Fairy Tale Spotlight: Annihilation [Book Review]

[I heavily attempt to stay away from spoilers in this blog because I want people to look into this franchise.]

"Annihilation" is a novel written by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first book in what is called the Southern Reach Trilogy. It was published in 2014. I read this one because I liked the movie from 2018. The comparison to the movie is kind of important to this review, at least from my own personal perspective.

The concept of this story is very simple. There is an area on Earth called Area X that has some pretty strange things happening in it. All living matter is slowly combining with each other, which is creating a new eco system. The story itself is about one person in one of the many groups that decide to travel into Area X.

In this case, the speaker of the book is a biologist. No name is given at all. In fact, not one single name is given to any of the characters of this entire book, and I thought that was pretty cool. The closest thing you get to a name for the main character is Ghost Bird, which was just a pet name that her husband gave her. I suppose a lot of the fans of this series will probably lovingly call her by that name.

Other than what I just said, I won't be spoiling anything else about the story since this book is still heavily in play. The reason I wanted to write this blog is to explain that this book is like an alternative version of the movie. Although it might be more accurate to say that the movie was an alternative version of the book since it came afterwards.

It felt like I read an entirely different book which ultimately was the same as the movie. That's a weird feeling. But you know what? It makes sense if you understand anything about the story at all. I might even suspect that the people who wrote the film did it on purpose. This is the kind of universe where things sort of keep changing because of the combining and transformative nature of Area X. I can't say that this happened for that reason, but that doesn't make it any less cool.

Going from movie to book was actually a very surreal experience. I felt like I traveled into an alternate universe that was just different enough to notice, and yet the very same event was occurring. Very cool!

Personally, I do recommend this book, but this recommendation comes with a caveat. I think the best way to experience this particular story is to both read the book and see the movie. I honestly think they go well together in this very particular situation. I don't think I have seen a case where this happened, at least to this degree.

If you have never heard of the Southern Reach series, you might try poking around at it. It's especially good if you are a fan of the surreal. Other than that, I think I've said all I want to. I liked it, and that was what was most important.

This blog was written on April 22, 2024.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Oz Author Breakdown

So over the course of reading all of the Oz books, I have had to experience the styles of many authors who contributed to the series. I am going to take this opportunity to explain what I think of them. In a later blog, I'll probably rate them from my most favorite to least.

*****

L. Frank Baum

Obviously, L. Frank Baum gets major credit for creating the series as a whole. That doesn't make him infallible though. Most of the credit he gets comes from his world-building and character creation. He has always done that well. Almost every character he created got reused by later authors down the line.

As good as his world-building is, Baum had an awful time with continuity. He would either forget things or rework his stories for personal reasons. This actually led to a tradition among Oz authors of not caring if the continuity matched or not. These discrepancies were later explained in "Paradox in Oz" charmingly.

Ruth Plumly Thompson

Hit and miss. Thompson wrote her books entirely for children. She pandered to them harder than any other author. Some might defend her in this, but it made it especially difficult for grown adults to take these books in. The majority of her books had very rigid formulas which made nearly every book seem like the same book but with the characters swapped around.

This formula also led to a sort of feel that the books were being padded out. The characters would often run into these random encounters that were never good. They always made Oz feel like an unsafe and uncomfortable place to live in. She did this far more times than was necessary.

Her much later books were not as bad. She seemed to get get better at broadening her storytelling. Those books are quite good, but they are sadly in the minority. Thompson's rigid belief in pandering to the innocence of children ultimately made most of her books feel dull and uninspired.

John R. Neill

John R. Neill was actually the illustrator of the books since the second one that Baum did. He took over as author for a little while and a lot of people dislike them. That said, however, I really enjoyed the change of pace. His Oz stories seemed directly related to the animated cartoons of his age. Everything was alive and could talk, even inanimate objects. It was chaotic, but it was all done in good fun.

Neill's books also had a main character. Jenny Jump just about turned into a fairy character herself, despite the fact she came from our world. She got extremely integrated into the world of Oz... even creepily so. The Wizard of Oz actually magically lobotomized her to make her friendlier.

My only real complaint was how he had made it so that the colors of the five areas of Oz also reflected in the skin color of their inhabitants. That was annoying to imagine. Nobody else did that and thank goodness!

Jack Snow

Jack Snow brought Oz back into the realm of believable. He was an eloquent writer who took the series seriously. He focused more on serious questing and also the beauty if Oz itself. There was something very personal about how he wrote Oz.

Rachel Cosgrove Payes

Payes is the heavenly saint that gave us Percy the Rat. But more than that, the thing that really impressed me about her writing was her ability to create interesting puzzles for the characters to solve. She also put a hell of a lot of work into making all the characters believable as people. Her dialog and character interaction is some of the best in Oz history.

Now that I think of it, it makes a lot of sense she is so good at puzzles. Her main character was usually a rat. Rats are great at solving puzzles!

Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw

These two wrote a few books together. One of them was just Eloise. Their books are a little difficult for me to remember offhand. I believe that the majority of them did well in introducing new and creative characters. I don't think I have any particular complaint about them. I guess they just did not stand out all that well.

Dick Martin

He only wrote one book ("The Ozmapolitan of Oz"). He was better known as an illustrator at the time. I didn't have any real problem with him.

