Book: The Looking Glass Wars
Aug. 21st, 2009 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amediaThis was fun! I collect weird editions of Alice in Wonderland - usually parodies or rewrites or pastiches - and this is a very enjoyable re-envisioning! A light, quick read, that will probably reward rereading. I aim to check out the sequels.
Okay, Tin Man fans. This retelling is weird, violent, steampunk, and psychedelic. It alters the original story by positing that this magical matriarchal land has just suffered a violent coup by a relative of the Queen and that the Queen has sent her young daughter into our world for her own protection. The daughter returns at the age of twenty and must rediscover her magical powers, which she has forgotten, in order to save her realm. She is assisted by a motley crew that includes her old tutor, who appears to have been working for the usurper, an embittered young Resistance leader, and fleeting visions of her mother the Queen, who reminds her of her true self.
Of course, there are also ways in which it differs from Tin Man! Unlike DG, this young princess travels to the 19th century and is separated from her home-dimension protector; she winds up being adopted by the Liddell family and becomes the Alice Liddell who tells the story of her early childhood to Lewis Carroll, who thinks it's all a pretty story and makes a book out of it, a fascinating reversal. (Not really a spoiler, as this is revealed in the first four pages.)
Okay, Tin Man fans. This retelling is weird, violent, steampunk, and psychedelic. It alters the original story by positing that this magical matriarchal land has just suffered a violent coup by a relative of the Queen and that the Queen has sent her young daughter into our world for her own protection. The daughter returns at the age of twenty and must rediscover her magical powers, which she has forgotten, in order to save her realm. She is assisted by a motley crew that includes her old tutor, who appears to have been working for the usurper, an embittered young Resistance leader, and fleeting visions of her mother the Queen, who reminds her of her true self.
Of course, there are also ways in which it differs from Tin Man! Unlike DG, this young princess travels to the 19th century and is separated from her home-dimension protector; she winds up being adopted by the Liddell family and becomes the Alice Liddell who tells the story of her early childhood to Lewis Carroll, who thinks it's all a pretty story and makes a book out of it, a fascinating reversal. (Not really a spoiler, as this is revealed in the first four pages.)
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 04:38 pm (UTC)Yipper! I love Alice anyway - and it's by the same people who did Tin Man!!!!!
Not Alice, But...
Date: 2009-08-22 03:08 am (UTC)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8214948.stm
Re: Not Alice, But...
Date: 2009-08-22 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 03:14 am (UTC)I have the book, but I haven't cracked it yet. Three years later and I'm still trying to finish the third day of Gettysburg o.O
no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 05:36 pm (UTC)Three years later and I'm still trying to finish the third day of Gettysburg o.O
Okay, are you trying to watch the miniseries with Martin Sheen as Lee? Or Ken Burns' Civil War? The former was only about a third as long as the latter, IIRC, but it felt TWICE as long!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 08:54 pm (UTC)The website for the book and The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra
no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-23 12:06 am (UTC)One of these days... I'll finish it. Maybe ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 03:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-22 05:37 pm (UTC)I was reading it on a plane all by myself, which was frustrating because I couldn't speculate with anyone - I think Anndie may be absolutely right!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-24 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 01:33 am (UTC)Yay! I don't remember the name of the next book, but if you get to it before I do, let me know what you think of it!
no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 01:48 am (UTC)I should stop getting books from the library and start reading what's on my shelf already...