Thursday, April 13, 2017

Kingdom of Scaba by M.K. Alsulaimani

"The Story that will blow your imagination to a whole new level..."

New Young Adult!

Available in Audio and PDF!


Brief Summary
Twins live relatively normal lives at home on Earth, but they are drawn to voices in their heads asking them to “come to the party.” At the party, they find that the partygoers are really some kind of spirits, and before long they’re taken away to another world beneath Earth known as the Kingdom of Scaba. The twins live in the palace of the evil king, who has recently taken the throne after the untimely demise of the good king who preceded him. The new king uses children as slaves for his people, and the twins are the latest to become enslaved. Some teenagers who live in the city outside the palace are captured, and shortly afterward they band together to escape. The teens battle with the law, are thrown in and out of jail, and tortured. However, after some conflict, the palace children and the city children join forces. They are instilled with mystical powers they obtained from their friends in the fantasy world, and they triumph over the evil king. Happier and wiser for the trip, the children are able to return to the human world.

Synopsis
JAMAL and his twin sister LILLIAN have disturbing dreams and hear voices. They are ten years old and live normal lives on Earth, but this changes when they choose to follow these voices and do as they command. The voices say “come to the party,” which leads the kids to a party their new next door neighbor is having. However, this neighbor turns out to be a spirit of some sort, and so do the rest of the partygoers. Jamal and his twin are captured and unceremoniously taken through a portal, fit onto a magic carpet, and taken down into a wondrous, fantastical city.

The city is in the kingdom of Scaba, and in the city there is a great palace. The city flashes different colors, and huge winged tigers breathe fire to keep the city warm. There are small, fluffy, colorful dwarf ponies no bigger than cats, cobra-headed people and lion-headed people. The snake-headed people are known as the Makash, and they dominate the kingdom, while the lion-headed people are known as the Shakam, and they are a lazy race that for the most part is served by the children. Elephants and zebras are common means of transportation. The ponies are known as the Moback, and they are fun-loving and gentle.
At the palace, Jamal and Lillian meet the king of the Scaba, BERMUDA, a somewhat odd Shakam with a stiff tail who is very cruel and clever. The last king, a good king, died after a trip he undertook in the human world. He leaves behind his daughter, the PRINCESS FILDA, a Shakam, who does not see eye to eye with Bermuda. Under Bermuda, human children have been turned into slaves. Filda and others in Scaba adamantly oppose Bermuda, but his power is great.

Jamal and Lillian live as palace children tending to Filda and her kind-hearted, naïve son PRINCE DUSHAN, who is only a few years old. There are many other palace children who have very prestigious jobs relative to their enslavement, such as dancing, playing in the court band, and even painting. These children eat in the food court where human food is served (the children cannot eat the food of Scaba), and from the other kids Jamal and Lillian learn about Scaba and its past. More importantly, they learn that they cannot escape, although this does not deter Jamal or Lillian, who immediately begin planning how to get away.


Soon, the twins’ escape plans are realized. They get out of the palace without much trouble and cling to the bottom of a cart leaving town. There are multiple gates, and they get through almost all of them but then are discovered at the last second. However, it seems there was never any real possibility to escape because the king has a crystal ball through which he can see the movements of everyone outside, meaning there is no place for anyone to hide. Moreover, Jamal and Lillian learn that even had they gotten out of town, the only way to get back to their own world is to take a magic carpet to the top of a hill upon which sits the portal to the human realm. The portal is heavily guarded, and a flying carpet hard to obtain; in addition, humans cannot pilot flying carpets, which makes it impossible for humans to hijack a carpet.  


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