well.
The author tried to create something completely new, while also trying to keep the main characters that were so beloved in Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, he did not succeed. Most of the ways he twisted these characters made me raise my eyebrows, like the White Rabbit being a man with rather large ears named Bibwit Harte and Alice being named Alyss. I couldn't understand the author's decision to change the spelling of her name, other than it being a "clever ploy" to get the reader's attention. All of these changes seemed pointless and did not work for me.
The pacing itself was off, and I couldn't quite get a grip on the story. The novel itself spans at least fourteen years, from Alyss as a young girl at age 7, and continuing on until she was over the age of twenty. This is a very broad span of time for a novel to cover, and the author did not manage it well. It seemed choppy, with parts seeming to skim by without the reader having enough time to grasp the events that happened.
The storyline tried to be something different, and it was. But it just did not intrigue me. I found myself skimming pages, waiting for it to be over. I found a lot of the dialogue stinted, lacking a sense of realism that really hurt my enjoyment of the novel.
The only thing that caught my attention was the use of imagination as a sort of "superpower." Imagination in this novel was a tangible thing, in which the user could create anything they willed. Although intriguing, it wasn't explained enough, and it also seemed like a means for the main characters to do whatever they wanted with little to no challenge. Alyss loses her imagination when she leaves Wonderland, and yet she seems to get it back almost immediately after returning, and is soon more powerful than anyone else, despite only practicing a few limited times.
Overall, there was so much potential, but it just wasn't executed well. I will not be continuing with this series.
I am saddened to say that this is my first 1-star rating in 2015. I was doing so well, reading books that weren't always perfect, and yet I always found something in them I could enjoy. And then my roommate recommended this book to me, and I found myself taking it. It seemed interesting: a completely new take on Alice In Wonderland, one in which Alice does not stumble blindly down a rabbit hole, but in which she is a princess of Wonderland, brought to Earth as a means of protection when her family is murdered by her evil Aunt Redd.
It could have been amazing. But was it?
No.
This was not a bad book. And yet, after finishing it, I couldn't name one thing about it in which I enjoyed.
While the premise may have been intriguing, the execution was not handled well.
The author tried to create something completely new, while also trying to keep the main characters that were so beloved in Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, he did not succeed. Most of the ways he twisted these characters made me raise my eyebrows, like the White Rabbit being a man with rather large ears named Bibwit Harte and Alice being named Alyss. I couldn't understand the author's decision to change the spelling of her name, other than it being a "clever ploy" to get the reader's attention. All of these changes seemed pointless and did not work for me.
The pacing itself was off, and I couldn't quite get a grip on the story. The novel itself spans at least fourteen years, from Alyss as a young girl at age 7, and continuing on until she was over the age of twenty. This is a very broad span of time for a novel to cover, and the author did not manage it well. It seemed choppy, with parts seeming to skim by without the reader having enough time to grasp the events that happened.
The storyline tried to be something different, and it was. But it just did not intrigue me. I found myself skimming pages, waiting for it to be over. I found a lot of the dialogue stinted, lacking a sense of realism that really hurt my enjoyment of the novel.
The only thing that caught my attention was the use of imagination as a sort of "superpower." Imagination in this novel was a tangible thing, in which the user could create anything they willed. Although intriguing, it wasn't explained enough, and it also seemed like a means for the main characters to do whatever they wanted with little to no challenge. Alyss loses her imagination when she leaves Wonderland, and yet she seems to get it back almost immediately after returning, and is soon more powerful than anyone else, despite only practicing a few limited times.
Overall, there was so much potential, but it just wasn't executed well. I will not be continuing with this series.
