Fairy Tale Spotlight: Sirius [Book Review]

[This blog spoils some major aspects of the book.]

"Sirius" is a novel written by Olaf Stapledon. It was published in 1944. This feels like a spiritual sequel to his other book "Odd John," which I reviewed a while back. Where "Odd John" was about a super genius human being, "Sirius" is about a dog who has standard human intelligence. Interestingly, this makes him a super genius as far as dogs go.

Sirius is still a canine in form (a German Shepard in verity), but he has the mind and possibility the spirit of a human inside of him. Basically, he is a person. He can even speak English, although he had an extremely heavy accent since his dog maw isn't really designed for speaking. It takes time to actually understand him when he speaks.

At this book's core, the question of "What makes a person?" is asked. Does consciousness and self-awareness make someone a person? If an animal had the intelligence of a human, should we afford him the privileges and standing of one? The book deals with both sides of the argument, but it treats everything very realistically. This is not bizarro fiction. This is a science fiction with deep and dramatic points of interest. This is something Olaf Stapledon is fairly good at accomplishing, I think.

There was a lot in this book that I did not expect. Sirius gets very interested in religion. I think this is understandable, since he might be questioning his own existence. There are no other dogs like him in the world. He wonders if there is a place for him in the religious sector. Does he have a soul? One wonders! Even I wondered myself.

One of the pastors was very open-minded about Sirius, seeing it more as a miracle of God. In truth, Sirius is actually the product of science, but since all science is of God... You get where I am going with this. Sirius actually becomes a Christian in the book, something that I don't think he ever fully recants, although life becomes so hard for him later on that he doesn't focus as much on the spirit as often. Of course, the question of whether or not God even wants him is always going to be on his mind, mainly because the world is mostly against the idea.

The other pastor is a lot harder on him, seeing him as a product of Satan. This man causes him no end of trouble, ultimately leading to the dog going through madness as the world turns against him, leading to him having a crippling loneliness. Sad stuff really. All this happening during WW2 as well. Dark stuff.

Now, the real driving part of the story in "Sirius" is the love affair he holds with his childhood sweetheart, Plaxy. Plaxy is not a dog; she's human. I didn't think I'd get into the realm of bestiality in a book from the 40's... but I did. And it wasn't something that was really harped on or described, but it does happen. It happens because the world rose up against them and drove them into each other's arms.

This naturally brings up the question whether or not this was bestiality at all! After all, Sirius is not feral. He is a person who has thoughts, feelings, aspirations in life, a sense of self-worth. He laughs, he cries, he loves, he is everything a regular dog isn't. So when he ends up having sex with a human he has known since childhood, and their love is real, is this still bestiality? And that is a debate happening with this book.

The book does briefly deal with politics. Plaxy does favor communism, but surprisingly, Sirius is more the conservative. They argue the two points, and I was enjoying how Sirius rips up all of her arguments. It gave me a lot of satisfaction.

All said, this is a great, well-written science fiction. I gotta say: Olaf Stapledon is a really great author. His chapters are a little overly-long, but the content is so good that I often found the books hard to put down. Both "Odd John" and "Sirius" get a big ol' recommendation from me. True lovers of science fiction should defiantly find a place for either or both of these books.

This blog was written on December 23, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Dr. Pipt [Oz Character]

Dr. Pipt, otherwise known as the Crooked Magician, is a reoccurring character in the Oz series. Originally portrayed as somewhat villainous, he's never really done much of anything that bad other than perform magic for his own benefit.

Dr. Pipt is very much a crooked man. He is tall and gangly, and his limbs seem to be somewhat disjointed. He tends to stay at home, working on his magic, while his wife Margolotte takes care of the house for him. All in all, they seem to be a happy couple.

The thing that gets Dr. Pipt into trouble is that he practices magic during the nearly 100 years where magic was made illegal by Ozma. Probably the most famous creation made by him was the famous Powder of Life which was also featured in the movie "Return to Oz." The creation of this power was a bit ridiculous. It involves stirring four pots simultaneously for something like ten years, which only produces a small number of grains. He does this by tying large spoons to his legs, using them both to help with the stirring. Being crooked has its advantages.

The Powder of Life can make anything that is not alive live. You just have to say the magic words: "Weaugh, Teaugh, Peaugh."

This powder was used to bring a number of things to life such as Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Flying Gump, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, and also Bungle the Glass Cat. Dr. Pipt's magical invention is directly and indirectly responsible for all of these characters existing.

Even though all these marvelous character came from the actions of Dr. Pipt, Ozma chose to forbid him from practicing magic ever again. This was rather devastating to him, since magic was his most favorite hobby. Most of his creations were just intended to make life at home more comfortable for him and his wife. All the outside effects were unintended.

Dr. Pipt was one of the decent magic users that got squashed by the no magic laws. He obeyed the law for a long time, but it ended up making him feel bored and unfulfilled as a person. As it turned out, he did eventually go back to doing his magic but in secret. This was later revealed in "The Living House of Oz" which dealt with these controversial laws.

As it stands now, Dr. Pipt is allowed to legally pursue his magical hobby as long as he reports on it. I was happy to hear that, but I am sad he had to go through what he did to get there. Even though he used his magic selfishly, a lot of good came from it in Oz.

This blog was written on December 22, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Oz Magic

If you were a citizen of Oz or any of its surrounding fairylands, you would probably be using magic as a day to day thing. I'm not talking about spell-casting and such; leave that to the witches and sorcerers. I am talking about simple magic such as using enchanted items.

Think of it like this: You accidently fell in some mud and got yourself all dirty, so you go home to get cleaned up. At home there is a special arch that cleans anything that walks through it. You simply walk through the arch and you and your clothing are perfectly clean in seconds. You can also stick dirty dishes through the arch too, and they come out spotless.

I know this example sounds amazing, but you wouldn't think it was that big of a deal if you lived in Oz. You might also have a bread box that has one new loaf of bread in it every single day. Once again, it is something you'd just get used to. You'd always have bread, and you'd never have to actually make it.

These two examples are based on magical items available in Oz. They are rather normal things that a regular citizen of Oz might have in their home. They generally don't make these things themselves, but they likely get them from an approved magic user in the Emerald City. Counties on the outside of Oz likely have their own wizards that can handle such things.

Now imagine going to Oz and telling them that you don't have magic where you come from. You might find the Ozian to be just as shocked as you are. "How do you even do anything?!" they might say.

As to the dirty clothing issue, you can try and explain about washing machines. You can also mention showers and baths for how we clean ourselves. Bread will have to be baked or bought from a store, only for the same process to happen again when the bread runs out or gets moldy. To an Ozian, these chores will probably sound really offensive. They'll see you as some poor, sad person stuck doing things the hard way.

