Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Battle for WondLa
Fiction Series
For ages 10 and up
Simon and Schuster, 2014 ISBN: 978-1416983149
Many months ago Eva Nine left the underground living space where she grew up. When she got to the surface she found herself in a world populated by bizarre plants and animals, many of which were dangerous. The place looked nothing like the holographic images that her robot caregiver, Muthr, had shown her.
Over time Eva met many different kinds of alien species and though she made friends with some of them, she longed to find other humans so that she might, at long last, have a family, a place where she belonged. After many adventures a human boy called Hailey managed to find her and he flew her and her alien friend Rovender to a human settlement called New Attica.
At first Eva Nine was thrilled to be living among her own kind, but she soon discovered that New Attica was not the haven she had hoped it would be. Instead, it was a kind of prison and the humans who lived there never left the city. They had no idea what the rest of the planet was like, and did not interact at all with the alien species who had migrated to the plant long ago.
Eva decided to run away from New Attica, but before she left she heard the leader of the human colony, Cadmus, talking to Loroc, one of the most powerful aliens on the planet. Loroc and Cadmus appeared to be planning an attack on Solas and Lacus, two alien cities, and Cadmus was going to provide warships and warbots for the invasion. Cadmus wanted to acquire the terraforming technology that the aliens had used long ago to make Orbona habitable. He wanted to undo what the aliens had created and turn Orbona back into the world his ancestors knew, the world called Earth. Desperate to save the alien peoples living in the cities, Eva set off to warn them of the coming danger, but she got there too late. The battle had already started and there was nothing Eva Nine could do to stop it.
Eva and Hailey are now on the run from Loroc. Eva knows that Loroc’s sibling, Zin, is the only creature who might be able to stop Loroc, so she and Hailey set out to find him.
When she finally manages to find Zin, Eva Nine convinces him that the humans did not invade the alien cities alone. They had help from Loroc. Zin does not want to believe that his sibling would allow so many innocents to be killed, but he finally comes to understand that Loroc has indeed betrayed Queen Ojo and all the alien beings living in Solas and Lacus.
Eva Nine and her friends take Zin back to the city of Solas so that he can talk to Loroc, and they head for New Attica, hoping they can talk some sense into Cadmus. When they get to the human city they find that it is being attacked by Cadmus’ warbots. Loroc is using Cadmus’s machines against him and his people. New Attica is being destroyed and its people are being killed. Cadmus cannot even control the machines he created and in the end he asks Eva Nine and her friends to rescue as many of his people as possible and to take them to a place of safety. It would seem that Loroc is determined to wipe out the humans altogether and to declare himself king of Orbona. There doesn’t seem to be much standing in his way, except Eva Nine, a young teenage human who can communicate with plants and animals, and her motley collection of friends and allies.
In this final title in the WondLa trilogy, Tony DeTelizzi brings his remarkable story to a close. We learn more about how Orbona came into being, and come to appreciate that Eva Nine, a clone who was a part of a project to repopulate Earth after it became a viable place to live again, is more than just an ordinary teenage girl. She is special, and with the help of those who believe in and trust her, she fights for what she thinks is right.
Throughout the book the spellbinding narrative to paired with beautiful artwork created by the author.
