Customer Reviews

Magician of Oz

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Why would the Wonderful Wizard of Oz leave that magical land and head back to the monotony of the Great Outside World? Well, don't expect to find any compelling reasons why in this "Oz" book. In fact, that is just one of many plot points that just don't add up. Not to say the book doesn't have a few good ideas; it does. Unfortunately they are drowned out in histories and characters that simply just can't be reconciled with the Oz Baum created and was perpetuated by Thompson, Neill, Snow, etc.

The main character, a young boy named Jamie, is really none too spectacular. Yet he is the one destined to become "Oz the Magnificent" after attending "Magic Club" meetings in the basement of the local library. The stunts he performs are supposedly masterful, yet any kid could learn the same tricks from a magician kit purchased out of a Sear's catalogue. And the author makes sure you know these are not "tricks" but "sleight of hand". The later phrase is only a fancy way of saying "deception", which is, simply put, trickery. Oscar Diggs started out just like that...a glorified balloonist/stage magician/ventriloquist. He did not learn to actually produce true magic until many years of tutelage under Glinda the Good. Yet Jamie just waltzes into Oz and takes up the mantle of Oscar in no time flat.

The book begins with Jamie's parents pulling out an old humpback trunk that had belonged to Oscar Diggs (the Wizard of Oz) who is supposedly Jamie's great-grandfather. Just like that, only a few paragraphs into the story, and it's already gone into left field. Oscar digs never left Oz to come back to America permanently, neither did he marry, and (despite what this story claims) neither did he die. Perhaps this could have worked if Jamie was Oscar's great-nephew. A far more plausible plot point and one many more Oz readers would accept. And one must beg the question that if Oscar were indeed a famous ancestor than why wouldn't Jamie's parents not have told him long before now, and why wouldn't he know a heck of a lot more about Oz?

Speaking of Jamie's parents, it's not hard to surmise that they are supposed to be an idealized version of a modern family. This might have worked if they had been developed better. The mother, and especially the father, seem very wooden and void of any tangible personality. It becomes tedious after the first few chapters, and the family activities are of very little interest.

After several non-descript chapters, Jamie arrives in Oz, the means of which hearken back to Baum's The Road to Oz, which is very imaginative. The first characters he encounters are several members of the Oz menagerie. The author handles them fairly well, but slips up in his description of Bungle the Glass Cat. This is only one of many, many discrepancies that are to follow. And they are very glaring indeed. So much so that it makes the story even harder to read.

Ozma is said by the author to have looked into her "Magic Mirror" to see Jamie before he came to Oz. It is stated over and over in Baum's Oz books that Ozma views her friends and subjects in a Magic Picture, a blank canvas that paints the person she wishes to see. Glinda's great Book of Records is an extremely large book that is chained to a marble table, yet the author has Glinda carry it around like a paperback novel. The Tin Woodsman's castle is said to be made of silver in this book, yet it is supposed to be made of tin, just like its owner.

And poor Dorothy, hungry for the companionship of a friend; never mind she has her two girlfriends Trot and Betsy Bobbin from America, not to mention Button Bright who has been with her for several decades, and her greatest friend of all, Ozma herself. So simple is Dorothy that when Jamie takes a coin and flips it across his knuckles, she squeals "with delight". Dorothy has traveled to Oz via cyclone, stormy seas, and an earthquake. She has witnessed Glinda the Good, the Wizard of Oz, Ozma, and others perform wondrous feats of true, supernatural magic yet a simple amateurish sleight of hand gets her giddy. It just doesn't jibe with her character at all.

And that is the main ingredient that this whole book lacks: magic. Jamie learns that by simply saying "Wham, Bam, Alikazam" he can cast any sort of spell he wants with no true training or any previous exposure to how Oz magic works. And the long lost magic words used by the Wizard ("Hocus, Pocus, Dominocus") makes the true Magician of Oz's abilities seem far too basic. Such simplistic magic phrases are better left to Bugs Bunny and Count Bloodcount. If only I could say "Abra-ca-pocus" and make this little ditty disappear...

When I was growing up, I loved the vocabulary and the storylines of L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Since his death, others have written Oz stories, some quite worthy of having Oz in the title, some being rather poor. "Magician of Oz," leans towards the latter variety.

