Shelly's Book Blog

Yeah! I've found another awesome series to read aloud with my boys: The Looking Glass Wars, by Frank Beddor. I just finished the first book and am looking forward to reading the second, Seeing Redd. I found an interesting interview with the author here. Also check out The Lookin Glass Wars website, where you can listen to music and play games created for the series.

When I chose this book to read next, I had no idea the series was such a phenomenon. Novels, graphic novels (the Hatter M series), music, games, a movie in the works, fan clubs -- wow! I actually started the series by listening to the audio CD on my way to work. Gerard Doyle is amazing. He seems to have a distinctive voice for almost every character. My favorites are Jack of Diamonds, General Doppelganger (whose voice is really doubled -- as in Doyle's voice X2 whenever this character speaks -- cool!), and Redd. He really makes the characters come alive. I found that I was missing out on some of the story, though, because I sometimes was distracted during the ride to work (what a pain, to have to actually pay attention to my driving! :) ), so I checked out the book and started reading from the beginning again.

I was quickly taken in with Beddor's tale, which is both funny and horrifying at the same time. Alyss, on her 7th birthday, finds herself lost in Victorian London, alone, after her evil Aunt Redd stages a coup, kills her sister Genevieve (Alyss's mother) and proclaims herself Queen of Wonderland. Hatter Madigan, who is head of the Millinery (the military of Wonderland) and is also the royal bodyguard, has come with Alyss through the portal between Wonderland and London, which is known as the Pool of Tears. They became separated en route, though, and he is searching for Alyss. Meanwhile, back in Wonderland, the cowardly, despicable Jack of Diamonds is getting very rich pretending loyalty to both sides of the conflict, and ordinary Wonderlanders live in fear of Queen Redd and her henchman, The Cat. There is plenty of adventure here, as the forces of black and white imagination battle over control of the queendom.