The Mirror and the Mountain by Luke Aylen
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In Luke Aylen’s The Mirror and the Mountain, a title released in association with Essential Christian, two 11-year-olds pass through a mirror and end up in a magical kingdom called Presadia.
Trapped in a war-torn kingdom with no way home, Summer and Jonah are pulled into a strange quest to find the long-lost king, who alone has the power to restore peace to Presadia. Meeting strange and wonderful people along the way, including the dwarf high lord, the elf queen and a fire-breathing dragon, they learn important lessons about pride, greed, and the power of words as they embark on an epic journey to save the realm.
The children and their new friends must be brave as they fly across the broken kingdom and climb a misty mountain. Can they fulfil their quest to find the king and restore peace to Presadia? And will Summer and Jonah ever make it back to their own world?
The Mirror and the Mountain is a children’s book following two children after they find themselves in another world through a mirror (yes, very Alice through the Looking Glass!). It has a fairytale childlike feel to the world and writing, but the story has that Narnian feel of walking through the wardrobe and finding a new world.
It has dragons, dwarves, elves and some conflict between them as humans come into the picture and start an adventure. It’s your typical fantasy novel in so many ways – however it’s also got a lot of allegory and strong Christian ties. As a whole, I think the story borrowed a lot of concepts, themes and morals from not just the Bible but many other children’s books which I found made the story less interesting. However, it did make it feel a little nostaglic.
The King in this story very much mirror’s Aslan in Narnia where he’s a placeholder for God. However I liked that the characters are challenged on the assumption that the legendary King should be human. “People always imagine he is like them. I suppose it makes it easier for us to try and understand him” – this is a great way to describe God and I think it fits more accepting Christian values than we sometimes see. I also just like that in a fantasy world we don’t make human’s the top of the food chain automatically.
I’m personally not a Christian, but very much saw the morals and parallels throughout the story to the Bible. I found the link to the Bible to be fairly similar to that of the Chronicles of Narnia, and whilst not preachy I did think it went a little bit too far into the allegory than needed.
The story itself is very fast paced, with our main characters Jonah and Summer very quickly arriving in Presedia and getting themselves into trouble. Summer gets to act like a Princess whilst Jonah goes on a journey to find her, and then they make friends with a dwarf king, a dragon and the elf queen too. I love the two kids and their friendship being the strength holding them both together in a strange new world.
The story gets a bit darker nearer the end, however it reads as a children’s book throughout. Overall I thought it was a quick and easy read, although I might not have it on my favourites shelf any time soon.
Positives of The Mirror and the Mountain
- Great fairytale-like writing for kids
Negatives of The Mirror and the Mountain
- Feels a bit too much like Chronicles of Narnia
I received The Mirror and the Mountain by Luke Aylen from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
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