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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