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.
(Spoilers included)
I'm really sad that I'm finished with The Looking Glass Wars trilogy. I've immensely enjoyed this series from page one. Even though I loved the second and third book, the first is still my favorite. In the conclusion, I liked how Beddor tied everything together with the oracles, freedom of Imagination, and the Heart Crystal.
The reason I'm not giving Archenemy a full five stars is because of a part of the ending. The deal with King Arch isn't sitting well with me. It might be because I like series to end happy with absolutely NO loose ends, otherwise the books don't seem like they're REALLY at an end. King Arch is still alive...I'm not sure why Beddor wrote it like that. When I end a book or a series of books, the bad characters should be definitely, certainly, unquestionably DEAD. (Either that or severely punished.) Maybe because he was meaning King Arch to be a real person who's alive today? Read the paragraph and see if it doesn't remind you of someone famous (or infamous):
"...a man who had once been a conquering king - at present one of Earth's anonymous multitudes but who, with his outsized ambition, his skills of manipulation and self-promotion, would one day be as recognizable to millions of Americans as he was to Alyss Hart."
I don't know about you, but I have a specific person in mind. I'd really like to ask Beddor about that paragraph and what he intended by writing it.
