Out of Abaton: The Wooden Prince Review

A cool reimagining of Pinocchio!

This is the second book I have read from John Claude Bemis! The first one was The Prince Who Fell from the Sky, which I read and reviewed last year. You can read that review here. 

The Wooden Prince is set in a world like ours, but where magic, magical creatures, and alchemy exists. The story is about a mysterious automa (basically a humanoid robot, but powered by alchemy) named Pinocchio. He was serving the doge (the leader) of Venetian Empire, but is one day locked in a trunk and sent away to a new master: a wanted alchemist named Geppetto. Pinocchio, unlike most automa, seems to be experiencing more human-like thoughts and emotions, and slowly over time is turning into a human boy. Geppetto wonders if his long-time friend, Prester John (and the king of a rival kingdom named Abaton) has something to do with it. 

But as they are trying to figure out what's up with Pinocchio and find and rescue Prester John, they get separated, and Pinocchio ends up in a shady theatre troop. There, he learns what awful things Abatonians are subjected to in the Venetian Empire, but he does make some new friends! 

At the same time, Gepetto, Maestro (his talking grasshopper friend, who used to be a musician in Prester John's court) find and team up with Princess Lazuli. Lazuli is a sylph (and the princess of Abaton and Prester John's daughter, and she's been trying to find her father, too. He's been kidnapped by the doge for some reason (I won't tell here).  

Eventually both parties come together, find out the truth about Prester John and Pinocchio, and make plans to get to Abaton (that's going to happen in book 2, which I will read soon).

This was such a magical adventure! It was very emotional and philosophical at times too. The political themes were very spot-on, too. I gave it 5 stars.