The book follows the ... well, they're not adventures. Basically the story happens to the character Jamie Diggs, who is somehow Oscar Digg's grandson. Jamie gets to Oz and heads off with Ozma, Dorothy, and Glinda to the Tin Woodman's castle, where they will ask Aunt Em to make them potato soup. And somehow the Fighting Trees decide to exact their revenge for the Tin Woodman attacking them back in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

I'm sorry to report that this has to be one of the worst Oz books I've ever read, much less bought. The plot offers no compelling premise, and takes too long to start. (Jamie does not reach Oz until Chapter Seven.) And the references to potato soup are all over this book. This seems like a family joke, which is not surprising, as Jamie's parents have the same name as the author and his wife. (Yes, it's another "Harry Sue" in Oz.) For ordinary readers, it's uninteresting.

The author has claimed that he stuck closely to what Baum had established, but there are so many contradictions. Places Baum created have their names misspelled, Dorothy is described as a freckled Judy Garland lookalike, Ozma is too immature, and Glinda... is a little girl. Betsy Bobbin and Trot are oddly absent, as Jamie was intended to be a companion for Dorothy, when Baum established that she has many of them. Characters are mis-characterized; for example, Dorothy throws a bowl of soup in a fountain suddenly, almost as if she suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. Polychrome appears to be the Rainbow herself, not its daughter, and does the bidding of Glinda. Dorothy calls people "peasantry," and the Tin Woodman denies that he is royal.

In many places, dialogue that could be interesting is replaced with flat prose. A lot of the dialogue is stilted and clumsy. Poor writing plagues the text. The author, who stated the book was intended for 10-12 year-olds, comes off as condescending. The Sawhorse's speed is described as "a leisurely hurried pace." On page 126, the event of the Woggle-Bug giving the Wizard a gift switches from a proper past tense ("'Consider it a toy from a local wogglebug to a worldly humbug,' the Professor had commented to 'Oz the Magnificient.'") to an improper tense. ("The wizard blushed timidly, reminded of his nefarious past before the reign of Ozma and her kindness upon him.")

I could go on about the writing, but I think I've given you enough of a taste.

Despite what the title page says, there are no illustrations. There's a picture of a tree with gnarled branches twisting into the letters "O" and "Z," but that's it. The front cover is a light brown color with a design of a tree over it in white. Not exactly the most appealing cover.

Overall, I was severely disappointed. After reading the author talking about his work, I expected an excellent reading experience. Instead, it left me feeling sick. That's one serving of potato soup that did not sit well.

First of all, I want to say that James C. Wallace II is a very kind, helpful and generous fellow. He even sent me this book at his own expense, asking for nothing in return. I hope that nothing I say in this review will be construed as any sort of ill will toward him as a human being. He is a good guy, and I don't like the idea that the truth might hurt him more than I would want it to.

I have just finished "Magician of Oz," the first in his proposed Oz trilogy. Although he describes himself as the Royal Liaison to Princess Ozma, their lines of communication seem to have gotten crossed somewhere along the way. In fact, the title character himself is a misnomer. O.Z. Diggs, the Wizard of Oz that we all know and love, was a reclusive type of fellow who never married or had children. This character, however, is supposed to be his great grandson (I don't think ANY wizard could pull that off). Hence, we know that something is wrong before we even open the book. Not that Jamie Diggs isn't a likable character. He is. And I might have been rooting for him if he hadn't tried to claim that family heritage. Even worse, he ultimately takes the place of old O.Z. as the new Wizard of Oz, despite the fact that he is a ten-year-old who is only beginning to learn magic. (Yes, the title character of Baum's first Oz book has been written off in favor of this kid!)

We all appreciate a running gag, right? Who doesn't laugh every time Baum quotes the Glass Cat saying her oft-repeated "I have wonderful pink brains. You can see 'em work." We all enjoy in-jokes, right? I lost count as to how many of Ruth Plumly Thompson's characters are called "Bill" or "Uncle Billy" (yes, he really was an uncle of hers). But here, the author has not only named the protagonist's parents after himself and his wife, but the family's obsession with potato soup is not funny the first time we hear about it, and it just keeps getting mentioned again and again almost relentlessly. At least the Glass Cat didn't say her famous line every few pages.

Speaking of the Glass Cat, I am sad to say that not only is her signature line missing in this volume, but all of her vanity that makes her who she is has been dropped entirely. Indeed, all of Baum's familiar Ozites are bland and without any personality to distinguish one from another. They behave completely out of character here. Even the Lonesome Duck seems to be just another one of the crowd. "Jamie Diggs" decides he must rely on Dorothy to cast an important magic spell--and says so right in front of Ozma and Glinda, who go along with the idea! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Glinda is a little girl now (albeit a few years older than Ozma and Dorothy). And poor Dorothy is desperate for friendship until charming Jamie comes along to save her from her loneliness.

