Tad Williams’ Mirror World: An Illustrated Novel

It is June of 1999 and a strange phenomenon has suddenly appeared throughout the world’s major giant mirrors which split the cities in half. Dividing natural parkways and cutting buildings in two, these mirrors, are as dangerous as they are beautiful. For soon after it is discovered that people can step through them and enter foreign worlds, it becomes clear that a trip through the Earth’s Mirrors is a one-way journey. The mirrors work in only one direction. What started out as a curious odyssey becomes a permanent exile. Yet despite the imminent threat of banishment, people still cross over the bridge of Mirrors – some to find loved ones stranded on the other side, some to challenge new frontiers, and some to reverse the horrors of what is swarming through the Mirrors to challenge the course of civilization. For, back on Earth, huge predatory insects are pouring through the Mirrors, killing or carrying away anything living in their path. The Bugs, as they become known, are a deadly plague with which the world I forced to reckon. A plague which both challenges and fuels the Earth’s relationship with the Mirrors, as organizations such as the United Nations become involved, symbolizing the harmonious response of the world’s nations and many peoples. The story of the mirrors is revealed through the eyes of Dancer, hero of Mirror World . Thoughtful and brave, Dancer passionately explores the fantastic worlds of the unknown. As he travels through newly established territories such as the city states of Shades and Looking Glass and the downtrodden land of Darklea, we see that the mirrors have created not only an alien civilization but also a new world built upon a the future of hope, love, and a prism of dreams.