Seeing Redd: The Looking Glass WarsBook Two (Paperback)

by Frank Beddor (Author)
Key Phrases: black imagination, white imagination, volcanic plains, The Cat, Glass Eyes, Heart Crystal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Wonderland finally seems as if it’s getting back to normal. Queen Alyss is back on the throne, and reunited with her childhood sweetheart, Dodge. But the fight for Wonderland is far from over. King Arch, in nearby Boarderland, is conniving to overthrow everything for which Alyss and her friends have fought so hard. Even worse, King Arch has found an ally in the recently returned Redd, who has been biding her time and gathering new and evil assassins in the Catacombs of Paris. With enemies circling and danger looming, someone close to Alyss lets her down—and threatens the future of Wonderland forever.

About the Author
Frank Beddor lives in Los Angeles, California.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Speak; Reprint edition (October 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142412090
• ISBN-13: 978-0142412091
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,952 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of war, minimal Imagination, March 9, 2009

By	K. Eckert "Devourer of all books fantasy" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the second book (out of three) in the Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. I really wanted to love this series. Somehow I found this book even more boring than the first one. These books just focus too much on strategic war than on what makes Wonderland awesome; imagination.

In this book King Arch is plotting to overthrow Wonderland but his plans are interrupted when Redd returns and, once again, causes issues for new Queen of Wonderland, Alyss Heart.

This story was okay. I am a little irked that Alyss only seems to use her Imagination as a weapon, and that she uses it in such limited way. Redd actually seems quite a bit more creative with her Black Imagination. I loved that Beddor tried to expand and give more dimension to the character of the Hatter. Unfortunately it fell short for me; I thought the Hatter's character was actually weakened by the fact that he wandered somewhat aimlessly through his own personal issues.

I guess, just like the first book, the characters seemed more like outlines than actual characters to me. I had trouble reading this book. At points I found it outright boring and skimmed through sections. When the goal of reading a book becomes solely to finish it; I start to say that the book wasn't all that great.

The story was okay, the characters have potential, but the book didn't excite me and I only marginally enjoyed reading it. I am beginning to think that me and Beddor's writing style just don't get along.

This book is not as contained as the first one...it kind of stops in the middle of things. So, I will most likely read the third and final installment, Everqueen, but after that no more Beddor for me.

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent reading, October 23, 2008

By	B. Conlon "Carpe Omnious" (ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book and its predecessor "the looking glass wars" on a whim. I just grabbed them off the shelf randomly and ended up being more than pleased with them.
The books detail the life and trials of Princess Alyss of Wonderland, and it gives us the story that we'd never thought imaginable.
A murdering Aunt Redd overthrows the throne of wonderland, and Alyss and her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan are forced to flee wonderland to earth to hide for safety until young Alyss is old enough to fight Redd and reclaim Wonderland. However, things get even worse when they are separated, leaving a seven year old Alyss to fend for herself in victorian England, while Hatter combs the globe looking for her. After many years, traumas, and buried memories, Hatter finds alyss is found and brought back to face her Aunt Redd and a ruined and enslaved Wonderland. The books entail the struggles to win and keep the queendom safe, facing murder, diabolical inventions, treason, and an insane half feline assassin known only as "the cat".
These books were awesome and i definitely give them 5 stars.

I'm sure that they'll be well loved by most readers. I cant wait for the third.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Seeing Stars, January 5, 2009

By	Chris "Okie" (Bountiful, UT United States) - See all my reviews

Ah, Alyss and Wonderland. I first jumped down Beddor's rabbit hole with the Hatter M comics and shortly after that with The Looking Glass Wars. I had just finished reading the 'original' Alice stories by Carroll and had that imagery fresh in my head. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book and had a lot of fun with the new and very creative interpretation of the Wonderland world and the characters and interactions found there. Snippets of Beddor's writing style bugged me a little bit, but I got used to them.

In Seeing Redd, the second book in the Looking Glass saga, I wasn't quite as happily fulfilled. The first book, while it had a handful of issues like most books do, was a tightly woven story with compelling characters and a great story arc. While it obviously left itself open for the potential of a continuing saga, it also tied up most loose ends and left us with a very fulfilling and happy place to leave Alyss and her friends. The second book did not tie things up neatly. Normally that wouldn't be a problem for me. Some of my favorite books have been members of a series and often ended with wildly dramatic cliffhangers.

So what is different about Seeing Redd that leaves me unhappily unsettled? The problem, as I see it, is that the tone and styling of the novel seemed almost ignorant to the fact that it was leaving so much in the air by its end. The writing seemed to believe that everything was going to tie itself off nicely by the end of the final page. Rather than identifying and exposing the suspense of the loose threads, the novel practically disavowed their existence.

In the first book, I found myself turning pages faster and faster as I neared the end and as I did so, I was growing more and more nervous that the author wasn't going to have time to wrap things up. In the first book, the action took on a rip-roaring pace to finish things up neatly in a short amount of time. It moved quickly but didn't become disorienting.

As I neared the end of book two, I was again nervous that things weren't going to wrap up, but I recalled my previous experience and trusted the author to leave me with a satisfactory ending because I had no suggestions from the text that there would be any sort of suspenseful interlude between book 2 and book 3.

As the climax of the final battle wound down, I realized that I was in fact going to have to wait until book 3 for any additional conclusion. I wasn't left with a cliffhanger or any sort of major suspense. Rather, the resulting finish left me in a state of confusion. Most of the major action of book 2 had been nullified completely. There were a few alliances made which could be utilized in future stories. There were some intriguing actions that needed to be re-explored (like the kidnapping of a certain author), but for the most part, I feel like I could probably jump right into book 3 without ever reading book 2 and it's not likely that I would miss anything that a single chapter couldn't recap ("Character X aligns with Character Y. Characters A and B are betrayed and killed by Character X.", etc.).

Still, I am absolutely enjoying this world and the stories and imagination in this new Wonderland. I look forward to the new adventures. Despite my complaints above, I truly did enjoy this book and had a lot of fun with the characters and their struggles and triumphs. I just would have preferred the book to either be more adept in 'wrapping things up' or in adequately portraying a sense of suspense and anticipation for things to come. The current ending left me in a bit of a stupor.

***
2 1/2 stars