The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson (narrated by Julia Whelan)
First off, let me state I got this free from Audible for Christmas. I do love me some free stuff.
The story begins with an enchanted mirror created by demons which basically makes good things appear bad. the demons want to show it to the angels for a laugh but they drop it on the way to heaven and it shatters into billions of teensy-tiny pieces. If they get in people's eyes, they make them see the negative side of things. If they get in people's hearts, it turns them to ice.
The intro states that this is the inspiration for the movie Frozen. Maybe that heart-into-ice thing, but that's about it. It almost has more to do with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe than Frozen. Kai and Gerda are best friends. One day a piece of the aforementioned mirror gets in Kai's eye and heart. He immediately turns on his little friend and runs off to play with the older boys, who played the ancient Nordic equivalent of Marty McFly grabbing the fender of a passing car while on his skateboard. Kai grabs the passing sledge of the Snow Queen who whisks him off to her castle. Meanwhile Gerda misses her little friend and decides to go off in search of him. She runs into several unusual characters on her quest and, of course, eventually succeeds.
I like the concept of the mirror. I admit I usually see the glass as half-empty. What is it that makes a person see the dark side of life? Why not a piece of enchanted mirror forged by demons? That's certainly more interesting than "things usually go wrong so why not expect it".
The narrator is apparently Audible's best narrator of the year. I suppose she's pretty good. There wasn't that much differentiation between characters, but then it wasn't a terribly long story so it's not like it was confusing.
The story begins with an enchanted mirror created by demons which basically makes good things appear bad. the demons want to show it to the angels for a laugh but they drop it on the way to heaven and it shatters into billions of teensy-tiny pieces. If they get in people's eyes, they make them see the negative side of things. If they get in people's hearts, it turns them to ice.
The intro states that this is the inspiration for the movie Frozen. Maybe that heart-into-ice thing, but that's about it. It almost has more to do with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe than Frozen. Kai and Gerda are best friends. One day a piece of the aforementioned mirror gets in Kai's eye and heart. He immediately turns on his little friend and runs off to play with the older boys, who played the ancient Nordic equivalent of Marty McFly grabbing the fender of a passing car while on his skateboard. Kai grabs the passing sledge of the Snow Queen who whisks him off to her castle. Meanwhile Gerda misses her little friend and decides to go off in search of him. She runs into several unusual characters on her quest and, of course, eventually succeeds.
I like the concept of the mirror. I admit I usually see the glass as half-empty. What is it that makes a person see the dark side of life? Why not a piece of enchanted mirror forged by demons? That's certainly more interesting than "things usually go wrong so why not expect it".
The narrator is apparently Audible's best narrator of the year. I suppose she's pretty good. There wasn't that much differentiation between characters, but then it wasn't a terribly long story so it's not like it was confusing.
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