T.K. Wade -- Author: January 2024

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: King Kojo [Book Review]

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

"King Kojo" is the seventy-third book in the Oz series originally created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and published in 1938. As far as I know, it doesn't really have anything to do with Oz or any of Baum's works. It's just on the list, but it fits right in with the Ozian style.

"King Kojo" is a story about the titular king and his adventures within the small country of Oh-Go-Wan. Yes, that's what the place is called. I'm not joking, but this book sure is. Just about every single thing that happens has some sort of joke meaning to it. I'm not really complaining, by the way.

King Kojo shares the spotlight with his court jester, Ketch, and his page, Pogo. There is also a living giantess made entirely out of wood named Dorcas. These four are really the main characters and are featured in almost every chapter in some way. I'll try and go over them one at a time.

The king himself is a merry old soul who is remarkably cheerful and benevolent. He believes in the good of humanity and always tries to help his people out whenever he can. Literally, I would love to have him as king. He has very good policies and does a good job managing the kingdom's finances. What he struggles with is adversity. He tends to lock up a little bit, but he never totally gives up. He just sometimes seems like he doesn't know what to do. All said though, he handles things well enough.

Ketch the jester is the story's cynic. He does not believe in anyone but Kojo. He is always advising Kojo not to be so charitable with random people, because it may either be self-serving or some sort of trap. More often than not, Ketch is actually 110% correct. This worried me because I did not really mind how Kojo treated people, and I didn't want him to become a cynic. However Kojo stays the way he is, if maybe a little more cautious as time goes by.

Pogo the king's page has a sort of young enthusiasm that really impresses me. He comes across as a young boy, but he is far from stupid. He is really good at planning things out when the king can't seem to figure out what to do. He is often seen working with Ketch to formulate plots to either save the king or the kingdom in general. A really cool guy.

Dorcas is the wooden giantess. She was actually the figurehead to a sunken ship that magically came to life. She acts as sort of a guardian of the country and spends her time watching the coastline for trouble. (Yes, Oh-Go-Wan is a coastal kingdom.) Her whole story is sweet. Although magically alive and beloved by everyone, she often feels lonely for not being like everyone else. Also, Oh-Go-Wan is a very small kingdom and open to attack, so it is good to have a friendly giant around to protect everyone.

"King Kojo" plays out like a collection of interconnected short stories with solid continuity. The king and his associates are kind of like silly cartoon characters but they actually spend the entire story dealing with surprisingly serious problems. That's what really shocked me. Like... people try to kidnap him, murder him, or ruin his life. Some of the plots against the kingdom are shockingly hardcore. And yes, in contrast, everyone in this story act like they just came out of a kid's cartoon.

I mean... there were some nasty villains in this story. Pirates, evil princesses, magicians, and an absolutely bastard soldier that tried to take over the throne and replace the king. Even I was beginning to think Ketch had a damn point about people being assholes. Thank God old Kojo remained who he was through all this crap.

The story also goes through a lot of the details about how King Kojo runs his country, even down to the financial aspects. At one point, all of the king's treasury disappears, leaving the king of an entire nation with the inability to pay off his castle staff. This was particularly depressing, because you know he is a good person.

The closest thing I can think of to how these characters act are the Lilliputians from the "Gulliver's Travels" animated movie from one year later (1939). That movie also had cartoony people dealing with real world problems. I liked that movie because of that contrast. Maybe they saw this book and got the idea. I have no idea.

By the way, I do recommend "King Kojo." I really do. No, I'm serious. I want people to read this book. It's damn good. But folks, this book has been out of print since the day it came out. The copy I have set me back $200, and that was on the low end of the price list. I even consider myself lucky for getting it so cheap, if you can call that cheap. Most of the other copies I saw ran from $500 to $800. Yeah, that's crap. I'm sorry, there's just no other way to say it. It's just crap.

I'll tell you what I am gonna do though. I'm working with a fellow in California to get this old book scanned and archived on the internet. I don't know how long it will take, but I will make another blog about it if and when I get it done. It is a damn travesty that this wonderful book is so hard to get. Let's not let go of our history so easily, people!

This blog was written on January 29, 2023.

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This is my actual copy of the book.