It's all a matter of point of view. You see them as fantastic, and they they see you as sad and pathetic. This is something that has happened here and there throughout the book series. I find it very amusing. Just think how easy living here would be if we could add a little magic to it. But then again, if we had self-washing clothing and insta-bread, Oz might not be all that interesting anymore. Ha!

This blog was written on December 18, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Trouble Under Oz [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"Trouble Under Oz" is the fifty-ninth book in the Oz series originally started by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Sherwood Smith and published in 2006. It is the second part of a trilogy of books commissioned by the Baum Family Trust, forcing this one into the canon without any possible exception.

"Trouble Under Oz" returns to the main characters of the previous entry, "The Emerald Wand of Oz," that being Dori and Em, who are direct descendants of Princess Dorothy. This time only Dori returns to Oz to help Rik the Nome attempt to take the throne of the Nome Kingdom away from its current ruler, King Kaliko. She is joined by Prince Inga of Pingaree, who possesses three magical pearls that give them protection along the way.

The whole business with Inga and the Nomes is a reference to the tenth book in the series called "Rinkitink in Oz" which travels along a similar path. That particular book is pretty darn good, and I liked reconnecting with those characters and situations.

The problem with Rik and Nomes in general is that they tend to be extremely immature and wicked by nature. Rik actually has a rightful claim to the throne because he is the son of the original Nome King. But Nome politics are extremely odd since lying and treachery are pretty much a way of life for them. They can even deceive each other as long as they don't get caught. Expected but still punishable by their own laws.

This leads Dorothy and Inga into a world that they just don't understand very well. And Rik, who they do support as King, does not really seem to have the maturity for it, even as a Nome. King Kaliko is actually as selfish and devious as Rik, but he is a far more mature Nome and understands the responsibilities that the station requires. Yes, this book is full of stuff like this.

The reason Dori was sent on this mission at all (by Ozma, in case you were wondering) was because there was a concern that there might be a war caused by the sudden change in power. This was a very real threat, and Dori was hoping that she could settle everything out peacefully before things got too rough. For one thing, King Kaliko had a myriad of treaties with hostile neighbors that would become nullified if he was replaced. The politics of this story was very interesting.

While this whole story is going on, Em is in Kansas watching all that is happening to Dori by way of a magic snow globe that was introduced in the first story. She has the comical duty of trying to hide the fact that her sister is not in the house for days from a prying mother, father, and nosey neighbor. These little segments were a lot of fun.

The sad and somewhat cynical contrast between our world and Oz's is still prevalent in this story. It is a situation that will hopefully sort itself out by the third book. Em and Dori's parents are not getting along, and it just seems like the most impossible thing to fix, which is crazy if you consider all the things they have to deal with in Oz seeming so much bigger by comparison.

"Trouble Under Oz" has two main hanging plot points that are left unresolved. In fact, these two plot points were introduced in the first book. First, Dorothy is missing, and nobody knows where she is. Second, there is a big scary cloud with faces appearing in it that seems to appear whenever anyone uses magic. Nobody knows what to do about these things.

Lastly, I want to say that the title of this book, "Trouble Under Oz," is unfortunately inaccurate. The story only goes underground when Dori and Inga go to the Nome Kingdom which is not within the borders of Oz. Misleading title aside, I do recommend this book! It seats solidly within Oz canon, and the reoccurring main characters are very well represented and feel real. Time to tackle the next one!

This blog was written on December 15, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Mangaboos [Oz Characters]

The Mangaboos are a race of people who live outside the borders of Oz in a land called the Vegetable Kingdom. It borders on the land of the Nomes. The Mangaboos have only been featured a couple of times in the Oz books, but their presence hits hard every time.

The Mangaboos look like beautiful people with very pretty clothing. They are, however, vegetable in nature. They actually grow like plants and have to be picked. In fact, their queen has to be picked regularly as the former one withers away. Any Mangaboo showing any signs of deformity must be replanted (buried), even if they don't want it.

As beautiful as they are as people, they are probably the most heartless creatures that the Oz books have ever presented to the reader. They are extremely cold and uncaring. They do not like anyone but themselves, and the death or injury of other people mean nothing to them. If they were to see you torn into gory chunks, they would probably just yawn and walk away as if bored.

Now, they cannot help this. It is entirely in their nature to be this way. They cannot be convinced to change, and they will never actually change. That said, it is extremely infuriating to ever have to deal with them. Just being around them cause normal people to become very hateful of their methods and ways.

The hate felt towards the Mangaboos is actually irrational, since they honestly cannot help being the way they are, but if you met one of them, you might start thinking about people who have acted like them. Humans can sometimes be like Mangaboos. So when confronted with the very ideal of what a Mangaboo is, you may feel hatred anyhow.

I just thought you might find this creature interesting. If you ever happen to run into the Mangaboos, they'll probably just end up chucking you into a deep black pit. Might not be so bad, as the pit might lead somewhere better than there. And if you are worried about what's down there, just remember that the Mangaboos don't care what's in the hole, so it could be anything, even a way out!

This blog was written on December 11, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Emerald Wand of Oz [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Emerald Wand of Oz" is the fifty-eighth book in the Oz series originally founded by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Sherwood Smith, who is a woman in case any of you can't tell from the name. It was published in 2005. I want to also point out that this book had no choice but to become canon since it was commissioned by the Baum Family Trust. Yes, the actual estate of L. Frank Baum paid to have this book made. I'm not joking.

The story follows the tale of Dori and Em, who very well may be descendants of the original Dorothy. They experience their own tornado and and end up in Oz. This is the very first tornado since the first book. Dori is the imaginative type who has read many of the Oz books. Em has only seen the movie, which she has to be pointed out quite often that it is not very representative of the actual world of Oz.

The latter point is something I rather liked. In some ways, that makes this story a good starting point for new readers. There are a lot of people who only know Oz by the grossly inaccurate movie. This book takes bits and pieces from the originals story, but it stays true to both the canon aspects of Oz as well as its long-held continuity.

Now, the main point of this story has to do with a witch who is using a special wand to steal the intelligence of Oz's leaders in order to conquer it. This witch is actually the niece of the Wicked Witch of the West. Yes, she sort of came out of nowhere, but they explained it off that she had been in "witch school" all of those years. Interestingly, she is very beautiful since she has not had enough time to become old and ugly yet.

Dori and Em team up with a nome boy named Rik to try and stop her and her evil plan. Although Rik has his own evil aspirations since he wants to take the throne of the Nomes, and that wand could certainly help him do that. These points, on the whole, are the basic driving points of the story.

Now, I do want to say that this book has a very slow start. After initially entering into Oz, the girls get stuck in one of Oz's many random encounters for nearly half of the book. They run into a village of unicorns that trap boys and girls, forcing them to dress them up and parade them around so that they feel good about themselves. I swear that for a long time I thought this was going to be the whole book! However, once they break free of this problem, the real plot of the book kicks in and stays strong to the end.