There is a great deal of name-dropping. That is to say, the author mentions characters and places from some of Baum's Oz books, but with no real knowledge of them beyond their names. They are not revisited and the mention of them doesn't add anything to the action, and in some cases this unnecessary name-dropping makes the story drag.

Toward the end, the Fighting Trees wage war on Oz because of what the "Mad Tin Man" did to them about a hundred years ago. There is no explanation as to why they didn't think of it before now. The battle is very short and won without any great effort, almost like it was an afterthought and the author had run out of gas by that time.

There are plenty of grammatical errors. Normally I can overlook those as human error. In this case, however, I was actually finding them more interesting than the plot line. And even though there are two illustrators credited, there is only one very generic-looking spot drawing. Even the one-color stock cover looks like it is ashamed to be involved.

Finally, when young Jamie does return to his home in America, he finds that many days pass in Oz while only a short time passes elsewhere. That was never the case for Dorothy or any of the subsequent visitors to Oz. Perhaps Jamie was mistaking Narnia for Baum's fairyland?

If you bought this book expecting a well-researched Oz history by someone who respects Baum and his characters, it would be well within your rights to demand your money back.

I got "The Magician of Oz" to read to my kids (ages 6 & 8) and they simply were not enthused by the story at all. I had to skip over the "Hoosier" parts at their urging and went straight to the chapters dealing with Oz. Unfortunately, this did not hold their attention either. The story did not captivate their imaginations at all. They both love Baum's Oz books and I have read them aloud to them for most of their young lives, so I thought this new Oz book would be perfect for them. Needless to say I was wrong. Folks looking for a good story to read aloud to their kids should stick to the tried and true books by Baum himself and leave this one alone.

I felt I should at least finish the book myself and I can't say it gets any better. The plot is way too simplistic and not at all engaging. The book is, simply put, forgetful and not worth the time and money I invested in it. I will be sticking to the Baum classics from now on.

this is the worst Oz book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Horrible.

I've read plenty of bad Oz books, but this one is just TERRIBLE. You don't actually get to Oz until way later in the book, and the characters are just poorly written. It's like the whole book was written for the sake of mentioning Potato Soup. The cover looks like someone put it together in 5 minutes on Microsoft Paint. The plot has a ton of inconsistencies, and the story pretty much forms around angry trees getting "revenge" on a random kid they don't know! It's truly terrible. I would not recommend this for anyone... if you want a GOOD Oz book, go read one of L. Frank Baum or Eric Shanower's books.

Review of "Magician of Oz" by James C. Wallace II

by Ron Baxley, Jr., Author of "The Talking City of Oz," "The Talking City of Oz," 2nd Edition (to be released November 2011 with many changes), and co-author of "Of Cabbages, Kings and Even (Odd) Queens" with James Wallace II (available on [...] along with his sci-fi books)


(Note: I am a co-author with James Wallace II on another book as aforementioned and must mention this. I tried my best to read his book without bias and with the same critical techniques I utilize on other books.)


Jamie Diggs and his father discover Jamie's great grandfather's magic trunk in the basement of their Hoosier home, where it was transported from Kansas where they once lived, and this magic trunk leads Jamie to magic powers including a magic coin and magic pocket-watch, magical legacy, and birthright and connection to O.Z. Diggs, the Wizard of Oz, in James C. Wallace II's "Magician of Oz."

After some initiation into a local magicians' club with his father, discussion of his connection to the great magician O.Z. Diggs, and long after much discussion of Mrs. Diggs' famous potato soup and seeking morel mushrooms for it for a special Hoosier kick, Jamie Diggs eventually encounters some Tolkein-ish, Ent-esque trees that guard a portal to Oz. Unlike in Tolkein's work, these Ent-esque creatures have gone horribly wrong. They are embittered about their own destruction by others in a way comparable to the Dr. Who's "Seeds of Doom" episodes. These trees steal a morel mushroom from Jamie Diggs, and the "morel" of the story is yet to be seen.

After losing his magic coin with the images of three well-known Oz princesses on it through a magic spell and being allowed to pass through the portal by the magic trees, Jamie is greeted by a meat and non-meat menagerie of Oz's creatures, including the Glass Cat, Toto, and Billena, who are all celebrating the centennial rule of the Queen of the Field Mice. The Queen of the Field Mice helps Jamie recover his magic coin. From there, Jamie sets off to meet Glinda, Ozma, and Dorothy, who were all depicted on his magic coin. He soon learns that he has been summoned to Oz for a very special purpose that the reader will want to read to appreciate.