Monday, January 29, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Talos Principle 2 [Video Game Review]

"The Talos Principle 2" is a video game that was published in 2023. It was published by Croteam who is probably best known for their incredibly silly "Serious Sam" games.

I'll just come out and say this: This game is just completely full of atheistic propaganda. I mean it is thick with it. I was even surprised to see actual Georgian Guidestones erected in this game. But I expected that. The first game tried to sell that sort of stuff too. It not only tells you that there is no God, but goes a little further and tries to convince you to just drop religion altogether.

In this game, you are the 1000th robot in a series of exactly 1000 robots intended to repopulate the Earth in order to complete something called the Goal. This is where the Georgian Guidestones are referenced. It's a whole thing about knocking the world's population down to a bare minimum and letting nature reign supreme on the planet. I mean if you're going to do that, might as well just be done with humanity anyhow since we aren't going to be doing much.

That said, I really do like this game. It's Atheistic tripe, but it's got some of the most intelligent writing I have ever seen in a game. And if you just set aside the garbage they were trying to feed you in both games, we got ourselves a pretty competent puzzle game here.

And don't get me wrong. The story is still good and even compelling. And to be honest, they do let you reasonably fight against the horse-shit narrative of living with nature with a fairly satisfying outcome to that. (Seriously, I thought they were going to punish me for doing that, and they didn't.)

The one thing I got to say that really makes this game worth it is the sheer amount of content. It took me 55 hours to beat this thing! That's one playthrough! And I stuck to the story! For $30, that's a steal these days. Most games can't be bothered to give you more then 20 hours of straight content. Good job!

And the majority of that content was fun and interesting. I had a blast trying to solve these puzzles. I guess it's safe to say I did take my time a little, and a lot of that happened because the world you're walking around in was incredibly pretty. It's a very relaxing game. Super zen.

I still recommend the game, despite the agenda. Most games full of liberal agendas focus so much on the message that they forget that games are supposed to be fun. This game didn't do that to me. It was fun and even interesting. You'll also get a real good idea what the other side is thinking when they try to rationalize God out of their lives. It has its own lore to it. Check this game out if you're curious. It's basically "The Satanic Agenda: The Video Game." Haha.

This blog was written on January 25, 2023.

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Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Dr. J.B. Worley [Oz Character]

[This blog spoils some aspects of the book/movie "Return to Oz."]

Dr. J.B. Worley is an Oz character featured only in one book, that being "Return to Oz" written by Joan D. Vinge. It was the adaptation of the incredible Disney film of the same name. Probably the most interesting character of that book was the villainous doctor who has really terrible aspirations for Dorothy.

In the book, Dorothy was having dreams about Oz, but her aunt and uncle think she might be losing her mind. Dr. Worley offers a special new type of electrotherapy that might shock all the bad dreams out of her mind. However, he never gets a chance to since a storm knocks out the power, and she ends up escaping to Oz anyhow.

Later in the story, Dr. Worley comes back as the Gnome King. It is here that we learn some secrets about the doctor and his secret desires. Whether or not he was really trying to help children with their psychological problems, the truth was that he was using them to test out an untested device. In doing so, he very well may have been accidently lobotomizing them.

After he damaged his patients, he would keep them in his basement where they would endlessly scream and howl whenever they became disturbed. Dorothy briefly hears them but never actually seems them. It was Ozma who told her what they were and why they needed to get the hell out of that facility.

Only in the book, not the movie, is there a subtle hint dropped that Dr. Worley may have been sexually abusing his damaged patients. It comes across only when Dorothy is meeting with the gnome king. There was something extremely awful and creepy about how he was presented in the book. You can kind almost see it in the movie, but it isn't as clear.

This fact alone makes Dr. J.B. Worley one of the most horrifying villains in all of Oz history. If it was not for Ozma, Dorothy would have been subjected to one of the most horrible fates one can imagine.

Sadly, it seems that the damaged patients all burned to death after a lightning strike during the storm. The only solace was that Dr. Worley also dies when he ran back inside to save his electrotherapy machine. A fitting end for such a terrible person. All said, however, he will go down in history as one of the most interesting Oz villains ever written.

This blog was written on January 17, 2023.