January 13, 2011
The Looking Glass Wars is not really different from what I had expected. It is a well-constructed retelling, that places Alice as the Queen of Hearts' daughter and consequently the next-in-line for Wonderland's throne. When the evil Red Queen, Queen Genevieve's sister, attacks the palace with her army of card soldiers, Alice - or Alyss - is sent via the Pool of Tears tunnel to a parallel world - ours, but during the life-time of Lewis Carroll, by the Queen's faithful bodyguard Hatter Madigan (you know him), to keep her safe until things have calmed down. Is is kind of fun recognizing the elements of the well-known story and noticing how cleverly they are twisted. But nonetheless I feel inexplicably bored. Why I cannot say. A second sore spot is Alyss age and her behavior during the first chapters. Yes, even I dreamed of certain boys in kindergarden, and yes, I know, princesses start thinking about marriages and political alliances quite early, but that dancing-almost-kissing scene between seven year old Alyss and her ten year old devoted commoner friend Dodge of the royal guard and their respective hidden feelings for each other was depicted far too mature and lovey-dovey in an unrealistic sort of way to me. Add ten years each and it's alright. My opinion is that if an author cannot even partly remember what it was like to be seven should avoid shoving the spotlight on a character of that particular age.
So, I decided to let the book drop at page 80. This is not meant as an discouragement to pick it up and try. Heads-off-screaming Queen Redd is fun and the Diamond Prince's deflated bottom a nice thing to visualize.
Tina, please assign another book to me. I am ready to switch.
So, I decided to let the book drop at page 80. This is not meant as an discouragement to pick it up and try. Heads-off-screaming Queen Redd is fun and the Diamond Prince's deflated bottom a nice thing to visualize.
Tina, please assign another book to me. I am ready to switch.
September 19, 2021
It's very odd when you don't remember adding a book to your ever-growing TBR pile. So when I eventually crossed paths with The Looking Glass Wars, well, I was intrigued that I never dove into it. After a quick debate, I just jumped into this without another thought.
I'll admit that it has been a while since I've read an Alice in Wonderland kind of retelling. I'll also admit that this was a lot of fun to listen to. Especially the little song towards the end of the book. In it, you will meet Alyss Heart. She is an orphan and the heir to Wonderland throne. Unfortunately, for her, that's not where the drama stops.
Nope. Her Aunt wants to murder her as well. So yeah. She's on the run for her life right now and things just aren't the same after she leaves Wonderland. After being in the real world, with a hat for a weapon, she is thrown into certain situations she never suspected would happen to her. I honestly enjoyed the adventure from start to finish.
The emotions I felt definitely surprised me and I'm looking forward to the sequel. I'm not sure what's going to happen but I can't wait for everything to be revealed to me. I just hope I can find the audiobook for it because this was so freaking easy to sit back and listen to. I need more wonderland adventures!
I'll admit that it has been a while since I've read an Alice in Wonderland kind of retelling. I'll also admit that this was a lot of fun to listen to. Especially the little song towards the end of the book. In it, you will meet Alyss Heart. She is an orphan and the heir to Wonderland throne. Unfortunately, for her, that's not where the drama stops.
Nope. Her Aunt wants to murder her as well. So yeah. She's on the run for her life right now and things just aren't the same after she leaves Wonderland. After being in the real world, with a hat for a weapon, she is thrown into certain situations she never suspected would happen to her. I honestly enjoyed the adventure from start to finish.
The emotions I felt definitely surprised me and I'm looking forward to the sequel. I'm not sure what's going to happen but I can't wait for everything to be revealed to me. I just hope I can find the audiobook for it because this was so freaking easy to sit back and listen to. I need more wonderland adventures!
January 6, 2010
Somewhere under a 4 for me. Maybe even as low as a 3.5.
The Looking Glass Wars is an alternate history retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass books. Beddor reimagines the children’s classic as non-fiction: Alyss Hart, a Wonderlander, comes to Earth in a time of crisis (her evil aunt Redd has attacked Wonderland in her quest to become the Queen of Hearts), and she finds herself in a far different reality. On Earth, she is just a young girl with no allies and a fading Imagination. When she is adopted by the Liddell family, and comes across the young deacon Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) she thinks she has found a sympathetic soul. She tells him her story -- which he then publishes in the drastically altered tale that we know. Disheartened, Alyss (now Alice) tries to adjust to life on Earth and forget about Wonderland. But all is not right in Wonderland, and the two worlds Alyss knows are about to collide.
