Overall rating: This book has saved the looking glass wars series.

When you start a trilogy and you’re impressed by what you read in the first book, you have to finish it. Right? Archenemy , please try to ignore the super cheesy name, is the third and final book in the Looking Glass Wars trilogy. The Looking Glass Wars is a re imagining of Alice in Wonderland with a odd sci-fi twist to it. It has nothing to with Lewis Carol. It plays out very much like Syfy’s Tinman or Alice which are very big rip offs of these books.
So start off with, when I bought the book, the review said it was good. Yet I loved the first book and the second book was just a let down. It was mostly told from a political stand point. So this book had to be damn impressive to suck me back in. And it was.
In this book Alyss gets out in the middle of the action again. She’s not just standing around and giving orders in this book. (Like in the second one)
The book takes place after a machine WILMA, created by King Arch wipes out imagination. Alyss finds her self powerless. Redd does too. After Arch takes over the Queendon, they join forces to save the heart crystal that Arch wants to destroy. It is the source of imagination in Wonderland and Earth. Also the royal heat family has been using it for years and doing what they will with the power given to them. Because this has happened, the King and Queen of clubs are in a revolt against the idea of a single queen having nearly all the imagination. With all these sides taking offense, it is a battle for imagination.
Not only that. Through out the story, the caterpillar oracles pull different sides every which way making you wonder what their motives are. They say there will be a Ever queen. But nobody really knows what that means until the end.
The good. This book has saved the trilogy. After that second one, I was reluctant to read this one. But it is well worth the read.
The Bad. Even though this a re imagining of Alice in Wonderland, it really doesn’t gave us anything new other than what was in the original book. The original was new, fresh, smart and funny. This was entertaining but I just don’t feel ha the same charm the original did. But that may just right be me. Second, Frank Beddor needs to desperately change the name of this book. It’s as corny as they come.
So overall, just read it. It’s worth your while. It has a great climax. It’s not a literary classic, but it’s fun and that’s all that counts.

3 1/2 smoothies out of four.

P.S. check out my book and ebook website at Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

So with that in mind this blog will blatently not be as good as it was when I thought it up last night and the entire point of it will probably be missed as often happens when I do this =p

As the title may suggest (though I havent thought up the title of this yet so it might not!) this blog is about Alice in Wonderland…the new film.  I’m not going to talk about the film per-say so this shouldnt have any spoilers in it (but lets be honest here…I’m pretty sure most people know the general gist of Alice in Wonderland anyway).

So I wouldnt call myself the biggest Alice fan…Im sure there are plenty people out there who are totally obsessed with all things Alice but I will list my interactions with the world:

• I’ve read various versions of Louis Carrols ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and also ‘Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There’.
• I’ve heard the book read on the radio quite a few times.
• I’m not sure if Ive seen the Disney cartoon (though I probably have at least once) but I do remember we had the Disney book and tape (can you remember those, they had the Disney pictures then the story read along with the tape and a twinkle sound was played when you had to turn the page…I cant remember if they had some of the film songs on the tape too, most likely.  I remember we had quite a lot of them).
• I’ve read the first two in the Looking Glass Wars trilogy by Frank Beddor (though I’ve just found on his website that he’s wrote some about the Hatter too!).
• I’ve had American McGee’s Alice for well over a year now but I still havent finished it as I suck at computer games, the music scares me, and I havent had time to go on in ages.
• Bad Alice by Jean Ure (I only read it coz I liked the cover but it was a really good story too!).

Well Alice has inspired so many things that Im sure there is more (the matrix, Resident Evil [the films, not sure if the game is the same]…that song by Jefferson Airplane).

So that’s my little list I thought I would put in just for fun.  The main one to take note of is the game American McGee’s Alice.  Keep that one in the back of your head for later.

Right…so back to the new Alice in Wonderland…Disney; Tim Burton; Jonny Depp … awsome?  You would think.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally loved the film as a film but as Tim Burton it wasnt what I was expecting.  I thought I’d make a list (from IMDB) of anything I’ve seen that has Tim Burton’s name on it:

• Nightmare Before Christmas
• Corpse Bride
• Edward Scissorhands
• Mars Attacks!
• Alice in Wonderland
• 9 (ok I havent watched it yet but my mate had a copy that she just gave to me the other day)
• James and the Giant Peach
• Batman Forvever (that is the one with Jim Carrey as the riddler isnt it?)
• Ed Wood
• Beetle Juice
• Frankenweenie (apprently it’s getting remade but I watched the old one as its an extra on either my NBC or corpse bride dvd)
• Sweeney Todd
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Big Fish
• Vincent (another extra on said dvd)

So I think that’s it (Yes I have never seen Sleepy Hollow [well I saw like 5 minutes once but Id missed so much I didnt know what was going on so I turned it off]).

So with those films in mind I do know that Burton does family orrientated films as well as slightly more macabre orrientated films.

When I was in the cinema just before Alice started I got a bit of a shock when I saw it was only a PG…I’m not sure why because obviously it was Disney Child orrientated so a 12 would be no good and a 12A is pretty much the same as a PG in my opinion.

Remember how I mentioned American McGee’s Alice earlier…well that is a darker version of wonderland, where an older Alice returns to try to kill the Queen of Hearts.  I guess I was expecting something like that.

Though I loved all the bright colours (which Im sure would have been even better on an HD screen) and the crazyness of the film which is quite Tim Burtony, I guess I just wanted it to be a bit more sadistic.

I have to admit though…the scenery when they were on the chess board did look very American McGee which kinda cheered me up but also made me think “hey wait a minute!!” (mann I guess I can’t be satisfied).

I may have just slagged the film off slightly….or more precisly wasted your time and mine…but I did really enjoy the film and it better still be on at the IMAX when I go home for easter so I can see it in 3D HD!  One thing I loved was that Alice was the only fully human looking person in wonderland, further enforcing the fact that she’s “not in kansas anymore”

Oh…just 2 problem…Helena Bonham Carter played the Red Queen though she kept saying off with her head which is what the queen of heats says NOT the red queen (though they often get dumped together and even I get confused!). And at one point when Jonny Depp was talking I thought mann I need a pause, rewind, play in slow motion to understand what he just said (yes I know it was part of his character but subtitles would have helped at that point lol).

I must say I loved the Cheshire Cat; the way he just rolled around…if anyone finds one please send it along to me as I want it!!