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Monday, January 22, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Colors of Oz

In the country of Oz, there are five main colors: Red, Blue, Purple, Yellow, and Green. These colors represent the five main areas of Oz and are usually well-represented on a color map of Oz.

Red is the color of the southern country of the Quadlings.

Blue is the color of the eastern country of the Munchkins.

Purple is the color of the northern country of the Gillikins.

Yellow is the color of the western country of the Winkies.

And lastly, Green is the color of the central country wherein the Emerald City can be found.

These colors originally seemed to be like a favorite color of the people living in a certain area. For example, if you lived in the Munchkin country, you would wear blue-colored clothing and paint your houses the same color. But over the course of the books, the color became more than a preference. It became something natural to that area.

The leaves on the trees and the flowers would later grow with their respective color scheme in mind. In some rare books, mainly the ones done by John R. Neill, the skins of each area would be respectively red, blue, purple, yellow, or green, which I always thought was silly and not too much fun to imagine. The way it was done by other authors were more subtle and pleasing to the imagination.

As far as continuity, I like the idea that a favorite color of a people ending up transforming their natural environment. Oz is magical, and sometimes thoughts and feelings make their way into nature somehow. If everyone keeps painting everything blue then the flowers and the trees will naturally follow.

Just thought you might find this interesting. The color-scheming of Oz has always made the visuals of each area very easy to see and understand. Also, if you ever get lost in Oz, it is a good way to figure out where you are and which way you need to go.

This blog was written on January 17, 2023.

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Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The First Cylinder [Book Review]

[This blog spoils some important details of this book.]

A while back, I reviewed "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells. It was a fascinating story that did not really explain everything. There was a lot of assumptions made about the aliens. You might have noticed that we never really communicate with the Martians anywhere in the book. They just showed up and started killing us.

From there, we have come up with our own idea of what the Martian race is like. Probably a cold and war-faring race. But what do we really know about them? The truth is that we don't actually know them. We only know how they acted when they got here.

"The Last Cylinder" is a novel written by Joseph Dougherty. It was published in 2023. This may actually be the newest book I have read in a long time. I did not realize how new it was until I had already purchased it.

This book answers the question of what was going on in "The War of the Worlds" from the Martian's perspective. It tells their story. If you are curious about what that may be like, then this is the book for you. It is even written in a way that fits the period of the first book.

Going into this book, I thought it was going to be a hard war novel about how the Martians waged it against us. That's not what I got. As it turns out, things were not anything like you probably thought. After all, we never really talked to them in the first story.

The hilarious truth was that the Martians did not even know Earth had intelligent life on it at all. They were coming here to take control of the planet and its animal life for food. They had no desire to kill other intelligent beings. But because of all the miscommunication and mistakes made by the first group of Martians, it all turned into a war, one unwanted by both sides.

I know the previous paragraph might seem more uninteresting than the original idea, but the execution is so wonderfully done. The story, at its heart, is what I call a "dramedy." It's a comedy that is taken so seriously that it becomes compelling. You quickly begin to relate to the Martians early on. Yes, they are very different creatures than we are, but there is a social link that we can easily comprehend. These are not military-hardened invaders, but grumpy conscripts sent forth to conquer a planet that they don't even have much interests in. Heck, the tripods are more intended for farming than war.

The story centers around Vvv, the first Martian to make footfall. All of the alien's names are a single letter that is typed three times. My brain kept pronouncing them in weird ways. Vvv ended up "Veev." Qqq sounded like "Kyook." Mmm read to me like "Mem." You get the idea.

As you read this story, you will soon come to realize how really sad this whole disaster was. Interesting though, you entirely side with the aliens in this one because you only get their side of the story. The plight of the humans are really handled better in the original book.

Although "The First Cylinder" seems to start off as a joke, it gets deadly serious real fast. It fills in the gaps that the originally story seemed to leave out, such as why it took so long for the aliens to assemble the first tripod. Remember that? Anyone? I sure noticed it! This book explains it!

You may also find the scene with the crazy pastor interesting too. The book explains what happens to him after he was grabbed. I won't spoil it though! After all, I totally recommend this book! The funny thing is that I might not have read this if I had known it was so new. Guess I lucked out.

