T.K. Wade -- Author: November 2023

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

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.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ

Check out my books! Thanks!

Monday, November 27, 2023

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!)

Check out my books! Thanks!

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!

Monday, November 20, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!

Monday, November 13, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!

Monday, November 6, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

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.

Check out my books! Thanks!