The Looking Glass Wars

The Looking Glass Wars is the first book of a trilogy created by Frank Beddor. This series is a darker take on the children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

In The Looking Glass Wars, Princess Alyss Heart's world is turned upside down on her 7th birthday when her crazy Aunt Redd invades the palace. In a final act, her mother, Queen Genevieve sacrifices herself by sending Alyss through the Crystal Continuum with Hatter Madigan to the Pool of Tears. After narrowly escaping The Cat, Redd's favourite assassin, Hatter & Alyss become separated in the Pool, with Alyss emerging from a puddle in London circa 1859.

Trapped in Victorian London, Alyss is adopted by the Liddell's and later is befriended by Charles Dodgson. In a desperate attempt to have someone believe her, Alyss tells him of Wonderland. Later he writes his own version of her story, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under the name Lewis Carroll. At this point Alyss completely immerses herself into the persona of Alice, a normal English girl.

After her 20th birthday, Alice meets Prince Leopold who falls for her and asks for her hand in marriage. On her wedding date, Cat finds her and she is rescued by Dodge Anders, a childhood love whose father was murdered the same night as Alyss's mother.

After returning to Wonderland, Alyss finds that she is the figurehead of a group of rebels who call themselves the Alyssians. Her albino tutor, Bibwit Harte, informs her that she must see the Caterpillars in their Valley of Mushrooms to find the Looking Glass Maze so she can reach her full potential and power as the future Queen.

Can Alyss live up to everyone's hopes and save Wonderland despite having lost her power of Imagination?

This book was really cool. Already knowing the story of Alice in Wonderland, and seeing what was happening to Alyss made for a neat cross-over of past and future. Coming from Wonderland, Alyss notes that the lamp posts on the streets came from Wonderland, except instead of fire, they can be turned on by a switch.

The characters were also different: Bibwit Harte is the White Rabbit (with rearranged letters), and Hatter Madigan is the Queen's personal guard. His signature top hat is really a weapon in disguise. The caterpillars still smoke hookah's, but the smoke allows them to see the future and act as an oracle. Card soldiers are mechanized and their intelligence increases as the number reaches 10. The other ruling families in Wonderland are the Spades, Clubs & Diamonds.

The writing itself isn't that great, but it is interesting enough to keep me going. There aren't any twists of the story, except to recognize the certain aspects that parallel either Lewis Carroll's book or the Disney movie.

There isn't really any character development, except for Alyss, and even that isn't unexpected. Dodge is a revenge-obsessed character; Bibwit stays scholarly; Hatter remains a faithful guard. Alyss only truly changes in the Maze, but even then she only gains confidence in her abilities. The hardships faced don't shape the characters in any life changing way.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy read. With all the hype out there from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie, I'm sure there will be tons of people wanting to read this book.