A weird thought I had last night before sleeping was this:

Zac Effron is Disney’s poster boy (well he used to be…I dont know if he still does lots of Disney stuff) and Jonny Depp is like Disney’s poster man (yea he does things other than Disney [he's more like Tim Burton's poster man which is awsome!] but he does do quite a lot of big Disney films)…I don’t know who Disney’s poster girl and woman is…I guess maybe Milley Cirus might be poster girl as Lindsey Lohan and Hillary Duff went off the Disney radar a while ago.

Oh I just found this: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/44170 : and it pretty much sums up how I feel about the film LOL.  As I said, it was awsome and I loved it and yea I’ll probably get the dvd…but I wish it could have been slightly better!

Frank Beddor re-imagined Wonderland in his trilogy The Looking Glass Wars. In his books, the true story of Wonderland, Alyss must fight to regain the throne of Wonderland, where all imagination comes from. Her enemies are The Cat, a nine-lived assassin, and Redd Heart, her aunt and the usurper of the throne. Alyss is helped by Hatter Madigan, her mother’s bodyguard, and the Alyssians of Wonderland.

Hatter M. stars in his own comic series, which details the years after he and Alyss were separated fleeing Wonderland through the Pools of Sorrow. He travels around Europe following those with the strongest white glow of Imagination, trying to find his princess.

Wonderland follows MaryAnn, the White Rabbit’s maid mentioned in the original book, as she follows the destruction left by “The Alice Monster.” The Queen of Hearts want to behead MaryAnn’s boss, various animal citizens of Wonderland want MaryAnn to take over Wonderland, and MaryAnn just wants to tidy things up.

While there is a Disney-esque flavor to the art, there is a bit more creepiness in the story. The Jabberwock and the three little girls from the treacle well make an appearance. We also meet other Royal Cards and learn where they have been all this time.

Favorite March Magazine: Marie Claire – Cover girls Jennifer Garner and Jessica Biel

Favorite Book: ArchEnemy: The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Favorite Nail Color: Taupe

Favorite Candle: Bella by illume in Capri Olive & Lemonwood

Favorite Part of the Weekend: SNOW DAY

Always eager for anything Alice (‘s Adventures in Wonderland)-related, I just finished the first book in Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars trilogy. Alice Liddell, known to the world as the young Victorian girl who inspired Lewis Carroll’s famous book, is really Alyss Heart, heir to the queendom of Wonderland. Wonderland is truly a place of wonder, where imagination is a powerful skill Wonderlandians must cultivate and train. Princess Alyss is just a rambunctious seven-year-old with a powerful imagination and a young love for Dodge, the son of the military commander, when her wicked Aunt Redd takes control of the palace and utters her famous verdict: Off with their heads! Alyss’ mother and Dodge’s father are murdered before their eyes. Hatter Madigan, the fierce and silent head of the Millinary, saves Alice by jumping with her into the Pool of Tears, a river from which no Wonderlandian has returned.

Separated in the current from Hatter Madigan, Alyss is transported to Victorian England, where she finds herself among a group of beggar children, then an orphanage, then adopted by the Liddells. Ridiculed and chastised for her stories of Wonderland, Alyss dares to tell her heartbreaking history to newfound friend Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson, who betrays her by turning her stories into a nonsensical children’s book. Alyss’ imaginative power begins to fade, and she slowly adapts to her new life and begins to question if Wonderland ever really existed. As the years pass, Hatter Madigan relentlessly searches the globe, determined to find the princess.

Just as Alyss is about to become part of Earth forever, fantasy declares war on reality. Attacked by Redd’s card soldiers who have invaded Earth, Alyss must return to Wonderland to find and complete the Looking Glass Maze, which will restore her to her full imaginative powers and allow her a chance at reclaiming her throne from Redd. Will Dodge and Alyss rekindle their old friendship, or will Dodge’s determination for revenge put Alyss and the rebel Alyssian army in danger? Will Alyss, a far cry from the warrior queen she was born to become, be able to harness the power of her imagination and defeat Redd – or will Black Imagination rule forever?

The Looking Glass Wars loosely uses Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Underground and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a framework for an inventive story about Princess Alyss, Wonderland, and the war between good and evil. Two of the most interesting things about the story is the concept of looking glass travel, a network of mirrors and reflections that take Wonderlandians throughout the city, and imaginative power. In Wonderland, anything can happen or come into being simply through imagination. At first, this seemed like an easy cop-out or major flaw – why couldn’t Alyss just imagine a perfect queendom and everything she wanted, after all? – but the book develops it into a skill which Wonderlandians have to develop, train, and exercise, and which can be used for good or evil.

Alyss is an interesting character – a rather annoying, but spirited, little princess who grows into an intelligent, brave, charming, beautiful young woman determined to fight the great odds against her and restore peace to her queendom. Hatter Madigan, a silent, steadfast, deadly militant, is one of my favorite characters. Redd is a great villain, but isn’t very developed – we know she was disowned and banished, but don’t get much insight into who she was before the civil war.

The Looking Glass Wars is followed by Seeing Redd and Arch Enemy. I liked The Looking Glass Wars, and I would recommend it, though I don’t know if I liked it enough to read the whole series.

Turns out Alice was real, but her name was Alyss Heart. And after escaping Wonderland and the wrath of a Redd, she tells her tale to Lewis Carroll in hopes someone from Wonderland will come to her aid. Carroll fouls up the story and gets countless details wrong, so Alice is left to fend for herself. That is, until she’s found by the Mad Hatter, her royal bodyguard named Hatter Madigan. Then things really get strange.

I’m a pretty open-minded guy, so I am willing to give this book a chance. Whether I’m willing to give the entire trilogy a chance, that’ll depend on whether I enjoy the first book when I ever get around to reading it. I like revisionist fiction, re-imagining established worlds and characters, and skewed views of what we take for granted. Frank Beddor’s work might be right up my alley … or those Wonderland die-hards might not be so out of line after all.

Frank Beddor and co-writer Liz Cavalier’s turn another chapter from The Looking Glass Wars into a superb graphic novel. As with the first book Hatter M,  Mad with Wonder has a gritty steampunk feel to it (which is currently my favorite genre, and thus one of the reasons I’m attracted to The Looking Glass Wars). This Wonderland turned antiquarian Matrix is an interesting story and an awesome ride.

Hatter Madigan, a member of an elite royal guard from Wonderland, returns in his search for the missing princess Alyss. Dogged by evil Queen Redd’s servants across the torrid landscape of America’s Civil War, Madigan chases the Glow to whomever emits it. Unfortunately it’s usually not Alyss.