Meanwhile, the Ent-ish Council of Trees, under the leadership of a grumpy old Sycamore vow revenge of who they call the Mad Tinman, better known as Nick Chopper or the Tinwoodman to Baum Oz fans or the Tinman to those who like the M.G.M. Oz film. (Some fun with M.G.M. Oz allusions occurs here and there in the book, which Oz fans of all types will enjoy) The Council of Trees, under Sycamore's influence, have an ominous usage for the morel mushroom that they stole from Jamie, a very im-"morel" usage that will put Nick Chopper and all of Oz in great peril. They also plan as a group to de-root and walk toward Nick Chopper's castle to attack him. These parts of the book I found to be most enjoyable and held true to the Tinwoodman's, Nick Chopper's past, while forging new visions in Oz. This was in contrast to some minor issues I had with the book.

I have minor qualms with other portions of the book, which really are qualms with artistic liberties and/or differences from the Baum books and traditional fantasy and not the style or plot written by the author. The author soon resolves many of these issues through the plot or reveals them to be thoughts from his characters, not himself. O.Z. Diggs was from Omaha, Nebraska, not Kansas, as Wallace II indicates early on in the book. Wallace II later redeems himself, however, by explaining how O.Z. Diggs became a very temporary resident of Kansas, but this could have used some earlier clarification than toward the end of the book. Next, Wallace makes a minor mistake with fantasy archetypes when he states that nomes come from holes under bridges when, traditionally, trolls do. However, he has the father of Jamie state this, so it could just be the character's storytelling interpretation, not the author's. Wallace II gets a pass on this one. Finally, Wallace II depicts Glinda as a young teen girl, though she is often depicted in illustrations and in Baum's books in general as an older woman. All are minor quibbles and the latter is an artistic liberty in a new vision. Making Glinda younger is the only part I truly disagree with, for her being an older woman in many Baum books is central to her characterization.

Though I am only personally truly irritated with one change in the book, the reduction in age of Glinda, these change does not detract from the good plot and style, and rest assured, with the unique plot about the legacy of O.Z. Digg's family and the suspense forged about just what this legacy is along with the battle against the Ent-ish trees and their horrid plans, the reader will be intrigued and will be able to proceed through this page-turner, perhaps a little overly-conscious that the pages they are flipping through were once one of the trees that decried their destruction and that branch out in the dark recesses of the readers' imagination to become something not pastoral and delightful but something evil yet perhaps redeemable in a surprising twist toward the novel's end.


4 out of 5 stars (Good)

This is a story about Jamie Diggs. Jamie is your ordinary boy. His family has just moved from Kansas to Indiana. One day his father pulls out a trunk that belonged to Jamie's Great Grandfather. The great grandfather was the original Wizard of Oz. The trunk contains various items for performing magic. Jamie and his father James join a local magicians club to learn about the items in the trunk, and to explore their magical abilities. Jamie's ability to learn magic soon leads him to the Land of Oz. There he meets many of the characters we grew up with, Glinda, Dorothy, Ozma, and the Tin Woodman. His magical abilities play an integral part in his adventures in Oz.

While reading this, I happened to see a lot of the comments on websites. Some were less than flattering. I think that was a bit unfair. I thought this book was fun. Was it a great, epic fantasy. No. But I don't think it was meant to be. Oz was never meant for adults, but for children, and the child in all of us. I think you must let go and grab hold of your childhood at times. If you read this looking for The Hobbit or Harry Potter, I'm sure you'll be disappointed. However, for 6-9 year olds, who were the original Baum audience, I think they'll enjoy it. The author managed to capture a lot of th wonder, and feel of the land. Now given, I haven't read all 40 of the original Oz books, so there may have been times where the author took liberties. However, from what I've read, there were times that Mr. Baum himself wasn't always consistent in what was/wasn't going on in the land of Oz. It is a fantasy world, remember, not a world based on the rules/laws of physics that we go by.

Given a rating, I'd say this is pretty suitable for all ages. Old readers/teens might not get into it, but younger children should. Some scenes may seem intense (Like the flying monkeys were), so you might want to be aware of that. If you have young children, or would just like to travel back to Oz once again, I'd say pick up a copy of Mr. Wallace's book. This is the first in a proposed trilogy, and I for one would like to see what happens next.

*Disclaimer* A special thanks goes out to Brandi at BK Walker Books and James C. Wallace II for an e-book copy of this for review. It in no way influenced my review.

