This is a retelling of the classic Nutcracker tale, featuring clockworks (literally -- underground clocks run entire cities) and a Mouse Queen who's determined to rule the world of men through her seven-headed son.
When Stefan Drosselmeyer's cousin, Christian, is brought to the family toy shop by his jailer, Stefan escapes his family's carved wooden toy business and attaches himself to the Royal Clockmaker for his journeyman instead.
Christian has gotten a far away country, Boldavia, into a war with the Mouse Kingdom with his inventions, and now he's on a quest to find -- you guessed it -- a nut to crack.
But it's not just any nut. It's a krakatook (get it? "crack a tooth?"). It's legendary, mystical, and only it will bring the Boldavian princess out of the curse laid upon her by the Mouse Queen's bite.
In the meantime, the Mouse Queen gives birth to a hideous son, with seven heads and seven distinct personalities, and the rat, Ernst Listz, is captured and becomes their tutor.
The book is told from alternating POVs -- Stefan and Ernst. Stefan is instrumental in finding the nut, but is himself turned into a wooden "toy" mannequin. Ernst is instrumental in training the seven-headed mouse to be the next ruler of the Mouse Kingdom and to lead the war on humans when Stefan kills the Mouse Queen.
It all comes to a head on Christmas Eve. I won't spoil the ending, but you probably can guess how it ends, if you know the ballet at all.
An enjoyable, alternate-Nutcracker Christmas read!
