Enchantment Creating New Lands
Last year, Ridley Pearson revisited his Kingdom Keepers fantasy world, and this middle-aged guy jumped in. Yes, these are technically middle grade fantasy, but I love Disney, and the premise of these books has always intrigued me. Villains’ Realm is the middle part of this new Inheritance trilogy. Sadly, it needed a little work.
If you are new to these stories, you really shouldn’t jump in here. There is a lot of backstory you will have missed. But a brief primer. The Kingdom Keepers are a group of middle school kids who fought Disney villains in the parks at night in an effort to keep them from taking over and destroying the Disney magic. There is so much to it than that, obviously; this is book twelve in the overall saga, after all. The Inheritance trilogy picks up twenty years in the future as a new threat to the Disney legacy emerges and the kids of the original Keepers must now pick up the fight.
Which brings us to Eli, the focus of these new books. The action here starts when Eli learns that Disney’s CEO has completely changed his mind about opening a Villains’ Realm in each park. The man was opposing it because it was a clear threat, giving the villains a foothold. But now, he’s greenlit them, and constructions has started immediately. In order to stop them from being completed, Eli and his friend Blair are going to have to team up with Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. Can they stop it in time?
When this series is on, there are a lot of fun and imagination in them that makes the magic come alive. Sadly, this is the middle book in a trilogy, and it knows it. The story moves along well, but we don’t have the epic battles against the villains and their henchmen that the series is best known for. Instead, we get Eli and Blair moving from one area to another on their quest. There are a few standoffs, but that’s really all they are. And the ending is pretty abrupt, even if you are reading it as a cliffhanger for the next book in the series.
Of course, my complaint about the characters comes into play here as well. They’ve always been thin, and that’s the case again. I have a hard time connecting the kids to their parents, which doesn’t help. Eli, as the main character, is a little better.
And the book needed a bit of an edit since I got confused a couple of times about what park the action was supposed to be taking place in. I feel like some of the locations were changed, but not all of the edits were caught.
Not that I’m sorry I read the book. There are some developments fans will need to know to follow what comes next. And the fun of imaging all that is happening inside the parks is always great. The idea of these characters interacting with classic Disney character still makes me smile. The fact that much of the action takes place at the California parks added to the fun.
But I did have to laugh when the characters were dealing with the humidity when visiting California. We rarely have humidity here. Again, a minor thing that should have been caught in the edits.
Am I sorry I picked up Villain’s Realm? No. I’m looking forward to seeing how this is all going to play out in the final book. But this could have been a much stronger entry in the series.
Enjoy the magic of the rest of the Kingdom Keepers saga.
I only bought book one and two back in 2004, so it surprises me when series keep on going for twenty plus years. My copies were weeded a couple of years ago because they fell apart. I had a ten book series by Diana Duane (Young Wizards) that started in 1983 and ended in 2016. Only one person checked out the last book. I'm leery of long series for these reasons. Glad you read this one, since you're such a Disney fan. Have you looked at Calonita's Twisted Tales books? They have their moments.
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