'The Looking Glass Wars' is a series of three novels by Frank Beddor, heavily "inspired by" (but completely missing the nonsense and logical games - in other words, "the point" - of ) Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', and its 1871 sequel, 'Through the Looking-Glass'. The premise is that the two books written by Lewis Carroll are a distortion of the "true story". 'The Looking Glass Wars' is the first book in the trilogy. It was first released in the United Kingdom in 2004, and released in the United States in 2006. The second book in the trilogy, 'Seeing Redd', was released in 2007 and the third book, 'ArchEnemy', was released on October 15, 2009. The series includes a spin-off comic book series entitled 'Hatter M', which is no better.

The premise of the book is that Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel 'Alice in Wonderland' was fiction, but that the character Alice and the world of Wonderland is real. Carroll's novel is said to have been inspired by the images, ideas, and names related by Alice to the author, whom she had requested to make a book of her personal history. The book's prologue tells of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson showing Alice Liddell (who claims her name to be spelled "Alyss") his manuscript for 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground'. Alyss is shocked by the book's contents and refuses to speak to Dodgson ever again. We feel much the same way about the author of the present work.

The Map
The map is an unsympathetic reduction of Blaeu's 1625 'Regiones Sub Polo Artico', with the cartouche and toponyms replaced, and a version of John Tenniel's 'Jabberwock' by Doug Chiang (vice president and executive creative director at Lucasfilm) making an appearance at lower right. That both book and map are sad derivatives of an earlier masterpiece is the reason they appear here. Well, that plus the fact we can show off in doing so.