One really rather sad thing about this story is that it very heavily deals with the difference between our world and Oz. Everything is upsetting and cynical about life in a non-magical world. Parents have trouble staying together, and there are so many adults that just can't believe in anything more than what they see every day. But in Oz, everything is wonderful even when its scary. This is probably the best this contrast has been made in the series so far. The last I remember it being addressed was when Dorothy and her guardians were about to lose their house in Kansas, and so they just moved to Oz to not have to worry about it. Dori and Em don't have that latter privilege though, which is too bad.

Oh, and I do want to say that the new illustrator, William Stout, is very good, but this book hardly has any illustrations in it. Oz has historically been very heavily illustrated, and I was lucky to get even one picture in any given chapter. It's not really a bad thing, mind you. I read the first forty books without the illustrations. My imagination was plenty up to the task, but I was surprised of the lack of pictures this time around.

All said, I do recommend "The Emerald Wand of Oz," even if its your first Oz book. I would lastly like to mention, however, that I believe this book is the first in a trilogy. There were a number of loose ends that did not get tied up. I'm gonna get on that right now and let you know how things progress. Cheers.

This blog was written on December 7, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Edward Einhorn, Author of Oz

Can an author make a fictional world better in only two books? Yep! Edward Einhorn did just that! For the longest time, I wondered about that upcoming title "Paradox in Oz." I have been using this canon list for a long time, and I felt the name did not fit much into the usual titling of Oz books. But when I finally got there, it all made sense: Edward was trying to fix some major problems with the Oz universe with the help of some cleverly written science fiction mumbo jumbo.

From what I have been able to discover about this man, he was a fairly successful playwright. He wrote science fiction plays, and some of his characters from those plays ended up in these two Oz books. That in particular stood out to me that he was combining his own personal characters from outside of Oz into his Oz book.

The real problem (and this really was a problem) was that there were too many Oz stories out there, which also included movies that did not fit with the books. Also the mainline canon of books had some very notable inconsistencies of themselves. Baum did this to himself as well. It was actually why other authors did it, because they noticed he did it too. It basically made the Oz canon kind of liquid.

Names of mainline characters would sometimes change. The locations of entire countries in Oz would switch sides on the map. Hell, the map was not even consistent when Baum was doing it. Half the time, nobody knew which direction you had to go to find the Munchkin Country!

In 1939, a very famous movie came out for the first book, but it was kind of all over the place. Not to mention that, in the film, the whole thing was a dream that Dorothy was having. In "Return to Oz," it was also a dream, but there seemed to be a correlation between what was happening in Oz and what was happening in our world. But the real problem is that none of these stories agree with one another.

With "Paradox in Oz," everything suddenly agrees. Every canon of Oz now has been witnessed by Princess Ozma herself. She has officially seen them, and to a small extent experienced them. Edward Einhorn used his talent for writing whimsical science fiction to bring all of those different forms of Oz together so that it all existed within one canon multiverse. Although it does seem like things just got more complicated, it is actually more relaxed because it means even the stuff you write can be a part of the canon Ozma might have seen.

Oh, and don't worry about if your stuff is officially published or independently published either. I'll deal with that in a later blog next year. But in short... IT DOESN'T MATTER! Trust me.

The second problem Edward tackled (in "The Living House of Oz") was a very annoying one started by Baum himself. I am referring to the fact that Ozma made the practice of magic illegal in Oz with the exception of Ozma, the Wizard, and Glinda. This has been an ongoing thing of annoyance for fans of the book since it happened nearly a century ago.

Making magic illegal did not stop it from happening. There were many undiscovered countries in Oz that did not know of this law, and so they used magic anyways. Some of them used magic for good, but once Ozma found them, she shut them down. Absolutely infuriating.

There was also those who knew about the law but then did it in secret. Yes, many of these were bad people, but some of them weren't. The man who invented the Powder of Life continued to practice his magic in secret. It was a law that just made things awkward.

Edward Einhorn did not completely remove this law. He loosened its tightness. He eased it up so that the practice of magic was just better regulated in Oz. Now people who were using magic for good could still do that. Of course evil magic is still illegal, but now people who want to use it for good can do that. Finally!

These two problems were major issues in the Oz universe for almost its entire run, and it took a man named Edward Einhorn to write only two books to solve them. That is why he is one of the most important authors of Oz. And now you know it too.

Thank you, Edward Einhorn, for making Oz a better place than it already was.

This blog was written on December 1, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Red Balloon [Book Review]

[This blog does spoil some major plot points from the book.]

"The Red Balloon" is a book written by Albert Lamorisse. It was published in 1956. It is the literary adaptation of the movie of the same name which was released the same year. The author is also the creator of the movie. Albert wrote, produced, and directed that movie which is one of my all time favorite films. I've seen it a lot of times since I was very young, and I still enjoy it to this day.

The story is about a boy named Pascal who finds a large red balloon tied to a street pole in Paris. At first it seems to be a regular balloon, but the boy soon figures out that it is actually sentient. It will not fly away if let go and will follow Pascal around like a loyal puppy.

The story goes into how the boy struggles to keep the balloon with him. There seems to be rules everywhere that will not allow him to take along his red balloon such as on the trolley, or to his school, and also to church. And although some of the adults can kind of see that the balloon is not acting normal, it irritates them more than amazes them, which I always found interesting.

The book is more of a booklet, and the story is more of a short story intended for children, which is fine. It is full of pictures which are production stills from the movie. This is also fine, and, might I say, well implemented. I was very impressed with how the pictures from the movie went with the text. This is a book really anyone can read and enjoy.

All except for one small detail, the book follows the movie to the letter. That one point has to do with how the balloon is ultimately destroyed. I felt that this scene was far better exhibited and had more impact in the film. It was very long and drawn out in the movie, which I felt gave it more power, but in the book, it is very fast and a bit jarring. That said, I still really liked the book.

Weirdly, I am going to recommend this one, if you can find it. It looks to me like everything involving this project was hand-crafted by Mister Albert Lamorisse. He did everything. This is one of those projects that has the very soul of the creator baked into it.

I should also say that you should find and watch the film. It's really good and has almost no dialog in it whatsoever. It uses imagery and music to convey thoughts and feelings. It's really a wonderful piece of art that I truly hope will stick around in our media for many decades to come. A child's imagination is a wonderful thing. They see things we silly adults often miss. This story is all about that, and I really love it.

This blog was written on November 30, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Living House of Oz [Book Review]

[This blog has spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Living House of Oz" is the fifty-seventh book in the Oz series created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Edward Einhorn and published in 2005. I also want to mention that Eric Shanower did the amazing illustrations for this as well.

This is a direct sequel to the amazing "Paradox in Oz" and even features a few of the same characters such as Tempus the Parrot-Ox, however this story is unique and feels a bit more inline with most Oz stories. That said, there are still some paradoxical elements to it.

