Frank Beddor
Autore di The Looking Glass Wars
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: (c) Elizabeth Talbott
Serie
Opere di Frank Beddor
Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars #2.5 - Deep Travel Symposium: Questions, Answers, and Revelations (2005) — Autore — 14 copie
Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars #3 — Autore — 4 copie
The Looking Glass Wars Soundtrack — Producer — 2 copie
Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy Books 1-3 in the Series (Set Includes: The Looking Glass Wars,… (2015) 1 copia
Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars #1 — Autore — 1 copia
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Beddor, Frank
- Data di nascita
- 1959
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Luogo di residenza
- Los Angeles, California, USA
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA - Attività lavorative
- film producer
author
champion freestyle skiier
Utenti
Discussioni
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor in Fairy Tales Retold (Aprile 2009)
Recensioni
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 22
- Utenti
- 9,313
- Popolarità
- #2,587
- Voto
- 3.7
- Recensioni
- 332
- ISBN
- 90
- Lingue
- 3
- Preferito da
- 19
Unfortunately, Frank Beddor is not really interested in these concepts, at least not from a literary perspective, and his writing style indicates a limited understanding of basic structural tenets of creative writing. As with most youth-oriented books that I read, I try to view it from the perspective of my cousins in that age group. This book, however, would barely satisfy them, written as it is in such a startlingly underplayed prose.
Beddor's main issues are threefold. First, his dialogue is woefully stilted, with all characters sounding like they walked out of the same Edwardian era children's book. Similar to my issues with the (overall more successful) [b:Taran Wanderer|24782|Taran Wanderer (The Chronicles of Prydain, #4)|Lloyd Alexander|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1316635412s/24782.jpg|2628] series, characters speak in the same manner regardless of whether they are holding court or running from a maniacal killer. It severely limits audience engagement with the text, completely cutting side-swiping any attempts at paciness or narrative energy.
Second, the text has a bizarre approach to which parts of the narrative are crucial. While there are some beautiful ideas here (for instance, the Mad Hatter's decade spent searching for his mistress, where he becomes a kind of mythical figure in the lives of 19th century Europeans), many of the key character moments are rushed through (notably, young Alyss' relationship with Lewis Carroll) while we spend a tiring amount of time with the oppressed people back in Wonderland. I don't like to review works by saying what they should have done (honest, I don't!), but "The Looking Glass Wars" smacks of a missed opportunity to tell a cohesive story instead of a set of images.
Because, ultimately, that is the issue here. My third issue with the book encompasses all the problems (and occasional solid moments) mentioned above. Beddor wants to write a comic book or a graphic novel. There's a great concept here for a truly gorgeous visual world, one unifying Victorian decor with gothic fantasy. The story beats are adequate, if not extraordinary, but they would have made far more sense in a visual format. Instead, this feels as if a comic writer is trying to become a novelist by literally transferring the skills of one medium into another - and that almost never works.
I'm going to have to read a few of the rave reviews of this series in an attempt to understand what people see in this - perhaps they, too, have an overactive imagination and are able to overlay this empty husk of a story with some perceived depth from their own mind. I don't have any problem with readers doing that; we all have! (It's how many academics make a living, after all.) But it's always a shame when a book with an intriguing concept leaves me with such a sour taste.… (altro)