This blog was written on January 10, 2023.

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Monday, January 15, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa [Book Review]

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

"The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa" is the seventy-second book in the Oz series originally started by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Ruth Plumly Thompson and published in 1926. It is one of the many Borderland of Oz stories, taking place outside of Oz but still within the realm of Baum's fairyland.

This is actually a second sequel to Baum's "The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause," which is its own version. But it is important to understand that this is also a story not done by Baum. So you have a person who is doing their own interpretation and style.

The one thing that makes this book very odd is the idea that Santa is captaining a sea vessel. The reason he is doing this is because he is out looking for new toy ideas out in the ocean. He is joined by a boy chimneysweep named Jimmy Christmas, a penguin named Penny, and a polar bear named Huggerumbo.

Although it starts off at the North Pole, it ends up in the south seas and eventually in fairyland. The way they get to fairyland is by sailing past the sun before it sets. There is a sort of gateway next to it that you can sail around. This was actually a neat visual, and they did illustrate it.

Now, please understand, this story was written in the early days of Ruth Plumly Thomson's Oz career. The books of hers around this time were not very good. I was pretty much forced to just put up with them for a long time. This book is nothing different. It's actually a fairly annoying read full of silly writing intended to intensely patronize little children. The real sense of adventure and danger is not really there.

Even when the crew encounters a bunch of hungry cannibals on an island, I never really felt like they were any danger because everything was just so silly. She takes every opportunity to make jokes, and nothing is ever serious. The jokes are often really lame and not, in any way, well delivered. Also... making up words that don't exist is not as amusing as she probably thinks they are.

Other than the fact that Santa Clause looks pretty damn good in a sailor's cap, this book is really dry and uninteresting. Early Thompson is pretty much like that. I don't really recommend this book.

This blog was written on January 6, 2023.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Oz Books 41-71

It's time to stop and list all the Oz books I have read up to this point. I am getting very close to the end, and I just want to be clear and concise (with myself) about where I have been and, more importantly, where I am now. So let's begin:

The first 40 books of the Oz series were known as the Famous Forty. Anyone who had read that many has decent bragging rights to having read all the major Oz books. However, there are more... a lot more. I did not stop at the Famous Forty. I kept on going.

Based on the checklist I am using, the following books are considered canon by The International Wizard of Oz Club of which I am a card-caring member:

41. "Yankee in Oz" by Ruth Plumly Thompson. (1972)

42. "The Enchanted Island of Oz" by Ruth Plumly Thompson (1976)

43. "The Forbidden Fountain of Oz" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw (1980)

44. "The Ozmapolitan of Oz" by Dick Martin (1986)

45. "Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz" by L. Frank Baum (1904-1905)

I actually read this a long time ago back when I was going through all of Baum's personal stories. I did not like it as much at the time because it shows all the mainline Oz characters using magic in our world, something I rarely saw them doing in Oz itself.

46. "The Woggle-Bug Book" by L. Frank Baum (1905)

Read this one a long time ago.

47. "Little Wizard Stories of Oz" by L. Frank Baum (1913)

This is an excellent Oz short story collection written by the creator of the series itself. Well-worth your time to find and read it. We did not get anymore Oz short stories until Eric Shanower did it nearly a hundred years later.

48. "The Runaway in Oz" by John R. Neill (1995)

This was John R. Neill's lost Oz book. He wrote it but died before he could illustrate it. The publishers did not want to accept it without illustrations so they dismissed it. Later on, Eric Shanower showed up and illustrated the book, finally allowing it to be released. It is the forth and final part of his series.

49. "The Wicked Witch of Oz" by Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1993)

The return of Percy the Rat!

50. "The Rundlestone of Oz" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (2001)

51. "The Hidden Prince of Oz" by Gina Wickwar (2000)

52. "Toto of Oz" by Gina Wickwar (2006)

This marks another milestone where books are being chosen as canon by different people, a lot of them fans in high positions here and there. It's a bit cloudy here, and there are some other lists that pick different books as the canon, but, as I said, this is the list I am going by.

All I know is that this list is curated by someone named Joe Bongiorno. I don't really know who he is, but I just thought I'd drop his name since he is credited with this list. Continuing with:

53. "The Giant Garden of Oz" by Eric Shanower (1993)

This book can be considered to be a horror in genre, and it is very good. One of my all time favorites in fact.

