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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a more modern Oz novel, but with all the charm of Baum, June 27, 2005
As a long-time fan of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, I'm generally suspicious of newer books by other authors set in his world; I'm not even a big fan of Ruth Plumly Thompson, his immediate successor. However, I liked Sherwood Smith's _Crown Duel_ enough that I thought it would be worth giving her Oz book a try -- and I loved it.
Smith's heroines are Em and Dori, who live in Kansas and are reputedly related to the famous Dorothy Gale, who first visited Oz in _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_. When a tornado strikes their house, they're suddenly whisked away -- just like Dorothy -- to the land of Oz. Dori, who's loved Oz all her life, is thrilled, but the more practical Em can hardly believe it. Soon, they're pulled into a quest to save Princess Ozma and Glinda the Oz from a wicked enchantment that's been laid on them.
Smith succeeds in bringing a more modern sensibility to her characters and a genuine sense of threat to the plot without dimming the charm and wonder of Oz. Em and Dori have family problems - their parents are separated - and Smith treats these realistically, with sympathy for the girls and for the adults. The threat to Ozma and Glinda and their country is vivid (particularly when a mysterious, frightening cloud shows up repeatedly), yet the country itself is every bit as inventive as Baum's, with pretty but vain unicorns, poppycocks (little scarlet birds which turn into flowers), and all manner of other Ozzy details. Smith handles Baum's characters nicely, too, particularly the dizzy Patchwork Girl.
This is apparently the first in a series of four connected Oz novels Smith is writing. I'll happily read all of the others and am looking forward to them very much, particularly as _The Emerald Wand of Oz_ closes with some intriguing unanswered questions.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Loved all except pages 25-100, April 5, 2006
I've been an Oz fan for almost fifty years, and I found this book to be pretty close to Baum's spirit--except for those 75 pages, which went on and on and on and on about some unicorns who reminded me of the worst sappy unicorn stories of the 1980s. I suppose those scenes were put in to appeal to little girls, but as an old lady I found them tedious. Page after page of currying the unicorns, combing their manes and tails, decorating them with flowers, etc. Ugh. I know the author meant it to be tedious, but five pages would have been plenty.
I loved the illustrations, especially the cover with its art deco style. And I loved the gekko guards! Laugh-out-loud funny. The traditional characters like Scraps and Bungle seemed genuine (and they've been old friends of mine all my life). Also loved the little aha moments that only Oz fans would get, for example when Dori looks around and realizes the flowers are all shades of red, and it begins to dawn on her where she is, or when she figures out what Rik is scared of and the reader realizes what he must be.
Only the fact that I know this is the first book of a series keeps me from being more annoyed at the dangling loose ends. I especially wanted to know if those creepy children with the unicorns were like that because of the wand, or if they were inherently creepy, or did it have something to do with the cloud? Knowing that would color my whole perception of Smith's version of Oz. Anyway, I'll look forward to the next book and see if my questions get answered.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
deeper, more traditional, but could be more coherent, September 9, 2005
email: jasonc65@comcast.net
Lately, there have been new Oz books exploring darker and more adult themes, especially "Wicked". Now, this book is more along the lines of the traditional Oz books, with fewer introtructions to weird characters, and a more strongly felt sense that Oz could be in real danger. A new Wicked Witch is introduced, one who is not so old and ugly, but is just as allergic to water. She has to be defeated by two new characters from the real world, who are said to be related to Dorothy.
I liked how the the author uses the theme of fantasy as metaphor for the imagination, a motif explored by several traditional fantasy writers. Especially given the name of the unbelieving aunt, it seems as if the author has read Narnia, and so Narnia fans will suspect that this is another Susan story. Since the elder of the two sisters thinks like her aunt and disbelieves, she has to learn to appreciate the value of the imagination. In the beginning, she closes her mind to the evidence that the animals can really talk, and therefore hears only animal noises. By the end, she has grown to care as much about Oz as her younger sister.
One of the problems that plagued most of the traditional Oz was the lack of a coherent imaginary world whose facts were consistently explained, an area in which the British authors tend to accel, and in which the Oz authors are usually lacking. Unfortunately, the author does not do any better than the first two Oz books. Like Baum, she will leave the reader wondering how a witch with very little power compared to Glinda and the Wizard could conceive a treacherous plot and so easily pull it off. One would think that when an ambitious young teenage girl with a green wand approaches the throne, Ozma would suspect something. And then when she next attacks Glinda's palace, one would expect her to put up her defenses. Instead, with scant explanation of what has gone on before, the reader is left amused with an Oz in which not only its inhabitants have lost their wits, but so have their leaders. But perhaps after having experienced Katrina and being reminded that even in the real world, leaders are not always their sharpest, we can all relate.
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