Fabled Kingdom: Book One

Fabled Kingdom #1

by Queenie Chan

What if Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother isn't her real grandmother?
What if her two true born grandmothers are both Queens - and one is good, while the other one is evil?

Celsia is a 'Red Hood,' a healer-in-training living with her grandmother in a small village deep in the woods. Life is ordinary and uneventful, until a shocking truth is uncovered - her grandmother isn't her real grandmother. Forced to flee her village, Celsia soon finds herself on a quest to seek her two trueborn grandmothers - both powerful queens of magical kingdoms.

Accompanied by her childhood friend Quillon and the cheeky faun Pylus, her destination is the Fabled Kingdom of Fallinor , which was destroyed over 60 years ago. Or... was it?

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Manga, Young Adult

212 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2014

About the author

Queenie Chan was born in Hong Kong in 1980, and migrated to Australia when she was six years old. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems, but didn’t follow that career path due to graduating in 2002, in the middle of the dot-com bust. In 2004, she began drawing a 3-volume mystery-horror series called “The Dreaming” for LA-based manga publisher TOKYOPOP. To date, it has been translated into multiple languages.

She has since collaborated on several single-volume graphic novels with best-selling author Dean Koontz, as prequels to his “Odd Thomas” series of novels. After that, she worked on Small Shen, the prequel to Kylie Chan’s “White Tiger” Chinese fantasy series.

She is currently living in Sydney, Australia, and is working on a series of 8 short ghost stories, titled “The Man with the Axe in his Back”. It will be out as e-books in both prose and comics-prose format in August 2014.

Reviews

[Tien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooo there were a lot more text than I expected... I expected more manga sort of style but it's really a graphic novel with manga-like illustrations scattered between paragraphs. It was a very easy and engaging read. A truly clever reimagining of fairy tales where author has picked up elements from different tales and weaved them into one of her own. Accompanied by gorgeous illustrations that complemented the story, Fabled Kingdom is bound to keep readers bespelled.

[Read3r’z Re-Vu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Hooded Magic with an Intriguing Plot!!!

Red hooded cloak, a magically inclined basket and a girl on a mission to go to grandma’s house. Sounds like a normal red riding hood story, right? Whelp, stop there because Fabled Kingdom is anything but an ordinary story of red riding hood. Queenie takes the tale of red and weaves in her own twists in the form of werewolves, tricky fawns and magic that entices you to continue reading mixed with wonderful artwork and detail that’s your eyes a glued to the page.The characters are the highlight of the series. Our main character Celsia is a head strong heroine that made for some comedic moments. I enjoyed the secondary characters such as Quillon and the fawn that you meet on Celsia’s journey.I would recommend Fabled Kingdom to anyone who loves fairytale retellings, fantasy and beautifully crafted artwork.If I were to give it a rating, I would go 5/5 stars.

- Maisie

[Eyla · Rating 3 out of 5]

After finishing the first book in this trilogy, I am left without a clue of what I think of it. It was, by all means, enjoyable. There were both humorous and cute moments and darker moments throughout the volume. But I haven't yet been impressed by the storyline, I'm curious about where it will lead though.
As for the art style, I actually really like it. It's really cute and I love the character's designs. The cover's gorgeous and I might just mention the scene art throughout the story, I am in love.
Overall, it was a nice volume, but something has yet to really suck me into the story. I'm going to see what another volume will bring.

[Leanbh Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual for me to read graphic novels and a Manga style work is usually not my chosen reads. This one had me for its YA friendly tone and themes and the magical and fairytale heart of this work. Loved it, must read more. A recommended read

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Red riding hood searches for grandma with the help of two himbos and a magic basket. It’s cute and feels like a fairy-tale inspired d&d campaign.

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really fun and I liked the different way of story telling.
A mix of graphic and standard novel.
Also like the mixing of fairy tales like red riding hood, sleeping beauty and snow white

[Meerah · Rating 2 out of 5]

i read this more than 2 years ago. i dont remember anything expect the fact that i was looking around for the second book in my school library but couldnt find it

[E. Bard · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's somewhere between a graphic novel and a well illustrated novel - a perfect choice if you're looking for something a little different. If you're an avid reader who also enjoys Manga, Anime, Cartoons and Comics (or any of those), this could be an opportunity to satisfy a couple of those hobbies at once. Fabled Kingdom is an adventure filled with fairytale characters and settings. At first it may seem like a Red Riding Hood type tale because it shares many similarities (like grandmothers, a huge wolf, huntsmen and a girl in a red cloak), but it's really an original adventure that takes place in more than one fairytale setting. The characters are engaging and the artwork is great. I found the comic style to be very appealing and a wonderful compliment to the story telling. I can see it being popular with teenagers or pre-teens, particularly those who take in a fair amount of YA and love an adventure that pulls up all sorts of things from fairy lore. I did have to use the online reader for the book, but other than that Fabled Kingdom (Part 1) was a very polished product - professional from start to finish.

[Brandon Stump · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book brings a lot of fairy tale together and it all adds up to be a great mystery and adventure book!

It is a story a lot like red riding hood. The village chips in and helps red riding hood track down and defeat a werewolf. The twist in the book much like the original story is that the grandma ends up being the werewolf. Red riding hood and the grandma gets kidnapped. As the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that the grandma is an imposter. The author has completely pulled you in and leaves you wanting to know more. This is the first book in a series of 9. You want to keep reading he series because you are so drawn into the story and the action and adventure. So many questions left in your mind and you just want answers.

[Dzura · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice story and picture :) berkisah tentang gadis berkerudung merah yang melakukan petualang ke negeri fantasy. serasa membaca dongeng lain yang saling bertubrukan. ceritanya membuat saya penasaran akan kelanjutan cerita ini :)