The Land of Stories:
An Author's Odyssey
I was eagerly waiting for the next book in the Land of Stories series and I finally manage to lay my hands on it. It hasn't disappointed me at all.
The Land of Stories: An Author’s Odyssey is the highly anticipated 5th book in the bestselling series by Chris Colfer entitled The Land of Stories. The series contains 6 parts and I am more than halfway through reading them. As you can tell by the title the genre of the book is adventure and fantasy. It has almost 450 pages and was first published in the year 2016 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Chris Colfer is an American author and also a Golden Globe award winning actor, known for writing ‘The Land of Stories’ series. This amazing adventure was #1 New York Times bestselling Land of Stories series. Some of his other books are ‘A tale of magic’, ‘Struck by lightning’ and ‘A treasury of classic fairy tales’.
The book has a large cast and the author has skilfully used a host of characters from his previous books and popular fairy tales. Alex and Conner Bailey, Mother Goose, Jack, Goldilocks, Red, Froggy, Bree and Emmerich, the twins’ companions, Auburn Sally and her crew, the Ziblings, the Galaxy Queen and her soldiers, Beau Rogers and some mummies, characters from Conner’s short stories. There is also Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, the Merry Men, the Tin Woodman, Merlin and Arthur, characters from classic literature, the Masked Man, Morina the witch, the Queen of hearts, Wicked witch of the West and Captain Hook, the antagonists.
This is how the plot goes - The Masked Man has gathered all the greatest villians and built his army and has captured all the royal families from the Land of Stories. He is eager to become the next emperor. The twins Alex and Conner Bailey need to fight them but they realize they cannot match the Masked Man’s army of villians. So, they go into Conner’s short stories using the Portal Potion and recruit armies of their own. They recruit pirates, mummies, cyborgs and four sibling superheroes. Now, they are ready to fight.
I loved the book because it was like reading many different stories in a single story. Tons of sub-sub plots in sub-plots in the main plot. It is filled with excitement and laughter and will keep you reading past your bedtime. I personally love the book because it provides a glimpse into a child’s imagination and I think others kids will also feel the same. I recommend this book because it's such an enjoyable read and is an awesome continuation of the series. The message I got from this book is to think outside the box and have hope. Some may not enjoy the take on travelling into Connor's stories and "reading" about them but I think Colfer’s unique writing style made the story really fun to read.
The villains in the book including Wicked Witch of the West, the Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook were also very interesting. However, I think that the book was a little long and that there could be a little less characters to keep it less crowded.
I recommend this book for readers of ages 9-13 years. If you read this book and like it, make sure to read the final part in the series ‘The land of stories: Worlds collide’.
I give this book 4.2 out of 5.