For much of this book, I was fairly indifferent. It came highly recommended by a number of friends, and I am completely smitten with the Alice story and will read/watch* anything having to do with the insanely fabulous world Carroll created. So I really wanted to love this, and at times I did. But for much of the book (probably the first ½ or so), I just didn’t. I felt Beddor struggled to find the tone he wanted; it waffled back and forth between an imitation of Carroll’s light, irreverent style, and a more current, action-drama feel. Also, with attention divided between the two worlds, Wonderland and Earth, it never felt like either got the attention it deserved, and I never got to really live in either and experience it, which was disappointing. But there were moments when I got what I wanted, when the worlds became real and the action was compelling, and the tension was high and I was in it. I just wanted that to be more consistent.
Eventually, the book did find a middle path and start to come together, and I will say that I saw enough in it to like that I will certainly keep reading, and do not really regret spending the money on it. I am not saying this is not a good book, just that I wanted more, and didn’t quite get it.
On a side note, the card soldiers (idea and illustrations) was absolutely brilliant.
*And would you believe I missed Alice on SyFy? Remembered it was on when Ep 2 was nearly over. Really, desperately irritated with myself on that one. Esp. as the Mad Hatter in it is simply delicious. Must track it down and watch.
!!!SPOILERY!!!
I felt that some of the choices Beddor made were just kind of iffy and it sometimes made the story less believable, or at least questionable. Perhaps the biggest was his choice of the starting age for Alyss, combined with the love interest in Dodge. In the beginning of the story, Alyss is celebrating her 7th birthday. Dodge, her best friend and future guard, is three years older. Now, for those ages, I can believe that there may be some infatuation on the part of each child, and I can even believe that they are devoted to each other in their child’s way. I’m okay with it when you set them up as future love interests -- I don’t mind seeing early where this is going, and knowing who to root for. But I don’t buy it when you try to set them up as already in love and acting like star-crossed lovers. It’s too weighty for their ages, and it just seems a little silly at best, and a little creepy at worst. Their interaction was amateurish, which I guess it at the heart of my complaints with the book in general.
The second choice that bothered me was how easily things happened. As someone who works in film, I would have expected Beddor to be a little more concerned with the journey and the struggles that develop a story and add tension. I would feel tension building and I would think something was going to be thrilling and crucial, and instead it would end too quickly. As a result of the idea of Imagination that Beddor set up, things came to easily and ruined the tension level.
I am looking forward to reading book 2: Seeing Redd, and I have high hopes that with experience, Beddor will improve and do the story credit; he’s a good storyteller, just not necessarily as good a writer -- yet.
Bonus materials and what not on the blog.
The Looking Glass Wars is an alternate history retelling of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass books. Beddor reimagines the children’s classic as non-fiction: Alyss Hart, a Wonderlander, comes to Earth in a time of crisis (her evil aunt Redd has attacked Wonderland in her quest to become the Queen of Hearts), and she finds herself in a far different reality. On Earth, she is just a young girl with no allies and a fading Imagination. When she is adopted by the Liddell family, and comes across the young deacon Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) she thinks she has found a sympathetic soul. She tells him her story -- which he then publishes in the drastically altered tale that we know. Disheartened, Alyss (now Alice) tries to adjust to life on Earth and forget about Wonderland. But all is not right in Wonderland, and the two worlds Alyss knows are about to collide.
