By: Frank Beddor
Review by: Wayne Hutchinson
Warning: All reviews may contain spoilers.
About 142 years ago author Lewis Carroll published his fantastic story of Alice in Wonderland. It came into this world much like any other fantasy novel would with the normal pomp and circumstance. It was a whimsical tale of a young girl that was whisked from her comfortable English home into a land of mystery, magic and treacherous danger. In Carroll's adaptation of the story the reader is led to believe that Alice had become upset, run off and fallen asleep after being denied the right to have tea with the adults. During her slumber she dreamed of Wonderland and was awoken by her mother at the end of the dream. To this date the story has stood the test of time as a wonderful piece of literary fiction...but could it have really happened a different way?
Frank Beddor forces the reader to ask this and many other questions while he or she travels through the pages of his adaptation. In Beddor's version of the story Alice is actually young Princess Alyss Heart, daughter to Queen Genevieve and King Nolan of Wonderland. The Queen is always the ruling partner of the monarchy in Wonderland. Queen Genevieve is a powerful and just queen who harnesses the power of her imagination, a trait that young Alyss has inherited but has yet to master. Our story begins on the crest of Alyss' 7th birthday for which all of Wonderland is engaged in jubilant celebration. King Nolan is off on a hasty mission in order to strike an alliance with the neighboring King Arch of Borderland in order to help protect themselves from the looming threat of Queen Genevieve's sister: Red Red has only one motivation and that is power. Supreme Power. Redd stages a coup against her own sister and unleashes a lengthy period of bloodshed and torment upon the people of Wonderland. During this period Hatter Madigan has taken Alyss to an alternate dimension in which they become separated for 13 years. Hatter spends his days and nights tirelessly searching for Alyss on all 4 corners of the world while in the meantime she finds herself as an orphan on the streets of London who is eventually adopted by the Liddell family whom promptly begin calling her Alice. She grows to be the typical middle class young English lady who frequently lavishes about the fantastic life that she left behind before the arrival of her Aunt Red in Wonderland. Her newly adopted family and friends believe that Alice is just making these stories up and that she has an active imagination then it comes to the point that they believe that she should seek professional counsel. Beddor assembles a menagerie of characters within this story such as the young childhood friend of Alyss of Dodge who is being groomed to be a future palace guard, Hatter Madigan, The personal bodyguard of the Queen, General Doppleganger, the "doubly" effective head of Wonderland's military, Bibwit Harte, scholar to the Queendom of past, present, and future, The Jack of Diamonds, a self serving opportunist who plays both sides, The Cat, Redd's personal assassin, and many more that add many turns and much intrigue to the central character of Alyss Heart. Frank Beddor does very well to write in the third person perspective. He tells his tale from from more a "Let me set the story straight" sort of perspective which really is what drew me to the book in the first place. Beddor does a great job painting a vast visual imagery for the reader and goes the extra mile to familiarize the readers with the characters and their motivation without going into too many extraneous and irrelevant details. If you love a good tale about fantasy and imagination spun into a new twist on an old story then I highly recommend this book. It kept me company in airports and 2 plane rides on a 3 day business trip this past November. This one I give 4 out 5 Spades |