|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 1:57 pm
|
|
|
|
I just got this one from the library & read it. It's decent. The writing is somewhat uneven but the book overall is interesting & has some fun ideas running round in it. I'll be interested to see if Beddor can really sustain the idea through a trilogy.
I really hope he can--Beddor is uneven now but shows promise, and I'd like to see that developed.
What? Oh, you want to know what the book is about?
The basic premise is that Alice in Wonderland really happened, but not the way Lewis Carroll described it. He thought young Alyss was simply imagining things when she told him her life's story.
Alice is really Princess Alyss Heart of Wonderland, trapped in Victorian England after her evil Aunt Redd took over the kingdom and killed her parents. The Mad Hatter is really Hatter Madigan, bodyguard to the Heart queens, and he is hunting all over for Alyss in order to restore her to her throne and return Wonderland to its greatness.
There are some moderately gory scenes here & there in the book & I can't quite buy the fact that Young Alyss (age 7) and Dodge (10-ish?) have already fallen truly in love. I had rather they were simply very good friends at the beginning & that their love grew later as in, perhaps, the next book. It's a minor issue because the two really do act as friends, it was simply something of an irritant.
One area of unevenness comes in the handling of the Wonderland Cast. Most are brilliantly re-visioned: Hatter Madigan, the Cheshire Cat (AKA the Cat & chief assassin for Redd), and the caterpillars work perfectly in context and in relation to Carroll's "muddled retelling" Alice in Wonderland. The card soldiers don't make the transition as well, and General Doppelganger who can split to become Generals Dople and Ganger so far seem in the book simply to be a Neat Idea. That is, the book needs a general, but this general hasn't quite convinced me yet.
Still, the book is a fun way to while away an afternoon, and, as I said earlier, I'm looking forward to seeing how Beddor develops as a writer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 7:23 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 7:37 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:32 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:31 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:48 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 3:08 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:05 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:06 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:10 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:22 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:29 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:53 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:13 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|