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.

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!