54. "Adventures in Oz" by Eric Shanower (1986-1992; 2006)

An actual canon graphic novel for Oz. I never expected to have to read this one. Very good though! It might also possibly be considered the first Oz short story collection since "Little Wizard Stories of Oz" unless you don't think comic books should count. In that case, you can always consider:

55. "The Salt Sorcerer of Oz and Other Stories" by Eric Shanower (2002)

This is a real short story collection that is not a comic book. Some of Eric's finest work, honestly.

56. "Paradox in Oz" by Edward Einhorn (1999)

The book that showed us that all Oz universes exist within a massive multiverse. Very important to those who want to create a new piece to this beloved Ozian puzzle.

57. "The Living House of Oz" by Edward Einhorn (2005)

This book finally dealt with the whole "no magic allowed" problem in Oz, making it possible for anyone to practice magic as long as they were doing it for the right reasons. Thank goodness for that.

58. "The Emerald Wand of Oz" by Sherwood Smith (2005)

The first of three books commissioned by the Baum Family Trust.

59. "Trouble Under Oz" by Sherwood Smith (2006)

60. "Sky Pyrates over Oz" by Sherwood Smith (2014)

This was the most recent Oz book written. If you have made it this far in the Oz series then you can say you have read the "Sovereign Sixty." Like the Famous Forty, the Sovereign Sixty is a whole other level of Oz dedication! I have confirmed that I have made this this far, and yes... I am going to go even further.

Now, a funny thing happens here. As I proceed onward, I find in the list quite a number of books I have already read. "Sky Pyrates over Oz" is the last of the canon Oz books that take place directly in Oz. But if you look at the map of Oz, there are other fairylands surrounding it. The following books in the Oz series, after you proceed past the Sovereign Sixty, all take place in what is known as "The Borderland of Oz."

I will now list out the books I have already gone through to confirm that I have been there and done that. Starting with:

61. "The Magical Monarch of Mo" by L. Frank Baum (1900)

Confirmed as read. I listed this in my notes as my least favorite Baum book. I don't exactly remember why, but this book apparently made me feel physically ill just to read it.

62. "Dot and Trot of Merryland" by L. Frank Baum (1901)

I confirmed that I read it, and it seems I liked it. It was like opening presents on Christmas and you never knew what you were going to get.

63. "The Life and Adventures of Santa Clause" by L. Frank Baum (1902)

I confirmed that I read this one, and I really enjoyed it.

64. "The Enchanted Island of Yew" by L. Frank Baum (1903)

I confirmed that I read this one. I gave it a middling review. I liked some things but were annoyed by others.

65. "Queen Zixi of Ix" by L. Frank Baum (1905)

Confirmed as read. The only thing I have in my notes are that the title is a bit misleading and the rather ominous warning that says, "Bad things happen when fairies get bored." Yikes!

66. "A Kidnapped Santa Clause" by L. Frank Baum (1904)

Confirmed that I read this one. Weirdly, I noted that it barely registered with me. I even went on to say that I did not think it needed to be written.

67. "John Dough and the Cherub" by L. Frank Baum (1906)

Confirmed as read. Another middling review from me. Liked some aspects and disliked others.

68. "Policeman Bluejay" by L. Frank Baum(1907)

Confirmed. Here is a weird one. Apparently this one was written under the penname of Laura Bancroft. There is a apparently a surprising amount of murder in this one. I also comment that I did not understand why Baum did not use his real name since it fit his style so well. I think this one came across as just a teeny, tiny bit psychotic from how my notes read. Haha.

69. "The Sea Fairies" by L Frank Baum (1911)

Confirmed. I gave this book an extremely happy review. I apparently loved the villain known as Zog. As I recall, this book introduces two famous Ozians known as Trot and Captain Bill.

70. "Sky Island" by L. Frank Baum (1912)

Confirmed I read it. This is the sequel to "The Sea Fairies," and it continues the adventures of Trot and Captain Bill. I only remarked that it was cartoonier than the first story. These sky islands actually hover over Oz, and they are an important part of the Oz universe.