Sam Makkonen’s gothic art style is fairly similar to Ben Templesmith’s (artist for Hatter M) and has the perfect level of macabre for Mad with Wonder. Makkonen’s art for this book reminds me of a rougher Dave McKean with a hint of Sam Keith, but in the end is completely and enjoyably unique.

A great read all the way around, and definitely at the top of my favorite graphic novels list.

I haven’t had a chance to read the book just yet, what with graduation approaching, but I did find a blurb on The Looking Glass Wars website.

“The war for Wonderland has become a war for Imagination!  King Arch has declared himself King of Wonderland as Alyss searches wildly for the solution to the metaphysical disaster that has engulfed her Queendom. The power of Imagination has been lost!  Alyss’s search for answers takes her to London where Arch’s assassins threaten Alice Liddell and her family. But after coming to her adopted family’s assistance, Alyss discovers herself trapped in a conundrum of evaporating puddles. The shimmering portals that exist to transport her home through the Pool of Tears are disappearing! What is happening in Wonderland? Deep within the Valley of Mushrooms the Caterpillar Oracles issue this prophecy: “Action shall be taken to ensure the safety of the Heart Crystal. For Everqueen.” But who is Everqueen?

As the metamorphosis of Wonderland unfolds, enemies become allies, bitter rivals face-off, and Queen Alyss and Redd Heart must confront their pasts in this thrilling, no-holds-barred conclusion to the New York Times best-selling series. Minus the power of Imagination it’s all about the artillery with King Arch, Redd Heart and Queen Alyss’s armies battling for control of Wonderland using AD52′s, crystal shooters, spikejack tumblers and orb cannons. Imagine that!”

I have high hopes for this novel, especially if it’s as good as the last two (The Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Redd).  If you’re a fan of retellings, Alice in Wonderland or just an amazing tale, go check our Frank Beddor’s newest title, Archenemy.

*  *  *

Author’s website:

http://www.lookingglasswars.com/home.html

Could you take a minute and explain what your novel The Looking Glass Wars is about?

Essentially, it is the TRUE story of Alyss OF Wonderland.

While in London for the U.K. premiere of There’s Something About Mary, I visited the British Museum where I came upon an exhibit of ancient cards – playing cards, Tarot cards, illuminated cards, cards Napoleon had hired artists to create illustrating his victories. There was also an incomplete deck that intrigued me. The images reminded me of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ but they were more mysterious and twisted, much more gothic. After that, I couldn’t stop thinking about those cards. Through a series of events, I met an antiquities dealer who owned the remaining cards from that deck. And the story he told me – as he revealed one card at a time, each with this incredible imagery – is the basis for the ‘Looking Glass Wars’ trilogy.”

The Looking Glass Wars became somewhat of a scandalous sensation in the U.K. when it debuted there in 2004 and revealed how Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, had willfully misrepresented the story of seven-year-old Alyss Heart, betraying the exiled princess of Wonderland by turning her painful history into a fairytale, when, in fact, it is a dark and dangerous depiction of familial treachery, thwarted love, and the despotic domination of imagination.

What the process was like for you in getting the book published?

Initially, frustrating but after being rejected by a number of publishers in the US I found a home at Egmont Books in London. After LGW’s success with the British edition I was able to interest Penguin in doing the trilogy.

Before becoming a successful novelist, you met with success in other fields as well. Would you mind talking a little about your background?

I was a pro freestyle skier when I first worked in Hollywood doing some stunt work in films. The experience was a good one and I stayed to do some acting and then some producing. In 1998 I produced There’s Something About Mary.

After the success of the film I formed Automatic Pictures to develop creative properties. I put a bunch of projects into development but at the same time was coming to realize that, as a producer, you’re a facilitator for the creative team, but what I really wanted to be was a creator. Once that seed had been planted in my mind, it was impossible to shake it loose and I started writing.

Are you or have you ever been a gamer? What has your gaming experience been like (board games, pen & paper RPGs, console & computer games, etc.)?

With the exception of HALO I have not played many console or computer games. My gaming roots go back a little further (several thousand years) to GO, a game I’ve always been fascinated by. So much so, in fact, that the LGW card game is based on the same surrounds and conquers game play as GO. My other game experience occurred when I was approached as a producer by Hasbro to develop a film based on Monopoly. I created a pitch and attached Ridley Scott to direct. The film has not gone into production yet but every now and then I read something about it in the trades. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Have you ever ventured into online worlds? If so, please explain what that experience has been like.

One of my initial experiences with online worlds occurred when I wanted to build a web presence for LGW. Most of the sites that authors presented lacked the stickiness I wanted to create for my readers. This is when I discovered sites like Neopets, Gaia Online, Habbo Hotel and some of the larger communities like EVE and WoW. These were amazing, highly interactive communities and I was inspired to create something similar for my fans.

Speaking of online worlds, you’ve created an MMO based on your Looking Glass Wars series. Would you mind talking a little bit about the game and explaining what the experience of creating it was like?

Daunting. I worked with my friend and author PJ Haarsma. We came up with the idea in my backyard, but neither of us had any experience. We simply jumped in and started creating our worlds. RingsofOrbis.com was the guinea pig based on PJ’s book series The Softwire, followed by my game CardSoldiersWars.com. The games quickly developed a life of their own, each with an insatiable appetite for our time and attention. Despite the work it has been very rewarding. I don’t know of any other authors that have online games that allow readers to interact inside their worlds on a daily basis.

In CSW, players pledge allegiance to a suit and then create an army of card soldiers. The most powerful army wins the honor of placing their queen on the throne. Players interact with each in a PBBG format while immersed in the story line of my novels.

Would you say you were inspired by other games in its development?

I was inspired by the sense of community these games create. I wanted a place where fans could hang out between my books and interact with the massive universe that I had created for LGW. My world is so much larger than what lies between the pages of my books and the game provided an amazing format to share more stories.

You’ve mentioned you are trying to keep up with technology and your website is certainly a testament to that. I managed to get lost in there for quite some time (a good thing, mind you). What do you have in store for future additions to the site?

There’s always something coming. One thing that might interest your readers is we are adding player vs. player COMBAT to the Card Soldier Wars so things will be heating up over there. Also, we are expanding our avatar customization with a lot more uniforms and costumes so you can really trick out your avatars.