Probably the biggest thing that will be staring you in the face here is the introduction of Mordra who was the Wicked Witch of the West, killed all the way back in book #1 by Dorothy. Only this one is from the other timeline from the previous book where everything was switched around. This particular witch is actually a very nice person but with a harsh personality. She isn't evil in the slightest.

She is taking care of her son, a boy named Buddy, inside a house where everything in it, including the house itself, is alive and can talk. At first, I thought this house was a resurgence of the John R. Neill cartoon world aesthetic, but this is something very specific to this house. It has an extreme enchantment on it, rendering every object as a living person.

Probably the most hilarious of these talking objects is an animated coatrack named the Earl of Haberdashery. The thing about him is that he lies. In fact, he rarely ever tells the truth at all within the whole of the entire book. But he tells these lies with such flair and charm that most people actually wonder if he is being honest. His lying even helps out with problems late in the book which was really enjoyable.

The main problem that needs to be dealt with in the story has much to do with the fact that practicing magic in Oz is illegal, but Mordra needs to use magic to protect her son from a terrible race of creatures called the Phanfasms, which were one of the many creatures who once tried to conquer Oz in past books. This magic issue has been  bit of a thing of contention with Oz readers for nearly a century. It is a bit annoying to see even good people lose their ability to practice magic and become normal people.

This book actually puts the law to trial. Ozma herself is attempting to figure out if she should change her laws or keep them the same. Both sides of the issue are well represented. Regardless of anything else happening, that really is the big deal of this book, and, might I also say, it is about time. The ending, which I won't spoil, was pretty satisfactory. I may talk about it in a separate blog since the whole "no magic" law is kind of its own topic.

One more thing concerning this trial: The Scarecrow acts as both prosecuting and defense attorneys. At first you think that it won't work, but as it turns out, he is able to manage it hilariously well. He even interrupted himself with objections and even complained about some of his own tactics! It was probably my favorite part of the whole book.

All said, however, "The Living House of Oz" gets a high recommendation from me. Honestly it was good seeing the Wicked Witch of the West as a nice person. I really liked her character. I would say that she was actually my favorite character of this one. I think you'll like her too.

This blog was written on November 26, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Pipi Longstocking [Book Review]

[This blog somewhat spoils the last two chapters.]

"Pipi Longstocking" is a book written by Astrid Lindgren. It was published in 1945 in Sweden. I read this book to reconnect with memories I had of the old movies that I saw when I was a child.

So... this is basically "Mary Sue" the book. It is about a little girl who can basically do anything. She is even extremely strong and powerful. She can't seem to fly though, although I would not be surprised if she ended up doing that in the later entries.

The concept of Pipi is that she sort of lives on her own frequency. She exists inside her own mind and does not have much of a relationship with the world around her. If anyone says anything to her, she will either misunderstand, mis-hear it, or take the statement so literally that it ends up meaning something entirely different to her. She also often puts out the same garbage that she takes in.

Pipi boldly just lies to everyone and makes up ridiculous stories. If anyone tries to tame her, she will passively reject their attempts by way of being a brat. In this way she can rebel against civil society without really coming to any terms with it. And with her surprising strength and power, if anyone tries to tame her physically, she can simply pick them up and put them somewhere they won't bother her.

Other than her super strength, there was nothing particularly magical about anything she did. She just sort of did everything wrong, with it somehow just working for her. And the lies that she told, she often believed herself and would often do what she could to make them true. You know, I actually found her annoying.

The story of the book is just a bunch of somewhat unrelated adventures as two children from next door keep visiting her to see what silliness she comes up with next. It never really came across as very interesting until the last two chapters... which I found extremely interesting!

One major complaint that I had was about how dialog was handled. Pipi's dialog was always handled well, but sometimes when people replied to her, it was done through awkward narration. Like... the narrator would summarize what the person said. This happened a heck of a lot, and it isn't really something I am used to in books. I don't like it either.

Most of the illustrations were not my cup of tea either. They kind of felt like pictures if they were actually drawn by children. I don't agree with this approach. If you are going to illustrate a book for children, you get a talented adult to do them well to further assist the child to use their imagination.

As to the last two chapters, which were actually good, I'll say a few things about them. In Chapter Nine, Pipi was invited to a party but was worried that she was not going to behave even if she tried. Well, her attempts to try to behave actually could count as misbehaving, but in this case she really was trying much too hard which made the whole thing hilarious. Her attempts to act cultured was a riot.

The rather shocking final chapter had her saving some children from a burning building. It was surreal. Pipi was not taking the situation seriously at all... and yet she still saved the children. The contrast between her attitude and the actual horrific event was actually kind of cool to read. I enjoyed that one. It had a sort of fae quality to it.

Despite those final two chapters being excellent, I'm not going to recommend this one. I just think that there is too much bad and not enough good. It happens sometimes. I am thinking about seeing those movies again though. I have some good memories of watching them. Maybe I'll still like them? Who knows!

This blog was written on November 23, 2023. (Happy Thanksgiving!)

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Paradox in Oz [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"Paradox in Oz" is the fifty-sixth book in the Oz series originally started by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Edward Einhorn and published in 1999. I would also like to point out that the illustrator was Eric Shanower, since he is so important to the Oz fandom.

The story here begins with people in Oz suddenly aging. This is not something that is supposed to happen in Oz. Everyone remains at the same age they want to be for eternity. Somehow the aging enchantment of Oz has stopped, and it is up to Ozma, the hero of this book, to find out how to fix it.

The fix for this problem actually has to do with a strange man who lives his life backwards. Of course, it is forwards from his perspective, but to everyone else, he seems like he is going in reverse. This is just one of many incredibly complicated paradoxes in this book. And what creature is best at helping with paradoxes? Why... a parrot-ox, of course!

Tempus is part parrot and part ox. He is the only one of his kind, yet he is pretty much everywhere because he can travel through time simply by flying. He is also known for being exceptionally good at doing things as long as those things are impossible. In contrast, he is actually very bad at doing normal things.

"Paradox in Oz" also shows an alternate timeline where the Wizard is actually an evil man. Also Mombi is a wonderful person. Pretty much everybody's personalities gets flipped to their opposing moral alignments. Even Dorothy is a bad person in that universe. Interestingly the Emerald City is called the Obsidian City, and it is all black instead of green. Pretty cool!

This book, please understand, deals with something that has been a running problem in the Oz books, and frankly the whole franchise, since the beginning. Oz books have always had a very poorly constructed continuity. For example, the Soldier with the Green Whiskers is supposed to be called Omby Amby according to L. Frank Baum. However when John R. Neill began writing them, he called him Wantowin Battles. This was one of the many ways that Oz books often did not agree with one another.

