The Land of Stories #5: An Author's Odyssey by Chris Colfer

My name is Alex, and the fairy-tale world is in grave danger. My evil uncle has formed an alliance with storybook villains and has created a massive army. He's already destroyed castles, forests, and villages across the realm, and all of the citizens and creatures are in hiding. We're desperate, but my brother has a crazy idea that just might work. Connor and I will use a magical potion and travel into stories he's written, and we hope to use the heroes in them to help us form our own army. He thinks we can add pirates, robots, superheroes, and mummies to our forces. I'm not sure Mom will like supervising them in our house while we visit the different stories, and who knows if they'll even get along.


You should read the first four books, or you'll be lost. This book read much differently than the others, since most of the settings were not in the fairy-tale world. It was like a collection of short stories that took place in the various settings created in Connor's mind. I enjoyed how these worlds mirrored the realities imagined by him, and I liked comparing the new characters in the short stories with personalities from the previous books. The plot from the fairy-tale world was still developed between Connor's stories, but the uncle's situation became more complicated. He was kicked out by his "allies", and an important secret about him was revealed. This book seemed to be a placeholder in the overall series, since the actual war brewing in the last book wasn't fully addressed in this one. I assume book six will have a major confrontation between the armies, but the resolution in this book revealed a dramatic change in Alex's character.