I am also planning to add a full on website for Hatter M that will feature the Hatter M Institute for Paranormal Travel. Since the Institute is responsible for tracking Hatter’s 13-year quest via maps, journals, photographs etc. there is a lot of fun to be had with it as well as a lot of information that readers can investigate on their own. I would like it to be a sort of website homage to the famous cutaway art of the Baxter Building so visitors will have a physical sense of entering the Institute and exploring the various departments as well as meeting the hardworking, eclectic staff. Check out this link if you haven’t seen the Baxter art.

Back to writing. Is grind involved in the writing process? Please explain.

Yes. Writing is work. Work is grind. You don’t always feel like doing it. It can be frustrating and days can go by where nothing great is happening on the page. But then you get a breakthrough, a thread of something starts to pop and you lose all common consciousness and are just in the flow. That’s usually when you get a stiff neck because you totally forgot to move your head for 5 hours. Basically, I think most people would agree that grind is involved in just about anything worth doing.

By contrast, what would you say is one of the most rewarding things about being a writer?

Two things have equal power. Sensing, knowing that you got it right. And having a reader come up to you, eyes all wide and excited, telling you they stayed up all night to finish your book.

When do you find time to write?

I just make time. I try to write as much by longhand in a notebook as I can so I never go to the computer and stare at a blank screen for 2 hours…wasting time loading pics on facebook and googling my own name…etc.. I’ve always got something sketched in and ready to try. Additionally, I set page quotas and deadlines and I meet them. It’s the only way I can do it. I can’t wait for the mood to hit or the planets to line up.

What current writing projects are you working on?

With the Looking Glass Wars trilogy completed it’s all about Royal Bodyguard Hatter M and his parallel story. Volume 2, Mad with Wonder, is available October 15 and I am working to have Volume 3, The Nature of Wonder, debut at the San Diego Con in July 2010. I have planned two more volumes so the full arc of Hatter’s search will be told in 5 volumes.

How do you tend to escape these days?

I close my eyes.

Would you have any words of advice for the would-be-writers out there?

Well…I never really took anybody’s advice about writing so I guess I would just have to say go for it. See what you can do.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with this gamer/reader audience?

On October 15th, ArchEnemy the final book in my trilogy and Hatter M: Mad With Wonder will be available wherever books are sold, hope you enjoy them!

Also, the Looking Glass Wars Card Game will go live on October 15th as well. I hope your gamers will deal themselves into the deck.

Here is the link to sign up.

Following that in March will be Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland which features (coincidentally?) an older Alice (this time the actual Alice), who returns to Wonderland with no memory of her previous visit there.

Maybe this is a case of studio politics, or maybe this is evidence of creative synergy, that great minds do think alike. If you watched the above trailers, then it's clear there are distinct differences in the look and feel of the two productions. Yet, there are similarities: both productions feature older Alices, neither of which seem aware of previous trips to Wonderland. The appeal is obvious: Syfy's audience skews older and Tim Burton's movies, though visually appealing to children, have a sensibility more attuned to adults. There also seems to be more of an epic aspect to both these movies, as if Alice returns to save Wonderland – Alice as Luke Skywalker, it would seem – which is also in keeping with an older Alice. And then there's this …

Released in 2006, Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars tells the story of Alyss Heart, who, as a child, is forced to flee from her home of Wonderland into our world, where her story inspires Charles Dodgson. Alyss, now Alice, grows up in our world and returns to her world as a grown woman to save Wonderland, which is a fascinating mixture of magic and technology, from her evil aunt Redd.

I am hardly being accusatory here. Beddor's book is entertaining and imaginative and fans have been clamoring for a film version since its release, but both Tim Burton and Nick Willing carry their own creative pedigrees. The very name "Tim Burton" has come to mean "creative reinvention" in some languages, while Nick Willing scored with both critics and fans with Tin Man, his re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz which aired on Syfy (then Scifi) last year. Is this a case of one writer dipping into another's well? Or have three great writers, fascinated with a story that has fascinated many, stumbled upon the same idea of re-envisioning Alice as a post-modern heroine, and not just a lost girl on a strange trip? Either way, fans of the Alice mythology get three shots to shoot down the rabbit hole, with Beddor's third part of The Looking Glass Wars saga being released this fall, Willing's Alice premiering on Syfy in December, and Burton's Alice in Wonderland being released in March 2010. Sound off below: Which Alice are you most looking forward to?

So, after reading The Looking Glass Wars, I was really looking forward to the sequel, Seeing Redd.  I mean, really looking forward to it.  Like, annoying my sister, who I was going to borrow it from, because I was asking for it too often.

But sadly… I don’t know how much it lived up to it’s draw.  The fact is, this is the second book in a trilogy, and it feels like the second book in a trilogy.  I have to admit, parts of it were brilliant.  In fact, any part where we got to see the protagonists we’d been cheering for since book one, were pretty much all brilliant.  We get to delve into their history a bit more here, see some of what Dodge and Hatter Madigan, especially, went through before we met or remet them in book one, and all of those storylines are really wonderful.  What really made Seeing Redd just not a fun read, were the villains.

Oh, the villains.  They were everywhere, and there were a lot of them, and they all seemed to either be entirely too clever or have just enough luck that our protagonists were frustrated, quite often, at every turn.  Probably someone who really loves chess and wargames and strategy would love this book, because it’s very complex, and every move has a counter-move and it’s really quite masterful… but personally I just flat out didn’t enjoy it.  It feels here like Beddor has fallen in love with his own villains and while knowing he has to destroy them in the end, he really wants you to admire and enjoy them, too.  Only I didn’t enjoy them, at all.  There were too many, and too gruesome in some cases for my personal tastes.

That said, the main showdown at the end was very exciting, and this is the second book in a trilogy, and everything points to a fantastic third book to round out this trilogy.  And I stress, there was a TON of good stuff in this book, for me it just felt weighed down by the mass of darker characters.  But if you’re planning on reading this series, definitely don’t skip this one!