There was also the problem with the movies, some TV shows, and even animes and video games that did not agree with the book canon. Also what about "Wicked"? That is also not canon but it still seems to be important to some people. The whole world is full of Oz, but for some reason only a single thread of books are canon, and even within the canon we haven't been able to get a perfectly straight story.

"Paradox in Oz" is the very first time that an author tried very, VERY hard to bring everything together in a fully realized Ozziverse. The whole purpose of this book is to show that not every Oz book agrees with each other, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. They are just happening in some other version of events. This book is quite literally a science fiction and still very much canon to the series.

By the end of the book, it references nearly every single continuity of Oz that was ever made. I'm talking about even the movies, cartoons, and comic books! It's all here! It explains it all away as an airtight multiverse, and the best part of this is that "Paradox in Oz" is a canon book which by extension means everything Oz is canon. Brilliant!

I remember being upset that Oz was just a dream in the 1939 movie, but maybe it is a dream in that version of the Ozziverse. That's fine. Honestly, that's just peachy. What this book does is that it encourages you to make Oz in whatever way you want. Your imagination is the only limitation. This book single handedly gave the world a golden key to a universe to do anything and everything they wanted to do with it to make themselves happy!

This idea may have inspired a similar project for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 2009, there was a brilliant movie called "Turtles Forever" that dealt with very similar themes and had an ending that was nearly the same. It may have been inspired by "Paradox in Oz" since this book came out ten years earlier.

If I had to make criticisms of the book, I'd say that it isn't really suitable for children, even though the book is clearly intended for them. It's not because it is too violent or serious as much as the book is a bit too cerebral. I'm an adult and even I had trouble following some of the paradoxes found in these pages. It is can be extremely baffling at times.

I also feel that this is a terrible starter to the Oz series. If this was the first Oz book you tried out, you probably would not even finish it. It is purely written for those who have been following the books up to this point. It's like a special gift for those few who have stuck with the series for all those long years.

Because of how this book works, it is a difficult one to recommend. You have to really be ready to take in a lot if you start this one. But whether you read it or not, I do hold the opinion that this is one of the best Oz books ever made and one of the most important ones. It single handedly brought every single continuity of Oz (book, movie, ect.) together in one group and further encourages people to add to it.

Thank you, Edward Einhorn, for writing this book!

This blog was written on November 20, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Eric Shanower, Author of Oz

I'm not going to go over every thing this man has done for Oz. It's a list that is far too long. I just want you to understand that this man probably did more for the Oz franchise than Baum did in his lifetime. Eric Shanower had his hand in a lot of things within the comic industry. He was both a writer and an illustrator. But the thing he will always be known best for was his contributions to Oz.

I first learned about this guy when I bought the graphic novels for the first six books by Baum. It was done in a very startling style which was not how he used to draw his characters, but it was good and interesting. I later found out that he had written a few books and illustrated a bunch of them for other writers. His style back then was more traditional but crisper for a more modern audience.

As I was going through the books of the canon, I began to really love his art style, and I will probably consider him the best of all the artists who have illustrated the Oz books. But when he finally took over the pen and began writing them, my mind was officially blown. He took the world of Oz so seriously!

But you need to understand that he did not simply turn Oz into a hard-edged adult book. He actually paid special care to make sure that the Oz canon was treated with respect for what it had always been. A lot of writers do that but try not to deal with the problems of Baum's strange world full of surprisingly explicit horrors. Eric dove straight into those horrors for what they truly were. Oz was still Oz... but we were not mincing words about it anymore.

Eric's ability to see Oz for what it was and simply be honest about it was what made his books so fascinating. People who read Oz think about these things but we never really get much release for them in the books. It was good to finally get that release. We all knew it was happening after all.

Eric Shanower is probably the best thing to ever happen to Oz in both literature and art. He breathed new life into it and is probably responsible for it staying alive to this day. I dare say that he was born on this planet for this sole purpose.

Thank you, Eric, for everything you've done!

This blog was written on November 17, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Boxen [Book Review]

"Boxen" is a book written by C. S. Lewis and his brother W. H. Lewis when they were both very young children. They were pretty much hanging out in their attic around the turn of the century, surrounded by an uncountable number of books and little toys and put together an incredible world about animal people living around humans. It was never intended to be published... but it was way later in 1985.

"Boxen" is basically a collection of all the plays, documents, and even novels that make up the fictional world of the same name. Since this was written by little children, the editors have decided to leave in all the misspelled words, although I should say that they get much better at their spelling later on.

What is "Boxen" though? The basic premise is of a alternative Earth where animal people co-exist with regular humans. Animal-Land sits somewhere around India. Animal-Land is broken up into various sections which focus on each type of animal (ie. Mouse-Land and so forth).

The animals, however, are really just like humans with different ornaments. There may be some subtle quirks of personality, but they are really just normal people with weird faces and tails. By the time I got to the end of the book, I nearly forgot that they even were animals.

Although the book does have some very specific stories that the authors wanted to share, most of it is more about explaining the history of Boxen and about how the politics work. It's all pretty well explained, and I found myself fairly immersed. Also all the illustrations were also drawn by C. S. Lewis and his brother and they are amazing.

"Boxen" does not really have a main character, but it does have a person it tends to focus on the most. That would be John Big the frog. His entire career is related in "Boxen" in some way or another, from childhood to his death. He is a very stern and stately person who started off as a tutor and ends up deep into politics later on. Apparently he was loosely based on a child's perception of Winston Churchill at the turn of the century. This was all before the war, mind you.

The fun thing about John Big is that he tends to try and stay out of trouble, but when people really go after him, he will not hesitate to get physical. Although rare, you can convince him to beat you up and toss you out of a window. It's fun to see a man who is so good at keeping his cool absolutely lose his temper. He was a fun character and I like that the two kids focused on him so often.

One advisory I will give you about "Boxen" is that much of the original manuscripts of this book has been lost, leaving some of the stories incomplete or missing entire pages. The two authors never intended to publish this work. They were doing it to amuse themselves. This unfortunately leaves some stories completely missing an ending, and even after a sizable build up. If this sort of thing is too much for you to handle, you might want to avoid it.

On the contrary, if you like the idea of reading a story that seems far beyond the abilities of a little child, then you may want to try it out. There is still a lot of content here, and I was entertained by a lot of it. But as to a recommendation, it really just has to do with how you feel about a book being published in this way. For diehard C. S. Lewis fans: defiantly! For the casual reader... maybe not. Either way, this was an interesting read for what it was.

This blog was written on November 10, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Salt Sorcerer of Oz and Other Stories [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Salt Sorcerer of Oz and Other Stories" is the fifty-fifth book in the Oz series originally created by L. Frank Baum. This book was written and illustrated by the amazing Eric Shanower, and it was published in 2002. It is actually an Oz short story and poetry collection which spanned Eric's Oz career all the way back to the 80's. It is absolutely a book that needed to someday exist.

