Kingdom Keepers Inheritance: The Shimmer

By: Ridley Pearson

Narrated by: Alejandro Saab

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

In the near future, in the Epcot of Walt Disney's imagination, sixty thousand people live in a CommuniTree surrounding the forward-looking Walt Disney World theme park. Five unique families are among the residents—and some of the parents were once known as the Kingdom Keepers. Their identities are carefully guarded in order to raise their children without special treatment, most of the Kingdom Keepers work for the Walt Disney Company, and have settled into "ordinary" and rewarding lives.

When a messenger carrying a secret communication from Villains Park in Hong Kong coincides with both a solar eclipse and Eli Whitman's thirteenth birthday—a few "ordinary" kids are thrust into a battle to save Epcot and find their friend who has mysteriously disappeared.

With their friend missing and their parents acting strangely, the Kingdom Kids discover they are in possession of unusual powers as they forge a bond to rescue their friend and uncover the truth about how real magic has entered their lives.

©2023 Ridley Pearson (P)2023 Disney Hyperion

very enjoyable story. great reader.

I enjoyed it a lot. it's short, action packed, fast paced. great reader. i look forward to the next book in the series.

Cute but not as good as original sets

The characters were not as developed as the original. In the original each character had a rich story and background. In this book the teenagers fell into the events and did not show surprise or shock by what transpired. I am glad this was not the first book because I would not have continued reading.

Will08

Different from the Original Kingdom Keepers. We’ll see what happens next in the story. Fingers Crossed

good but doesn't follow the book at all

I was listening to the audio book while reading the book doesn't follow book

This is the Wrong Manuscript

I waited four years for this book and was so excited to start it. Because I wasn't sure about the reader and since you can no longer hear excerpts before the release date, I neglected to cancel my pre-order for the printed book. Which is how I learned that this version is the wrong version of the book.

When there was a word I didn't understand, I ended up going to the paper book to see the spelling to figure out what it was. I was shocked when I realized that there was a character in the printed book that wasn't in the audio. So I went back to Chapter 1 and tried to read along to the audio and they are very different. One significant example is that the character of MarieClaire is named Marissa in the printed version. Other details are also different, and it isn't clear to me, because I stopped listening, how significant that will be to the story in terms of how the story, and next two books pay out.

After several days of pinging the various Ridley Pearson and Kingdom Keepers social media accounts, I got a response from Ridley's team -- they had heard from multiple people that the printed and audio books are different and had notified Disney of the issue. The audio book is an earlier version of the manuscript. I did get them to confirm that the printed copy is the final draft on which the rest of the series are being based.

Therefore, I am returning this title and hoping that Disney will re-release the audio with the correct manuscript.

If they do, I hope that they consider bringing back MacLeod Andrews, or give Alejandro Saab more background on the characters. I prefer my audiobooks performed, rather than read. While Mr. Saab is definitely an engaging reader, this book is not performed as the previous KK books were (or Mr. Saab was not given enough direction).

If Disney does re-release it (and I think they should), I hope they will consider enhancing the performance so that it is easier to discern who is speaking and so is aligns better with the previous books. For example, Del Philby is from NZ and has an accent. Maybeck's voice has been deeper since he was a teen. In this version, all the adult males (through Chapter 3) sound exactly the same.

Good narrator. Pretty good story. Weird changes

Enjoyed this but not as much as the original series. I really don't understand why he changed Maddie to Storey. That made no sense. The narrative popped around a lot making it very difficult to keep up.

Sorely Disappointed

I LOVED the first two series. I've listened to them several times. It's VERY possible that my disappointment in the "story" is actually disappointment in the narrator. I'm pretty sure that even as an adult, Philby would SOUND British and Maybeck would SOUND Black. And the guy she MET? Who she SAID was British? Yeah, HE'D have an accent too. If there weren't the "said Eli" (etc) I would NEVER have known who was talking. I'm fairly certain that Mr. Saab never listened to the first two series. And don't get he wrong - he READS fine. He narrates horribly. If there's another book? I 'd love to see MacLeod Andrews come back to do the narration. And I don't read along, but someone who does says Story Ming was inaccurately named when it should have been Maddie. Oh, and I got a little tired of what seemed like vegan pushing.

Different From The Book

Somehow, this version of the audio book is entirely different from the actual Hardcover print version the book. Character’s names are different, entire descriptions are different. It’s as if the version read for the audio book is a previous draft.