Product Description

Alyss, born in Wonderland, is destined to be a warrior queen. After a bloody coup topples the Heart regime, Alyss is exiled to another world entirely, where she is adopted into the Liddell family, renamed Alice and befriended by Lewis Carroll. At age 20 she returns to Wonderland to regain her sceptre, battle Redd and lead Wonderland into its next golden age of imagination.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245669 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first of his Alyss of Wonderland trilogy, Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars is a storming, imaginative tour-de-force that deserves to be not overlooked. Using Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, as his inspiration, Beddor has created something new and original, something fresh and exciting.

Beddor imagines that Alice’s wonderland did indeed exist. That it was not fairy tale. Princess Alyss Heart was heir to the throne of Wonderland, but was cruelly usurped when her Aunt Redd stormed Wondertropolis and murdered her parents. Fleeing for her life, Alyss was transported to our world, to the world of Charles Dodgson and literary Oxford in the late 19th Century. Taken in by the Liddells, Alyss at first steadfastly refused to denounce her true bearing as fiction. But after years of convincing nobody of her origins and noble birth--Alyss Heart became Alice Liddell. And it was Alice Liddell who inspired Dodgson to write his legendary novel about her--despite Alyss’s accusations that he has cruelly twisted her story to make light of her heritage for entertainment.

Alyss’s Wonderland is an occupied land that must be freed. And Alyss eventually realises that she must once again go back to her true home and try to reclaim it. And it is going to be a bloody reckoning.

Beddor has pulled off a wonderfully complicated twist of creativity and his ambitious novel is on many levels enormously satisfying. The author has previously been a ski champion, stunt double and actor, but it is perhaps his continuing role as a Hollywood film producer that most influences his debut novel. The book is a visual feast that is begging to be made into a film. But for now, its life as a book is a deserved one. (Age 10 and over) --John McLay

Review
Alice in Wonderland gets an update in this first installment of a planned trilogy. Princess Alyss, driven out of her Wonderland kingdom by her evil aunt, Redd, suffers years of exile in Victorian England before her dedicated bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, finds her. Dragged back to the home she feared she had only imagined, it is now up to Alyss to rally her troops, drive out the usurper and claim her throne. Can she survive assassination attempts by the vicious Cat with nine lives, a spy amongst her faithful followers, a trek across the Chessboard Desert to Redd's fortress at Mount Isolation and a duel of White vs. Black Imagination? Penned by the producer of There's Something About Mary, it's clear that this version will make the transition to the big screen, as the book reads more like a screenplay than a novel. The action moves swiftly from one complex scene to the next; there is minimal character development and opportunities for rich detail are tossed away all too often in favor of simply moving the story forward. One can only hope it translates well to the screen. (Fantasy. 12-15) (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Why so grumpy?
It seems necessary to counter some of the ridiculously negative reviews already posted. First, to criticize a book based on its marketing push (the fact that it's being touted as the true story behind Wonderland) is ridiculous (I am aware that very few people found the review in question helpful, but still). Why don't we review books on the basis of their cover art alone, or by the blurbs on their dust jackets? At least then we'll be criticizing some part of the actual, physical book, no? Similarly, I don't understand the relevance of mentioning that the author is a producer of so-called gross-out comedies. Are we holding the manner in which authors make a living against them? What are the acceptable livelihoods for a budding author? Somebody please get back to me.

Now, for the book itself: what are "genuinely imaginative" characters? Why is Bibwit Harte, a learned albino with extra-sensitive hearing who is Queen Alyss Heart's tutor, not a genuinely imaginative character? Why isn't Hatter Madigan, leader of an elite security force whose array of weaponry is unlike anything we've heretofore seen, a well-imagined character? Why are the creatures dreamed up in this novel, such as the gwynook or spirit-dane, not imaginative? Why are the weapons, such as cannonball spiders or bombs that build, not imaginative? The few nine- and ten-year-olds I know who've read the book, have done so in no more than two days -- a sure sign that they found the book imaginative and fast-paced.

Is Mr. Beddor's book gratuitously violent? I fail to see it. A coup takes place fairly early in the story, and the violence that occurs is necessary to emphasize the villain's merciless, unsympathetic character, as well as the behavior she expects from her underlings. Whatever violent episodes that exist in the book serve this kind of double purpose.

To better enjoy this novel, Lewis Carroll fans should probably keep in mind that it uses the Alice books as its inspiration, NOT as its template. It is nothing like Carroll's work, nor does it try to be.

Since it is so easy to "review" a book with broad, meaningless statements, let me do as my colleagues: The Looking Glass Wars is the best book I've read in the past two years.

Alice meets the Matrix
I'm a U.S. citizen who picked this book up on a trip to Ireland and it was a good read for the flight home. While it seemed written with an eye towards adapting it for the silver screen, I liked the re-imagined characters and the fight scenes were clearly written. I look forward to the next book in the series.

fabulous
a wonderful spin on the alice in wonderland tale, reminiscent of gregory maguire's wicked. cat assassins, card soldiers, evil queens, and a network of looking glasses show that you can still turn an old story into something original.

Cant wait for the next one!

Brilliant!