71. "The Collected Short Stories of L. Frank Baum" by L. Frank Baum (2006)

Confirmed. I own this book and I have read it. No more to say about it.

That, my friends, is as far as I have gotten. There are four more books before my journey is complete. I am working very hard to obtain them all. Catch you on the other side!

This blog was written on December 30, 2023.

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Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Sherwood Smith, Author of Oz

This will be a short blog, but I really do want to emphasize how important Sherwood Smith was to the Oz fandom. She was basically the last of the authors when the series simply stopped in 2014. Ten years ago! Good grief!

Sherwood was the only Oz author that had been officially commissioned by the Baum Family Trust. Basically she was paid by the Baum estate to keep the Oz series going for a bit longer. She was intended to write four books, but due to publishing problems, it only ended up a trilogy.

Her additions to Oz were "The Emerald Wand of Oz" (2005), "Trouble Under Oz" (2006), and finally "Sky Pyrates over Oz" (2014). The three books took place in three different types of places: on land, underground, and in the sky. At the end of the third book, it is suggested that she might have wanted to do one that was underwater, but that, sadly, will never happen.

Sherwood Smith was not the first Royal Historian of Oz to make a multi-part Oz series. John R. Neill did it first with four books, all staring his personal character Jenny Jump. So what Sherwood did here was not completely unheard of. And yes, there was something that was far more grounded happening here. Having two sisters who were the descendants of Dorothy going to Oz for a number of adventures was very welcome.

Where Eric Shanower showed us that a horror story could work within the Oz universe, Sherwood Smith dared to show us the juxtaposition between our world and Oz. Life in this very real world is rough, and bad, unwanted things happen to us all the time. On top of that, it tends to be very boring and sad. The very fact that we have to read these books to get some of our enjoyment is a part of that aspect alone. Whereas in Oz, there are still bad things, but through the help of magic and strange friends, anything is possible. There is always hope in Oz.

The latter point seemed to be the crux of what made Sherwood's three stories so special. Many people have likely already thought this themselves. I did too when I wrote "Fairyland Detectives." But now this very real concept is a canon part of the Oz experience. The fact of the matter is that people who read Oz books generally do it because it tends to be more interesting than real life. This surly can apply to many other fantasy or science fiction books, but I think few other franchises have ever lasted as long as this one.

That's all I wanted to say on this matter. Sherwood Smith well-deserves to be listed as one of the great Royal Historians of Oz. The series may have ended with her, but she ended the series reminding us why Oz is so important to our lives. In some small way, these books give us hope that things may someday get better, or at the very least, a lot more interesting.

This blog was written on December 30, 2023.

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Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Sky Pyrates over Oz [Book Review]

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

"Sky Pyrates over Oz" is the sixtieth book in the Oz series originally created by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Sherwood Smith and published in 2014, making it the most recent canon Oz book ever published. This was the third book to be commissioned by the Baum Family Trust, although, as I found out, there were an intended four books, but things did not work out in that regard. It all ended up a trilogy instead.

This story continued the adventures of Dori, her sister Em, and the Nome boy named Rik. This time Dori and Em's father also travels to Oz but almost immediately gets turned into a dog. Imagine having your dad with you but as a dog! It made for some very entertaining moments.

This book dealt with all the loose ends of the previous two books, such as the scary clouds and the fact that Dorothy has been missing. She was apparently kidnapped by an evil man called the Nightmare Sorcerer. This guy was very interesting. He reminded me a little of the Man with Red Eyes from "A Wrinkle in Time."

The Nightmare Sorcerer was the ruler of a place called the Land of Dreams. He was not the original ruler but one who seemed to have taken it over for his own evil plots. He had this way of saying nice things so that it was shockingly easy to believe him. His very voice was so hypnotic that he could make suggestions that you could both see and hear. Just being near him was enough to get trapped in his spell of deceit. It was honestly the most fascinating villain I have seen in an Oz book in quite some time.

The majority of the book takes place in the many Sky Islands that exist above the surface of Oz. These were first featured in Baum's book "Sky Island" which is apart of Ozian lore, although they are not really dealt with very often. I can only think of three, maybe four, instances in the books I've read.