My grade: B-

Isabelle: For starters- I’m grateful that I listened to you, Lisa when you told me to read this book. I’d already bought it when you mentioned it, I’d started it, and I kept getting stuck right after Redd’s entrance in Heart Palace. I’m not sure what it was that made it difficult for me to move on from there, but I was really just upset by the whole thing. I mean, right from the beginning, the bad guys prospered in a really overwhelming kind of way.
Lisa: You know, I had trouble starting it, too.  I probably wouldn’t have read it as quickly as I did if I hadn’t had it with me on a road trip. I had trouble with Redd and the Cat…. I definitely didn’t find the bad guys very enjoyable, but I loved Alyss and Dodge.
Isabelle: I enjoyed the unusual Cat, how he went from a cute kitty to an experienced assassin. I found that to be a nice refreshing spin. I also loved Alyss and Dodge. And Hatter Maddigan. Man, I was totally excited about Hatter Maddigan.Did you feel that some of it tried a bit too hard, though? Like, when Beddor kept mentioning the Queendom, I kept getting the feeling that he was trying to set up a really original world and political system, but the more he said it, the more I felt like he was jamming this difference down my throat.
Lisa: I don’t know, I thought that some things, like the festival with inventors passing inventions into the Heart Crystal was pretty fabulously inventive. Though I have some umbridge with the idea that it took credit away from all earthly inventors.  Sigh.  I did LOVE Hatter Madigan, though. What did you think about the way Beddor dealt with Charles Dodgson?
Isabelle: Well executed and believable. I mean, if a little girl were telling me these fantastical tales, I’d probably react the way he did. I do feel bad that he got caught in her wrath! Ha ha. How was he supposed to know he’d offended a real princess?
Lisa: Haha I know!  I think he dealt with him really well.  I loved that Hatter Madigan recognized him as having more Imagination than any of the other people he’d seen.

Isabelle: Yea, that was great! It said a lot about him being the person Alyss chose to tell her secrets to.
Lisa: I appreciated it because I went in to this book kind of annoyed that someone thought they knew the story better than Lewis Carroll.
Isabelle: Speaking of Alyss, I admit, I felt terrible for her once she was adopted. The pictures she drew and hung up in her room- that was heartbreaking.

Lisa: Oh I’d forgotten the pictures!

Isabelle: And although I was happy that she was starting to find happiness with a human boy, I kept hoping she’d wait for Dodge. Btw, good point about Carroll! It showed that Beddor was paying homage to the story, not necessarily trying to outshine it.

Lisa: Oh I thought that was fascinating, too, with the Prince.  I checked on Wikipedia (the most reliable of all sources haha) and that was all true about Alice Liddell.
Isabelle: That she was engaged to a Prince? Really? That’s a very neat little factoid. I’m going to have to go looking her up now. I didn’t realize she was a real person. Am I just the only person in the world not to have known that?

Lisa: Probably not the only one. I don’t know that she was officially engaged to him, but was rumored to be at the time.  Then they did go their seperate ways, but they did name their children after each other. There’s a famous picture of Alice Liddell, though, you can probably find it online. And okay, I’ve got to say, I LOVED how damaged and messed up Dodge was when she finally got back to Wonderland.
Isabelle: I was just going to say that! Ha ha! Angry, brooding Dodge = me riveted to the pages.

Lisa: Yes, definitely!

Isabelle: I felt terrible for him, obviously. The poor boy lost everything in a night, but at the same time, his drive for revenge made him fascinating.

Lisa: To go from the dedicated child-guard to the angry, revenge-focused man was definitely hard to see.

Isabelle: The way he reacted when they first brought Alyss back. That entire scene at the chapel is just perfectly executed. Oh and the masquerade! *butterflies*

Lisa: Double on the butterflies.

Isabelle: I’m not too proud to admit that, that’s when I swooned.

Lisa: I’m not at all surprised by that.  I fall easier – I loved him from their first dance.

Isabelle: He was a great symbol for what Wondertropolis had become. Torn and hopeless, fighting for something no one even remembered. I really feld Beddor used him as a final resistance kind of character. That little bit of Alyss she’d been pushing away. Refusing to see. It all lived and breathed in Dodge.

Lisa: Yes.  That went both ways.  Dodge had been fighting so hard to forget what Wonderland had been like, how wonderful it had once been, but he couldn’t forget when he saw Alyss again. She reminded him of who he had been, which he was also trying to forget. Okay, and I’ve got to say, I loved Bibwit Hart.

Isabelle: He made me laugh. He was so perfectly neurotic!

Lisa: Yes!

Isabelle: The image of him was very strange, though I loved that the book had pictures! That was a really pleasant surprise. In fact, a lot of the imagery was really impressive. The Chessboard Desert. The post-Redd city with all the commercials and propaganda replaying. The Looking Glass passageways.

Lisa: Yes, though the Card Soldiers reminded me of the Clone Soldiers from Star Wars! haha

Isabelle: They did! I thought the same thing. All of that was really vividly written.

Lisa: I loved the Chessboard Desert.  Just the idea was fantastic.

Isabelle: I know. It was spectacular.

Lisa: I have to say, I was a little bit disappointed in the Heart Maze.  Though for it to really have been what it had built up to be in my mind, it would have taken half the book! I guess simplicity is necessary—and probably preferable—in some cases.

Isabelle: I enjoyed the Heart Maze scene but I also felt it was too short. That all seemed to happen really fast. But you’re right. Simplicity is best. It would have taken him a better part of the book to describe it and I’m not sure we coudl have afforded to lose some of the other scenes in the process.

Lisa: True.  Pacing will have its say, always. In all, though, I really enjoyed the book.  I think it had a great build-up of a world we thought we already knew, and some serious setting up for the sequel.

Isabelle: I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The characters made me keep reading, even when I wanted to stop, which is a good sign of solid characterization. And as I went on, the world became so lush and real, I loved the little spins he put on things we’d heard so often before. It was truly innovative.

Lisa: Yes.  I think I’d give it, all in all, a solid A.  You?

Isabelle: I’d have to say A- for the slow beginning.

And that’s a wrap!

Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor

I really wanted to like this—I loved The Looking Glass Wars, and Beddor’s spin on the hows and whys Charles Dodgson was “wrong” about what Wonderland is really like.  The sequel though… I just didn’t enjoy it.  Beddor seems all-too taken with his own villains, and he enjoyed writing their scenes much more than I enjoyed reading them.  I found them to be a fairly sickening bunch, not even the type that are particularly enjoyable to hate, just plain vile.  They also seemed to occupy more than half of the novel, so the glimpses of the heroes that I really did enjoy… well they were still wonderful, but just not enough to counteract the bad taste the baddies were constantly leaving in my mouth.

Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black

Another disappointment.  I really didn’t know what to expect going into this novel—I came by the series at a big discount sale and decided to try it, and while it was a fairly quick read… I just didn’t enjoy it much.  The faerie world was evocative and somewhat seducing, but the human world the main character was a part of… well that seemed almost as much fantasy as the other.  Her human friends came off as bad caricatures of 90s punks, and while I know that kids can be pretty hard-boiled about some things, I just didn’t buy it.  Also there are just some things played into here that do not appeal to me.  One of the main characters is obviously on a path towards… well, something that I don’t particularly care to see.  I may finish the series, since I already bought it, but it doesn’t come highly recommended from me.

Emma by Jane Austen

I’ve already mentioned that this one was a struggle for me this go around.  I don’t think it’s the book’s fault, I’m just not in a place in my life at the moment to have much patience with Miss Woodhouse.  Which is odd, because before reading this, I would have told you that it was (because it really is) one of my favorite Austen novels.  I’m starting to wonder, though, if I could enjoy it again.  The first time you read Emma is fabulous, because you follow along with her thoughts and (if you haven’t seen the film adaptations or paid too much attention to them) you more or less think like she does, expect her to be right about things, and then you’re taken by surprise by how things turn out, just as she is.  The second time is always fun, too, because then you can pinpoint all the things she’s missing as she misses them.  The third time, though… it just didn’t seem quite as fun.  I knew all the steps a bit too well.  I did love Jane Fairfax more than I have previously.  I wish, though, that I hadn’t watched both the films (Gwyneth and Kate) right before starting this.  Maybe that was a factor.

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery

Just delicious.  I really can’t remember half of these books, so reading them again, a little older and able to appreciate more than just Gilbert Blythe (though I do still appreciate him quite a bit) is really a lovely experience.  I wound up copying down half the things Miss Lavender said to write them up in my quote book.  People don’t talk like this anymore… they can’t even really get away with it in fiction, which is a little unfortunate.

Lexi James and the Council of Girlfriends by Melissa Jacobs

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this.  The first third of it seemed mind-numbing chick-lit, with far too much detail about what every single character was wearing every single time they showed up on the scene… but it had a sweet, heartwarming, and nicely empowering ending.  Good stuff.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (audio, read by Jim Dale)

I had never listened to Harry Potter on audio—I very much like hearing the actors’ voices in my head when I read voices—but my brother and I were setting off on a long roadtrip, and he wanted to freshen up his memory of the fifth book before seeing the sixth movie, and it was a lot of fun to listen to in the car.  I still prefer reading the books on my own, but as a group activity, the books on tape are lots of fun.

The Hourglass Door by Lisa Magnum

Sadly another disappointment.  This is being hailed all over as being “better than Twilight,” but I’m afraid that is just ridiculous.  I really wish I could say it was better than Twilight, because it’d be nice to see a college-bound multi-tasking, smart, responsible girl knock down Bella Swan and all her willingness to basically give up her life before she hits the age of twenty.  But while we keep being told that the main character is this fantastic, special, smart, strong girl… we really don’t see it at all.  I have some more nit-picky opinions about this novel concerning understudies and legendary artists and whatnot… but they’re a bit spoilery, so I’ll just leave it at that.

So yes, my reading of late has sadly not been of the most inspiring type, but I’m very much enjoying what I’m reading at the moment.  I’m continuing with Anne, of course, in Anne of the Island, and I’ve moved from Jane Austen to Jane Eyre, a revisitation to what really probably is my favorite book of all time… though Persuasion likes to vie for position.  I’ve also started (finally, finally) to read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, which all my friends rave about, because I’d really like to finish it before I see the film.  And while I’m only a couple of chapters in, it really is delicious.  Every line.

Overall Rating: Surely didn’t live up to the originals like I hoped it would.

Okay new and unusual fantasies are hard to come by. There was the Golden Compass in 1995. There was Harry Potter around 2000. And this is the new competitor. In 2007 a book came out called the Looking Glass Wars and this is it’s follow up.
Part 2 is called Seeing Redd referring to the return of Redd Heart who was thrown into the heart crystal at the end of part one. And in case you didn’t know, the Looking Glass Wars is a epic reinvention of the Alice In Wonderland story.
So it picks up where Alyss is now queen and the book focuses on her trying to juggle all the responsibilities rather than being action oriented. This book is a lot more political than anything else. The king Arch from the Outlands is trying to take over wonderland. Hatter finds that he has a daughter and that his only true love is still alive. He falls into a blackmail trap to betray the queen. Dodge and Alyss’s relationship finally become a love story. Jack of Diamonds escapes the mines and double crosses every person in this novel. The king and Queen of Diamonds are manipulated and framed. Redd crawls out of the painting in our world and recruit’s a army and once in wonderland she makes and treaty with Arch and they start double crossing each other.
So now you wondering, what the hell is going on? Good question. This story is so convoluted that you wonder if anything is going to happen. It surely doesn’t live up to the original as like I hoped that it would. It was sort of loss it’s own charm, but it’s not hard to feel for the characters, and I think it is the characters that made this book readable.
So this is descent. I recommend it if your obsessed with the first book, grab this one. But if can be skipped by the common person sadly. I really wished that I could give it four smoothies, but it only got two.

Two Smoothies out of four.

P.S. checkout my book and ebook website at Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

I have been deeply contemplating my Photographic Series book and am looking forward to getting some interesting photographs at Disneyland this Tuesday to be of possible use for it.  But for now, I am still trying to rearrange my ideas for the book and still keep some of my original ideas to be used later on.  I still want it to be something I can look back on, as a special keepsake.

I just recently celebrated my 22nd birthday on the 11th of this month.  And since I have such a good month for a birthday, we decided to make it a Halloween celebration.  I made my own cake, a haunted house on a hill design, created a spooky tablescape with a lace cloth, black candles, and I even dressed up  (this shall remain a surprise; I shall post some on my deviantART account later on as a special surprise for all my friends).  I hope that I can use some of these images in my book, making adjustments and gunging it up with many layers, filters, borders, and text.  I am also hoping to incorperate more of my makeup techniques to create more interesting enhancements to myself for some photography images that could be used later on.

My head is just spinning with ideas and thoughts of things I want to do and create for my book, it’s so overwhelming and exciting at the same time!  I have a great love of music and I have always enjoyed incorperating lyrics and literary works as text to enhance my images too.  It has been quite a while since I actually drew anything so I hope to incorperate some of my drawings into my book to show my creative side and just for fun at the same time!  =)  I have always enjoyed drawing and it has greatly helped my through a lot in my life, aside form being just such an enjoyable pastime.  I am also a huge fan of horror movies, anime, manga, metal music, and so much more things which have also had an influence on my writing and art.  It makes me overjoyed when I get struck with an idea while listening to a song or looking at an image from some book at my library, (I’m always looking at books when I’m working there) as well as reading book two, “Seeing Redd”, of my new favorite trilogy by Frank Beddor called “The Looking Glass Wars”.

