Thread: Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?
View Single Post
Old 08-11-2014, 02:05 PM   #20399
Rev. Bob
Wizard
Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Rev. Bob ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Rev. Bob's Avatar
 
Posts: 1,760
Karma: 9918418
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Here on the perimeter, there are no stars
Device: Kobo H2O, iPad mini 3, Kindle Touch
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rev. Bob View Post
Trying something a bit different now: No Place Like Oz, the prequel novella to Dorothy Must Die (in which another girl from Kansas has to undo what Dorothy's done in Oz).
This is definitely a different twist on Oz. More of a short novel than a "novella," NPLOz has Dorothy returning to Oz on her sixteenth birthday, two years after her original visit, along with her aunt and uncle. There are a few continuity problems for purists, in that some version of the events depicted in Baum's other Oz books took place during that two-year gap, but without Dorothy or any other Outsiders. In short, these stories are set up as a sequel to the movie that can use characters from the other books; don't look too closely at that aspect, and it works fine.

Anyway, Dorothy's return is not a good thing, for her or for Oz; she learns to use magic, and is corrupted by it. She deposes Ozma in all but name, and by the time Amy (a "trailer trash" girl from modern Kansas) arrives in Dorothy Must Die, Dorothy's influence has turned Oz into a dystopian wasteland. Amy is conscripted by the Wicked Resistance, and hence we get our story. To save Oz, Amy must take the Lion's courage, the Tin Man's heart, the Scarecrow's brain, and - of course - kill Dorothy.

It's a neat read, as long as you don't obsess over the "Dorothy came back to Oz in some of the other books, but not in this version of the timeline" factor. The books are certainly more grown-up than Baum's originals, YA rather than children's books, and some scenes get rather gruesome. Four more works have apparently been contracted - two novellas and two books - and I'm interested to see where they go. The CW is apparently considering a television series based on the books.
Rev. Bob is offline   Reply With Quote