Rating: 
(11 reviews)
Author: Frank Beddor
Publisher: Dial
Product Description
Discover the fate of Wonderland- and imagination itself- in this riveting conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy.
The Heart Crystal’s power has been depleted, and Imagination along with it. The people of Wonderland have all lost their creative drive, and most alarmingly, even Queen Alyss is without her powers. There is some comfort in the fact that the vicious Redd Heart seems to be similarly disabled. Amazingly, she is attempting to team up with her enemy, Alyss, in order to reclaim Wonderland from King Arch. Alyss might have no choice but to accept Redd’s overtures, especially when she begins to receive alarming advice from the caterpillar oracles.
Page-turning and complex, this culmination of the Wonderland saga is intensely satisfying.
5 Comments
This was a great ending to a wonderful trilogy. I was very pleased with the product and with the timely manner in which it was delivered.
I’m not very good at book reviews – I think it stems from the fact I was never good at book reports as a kid, either. But this book is absolutely amazing. It’s the final volume of a wondrous trilogy that poses this question: What if Alice in Wonderland was real, and Lewis Carroll (AKA Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) got it very, very wrong.
Political plots, vengeful aunts, a tiny touch of romance, and a LOT of action and adventure all mixed up with colorful, hookah-smoking caterpillars addicted to tarty-tarts. It’s all in here, and the final book in the trilogy simply completes a tale that kept me locked into my seat for hours on end.
Highly recommended to anyone that likes fantasy, adventure and a little hint of steampunk.
The final battle for Wonderland is here, but their isn’t actually a battle. Instead we are sidetracked from Alyss, who is the main character right? And we must deal with Redd and Arch (who are the most abusive ‘couple’ ever) and their ’shenanigans’ as I will call it. We must also follow Homburg Molly as she is without the urge to fight and does nothing.
During Seeing Redd, the previous book, I noticed that while the first book dealt with Alyss for one part, the rest of the book focused on Redd. I know the title is Seeing Redd, but come on. Alyss is important too.
Now in Arch Enemy I see felt no sympathy for any of the characters (except perhaps Homburg Molly). Alyss and Dodge’s relationship had been stretched so far I really didn’t care whether they “ended up” together. Redd seems a tame villian and Arch is shown to have a big ego (which we already knew). The ending, I won’t spoil, but it was a little fast and bland. In fact I was at page 320 and saw that their were only 370 pages, I then felt as if the author simply said. Im sick of writing now, i’ll just say “The End”.
The one strong point in this novel was the deep hidden meanings that weren’t even really expanded upon. I would really have liked if the author added at least a hundred more pages so his story at least had wholeness and insight.
This is the concluding book in The Looking Glass Wars trilogy by Frank Beddor. It was okay. I think Beddor did a good job of wrapping things up, but I just couldn’t get into either the characters or the story.
After King Arch devises to set off the bomb to kill all imagination; both Alyss and Redd are left without imagination. They are left wondering if/when imagination will return to Wonderland. When Arch turns against Redd, Redd is left without an army or allies and she is forced to ally with the one person who believes in imagination as much as she does…Alyss. Will imagination return? Will Arch be the one to rule Wonderland in the end? What are those darn caterpillars up to anyway? Who is the Everqueen?
I felt like everything about this book was luke warm. A lot happened, but not a lot of it really drove the plot forward. Alyss was in the story but didn’t do much, she kind of let herself be shuttled around from place to place. Dodge was in the book but not a very empathetic or supportive character. The whole relationship between Dodge and Alyss fell flat, leaving me not caring whether they worked things out or not. There are no surprises in the plot, everything ends up exactly how you think it should. I found this book to be a boring and lengthy read, I really had to push to get through it. None of the characters were engaging, none of the villains all that bad, and everything ended just as predicted. There were some action scenes that could have been awesome, Beddor does an okay job writing them but didn’t make me sit on the edge of my seat in anxiety waiting for the outcomes. The characters in the fight scenes are just to stoic and cardboard-like, you never know what they are thinking, feeling, or experiencing.
There were some things that redeemed the book. Hatter M and Molly are pretty good characters. These are some of the only characters that really showed some feeling throughout the book. Redd is one of the only characters who takes decisive action action King Arch, and she was way more interesting that any of the good characters. Beddor does do a good job tying up all of the loose ends, but he does it in such a straightforward and tidy way that it was not much fun for me to read. I guess to be fair I didn’t really like “Seeing Redd” all that much either, so I may just not enjoy Beddor’s writing style.
I am glad I read the conclusion. Disappointed that I figured out who the Everqueen was near the beginning of the book. Also disappointed in the characterization. So all in all an okay read, read it if you have read the others. It didn’t make me excited to read more Beddor books though.
If you haven’t started reading this trilogy already, start now! Even though, this 3rd book, as most 3rd books go, isn’t as good as 1 or 2 it is still incredible. It sums up all unanswered questions from Seeing Redd in a very unexpected way and [is this a spoiler] happy ending. As the title suggests Arch is still making his way in this book to conquer Wonderland at the dishonour, unhappiness, and unenthusiastic response from Alyss and Redd.