Anyways, I’ll hopefully re-update later tonight and add some pictures on here soon.  Until then, I’ll see y’all tomorrow night at class!   =D

~Adina~

I’m going to be sneaky and find a site that sends out early warnings when books are being published so I don’t have to wait until I find it on the shelf. I assume I will get to read book three before the movie comes out.

Next on my list is a very, very funny book. Stay tuned.

The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor; Young Adult, 400 pages

The Looking Glass Wars is a retelling of Lewis Caroll’s Alice stories, with the premise that Lewis Caroll was inspired by the real Princess Alyss Heart, but got everything wrong, including the spelling of her name. Princess Alyss of Wonderland is celebrating her 7th birthday when her evil Aunt Redd invades Wonderland, murdering Alyss’ parents. Alyss escapes to England, where she is adopted by the Liddell family. As she grows up, her memories of Wonderland begin to fade…but the people of Wonderland haven’t forgotten about her, and need her now more than ever.

Don’t you hate books that have such an awesome premise, but then completely fail in the execution? That’s exactly how I felt after I put this one down. The book started out great, and I was really excited to see how Beddor would reinvent and twist the classic tale. Unfortunately, the book didn’t really go anywhere.

I do have to give Beddor credit for coming at this story from a completely unique direction. The best kind of retelling keeps many elements of the original story (enough to make you excited when you spot them) but changes them enough so that you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Whether you’ve read Lewis Caroll’s stories or just seen Disney ‘s version, you’ll recognize the inspiration behind most of the characters (Hatter Madigan, for example) but will be excited to see how Beddor uses and reinvents them here. All of the characters had a lot of potential, but they were never fully developed. Alyss was likable enough, but even at the end I didn’t know very much about her, or any of the other characters really. This ambiguity made it hard for me to understand where the character’s were coming from.

While I applaud Beddor’s approach, I really feel like he could’ve gone further with it all. I’m trying to avoid the “If I had written this…” trap, but it all felt very cheesy at times, when it didn’t need to be. The book had some great sci-fi elements (particularly with the description of the card soldiers [see the cover above]), and I think the book could’ve been stronger by embracing its science fiction tendencies. Unfortunately, these few elements were bogged down by mind numbingly boring battle sequences and too many “Off with their head”‘s.

The story starts off slow, and it seems like things are going to pick up when Alyss is transported to England, but like all things in the book that were almost great, these scenes are skipped over as the story suddenly leaps ahead in time.

In summary, The Looking Glass Wars was not necessarily bad, but it was slow-moving, boring, and unmemorable, and I will not be reading any more in this series.

Rating:2 / 5

–

Mirror Mirror, by Gregory Maguire; Fiction, 304 pages

Mirror Mirror is a retelling of the classic fairy-tale, Snow White. Bianca lives a quiet life with her father, Don Vincente, on their farm in the hills of Tuscany, until the wicked Cesare Borgia and his sister, the vain Lucrezia, arrive. The siblings send Vincente on a seemingly-unachievable quest, leaving Bianca to be “cared for” by Lucrezia. Driven by jealousy, Lucrezia plots Bianca’s demise.

First, a little background on my history with this author: When Wicked, the author’s most popular work to date, was first released, my high school librarian raved about it, and suggested I read it. I couldn’t even make it through the first third of the book (and it’s unusual for me to not finish a book that I’ve started, no matter how much I hate it). I love nothing more than a good retelling of a classic fairy-tale, so I bought Mirror Mirror because of its intriguing premise, and I was hoping it would help me figure out why every one was so crazy for Gregory Maguire.

Unfortunately, it fell completely flat for me. I had to really force myself to finish this one without skimming. The story didn’t go anywhere surprising. The plot was nearly identical to that of the classic story, only differing in the minor details, particularly by casting historical figures as the villains. This led to a lot of uninteresting background that felt more like filler than worthwhile additions to the plot. Unlikable heroes, a very weird portrayal of the seven dwarfs…I could go on and on.

If you’re a fan of Wicked or any of the author’s other works, you might like it. However, if you’ve never read any of Maguire’s works, I suggest you try out Wicked to see if its your cup of tea before moving on to this one.

Rating:1 / 5

If you’ve read either of these books, please let me know what you thought of them!

In other news, I was actually able to take the stairs at Borders today! It was a-mazing.

Um… I finally read the Looking Glass Wars and… Yeah. I think it had a lot of potential; it could have really been great. The only problem is that Beddor tries to create an entirely new world and dispel the Lewis Carroll telling of Alice’s story. Basically, it feels like there is too much crammed into one novel and important events are rushed to the point that they are rendered unimportant. I guess it’s your typical young adult fiction novel. Although it is the first in a trilogy, I think it would have been better split into two separate books (since there are two major events). That way there would be room to expand upon everything and give each event it’s due credit.

The end.

Length: 384 pages

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Started: 25 January 2008
Finished: 27 January 2008

Summary: A retelling of Alice in Wonderland, with the pretense that Wonderland is real, and that one Mr. Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carrol) tamed the story down and turned it into a silly children’s book. Alyss Heart, heir to the throne of Wonderland, is having her seventh birthday party when her banished Aunt Redd returns, killing Alyss’s parents and seizing control. Alyss must flee for her life, winding up in our world, where she becomes Alice Liddell and forces herself to forget her previous life. However, Wonderland is slowly deteriorating under Redd’s power, which is resisted only by a band of rebels, who must wait for Alyss to return, realize her full power, and reclaim the throne from her evil aunt.

Review: This book tries to do for Alice in Wonderland what Wicked did for The Wizard of Oz: remove the children’s-story-fairy-tale aspects and make it into a real world. However, Wicked (more or less) succeeded at that whereas this book just… did not. The Looking Glass Wars suffered from exceedingly shallow characterizations, an overly facile resolution, a lack of a driving message, and an overabundance of “pointless imagination”. There’s a fine line to walk in the retelling of classic stories between changing not enough (boring, no point in doing a cover version that’s the same as the original) and too much (risks tampering with parts that are good or essential). This book gleefully ignores that line as it goes skipping past; elements of Wonderland are changed, updated, and added seemingly just because they sounded cool, certainly not because they add anything to the plot.