This is the story of Jamie Diggs, a young boy whose family moves from Kansas to Indiana to pursue a dream and soon finds more than he thought possible. The story takes place in modern-day times, about 100 hundred years after the original Wizard of Oz books by L.Frank Baum. The story's main hero is Jamie Diggs, a 10 year old boy who discovers his magical past inside an old humpback trunk. He learns magic from a local magic club and eventually discovers a way into the magical land of Oz. Once, there, he meets Dorothy, Glinda and Princess Ozma, the Ruler of Oz. He discovers that his great grandfather was the original Wizard of Oz. Soon, Jamie Diggs must battle an army of trees and morel mushrooms who are planning an attack on the Castle of the Tin Woodman. It seems the Tin Woodman defeated the trees a hundred years ago in one of the original Oz books, and now they want revenge. The mushrooms were enchanted by the trees as their ally, so they too must be defeated. The young boy enlists Dorothy to help him conquer the tree army and mushrooms. She gets to cast her first spell in this story and Jamie defeats the tree army in a most unusual way, using a covered bridge to do so. Her spell is against the mushrooms and has a very odd result. He then returns to Indiana to await his next journey to Oz. This was a very nice story based on the original story of Oz. It took a while, over 8 chapters, for the young boy tofinally reach Oz.. However, there are a lot of very charming character developments in those 8 chapters, including a fascination with potato soup, a new friend named Buddy and the Hoosier countryside, including cemeteries and Sycamore trees. One character is named Tree-in-the-Road, and it turns out to be a real tree located inrural Indiana. There is also using of a coveredbridge in the story and that too is based on the Bridgeton CoveredBridge festival inrural Indiana. This story relies a lot on local Indiana stuff, which is very nice. Another pleasant feature in this story is the development of friendship, love and loyalty within the story. One particular chapter is called Ozma's Gift, and it is all about friendship, love and loyalty. The author states that this is the first of three volumes about the young boy and his adventures in Oz. As such, much of the character development should come up again in later volumes. It seems to be written more for kids than adults, although I suspect adults who love Oz will enjoy this book. Most of the characters in it are already familiar to anyone who has seen the movie, The Wizard of Oz. Overall, this story seems to be a good mid-western tale of Oz. I look forward to the next story, which I understand will be called Shadow Demon of Oz.

Magician Of Oz, is supposed to be the first of self-published trilogy. The story takes place in modern day where Jamie Diggs is the great-grandson of Oscar Diggs, the original Wizard of Oz. Jamie and his family lives in Indiana, and aside from knowing his great-grandpa was a famous magician, he had now idea of his life in the fairy realm. His family opens up an old trunk of Oscar's, which contains several old magician items. This sparks Jamie's want to become a magician himself, but the illusionist-type and not the actual wizard-type. He joins up with the Brotherhood of Magicians, and learns some of the tricks of the trade. Two of his prizes which belonged to his grandfather are a mystical coin and a somewhat enchanted pocket watch. Later on, while exploring the woods near his home, Jamie ends up being transported to Oz. He is then taken by Polychrome to the castle of Glinda, where he mmets the good witch along with Ozma and Dorothy. Ozma reveals that she had Jamie brought to Oz so that he could be Dorothy's friend, and while he's there he realizes that he can use actual magic if the right choice of words are used in a spell. However, like all Oz stories, there has to be a main antagonist, and this time around its the trees! Apparently they're still p.o.'ed about from when Tin Woodman used to chop them down. It's unknown if he was the only woodchopper in Oz, otherwise they'd be campaigning against every ax-men there. Headed up by the disgruntled Leader of the Sycamore and his Council of Trees, the collected flora of Oz head out to the Nick Chopper's castle, but Jamie is able to use a magic spell to make them forget their hatred. Granted, the idea of just taking away someone's anger with magic is a little too easy. It's like if someone killed your brother, but your anger would cause some kind of major political upheaval or inconvenience for someone in authority, that using magic to give the victim amnesia about it somehow justifies it. This is one of the few flaws I always had with the Oz stories is that Ozma was shown as being a just ruler who cared for her people, but if someone was try to bring up something like women's liberation or the use of free magic which might shake up the system, the "monarchy" only wanted to set things to a state of stability without really wondering why an underappreciated party(in this case, talking trees)might have a legitimate reason for their grievance. But anyway, Jamie eventually goes back home to Indiana despite how much he and Dorothy seemed to have clicked. The book follows a good narrative, mainly more for younger readers, although I'd recommend adding some illustrations to it in future editions.