For much of this book, I was fairly indifferent. It came highly recommended by a number of friends, and I am completely smitten with the Alice story and will read/watch* anything having to do with the insanely fabulous world Carroll created. So I really wanted to love this, and at times I did. But for much of the book (probably the first ½ or so), I just didn’t. I felt Beddor struggled to find the tone he wanted; it waffled back and forth between an imitation of Carroll’s light, irreverent style, and a more current, action-drama feel. Also, with attention divided between the two worlds, Wonderland and Earth, it never felt like either got the attention it deserved, and I never got to really live in either and experience it, which was disappointing. But there were moments when I got what I wanted, when the worlds became real and the action was compelling, and the tension was high and I was in it. I just wanted that to be more consistent.
Eventually, the book did find a middle path and start to come together, and I will say that I saw enough in it to like that I will certainly keep reading, and do not really regret spending the money on it. I am not saying this is not a good book, just that I wanted more, and didn’t quite get it.
On a side note, the card soldiers (idea and illustrations) was absolutely brilliant.
*And would you believe I missed Alice on SyFy? Remembered it was on when Ep 2 was nearly over. Really, desperately irritated with myself on that one. Esp. as the Mad Hatter in it is simply delicious. Must track it down and watch.
!!!SPOILERY!!!
I felt that some of the choices Beddor made were just kind of iffy and it sometimes made the story less believable, or at least questionable. Perhaps the biggest was his choice of the starting age for Alyss, combined with the love interest in Dodge. In the beginning of the story, Alyss is celebrating her 7th birthday. Dodge, her best friend and future guard, is three years older. Now, for those ages, I can believe that there may be some infatuation on the part of each child, and I can even believe that they are devoted to each other in their child’s way. I’m okay with it when you set them up as future love interests -- I don’t mind seeing early where this is going, and knowing who to root for. But I don’t buy it when you try to set them up as already in love and acting like star-crossed lovers. It’s too weighty for their ages, and it just seems a little silly at best, and a little creepy at worst. Their interaction was amateurish, which I guess it at the heart of my complaints with the book in general.
The second choice that bothered me was how easily things happened. As someone who works in film, I would have expected Beddor to be a little more concerned with the journey and the struggles that develop a story and add tension. I would feel tension building and I would think something was going to be thrilling and crucial, and instead it would end too quickly. As a result of the idea of Imagination that Beddor set up, things came to easily and ruined the tension level.
I am looking forward to reading book 2: Seeing Redd, and I have high hopes that with experience, Beddor will improve and do the story credit; he’s a good storyteller, just not necessarily as good a writer -- yet.
Bonus materials and what not on the blog.
November 14, 2009
Book: The Looking Glass Wars (The Looking Glass Wars, #1)
Author: Frank Beddor
Awesomeness level: 5/5
Began: November 9, 2009
Finished: November 14, 2009
It was a long time ago when I saw Seeing Redd, Frank Beddor's second book in The Looking Glass Wars trilogy, at Barnes & Noble. Back then, I didn't care about it, I didn't know that I'd finish The Looking Glass Wars at 3:22 in the morning, not willing to sleep until I knew how the first book ended. I didn't know I'd squeal with excitment when Hatter Madigan or any other characters supporting White Imagination were mentioned.
In short, I didn't know how amazing this book would be.
Alyss Heart is seven years old when the fantastic story begins, and separated from her parents when her murderous aunt Redd attacks the Heart Palace, wanting the crown for herself. Alyss and her bodygaurd, Hatter Madigan, escape on the Queen's orders to the Pool of Tears. Where does it lead? No one knows, for the simple reason that no one's ever returned.
Where does it lead?
The Pool of Tears leads to a very strange world--Our own.
Alyss and Hatter are separated, Alyss turns up in Victorian London, Hatter in Paris.
Hatter spends 13 years searching the world for her, detirmined to find her so they can return to Wonderland and battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
Alyss, meanwhile, is told her stories of Wonderland are rubbish, but she knows better...Right?
Will Hatter and Alyss find each other, and can she succed in battling her evil aunt Redd?