This book kind of reads like it was written as a movie script – lots of fights and chases and explosions and pretty CGI effects in the background, while the more complex issues and emotions were quickly glossed over. I thought Alice’s time spent in our world and her relationship with Dodge were the two most interesting (and mature) bits of the book, but whenever they started to get interesting, it’d cut back to another explosion. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see this optioned for a movie, and I’d probably go to see it, but in book form, it was lacking the complexity and depth (even considering that it was a YA novel) to really make it worthwhile. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Interesting idea and plenty of potential, but faulty execution. A quick read, but not one I’d really recommend if you’re looking for anything beyond some Wonderland-themed fight scenes.

This Review on LibraryThing | This Book on LibraryThing | This Book on Amazon

2.25 / 5

With the amount of ‘good’ reviews this book was getting, I was expecting a much more eventful plot than I got.  I had at first hesitated in getting this book simply because I didn’t like spin-offs of Alice in Wonderland as much anymore as there were just too many of them.  Still, after an unsuccessful hunt through Dymocks for something readable, I found myself picking this book up and reading through the summary on the book jacket.

It didn’t say much on the back, but okay, I’ve heard this book mentioned a couple of times somewhere before.  I hoped it wouldn’t be too bad–it claimed to be a darker, grittier version than the original, which is fine.  I didn’t have large qualms with twisted fairytales.  Perhaps this author would present a refreshing perspective on this tale.

I was wrong.

Let me give you the plot: parents murdered, princess escapes into our world, the son of Queen Victoria tries to marry her (what?), she comes back, grabs a ‘magical’ sceptre and tries to vanquish her mortal enemy – her aunt, the evil Redd.  Sorry if I spoiled the read for any of you.

Predictable?  Quite.

The fact is, everything was much too easy.  Way too easy.  And way too standard. The villain is Alyss (apparently the real version of her name) Heart’s aunt Redd, an exiled former heir to the throne of Wonderland.  She is the scheming madwoman, spurned from her delusion of being the true heir to the Queendom (because Wonderland is ruled by Queens) and seeks to reclaim the throne for herself.  First thing she does, as with any psychologically unstable villain, is to scream something so totally cliché, you might’ve decapitated yourself with your own sword to save her the trouble:“Off with their heads!  Off with their stinking, boring heads!” she screams.Seriously. In many places, Redd is so awful an antagonist that she seems to be merely a child throwing a decades-long temper tantrum from not getting her way.  Whenever plans go astray, this evil mistress (oops, “Her Imperial Viciousness”) uses ‘Black Imagination’–imagination powers being akin to telepathy and telekinesis–to rattle the drawers and bring various ornamental objects crashing to the ground.  The forces in this book are so black and white, you can pick them apart blindfolded.  It’s good against bad, right against wrong.  There are simply no nuances in between, despite the author’s attempt to make “Alice in Wonderland” more ‘truthful’ and ‘realistic’.  

This new Queen, after much rampage and the usurping of the throne, rules with complete brute force, surviving as ruler merely because she possesses imagination powers to be rivaled with (although there are a few nice touches here and there with the totalitarian society being described), yet is completely K.O.-ed by Alyss’s return.  Alyss, being the main protagonist of the story, is also gifted with imagination powers beyond the norm.  However, upon entering our world, loses them.  When she does finally return to Wonderland after a thirteen-year hiatus, her powers flare up in no time.  All she has to do is believe, meditate and concentrate, something her predecessors required years of tutelage under the wing of the reputable albino scholar, Bibwit Harte (an anagram for ‘White Rabbit’, or vice versa, depending on the way you look at it), to develop.

Another thing that I found annoying was the first scene involving the main pairing of the novel: Princess Alyss and her childhood best friend, Dodge Anders.  Since the story starts off with Alyss being seven and Dodge being ten, one wouldn’t expect a long-lasting, heart-wrenching love to have already been in the midst of flourishing between them.  But in fact, the characters act older than their years.  Alyss and Dodge dance after the young to-be guardsman offers her a birthday present.  As they waltz alone together in a room, Alyss asks Dodge to be her king.  A little soon for that, no?  But that isn’t what bothered me the most.  What nagged me was the fact that Dodge was already a hormonal teenager way before his time:

‘He’d never touched the Princess before – not like this.  She smelled of sweet earth and powder.  It was a clean, delicate smell.  Did all girls smell like this or only princesses?”  And then later, “‘You know I’d protect you, Alyss.’  He felt warm all over and a little dizzy…He could feel her breath on his cheek.  He was the luckiest boy in the Queendom…He didn’t want to let her go, but he did…”

What the hell?

I liked the fact that the romance in the latter half of the novel was drawn out so it was an undertone to the plot, but isn’t this a little early for unrequited love?  I don’t make a habit of shipping seven-and-ten year old pairings.

The only characters worth watching were Hatter Madigan (aka Mad Hatter)–but what the hell was with the random brood of a ‘lost lover’ never before mentioned in the plot?–and Jack of Diamonds, who actually knows how to twist the whole situation to his advantage.  While the rest of the cast weren’t complete disasters, they weren’t particularly memorable either.

I also didn’t quite understand the direction that this book was taking.  The writing style is completely at odds with the later half of the novel, featuring a twenty-year old Alyss and older companions, but coupled with a less mature narration.  The characters are older, sure, and the matters slightly more adult (too gory to be a kid’s book, too superficial to be an adult’s), but not deep enough to entrance older audiences into this fantastical realm.  If you expect to find out more about the culture of this world and the politics behind the houses Diamond, Club, Spades, and ultimately, the Hearts, you will be sourly disappointed.  There is no attempt to even stir up the reader’s imagination (ironically) on how Wonderland came to be.  As a matter of fact, Wonderland sounds like your average fantasyland, complete with evil jabberwockies that breathe fire and a formidable assassin ‘The Cat’ that is repeatedly killed off by his mistress, the Queen Redd, because of misbehavior.

As for the book’s main selling point: the Looking Glass Maze that tests the future (rightful) ruler of the kingdom?  A complete joke. Stuff we’ve all heard before.  No difficulties for Alyss there.

The Looking Glass Wars is supposed to be a trilogy, but doubt resonates in my mind as to whether this series will truly make it.  Hopefully, the author’s stance will have matured enough by the time the second and third books are published to rescue this retelling.  I wouldn’t bet on it though.