The Crimson Bears Series by Tom LaFarge

Alice and Edgar, two half-grown bears, set off on a two-month journey by foot to see the world and visit their uncle, Claudio, a ruler of sorts. When the siblings arrive, they discover Claudio's kingdom under threat of attack; he intends to send them home but they accidentally evade him and their porcupine nursemaid, and undergo a sequence of adventures reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.

In A Hundred Doors, part two of The Crimson Bears, the young naive bears, Edgar and Alice, find themselves trapped and forced to serve in the civil war being fought out across the animal metropolis of Bargeton.Writing in American Book Review, Don Webb expressed the quality of La Farge's The Crimson Bears: "If this book had been written seventy years earlier it would've been one of the great treasures of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series edited by the late Lin Vrooman Carter. .. moreIn A Hundred Doors, part two of The Crimson Bears, the young naive bears, Edgar and Alice, find themselves trapped and forced to serve in the civil war being fought out across the animal metropolis of Bargeton.Writing in American Book Review, Don Webb expressed the quality of La Farge's The Crimson Bears: "If this book had been written seventy years earlier it would've been one of the great treasures of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series edited by the late Lin Vrooman Carter. ... When this book - along with Wendy Walker's The Sea-Rabbit - is reprinted in seventy years, it will likewise be the source of a new Nile." less

Tom La Farge's novel explores the terrain of his acclaimed The Crimson Bears and A Hundred Doors. He tells the story of a tribe of matriarchal apes that inhabit the Swamp at the mouth of the river Flood. The childless matriarch has a niece Zuntig, who aspires to succeed her but is overreached... moreTom La Farge's novel explores the terrain of his acclaimed The Crimson Bears and A Hundred Doors. He tells the story of a tribe of matriarchal apes that inhabit the Swamp at the mouth of the river Flood. The childless matriarch has a niece Zuntig, who aspires to succeed her but is overreached. About to be drowned with a bag of bones about her neck, Zuntig is transformed, time and again, encountering different selves and worlds, from the Biljub desert, the snow tunnels of Hyver, and the arctic ocean, to the Pig Opera of Bargeton. A wonderful fantasy in the manner of J. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings cycle.Tom La Farge lives in New York with his wife Wendy Walker. less