Alice & Chess

Alice & Chess: Relics of Oz book 1 is written by JC Noir and published through Amazon. A short story at 32,813 words across 242 pages and is split into parts rather than chapters.

JC Noir lives in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania with his daughter. Under the name JC Noir he has also published Solace Through Tragedy: Origins of Oz book 1. A talented photographer JC spends his spare time often creating artwork both for fun and as book covers for himself and other authors.

On Alice’s return from Wonderland she finds herself deemed clinically mad. Locked away for both her own and societies protection she grows up in Wonderlands penitentiary. However Wonderland has changed, now a darker version of itself and known as Lucidity Alice is no longer sure of the line between reality and the magical world she knew as Wonderland.
A mysterious visitor to her cell Alice meets Chess, a man-cat, and with him she sets out once again to thwart the Queen who seeks Alice to destroy her once and for all. But even Chess isn’t the only one to have changed so too has Alice herself.
A world of darkness and death, with influences of cyberpunk and steampunk, old friends must reunite for a new adventure where all is not as it seems and is nothing like it once was.

When innocence changes, it evolves and grows manifesting into something else. When we grow we change, our likes and dislikes, personality etc Did Alice’s growing change Wonderland? And is Lucidity a reflection of her newly created self? What is really going on with regard to the Queen? And why has she taken such a dark and sinister approach in ridding her life of Alice and those who support her. In a newer darker tale we ask ourselves whether Lucidity/ Wonderland is infact real or really a dream. Perceptions are everything when you are deemed insane but who is really the one who is mad?

Jc Noir has done a marvellous job at transforming the story we all knew and grew up with into something entirely different and its own. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone over the age of 16 and would be interested in reading further novels by this author. An enthralling read from start to finish I was glued from the very beginning and had the book read within two days. I give Alice & Chess by JC Noir 4.5 stars.

By R.N. Hadley