The Hidden World [Hardcover]

Paul Park (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2008

The breathtaking climax to Paul Park’s lyrical and mesmerizing series. “Park…should be knighted.”--Entertainment Weekly

The Hidden World is the concluding volume in Paul Park’s remarkable tale of Roumania, a world that is both more real and yet also more mysterious and magical than our own.

After finding out that she is the lost princess of Roumania and the mythical White Tyger, Miranda’s fate is still uncertain. The ghosts of her enemies cluster about her, the insane spirit of the Baroness takes possession of her body for a time, and demons released by her mother are abroad. And through it all her heart calls out to Peter, away with the army, whom she has come to love, and her best friend Andromeda, sworn to help her and protect her. There are no easy answers; it all looks impossible. Any hope may lie in the hidden world of spirits, where death is but an inconvenience.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this exciting and satisfying fourth and final volume (after 2007's White Tyger) of Park's much praised alternate historical fantasy series, young, clairvoyant Miranda, now revealed as both a lost Roumanian princess and the legendary shape-shifting White Tyger, must avoid the machinations of the corrupt and violent Colonel Bocu and the ghost of wicked Baroness Nicola Ceausescu as she struggles to understand her heritage. Members of the old nobility, not all of them still living, continue to experiment with dangerous and ancient magics they only partially understand. As Roumania begins to flounder in its war against Turkey, dark rumors surface of a terrible and perhaps necromantic final weapon that may destroy the nation. Miranda can depend only on her oldest friends, the young army officer Peter Gross and the gender- and species-shifting Andromeda. This final volume, although beautifully written, does not stand well on its own, but it provides a fitting and triumphant conclusion to the series. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

The last of Park’s four novels set in Roumania, an alternate-universe Romania, comes to a satisfying if convoluted conclusion for its adolescent protagonist, Miranda Popescu. Displaced from her native Massachusetts to a bewildering land of arcane magic and warring political factions, Miranda has endured separation from her best friends Peter and Andromeda, while her scheming enemies have blocked her from assuming her rightful place as Roumania’s “White Tyger” princess. Now, with the death of her chief nemesis, Baroness Nicola Ceausescu, and her mother’s final release from a German prison, Miranda must face new adversaries from the spirit world before she can rejoin her friends and return to her Massachusetts home. Park’s preoccupation with intricate Eastern Europe politics and his own befuddling brand of intricate supernaturalism may not appeal to many younger devotees of magically oriented fiction. Yet his complex characterizations and inventive alternate-history scenarios have invited comparisons to the best works of Crowley and LeGuin. At any rate, Miranda is one of the most interesting heroines in contemporary fantasy. --Carl Hays

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765316684
• ISBN-13: 978-0765316684
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,217,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb epic coming of age fantasy, April 19, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hidden World (Hardcover)

Miranda Popescu is beginning to understand her heritage as the once lost thought dead Roumanian princess and as the mythical shape-shifting White Tyger. However, that knowledge also means responsibility to her people and lethal threats from within and without. Nasty sadistic Colonel Bocu wants Miranda dead; the spirit of evil Baroness Nicola Ceausescu may be even more malevolent than when she was living if that is possible; her late Aunt Aegypta has proven untrustworthy and so has the deceased evil Elector of Ratisbon a sinister alchemist. As Miranda now knows dead does not mean the threat expired as they can still cause havoc from the Hidden World. However, the biggest danger comes from the aristocracy still inanely and insanely experimenting with ancient magic that is not understood very well.

In that environs her country is losing the war to Turkey and some in her inner circle want that to happen so the outside upstart is dethroned. As she relies on her friends from the other earth's Massachusetts army officer Peter Gross and gender-species shape shifter Andromeda, rumors abound that tinkering with the old magic has led to a weapon of mass destruction that some say is a planetary doomsday machine based on necromantic physics.

The fourth and final tale in this superb alternate earth (circa WW I) epic coming of age fantasy is a terrific conclusion to a strong saga. The story line is fast-paced as peril seems to come from everywhere and on just about every page; yet Miranda remains a strong center holding the tense story line together. Although it behooves newcomers to read the previous three novels (see THE WHYTE TIGER, THE TOURMALINE and A PRINCESS OF ROUMANIA) as threads from them are tied up in THE HIDDEN WORLD, Paul Park provides a great finish.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like Crowley said -- it's art, July 9, 2008

By 

Ruth Groff - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hidden World (Hardcover)

This one is the ending, the one that makes the whole thing be a whole thing. Arguably, the beginnings and middles of narratives do their bits in this regard too. But it's the ending that seals the deal.

More often than not, complete stories are recognizable versions of some general *kind* of story: a mystery, an epic, a romance. A coming-of-age alternate-world fantasy. Etc. And depending on the kind, certain things can and do happen, in the end, and certain things don't.

The thing that matters most about this last book in Paul Park's quartet, it seems to me, is that he's trying to break the rules for how certain types of stories (viz., the kind that his would be, if he followed the rules) have to go, ultimately, given the sort of story that they are.

So it can't turn out that Peter and Miranda, having first developed themselves into interesting, complex, autonomous people, as Rilke and everyone who's anyone says lovers must, then live happily after. And it can't be like the Wizard of Oz, and they all go home. Or like any of one of those stories where the rightful ruler is restored and then all is well forever. It's bad enough that it has to be a story at all, and therefore be determinate in the ways that stories invariably are. In real life, as Park himself likes to say, things just sort of keep on happening.

It might be that the characters end up becoming who they potentially were, thereby fulfilling their destinies in some way. I'm not sure. But I think that the way to read this 4th book is with considerations of form in mind. Plus it's fantastically well-imagined, no pun intended.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great series., November 29, 2008

By 

Abigail K. Colucci - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Hidden World (Hardcover)

These books turned out to be really great. They are very unique and teeter the lines between genres (a bit of historical fantasy meets sci-fi meet teen coming of age novel, perhaps?). All four of the novels are well written and really take a second reading to fully comprehend all of the situations and how they fit together.

I gave it four stars because Park's writing can be a bit convoluted at times and there are certain all-to-convenient situations. He also doesn't explain some things that seemed to be important when they were first mentioned. These aren't big issues that take away from the overall story, just enough to take it down a notch from 5 stars. It's actually not even a 4 out of 5; it's probably 4.6 out of 5 :)