The Palace of Illusions
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
The Palace of Illusions brings readers to a Paris breathless with excitement at the dawn of the twentieth century, where for a select few there is a second, secret Paris where the magic of the City of Light is very real in this enchanting and atmospheric fantasy from the author of The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill.
In the run up to the 1900s World’s Fair Paris is abuzz with creative energy and innovation. Audiences are spellbound by the Lumiere brothers’ moving pictures and Loie Fuller’s serpentine dance fusing art and technology. But for Clara Ironwood, a talented and pragmatic clockworker, nothing compares to the magic of her godfather’s mechanical creations, and she’d rather spend her days working on the Palace of Illusions, an intricate hall of mirrors that is one of the centerpieces of the world’s fair.
When her godfather sends Clara a hideous nutcracker for Christmas, she is puzzled until she finds a hidden compartment that unlocks a mirror-world Paris where the Seine is musical, fountains spout lemonade, and mechanical ballerinas move with human grace. The magic of her godfather’s toys was real.
As Clara explores this other Paris and begins to imbue her own creations with its magic, she soon discovers a darker side to innovation. Suspicious men begin to approach her outside of work, and she could swear a shadow is following her. There’s no ignoring the danger she’s in, but Clara doesn't know who to trust. The magic of the two Parises are colliding and Clara must find the strength within herself to save them both.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Centered on the 1900 World's Fair in Paris, Miller's lavish if slightly overstuffed retelling of The Nutcracker, like her Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill, plunges a plucky young heroine into a parallel world of delights and dangers. Clara Ironwood, fresh from her clock-making apprenticeship in Milwaukee with her eccentric godfather, is working on the Exposition's Palace of Illusions, a complex house of mirrors built to exhibit the glories of electricity. When her godfather sends her a mysterious nutcracker for Christmas, this gift proves the key to a dazzling alternate dimension Paris full of wonders and, as Clara soon learns, threatening shadows that pursue her. She becomes addicted to this place, called "the anderwelt," but when human greed leads to an attempt to bring strange creatures from the anderwelt—including a fascinating ballerina and an assortment of tin soldiers—into the real Paris, blights threaten the anderwelt's entire existence. Miller populates the anderwelt with such vibrant and magical creatures that the "real" characters seem pallid by comparison. Partly this is due to an abundance of somewhat convoluted subplots, which leave little room for character development. Still, the historical setting and lush landscapes of Miller's fairy tale world spark the imagination. Die-hard fans of The Nutcracker will find plenty to enjoy.
