Fairy Tale Spotlight: Captain Salt in Oz [Book Review]

[This blog spoils major parts of a book nobody reads anymore.]

"Captain Salt in Oz" is the thirtieth book of the Oz series created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Ruth Plumly Thomson and published way back in 1936. It is also the very first book in the Oz series that entirely does not take place in Oz proper... sort of. I'll explain that in a bit.

This book is actually the sequel to another fine book by Ruth that I reviewed called "Pirates in Oz." It follows the further adventures of Captain Samuel Salt, King Ato, and Roger the Read Bird. Captain Salt, no longer a pirate, has since been dubbed the Royal Discoverer and Explorer of Oz, and that is exactly what this book is about.

It tells of the adventures of Salt as he sails his ship, the Crescent Moon, out into the Nonestic Ocean in search of new lands to annex to be thenceforth under the benevolent rule of Ozma of Oz. Yes, Oz turns imperialistic at this stage in the series, and the three sailors are entirely onboard with it, pun intended.

The bulk of the book details the voyagers as they find new and interesting places in Fairyland with the intention to plant the Oz flag there and commit them to the rulership of Ozma. For this reason, my earlier statement about the story never taking place in Oz might not be completely true. If you consider these places properly annexed, then the title does make sense. One could say that Captain Salt is always in Oz as long as he places the flag down when he gets there... but I suppose it's still debatable.

Now, most of the story is this straightforward plot, but there is a secondary story happening right under your nose that is much more subtle, and that has to do with the character Tazander Tazah, Tandy for short. Tandy was the son of a king and a son of a king's son, and he was due to become the ruler of a mysterious land called Ozamaland. Strangely, the boy is kidnapped and sent to be disposed of by a race of savages called Leopard Men, but by coincident, they get exterminated by a freak tidal wave (which possibly occurred during the story "Speedy in Oz," but there is no way to confirm this.)

Captain Salt rescues Tandy and incorporates him into his ship as a cabin boy. As it turns out, he is quite the artist, so he is given the responsibility of drawing a map and drawings of all the things they find on their voyage. It is not until the end of the story that you find out some very strange things about what really happened to Tandy. These events are so peculiar that I actually worry about the effects it can have on my blog account. I suppose I'll just try and explain it in as subtlest a way as I can.

In Ozamaland, there was a group of elitists who were conspiring with a nearby country to overthrow the entire land. (This group and the group that was helping them will be named later in an excerpt.) This group hires a thug magician to make off with the prince, promising him 1/10th of Ozamaland for his trouble, but once he completes this mission, they blow him off.

The one in charge of the whole group actually plans to do the same to the others and take the entire land for himself, but for the time, he still intents to evenly divvy out the land among his fellow conspirators. The blame for the missing prince will fall on the aunts who were supposed to take care of Tandy, and they will ultimately be accused of the conspiracy that the elites committed.

Tandy was entirely ignorant of all these details, although he thought that his aunts might be responsible. He did not actually know for sure. But through the help of Captain Salt and the others, he is delivered back to Ozamaland, much to the surprise and chagrin of the men who turned against him. Tandy's reappearance was enough to expose everything, and the elites were driven out of power.

The latter plot was delivered very subtlety, despite having one awkward chapter where they out rightly show the elites blurting out their plan to one another (exposition through dialog done badly.) The nuances of this plot were pretty well delivered, and I was a bit startled by it, to say the least.

I do recommend "Captain Salt of Oz" for those who love a good sea-sailing adventure. It not not, perhaps, the best Oz book written by Ruth Plumly Thomason, but it is far from her worse. I will leave you with an interesting excerpt found within the last chapter of the book. Enjoy.

Next, Tandy explained how Ozamaland was now a province and under the general rule and protection of Ozma of Oz, how settlers from that famous fairyland would soon arrive to help them build new cities and towns, tame the wild jungles of the interior, and repel the dangerous invasions of the Greys.

Here Chunum rose to declare he himself would be responsible for peace along the border between Amaland and Ozamaland, that the Greys had long desired to be friends with the Whites, but trouble had been stirred up by the Ozamandarins so they might have the credit of protecting the country. Then Tandy spoke again of all the advantages that would be enjoyed from their association with the Kingdom of Oz.

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