Author: Frank Beddor
Awesomeness level: 5/5
Began: November 9, 2009
Finished: November 14, 2009
It was a long time ago when I saw Seeing Redd, Frank Beddor's second book in The Looking Glass Wars trilogy, at Barnes & Noble. Back then, I didn't care about it, I didn't know that I'd finish The Looking Glass Wars at 3:22 in the morning, not willing to sleep until I knew how the first book ended. I didn't know I'd squeal with excitment when Hatter Madigan or any other characters supporting White Imagination were mentioned.
In short, I didn't know how amazing this book would be.
Alyss Heart is seven years old when the fantastic story begins, and separated from her parents when her murderous aunt Redd attacks the Heart Palace, wanting the crown for herself. Alyss and her bodygaurd, Hatter Madigan, escape on the Queen's orders to the Pool of Tears. Where does it lead? No one knows, for the simple reason that no one's ever returned.
Where does it lead?
The Pool of Tears leads to a very strange world--Our own.
Alyss and Hatter are separated, Alyss turns up in Victorian London, Hatter in Paris.
Hatter spends 13 years searching the world for her, detirmined to find her so they can return to Wonderland and battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
Alyss, meanwhile, is told her stories of Wonderland are rubbish, but she knows better...Right?
Will Hatter and Alyss find each other, and can she succed in battling her evil aunt Redd?
July 4, 2017
Somewhere along the way I became obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. Not quite sure when and why. Well, I think it's the weirdness and the color of the world. The darkness is there, but this book definitely brings it to the forefront. I am continually looking for more stories built on the Alice in Wonderland concept. This really fits the bill.
What if there truly was a war between the Red Queen and the White Queens? What if being queen endowed the ruler with unfathomable powers of imagination that can be used for good or bad? What if two sisters became mortal enemies, even to the degree that one would plot and execute a bloody takeover? That's the plot of this book.
I liked how Alice in Wonderland is treated as a real story that was wrongly interpreted. Alyss is taken by her bodyguard (when Wonderland falls to Queen Redd's assault) to Victorian England through a magical fountain to save her life. She's separated from her bodyguard and has to fend for herself in England. Initially she has her power of imagination but it fades the longer she is away from Wonderland. She ends up getting adopted by a vicar's family and goes under the name of Alice Liddell (the girl to whom Lewis Carroll first told his Alice in Wonderland story). She tells her story to another young vicar who plagarizes and changes some information. For instance, Alyss's name was spelled wrong. Alyss's bodyguard is Hatter Madigan, sort of what would happen if the Mad Hatter was a ninja and used his hat as a glaive spinning weapon. That part was really cool. I liked Alyss. She's young and strong-willed, and grows a lot over the course of this book. She was a bit spoiled at first, but tremendous loss shapes her into a young woman who will be an excellent ruler.
This is a dark and bloody read. Queen Redd is irredeemably evil. She wreaks a lot havoc due to her corrupt, hate-filled heart and need for revenge and constant adulation. She has no qualms about murdering her family, including her young niece. She makes a lot of people miserable, even when she doesn't kill them.
I liked how Beddor takes the story of Alice and Wonderland and creates his own series around it. Most of the elements are there, but with nice twists. The romance aspect is new to this story, but it was likeable, as well as the character of Dodge Anders, who is Alyss' love interest. The Cheshire Cat becomes a genetically modified assassin with nine lives who claims more than a few lives. The White Rabbit is a learned adviser to the Queen. The playing card army is divides into two factions, one loyal to the original queen and become freedom fighters in Alyss's name, and the genetically modified and degenerate creation of Queen Redd's black imaginations.
This is a good book for tweens and teens who like this sort of fantasy. It's too scary and bloody for younger readers. It has a lot of good action sequences and that magic of Wonderland is exquisitely illustrated through the narrative. I enjoyed listening to it, and I will pick up the next volumes on audiobook as well.