The format of the book is very simple. It presents a short story followed by a poem all the way to the end. There are six stories and six poems. Everything in this book is considered canon, and it is very good that they are. Each one was brilliant and well paced in their execution. Although the stories have different lengths, they each felt like a full Oz story which is an amazing accomplishment.

Like I did with Eric's graphic novel, I'll go over each of the main stories (excluding the poems) and tell you a little about each one.

"The Salt Sorcerer of Oz"

So this is the story that the cover of the book attempts to promote the most. It stars Kabumpo the Elegant Elephant (one of my absolute favorites) in a mission to help a sorcerer made of salt who is having problems with rain. Being that salt dissolves in rain, he is worried that his life will be ruined by the random downpours.

This story actually comes across as a much more traditional Oz story. It feels like Eric was trying to reproduce the magic of the older stories, and he did actually do that. As short as the story was, I honestly felt like I had read an entire Oz book by the end of it. A successful attempt!

"The Final Fate of the Frogman"

The story stars classic character Woot the Wanderer and the Frogman, two characters that I did not remember so well. It is the story of the Frogman who was a frog trying to be a man. The problem was that he bathed in the Truth Pond which I believe was first introduced in "Road to Oz," if I am not mistaken.

This pretty much ruined his life since he was forced to be true to both himself and others for eternity. This is actually an extremely funny sad story about how the Frogman's life was ruined by the act of simply telling the truth. It's black humor at its finest, and I was laughing by the end of it.

"Dorothy and the Mushroom Queen"

Ever wondered what it would be like if Oz was crossed over with a Studio Ghibli movie? This story has fairies in it that resemble and feel a lot like the strange and otherworldly creatures of those films. This is also one of Eric's darker projects, similar to "The Giant Garden of Oz." He really can't seem to help putting Dorothy in absolutely horrible situations.

All said, however, this is one you should not skip over. It's both powerful and terrifying. Also his illustrations of the fairies are extremely surreal here. They were my favorite illustrations of the entire book.

"The Balloon-Girl of Oz"

It's a very silly and cartoonish story about Scraps, the Patchwork Girl of Oz. She accidently gets inflated like a balloons and has to deal with floating physics in an attempt to make it back home. Eric pretty much just wanted to give her a hard time, and honestly I did not mind it one bit.

I should say that this story is placed really well in the collection. It takes the edge off the very harsh previous story. You'll need this one after finishing it.

"Gugu and the Kalidahs"

Did you know there is a race of extremely violent creatures in Oz called Kalidahs? They look something like a bear with a tiger's head. They pretty much just rip to shreds anybody that they run into. Violent and awful.

This story deals with Gugu, a leopard, who is the king of the forest of Gugu which was named after him. (He mentions that a lot in the story.) After the Kalidahs illegally enter his forest, he is forced to contend with a violent invasion.

This story kinda feels like if you combined Oz with "The Jungle Book." It's written in a similar way so that you can feel what it's like to be a feral animal among other feral animals.

This is also a very dark story that doesn't attempt to coddle the reader in any way. It deals with very serious topics, and characters are constantly in a state of danger. Well worth your time.

"The Silver Jug"

This is the only story that seems to venture outside the borders of Oz and across the Deadly Desert. It features a new character named Amanda who works for Glinda the Good. She is a very irresponsible girl who is given a test to check her ability to actually be responsible for a change.

This test leads to her going all over the place as she tries to fix a mistake she makes by opening a silver jug left in her care. It releases dragons all over the place, and she has to go through a lot of trouble to get them back.

It's a great and long story that I don't want to spoil. It is incredibly difficult to predict anything in this one. I dare you to try. I do, however, wish to point out that there was a very cool fourth wall moment where the characters attempt to contact the reader of the book. Of course, they can't hear you if you call back, but I think this is the first time anything like this ever happened in Oz history. It was my favorite moment within the entire collection.

That was all of them! This is most certainly a book that I recommend. Although I should say that it may be hard to find. A lot of the later Oz books are out of print, meaning they end up being really expensive. But if you can get ahold of this one, it is a treasure!

I do lastly want to point out that all the poems were good, but there was a very short one about the Scarecrow that was my favorite. Let me just leave it here for you to enjoy:

"Ode to Brains"

With melodious strains

I sing of my brains,

They're surely the best you can find--

Unequalled in elegance

Or sense or intelligence,

Their greatness is all in my mind!

-----

This blog was written on November 10, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Cowardly Lion (Oz Character)

Everyone knows the Cowardly Lion. He was there from the beginning, and he has been in more of the books than I can remember. He's known for being afraid of just about any situation, yet he is probably the bravest and noblest character in the series.

What some people might not know is that he has a best friend. There is a strange character called the Hungry Tiger who befriends him later on. After that point, the two are pretty always seen together with few exceptions. The reason this likely works out is because the two have very similar psychological issues which draws them together, forming a club of two. (Otherwise known as a friendship.)

Meeting the Cowardly Lion is usually predicated on the idea that he is a terrifying lion... until you get to know him. Characters meeting him for the first time are always afraid. He is very large and bulky. The only visible clue as to his sheepishness is a bow tied to his mane.

After speaking to him, his personality comes out, and then everything softens. He's not really all that ferocious. He can get ferocious if he needs to be, but those are moments where he is pressed to save one of his friends. In general conversation, he usually looks and feels a little sickly.

Despite these odd perceptions, the Cowardly Lion is one of the most trusted individuals of Oz. He is considered one of Ozma's personal gradians and will often pull her wagon during parades along with the Hungry Tiger.

The Cowardly Lion is all about contrast. He is two parts of a whole. He's always afraid, yet he always stands up to the things he is afraid of. He's always been that way even before the Wizard gave him his courage. That's what makes him one of the most perfect Oz characters ever created.

This blog was written on November 8, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Sawhorse (Oz Character)

The Sawhorse is a character that has been in the Oz series since the second book ("The Marvelous Land of Oz"), and he has reappeared in it countless times since. He is a horse made out of logs and sticks and brought to life with the actual Powder of Life which some of you may know from the movie "Return to Oz." Same exact thing.

He, or at least his pieces, actually belonged to Mombi, but Tip (before becoming Ozma) brought him to life and used him to escape the witch with Jack Pumpkinhead. Oh, and he can run extremely fast. He may actually be the fasted creature in Oz, unless I am forgetting something.

The Sawhorse comes across as egotistical with an internalized personality. He speaks in very plain terms and doesn't over elaborate on anything. He just sort of says how he feels if he says anything at all. Originally he would brag about how fast he was, but later he would be a bit more subtle about it since people would often complain. It didn't seem to really effect his opinion about himself though; he simply stopped talking about it because nobody wanted to hear it.

