 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
- Sci-fi & fantasy - |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The 10th Kingdom |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The 10th Kingdom byKathryn Wesley Harper Collins Entertainment 421 pages, 2000 ISBN 0007102658 Reviewed by our UK Editor Rachel A. Hyde Anybody who saw Sky One and Hallmark’s delightful series will need no introduction to this tie-in novel. If you missed it, a treat awaits right here. Novelizations of films and TV shows are notoriously variable but this is one of the better efforts. Although it lacks the visual dimension of the series, the story is all here and plainly told. It may be told a bit too plainly in places as though it was a narration, yet it is nonetheless mercifully free of one of the main faults of many fantasy novels – verbosity. So what is it all about then? Virginia lives in New York with her reckless father and works as a waitress in a Central Park café. Everything changes when three trolls, a dog (who is a prince under a spell) and a handsome werewolf come crashing through a magic mirror. After wreaking havoc in the city, they go through into the parallel fantasy world called The Nine Kingdoms - our world being the Tenth. The evil queen who has the prince’s body wants to put a dog on the throne. The group will have many adventures while trying to prevent this from happening. All the fairytale scenarios are here - from Snow White to woodcutter’s cottages, Bo Peep’s Little Lamb Village, a romantic town where everybody falls in love and more. It sounds unbearably 'twee' and more children’s fare than adult entertainment. Yet The 10th Kingdom is as well done as it could possibly be, with understated humor and enough plot twists to rule out boredom. One to enjoy. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||