What if there truly was a war between the Red Queen and the White Queens? What if being queen endowed the ruler with unfathomable powers of imagination that can be used for good or bad? What if two sisters became mortal enemies, even to the degree that one would plot and execute a bloody takeover? That's the plot of this book.
I liked how Alice in Wonderland is treated as a real story that was wrongly interpreted. Alyss is taken by her bodyguard (when Wonderland falls to Queen Redd's assault) to Victorian England through a magical fountain to save her life. She's separated from her bodyguard and has to fend for herself in England. Initially she has her power of imagination but it fades the longer she is away from Wonderland. She ends up getting adopted by a vicar's family and goes under the name of Alice Liddell (the girl to whom Lewis Carroll first told his Alice in Wonderland story). She tells her story to another young vicar who plagarizes and changes some information. For instance, Alyss's name was spelled wrong. Alyss's bodyguard is Hatter Madigan, sort of what would happen if the Mad Hatter was a ninja and used his hat as a glaive spinning weapon. That part was really cool. I liked Alyss. She's young and strong-willed, and grows a lot over the course of this book. She was a bit spoiled at first, but tremendous loss shapes her into a young woman who will be an excellent ruler.
This is a dark and bloody read. Queen Redd is irredeemably evil. She wreaks a lot havoc due to her corrupt, hate-filled heart and need for revenge and constant adulation. She has no qualms about murdering her family, including her young niece. She makes a lot of people miserable, even when she doesn't kill them.
I liked how Beddor takes the story of Alice and Wonderland and creates his own series around it. Most of the elements are there, but with nice twists. The romance aspect is new to this story, but it was likeable, as well as the character of Dodge Anders, who is Alyss' love interest. The Cheshire Cat becomes a genetically modified assassin with nine lives who claims more than a few lives. The White Rabbit is a learned adviser to the Queen. The playing card army is divides into two factions, one loyal to the original queen and become freedom fighters in Alyss's name, and the genetically modified and degenerate creation of Queen Redd's black imaginations.
This is a good book for tweens and teens who like this sort of fantasy. It's too scary and bloody for younger readers. It has a lot of good action sequences and that magic of Wonderland is exquisitely illustrated through the narrative. I enjoyed listening to it, and I will pick up the next volumes on audiobook as well.
August 23, 2015
Full review on my blog, the Snark Theater.
The book is pretty lackluster in terms of character development, but it's really the only flaw I can give it. The story does otherwise an excellent job of establishing the world, and connecting it to our own.
And the world of Wonderland is absolutely amazing. The book makes it a world of imagination, which even inspires the imaginary of all other worlds—and it just…fits. It fits with the story, and it fits with the mythos of Wonderland in general, and I love it. This is how you do adaptation.
Great book, definitely do recommend.
The book is pretty lackluster in terms of character development, but it's really the only flaw I can give it. The story does otherwise an excellent job of establishing the world, and connecting it to our own.
And the world of Wonderland is absolutely amazing. The book makes it a world of imagination, which even inspires the imaginary of all other worlds—and it just…fits. It fits with the story, and it fits with the mythos of Wonderland in general, and I love it. This is how you do adaptation.
Great book, definitely do recommend.
June 26, 2014
It's an imaginative retelling of Alice In Wonderland, it's somewhere between 3 stars to 3.5 stars. I love the world building, the action scenes are nice and the plots keep me entertaining for the whole time. But I found almost all of the characters have no development and it's quite boring for the good guys to be always good and the villains to have no other purpose nor personality outside of being power-crazed, sadistic and well, just plain evil. Plus the Good vs. Evil theme is a bit too simple-minded to my liking.
November 9, 2012
It took me a while to accept some of the tropes of the original story as they melded with Beddor's more realistic portrayal - but once I accepted them, I really got into this book. I really liked Alyss and liked Dodge - would've enjoyed reading even more of him, actually. Hatter Madigan is also a wonderful character. This is definitely a series I plan to read more of.
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