By design, the Sawhorse is supposed to feel uncanny in both looks and in social interaction. Just seeing him will put you off. His eyes are, after all, knotholes that can move somehow. But his internalized personality makes it a chore to really connect with him in any substantial way. You can get answers out of him, but he usually won't go any further than you do. Once you stop talking, so will he. It can be a bit unnerving.

It makes you consider what the personality of wood would be if wood could talk and interact with people. As it stands, wood doesn't do much of anything but just sit there. The Sawhorse does a lot of quiet standing unless he is needed. He really is just a living piece of wood and it shows.

As the canon stands now, he is the official steed of Princess Ozma. He pulls a red wagon wherever she needs to go, and he can do so at breakneck speeds. Other than that... he's just sort of there. Even so, I do like him and consider him to be one of the most interesting characters in the Oz universe.

This blog was written on November 3, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Continuity of Oz

Did you know that you can write and even publish an Oz book? You absolutely can, and there will be no legal ramifications for it at all. Oz is completely public domain and has a unfathomable number of fans who are making new content for it every year.

But what if you are worried you don't know enough to write a story within such a vast and long-lived continuity. Does that mean you have to painstakingly read all of the books and take extensive notes that could possibility fill it's own novel's worth of pages? Short answer is "nah."

The most you should do is maybe read over the first 14 books, if even that. The rest is up to you. Although there are some fairly consistent things about the franchise that fans will be looking for, continuity within the actual canon is often just ignored by the main authors anyways. Even the creator L. Frank Baum ignored his own continuity regularly. The fact that he did that encouraged other authors to do it too.

Heck, if you wanted to just write your own sequel to the 1939 film, you could just do that, and that movie didn't really have much of anything to do with the book it was based on. (Yes, I know the movie did have a sequel called "Journey Back to Oz," but like nobody even remembers that film. You're probably just learning about it right now!) Just make your own, and you aren't doing anything wrong.

The wonderful thing about Oz being in the public domain is that you can just relax and have fun with it. And I really do like that Baum ignored his own continuity to a small extent. It gives new writers a chance to breath and craft something that will make themselves happy. It's a perfect setup that is well-suited to make things easier on everyone.

It also helps that Oz is a fairyland, so the magic of Oz can be used to construct most any sort of narrative. Magic is sort of a universal catalyst for any situation in this series. It's almost a way of cheating through your story, but if you write it well enough, it will still lead to the enjoyment of your reader. Just come up with something clever and you'll be fine. It's really not that hard.

Anyways, I just thought you might find this interesting. Oz has been around since 1900 and entered into the public domain in 1956. It no longer belongs to anyone and, by extension, belongs to everyone. Oz is our story, and we have every right to keep adding to it, be it good or bad. But the point of writing an Oz story will always be to make us, as writers, happy. So just go for it!

This blog was written on November 1, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Land of the Giants (Book Review)

"Land of the Giants" is a novel written by Murray Leinster. It was published in 1968 by Pyramid Books. I'll explain why I mentioned the publishers in a minute. The story was the telling of the pilot episode for the TV show of the same name. (But not really.)

First of all, I want to say that the story of this book is good. I did enjoy it's telling. It is a complete telling of the initial journey from earth to the Land of the Giants from the TV show. However, the writer here absolutely does his own thing. He tells his own story the way he wants to tell it, so it doesn't match up hardly at all with the pilot episode. So if you read this, don't expect any connection with the show at all. Just don't.

The story is about the Spindrift, a ship that was going from USA to London. It hits some sort of space warp that sends them light years away to a world where everything is giant. The crew and passengers must then find ways to survive in a world that is actually surprisingly hostile towards them. The giants don't seem to be good people, but the writer chocks this up to them being a little too much like man. This is a cynical viewpoint and not necessarily the way it was presented in the show.

In the TV show, the ship gets stranded and in need of repairs, but in this book, it is fully capable of flying and pretty much stays in the air for most of the story. This was an unusual departure from the show. They were well within their ability to just leave if things got too hot. It also rather prevented them from having very many interactions with the giants, which was a disappointment honestly.

Steve, the captain of the ship, is still presented as a brilliant hero type, but he spends most of his time raging against both his situation and the people he has to survive with. He sees them as stupid and silly, where he seems to have the only level head among them. Although this may be true of the TV show, it doesn't always feel like that. In truth, he often seemed to me to be a tortured man who cared about everyone. Either way, he was a supremely heroic individual, and the author did get that right.

The other characters were... fine. I mean... there could have been better representation. The cowardly and lazy Fitzhugh was there and being himself, but there just wasn't as much of him as I would like. Also he was missing his case full of money that was rather integral to his introduction to the series. His entire backstory was apparently changed for the book. The TV version of him was better.

I should also say that they rescued a girl that wasn't even a character in the show. That was weird. I kept thinking she was going to get kidnapped or leave or something... but she was just there. This is another reason why I think the author was just ignoring the show entirely.

That's all I really wanna say about the story. I have to address some really terrible things about this book that boggle my mind. Let's get cracking!

For one, this book is terribly edited. There are sometimes multiple spaces between words. The author constantly forgets the name of the dog Chipper and occasionally refers to him as Skipper. Chapter Seven is just... missing! That's right! There's no Chapter Seven. Nothing is skipped, but the chapter numbering was just messed up. Also this is the most redundant author I have ever read.

Murray Leinster does not seem to know when to stop saying something. He states and restates things constantly to the point of absurdity. I've heard people actually talk like this in conversation. Even I have done it. It usually happens when you aren't sure if the person you are talking to actually understands what you mean, so you keep rehashing and restating things over and over until they firmly acknowledge you. Perhaps this is reasonable in conversation, but in a narrative it is extremely annoying.

It got so bad that I was able to begin predicting it. When something new was mentioned, I would wait for someone to talk about it, then another person mention it, and then it would just get restated in narration again, sometimes twice in the same paragraph! If these redundancies were filtered out, the book would have been so much shorter. I don't know if it was just a way for the author to pad out the story or if he is just bad at writing.

Pyramid Books really should have gotten their act together when they published this. I blame them more than the author because this book was actually a second printing. I cannot even imagine the disaster that the first printing must have been. Both came out in the same year too. I think perhaps that something just went wrong and they just could not fix whatever the problems were. What we have left with is a very strange interpretation of the show filled with errors and bad writing.

Now, I did say I liked the story. That is true. But do I like the book? No. I really don't. It is more of a novelty as a badly published adaptation than something that I actually enjoyed. I don't recommend it at all. I have just never seen a book in such bad written condition as this. It was honestly kind of fun writing a blog just to bash it. At the end of the day, that was the whole point of getting to the end of it, I guess. Some books just have it coming.

This blog was written on October 25, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Adventures in Oz [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"Adventures in Oz" is the fifty-fourth book in the Oz series created by L. Frank Baum. It was written and illustrated by Eric Shanower, and it was published in 2006, although its actual creation happened between 1986 and 1992. Oh, right... and it's a graphic novel. It's a comic book. No, I'm not joking! Number 54 is an actual comic book. To my knowledge, this is the only time this happens in canon history.