Once again, Dori, Em, and their Dad are mixed up in the realization that life in a fairyland is just so much better than the cynical world we live in. Their parents are separated, and they think now that they have their dad with them and also that they have a camera with them that proof of Oz will be enough to make everything right back in Kansas.

But no. It just doesn't work that way. That's all I'll say to that.

All said, I do want to just go ahead and say that I recommend this book and the thole trilogy as well. It all really needs to be read as one piece honestly. They are far too interconnected to be read in several pieces or out of order. It's both three separate adventures and one ultimate adventure in three books.

Now that I got the main review out of the way, I want to take the time to make one more point about this book. This series was originally going to be four books, but something went wrong after the second book was published in 2006. I'm not completely sure what occurred, but it looks like the publisher of the first too books lost interest in the series.

So after Sherwood Smith wrote the third book, it was not published and pretty much did not exist for a very long time. It was not until 2014 that "Sky Pyrates over Oz" became available on Lulu.com of all places. Yes, in an unprecedented occurrence, an Oz book was independently published. It's still available on Lulu.com. It's pay-per-print, so it will run you a pretty penny to get yourself a hardbound copy, but at least it is available.

I imagine that Sherwood Smith had to seriously wrap things up quickly when she wrote this final book in the series. She had to condense the ideas of two books into one, and it does show. The ending of this one feels a bit rushed, but I can tell she did the best she could, and the ending is very satisfying.

The important thing to note here is that a canon, main-line Oz book was independently published. And from what we learned in "Paradox in Oz," that means you can independently publish an Oz book too. In Oz, everything is canon, as long as the writer has the imagination to put it together. That's the point I wanted to make a few blogs ago. As long as we have writers willing to keep Oz alive, it will never truly die. L. Frank Baum may have started something wonderful, but it is up to us to keep it going until the end of time.

This blog was written on December 29, 2023.

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Monday, January 1, 2024

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Is Oz a Dream?

In the 1939 movie, "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy experienced a dream in which she went to Oz. The dream was induced by a tornado that hit her house while she was in it. When she came to, she realized that all the people she met in Oz looked very similar to the people she actually knew on the Kansas farm.

Due to the fact that more people saw the movie than read the original book, there was, for a very long time, the idea that Oz existed within a dream held entirely by one girl from Kansas named Dorothy Gale. In the books, however, Oz was very real, and Dorothy not only went there several times but ultimately moved there for the rest of her life.

In the 1985 movie "Return to Oz," they once again portrayed Dorothy's second visit to Oz as a dream, however there was an interesting nuance to it. The things happening in her dream were reflecting the spiritual significance of what was happening in Kansas. They still did the actor swap like the original movie did, but those characters were all spiritually linked to their Ozian counterparts. It all mattered.

Once again, Oz is not really a dream, but "Return to Oz" actually is a far more relevant film that the original, even with it being a dream. One can even say that she really did go to Oz, because Oz is in the realm of dreams. What's wrong with a place existing in dreams? Sounds like the perfect place for a fairyland to exist.

In the first movie, the opening number suggests that Oz exists somewhere "over the rainbow." How is that any different than Peter Pan's "second star to the right and straight on till mooning"? The first movie still gave the idea that Oz was somewhere special that could only be achieved by going to it in a very specific way. I don't really approve of how they handled the whole dream thing, but they still created a fairyland atmosphere and travel method that was fascinating to those of us who obsess over fairy tales.

Over the course of the book series, the tornado travel method only happened twice, in the first and fifty-eighth book. But there were a wide number of other little disasters that transported Dorothy and other children to Oz. Sometimes adults went to Oz as well. Even an original knight of the round table ended up there one time. Despite this ongoing variation of travel, the media tended to stick to the tornado as the main transition method since the original movie was so ingrained in our culture. At the very least, I have been seeing less and less of that dream nonsense.

Will there ever be a movie series that is more like how the book represented Oz? Probably not. Honestly, I think we've gotten to a point where the 1939 movie actually is the standard for Oz. That said, if you are ever interested in seeing an Oz movie that is the closest to the books, watch "Return to Oz." It isn't perfect, but it takes so much from the source material that it's frankly good enough.

This blog was written on December 28, 2023.

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