The MirrorWorld is a planned

pentalogy A pentalogy (from Greek πεντα- ''penta-'', "five" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts. Although modern use of the word implies both that the parts are re ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

novels written by German author

Cornelia Funke Cornelia Maria Funke (; born 10 December 1958) is a German author of children's fiction. Born in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, she began her career as a social worker before becoming a Book illustration, book illustrator. She began writing no ...

in collaboration with Lionel Wigram. As of 2024, the first four books in the series have been published, titled '' The Petrified Flesh'', ''Living Shadows'', ''The Golden Yarn'', and ''The Silver Tracks''. The series, based on 19th-Century Europe, features many elements of fairy tales, notably the tales of the German

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

. Funke plans to include fairy tales from other cultures, such as Spain, France and Russia in future novels. ''MirrorWorld'' is Cornelia Funke's first series of novels in which she has collaborated with another person; this is because, whilst working on a script idea with Lionel Wingram, they both "discovered" the story. Funke loved the idea so much that she asked Wingram if she could turn it into a novel; he agreed but requested that he be involved in the creative process. After deciding to work on the series, Funke took three years to write the first novel, ''Reckless'', due to another novel she was writing at the time. Unlike writing ''

Inkheart ''Inkheart'' () is a 2003 young adult fantasy novel by Cornelia Funke, and is the first book of the ''Inkheart'' series, with '' Inkspell'' (2005) and '' Inkdeath'' (2007) succeeding it. The novel became one of the finalists of 2004 BookSense ...

'' and the subsequent novels in the ''

Inkheart series The ''Inkheart'' series is a succession of four fantasy novels written by German author Cornelia Funke, comprising '' Inkheart'' (2003), '' Inkspell'' (2005), '' Inkdeath'' (2007), and ''The Colour of Revenge'' (2024). The books chronicle the ad ...

'', Funke did not visually base many characters on people she knew. Only Clara is based on the daughter of a Scottish friend, though her hair color is different in the book.

Premise

''MirrorWorld'' explores a scenario in which every fairy tale ever told is true. The protagonists Jacob, Fox, and Will set off on adventures within this universe featuring elements from various fairy tales.

References

Alternate history novels Young adult novel series Fantasy novel series Novels by Cornelia Funke German bildungsromans Novels set in the 19th century {{alternate-hist-novel-stub