"Adventures in Oz" is actually a collection of five stories. The artwork is all crisp and beautiful, and everything is extremely well-paced. Shanower is an absolute Oz genius, and I am not super surprised (only a little surprised) that his work ended up in the canon. He knows what he is doing. I'll tell you a little about each story in the book.

"The Enchanted Apples of Oz"

This story goes heavily into the reasons why Oz is enchanted the way it is. It also strangely goes back to the Wicked Witch of the South who has been asleep for ages. This story somewhat ignores the events of "The Wicked Witch of Oz" even though Shanower was the Illustrator for that book. Weird.

There are these apples that must be tended to or else the magic of Oz will fade away, and the witch is trying to take all of Oz's enchantments for herself. Hilariously, she was woken up by a man born of a race of ugly people. He fell in love with her at first sight, but she did not care at all about him. I thought that was a funny little plot-point. Felt kinda bad for him honestly.

"The Secret Island of Oz"

A good-old adventures with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion out searching for a rare fish for the Gardener for the Emerald Palace. A hilarious reason to go out on an adventure, but it ultimately leads to some pretty scary situations. They end up in an island where a whole civilization exists.

There is also an interesting relationship between a princess and her living doll. It's got like this odd story about how they used to be friends, but as she is grown up now, she sort of doesn't care about him anymore, which leaves him without a friend or a purpose. Good stuff, honestly.

"The Ice King of Oz"

Scary from the get-go. A strange and powerful man called the Ice King pays tribute to Ozma but demands marriage with Princess Dorothy as a means to broker peace between the two nations. When Dorothy rejects this, he kidnaps Ozma and forces marriage on her. What makes things even scarier is that the Ice King is really awfully powerful and can enervate magic coming from Oz. He also has a legion of ice imps that do his bidding without question. It's almost as damn oppressive as the Gnome King's palace from the movie "Return to Oz."

I really enjoyed the intensity of this one. It put a lot of characters in extreme danger and often felt hopeless. It's ending was surprisingly touching and sweet. I really liked it. Shanower is at his best when he treats Oz seriously like this.

"The Forgotten Forest of Oz"

One of the wood-nymphs of the Forest of Burzee is banished for kissing a mortal. She is then made into a mortal but then later marries the king of the trolls (which looks surprisingly like Ganondwarf from the Zelda series.) Feeling like she has to get revenge on her former wood-nymphs, she proposes a war against them with the king, something that they wanted to do anyways.

Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Sawhorse accidently get caught up in this one. It is the only one in the book that deals with an all out war. War is not a theme that happens much in Oz, but it does occasionally crop up. I liked this one for how epic is got. Things get really nasty as they progressed.

"The Blue Witch of Oz"

A bit of a game changer here. Shanower messes with the known canon pretty heavily here, but not in a bad way. The Good Witch of the East! The story tells her story and ultimately invites her into permanent canon. I don't have a problem with this. In fact, I think it would have been nice if more Oz authors had had more of a backbone.

This one was good. It's a story of love, lost, and missing children. It also has some very sad loose ends. Not bad, mind you. It just deals with some unknowns that lead to sadness on behalf of some of the characters. I'll just leave it at that. It was a very dramatic one with some very interesting uses of magic. Probably the most science fiction of the bunch, and not in a bad way.

"Adventures in Oz" gets a huge recommendation from me. Even as a graphic novel, the stories are so well done, and everything fits right into the way Oz works. These are stories I won't soon forget.

This blog was written on October 20, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds [Album Review]

"Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds" is a double musical album that was released in 1978. It is a two hour long musical that covers the entire original story of H.G. Well's classic story of the same name.

A musical for "The War of the Worlds?" Is it even possible? Yes! Jeff Wayne totally did it, and I loved every moment of it!

Most of the music is instrumental, but some of them, mostly towards the second half, have full lyrics. The way it works is that there is a narrator who is reading passages from the book, and then there is music to accompany the mood. This is splendidly accomplished, by the way.

The main theme basically signifies the incredible occurrence that Earth is facing as the Martians are invading. There are also pieces that deal with the great battles with the tripods, the separation from his wife, and even a very creepy piece about the red weeds.

There was also a very interesting song about the curate and how he is losing his mind about the whole thing. It's got some really interesting lyrics about the spirit of man and fighting demons. Good stuff.

There are differences between the story of the musical when compared to the book, but a lot of these differences are actually improvements. They combine the main character with his brother, which honestly should have happened in the book. I always thought it was weird how the book jumped away to a completely different person right in the middle of the story. The destruction of the Thunder Child was actually used as a way to save the main character's wife. That is a great edit! In many ways, I enjoyed this version of the story more than the book itself.

Also a movie for this musical was planned (and would have been awesome), though it never actually happened. There is, however, a live stage show that I have not yet seen. I will see it though! I have it on my short list of movies I want to see. The DVD is out of print so I am having to look for it in other places. I may review that separately when I see it. It sounds pretty awesome.

Not only do I recommend "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds," but I honestly think you should look it up and spend the two hours listening to it. The music in it honestly kicks ass. A lot of the instruments were electric combined with synthetics. I think there might have been an electric banjo somewhere in there too, but I am not sure about that. There was some weird noises in some of those songs.

Either way, look it up! It is a fantastic and exciting way to experience "The War of the Worlds!"

This blog was written on October 20, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Kobolds Are Cute

Not long ago, Kobolds were suddenly changed to be something far more standardized. Although before, they were just another generic fairy monster that could be just about anything. The current standard makes them out to be a bunch of colorful lizards. Little mini-dragons if you will.

From what I can tell, they like to go on adventures and often get into trouble, mainly from just getting in over their heads. They don't always die, but a lot of them do, and that seems to be the fate of many a kobold. The funny thing about it is that no matter how many you kill, there will probably be more to replace them.

The kobolds we have today look like they were born in one of those gumball machines that spit out the little plastic bubbles. Remember those? I can imagine people wanting to collect little kobolds from one of those machines.

It's a bit remarkable to me that something so prone to being killed has a sort of collector's value to them. I even imagine them getting captured by some wealthy eccentric that keeps them in a room where he can accessorize them and show them off to people for bragging rights. As cute as they are, I can see that happening.

Kobolds tend to think of themselves very seriously, but they will always be low-level individuals. They can't deal with heroes or big monsters. But they might still try... and fail. I think one of the reason people like them so much is because they really aren't all that intimidating, even when they are trying to be.

That's really all I wanted to talk about this time. I just moved into a house and got a new laptop. I'm also in the middle of a bunch of books, so I have nothing to review. Hope you enjoyed reading this either way.

This blog was written on October 17, 2023.

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