Customer Reviews

Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn (The Kingdom Keepers)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having been a Disney cast member for many years, I read Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, and now it's sequel Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn with great interest. Both offer a fun read for kids and adults alike. With "Disney at Dawn," author Ridley Pearson has continued his story of the Kingdom Keepers, a group of school children who originally modeled for the fictional holographic Interactive Host Program at Disney's Magic Kingdom but who now find themselves the unofficial protectors of Disney. In the original story, the kids are magically transported into the Magic Kingdom at night while they're asleep. Their mission - to find out who is behind the mysterious goings on in the park after dark. Animatronic figures are roaming the parks and Disney characters have come alive, including the villians. Now, in the sequel, the kids again find themselves in the park; this time in Disney's Animal Kingdom. They must delve deeper into the mystery of the Overtakers, to find out which super villian is really in charge and what horrible scheme the villians have in mind. Fans of Disney, especially cast members past and present, will enjoy the refereneces to familiar locations and settings. Sure, there are some glaring errors (Ridley, it's Fantasmic, not the fantasmics) and some lesser errors that only cast members will appreciate (there are some interesting assumptions concerning ride operation and cast member IDs for example) but it is a work of fiction, so those mistakes offer an additional element of interest for those of us who work in the industry. I strongly recommend this series as a wonderful read for all ages. With page-turning actions, humorous dialogue, and engaging characters, it's a fun addition to any library!

The first book, Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, was a great book. Perfectly done, great story, cool characters, and awesome idea. Disney at Dawn takes the first one, and recycles the idea. Now the story is a lot grimmer in many ways and not nearly as amazing. However, Kingdom Keepers 2 keeps that charm that makes the first one so great. The ideas are a little stupid (such as everything depending on a virtual sword fight), we only get to see one new Overtaker(Chernabog) along with the silly return of Malificent, and the thing about the rides coming to life is taken away. Plus, the Animal Kingdom has replaced the Magic Kingdom as the main part of the story. Also, the whole story takes place in one day and they are not holograms and there is an annoying cliffhanger ending where nothing gets resolved. This book is worth reading once if your Kingdom Keeper fan or not, but there are far better books out there.

The first kingdom keepers was great. I found it to be stimulating, engaging, funny and interesting. The development of characters was strong, the dialogue stimulating yet at the same time easy, while the plot was interesting and mysterious. The characters were likable and the book itself had a sense of magic

The second book is lacking in the development of all characters (except Finn) and the dialogue is much less humorous then before. The plot was engaging yet one sided, once again, centering on one villain (Maleficent) and her animatronics and holographic flunkies. The plot is slightly laughable considering how Chernabog emerges from a 15 ft tall yeti robot, when in Fantasia he was a towering demon that emerged from a Volcano. I also found the lack of villains dull, as the author had many to choose from, especially from animal kingdom (scar, shere khan, and kaa being among them.)With only a minor reference to Captain Hook, and a brief appearance by Chernabog, the villains are incredibly lacking despite the huge amount of stock the author has to choose from. And my last problem with the book is that it didn't clarify any questions from the first book and those that it did, left more questions then before. It was a fun read but disappointing compared to the first novel.

I don't know what Ridley Pearson is waiting for. The first and second book both repeatedly refer to the "overtakers" but so far we've met only one. The Disney villain roster is a myriad of frightful miscreants but Pearson has for some reason centered on Malificent only. Granted, she is probably the most intriguing of all the D.V.'s, but where's the evil Queen from snow white? Where's Captain Hook? Where's Ursala,Hades, Scar, Jafar,or the evil Step-Mother? With all this evil talent it is dissapointing to see that Pearson has a short sighted approach and lazily depends on one character (and her Audio-animatronic pawns)to provide the conflict.

In Book one, Malificent refers to her master as a "she", which led me to beleive that the second book would reveal the evil Queen to materialize in book 2 to give the Kingdom Keepers a whole new challenge. Instead, Pearson impliments(barely)Chernabog as the new big villain. We're talking about a one-dimensional character, who spends all of 5 minutes in Fantasia doing nothing more than flailing his arms about and making frowny faces at some mountain side village. Not exactly the scheming type. And isn't he the size of a mountain? How are we to accept that this guy is hiding inside a fake mountain that's full of roller coaster track. It just doesn't make sense.

I understand that this book is intended for younger readers, but that doesn't mean that the author should phone it in. He has an infinite cast of characters that most writers would love to work with and he is simply not taking advantage of it. The idea of the Kingdom Keepers series is appealing to not just younger readers, but to also those of us who just enjoy seeing our favorite characters from our favorite place come to life. Unfortunately, Ridley Pearson is not living up to the potential of these stories.

Kingdom Keepers 11
Disney after Dawn

The book I chose was Kingdom Keepers 2 by Ridley Pearson. This book will probably make you scream, and make chills run through your body. Finn and the gang have returned but things go wrong at Magic kingdom, a sudden thunder storm disrupts the celebration. Finn then realizes that there was a weather balloon behind the castle. Finn runs to the castle with his friend Maybeck. The both of them run through the castle looking for clues. They heard a voice and followed it till they came face to face with maleficent! If you want to find out what happens read Kingdom keepers 2 by Ridley Pearson.

Steven A

If you're a Disney addict and looking for a book to help "tie you over" until your next trip, get the Kingdom Keeper books!
It's really great to be able to totally visualize where the kids are when you've been there many times.

I was very excited when I learned of the sequel to Kingdom Keepers. I was very disappointed, however, when I began reading. This was a badly written, obviously thrown together sequel without much in terms of story or dimensions to the characters; and I'm not somebody who believes that books meant for children and teens cannot have substance. The dialogue and character thoughts are aimless and very repetitive, the action without direction and sense much of the time.
And as in the first book, which I forgave, there are many mistakes written about the parks and attractions themselves. Don't authors have people that do research for them and check these things? Even if the story is fictional, the places are real.
So much more could be done with the idea set forth here: an adventure in the Disney parks come to life! This series is really falling short though.

Like the first in this series, this (very unfortunately) isn't a great book. There are a few fun scenes and the Animal Kingdom park makes a cool setting, but there were too many inconsistencies (I thought Jez was really Jess now?) and errors (Fantasmics?) for this to be an enjoyable read for me. And for the record, I assume this was written for teens or younger, and I'm not a teen, but I am a huge fan of the Disney parks. One of the major flaws overall is that the things that are supposed to cause tension in the story, like the two villains and the kids' need for sleep, aren't very suspenseful. Mainly the kids run around the park looking for clues, but I never felt like they ever were in any real danger. It kind of ends up being a poor version of a Dan Brown novel with some fantasy elements for good measure and all on a platform of Disney product placement. I take particular issue with the characterization of the teens--I don't appreciate Pearson making the "cool kid" use bad language and basically be a big pain in the [...]. And while one of the girls on the team finally showed some worth, the other girl remained pretty useless except to stand around and complain. Also a revelation about the two sisters is put out there and then not much is done about it.

Bottom line is that this could have been so much more interesting than it was and still been appropriate for younger readers, when in the end it was just poorly written. This seems to me like a book that was written for the paycheck and the free trips to Disney World.

This book grabs your attention, and you never want to stop reading this! Like all of Ridley's books, they are fast and fun! There is not one part that is boring! This is a must have for all DISNEY fan!
Can't wait For KKIII

I bought this for my 10 yr. old accelerated reader for Christmas. She enjoyed the first book but, says the second is even better and this is now her favorite book now.