Gina Wickwar

Not a bad author, but she is another author that has difficulty standing out. She handled Toto really well though. I have to give her credit for that. Toto is a character that a lot of authors shy away from.

Eric Shanower

Eric took Oz so seriously that it sometimes dipped into the horror genre. He also officially brought comic books into the Oz canon. That's a big accomplishment. He will always be known as the man who tried mightily to make Oz a story that a person of any age can take seriously.

Edward Einhorn

Einhorn was clearly a science fiction writer. His two Oz books are works of science fiction while still being Oz fantasy. They dealt with things like alternate universes and time travel. He is the author who did what he could to repair the broken continuity started by Baum himself by making everything canon within its own reality. Excellent job!

Sherwood Smith

Smith was the only Oz author to bring our real world problems into the plot. She compared life in Oz to the often broken and sad existence we live here on Earth. That will ultimately be her Ozian legacy. It was a concept worth explaining, as hard as it may be to deal with. Smith wrote the final Oz book ("Sky Pirates over Oz") which was published in 2014.

*****

That's it! Can you figure out who my favorite and least favorite is just from how I reviewed them?

This blog was written on April 12, 2024.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Oz Series [Review]

This is the last one, I swear.

The Oz series was a book collection that was originally started by L. Frank Baum. It ran from 1900 to 2014. It spanned many authors who all contributed along the way. I am one of the few people who can comment on the series as a whole since I have read every single one of them.

Don't worry, I won't take very long. I am only writing this because I am a completionist at heart.

The whole point of the Oz series was escapism. We all want to imagine a world that is more interesting than the one we got. The fairyland of Oz, with all of its villains and woes, is far more interesting and fun than regular Earth. It's a place we can go to have an adventure.

Everything in Oz is loosely based on our reality. Their strangeness is affected by things happening in our world. That makes it relatable. We can go there and laugh at all the jokes because we understand them. It isn't so alien that we can't understand it.

And although there is danger, there will be plenty of friends made along the way that will surly be there to save us in the end. That's the best thing of all really. Friendship is a major part of the Oz experience. If you prove yourself to be a good person, you will make the friends of every powerful ruler in Oz. They will stand up for you and put everything aside to save you from a terrible fate. Just knowing that is comforting.

People who read Oz read the books to imagine a world that's simply better. Oz still has problems, but the problems don't seem so bad because the power of good is in control. No wonder people dream of escaping to this place.

The books themselves are hit and miss. Some of them have plots that are much too formulaic to be enjoyable, but I personally have no regrets. I still recommend the series as a whole. It was a journey worth making, and I encourage anyone else to take the same path I did. And once you make that journey, Oz will be more than just a fictional land; it will be a real place that you think about from time to time. It will become real to you... and a reason for you to smile from time to time.

This blog was written on April 12, 2024.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Legend of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse [Video Game Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a game nobody plays anymore.]

I grew up with a Game Gear, although I did not get a whole lot of games for it. A handful really. Even though I did like the handheld system, I never really got to fully enjoy what it had to offer. Lately, I have been digging around through its catalog, and I happened to run into a really interesting title.

"Legend of Illusion Staring Mickey Mouse" is a Game Gear game released in 1995. It is a standard side-scrolling platformer game with very few gimmicks. It was a Disney game made back when Disney was still a company worth anybody's time.

The reason this game got my attention was for the story. It is a fairy tale that really smacks of many of the old fairy tales I have read. It may even be based on one or two of them.

In the game, the kingdom is ruled by Pete who is a selfish king. He finds out that a disaster has befallen his land because something had gone wrong with the Tree of Life. His wiseman tells him that only a king can go deal with this problem or else the world will fall into darkness. Not wanting to be bothered by a dangerous quest, he ends up getting his laundry boy to do it. This laundry boy happens to be Mickey Mouse.

Hilariously, Mickey's only weapon in the game is soap. Yep. He just chucks soap at the enemies that come his way. Talk about a humble protagonist!

After Pete sends Mickey on his way, his wiseman happens to mention something I guess he forgot. Apparently whoever completes this quest will be destined to become the king himself. Now Pete is angry at Mickey even though it was him that sent the mouse on the quest to begin with. I loved this aspect of the story. Pete is a coward and then he is mad at someone else because he did something cowardly. What a hypocrite!

Along the way, Mickey ends up on a few side quests which involve saving the lives of two other kings who happen to be Goofy and Donald. These are all important things as they are testing Mickey's heart. These tests soon lead him into the Land of Illusion where the Tree of Life is at. Apparently an evil sorcerer turned himself into a beaver and stopped the Waters of Time from flowing with... like... a magical... beaver dam... or something. You have to fight the sorcerer to save the Tree of Life. It was a fun fight too!

Of course, when you come back home, Pete is waiting to have you arrested. You get to fight him too and then end up as king. Pete just ends up in a chain gang vowing to be king again someday.

This game's story is the reason to play it. It's a by-the-numbers classic fairytale but with Disney characters taking up the roles. The gameplay was fine. It's not really great, but it wasn't annoying either. Plus, I like that you are a laundry boy who uses soap as a weapon. That's cute. And yes, I do recommend the game but mainly for its fairy tale narrative. It's too bad I didn't get this one when I was a kid.

This blog was written on April 10, 2024.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Oz Gazette #18 [Review]

"The Oz Gazette #17" is the Winter 2023 edition of the possibly canon mini newspaper published by the International Wizard of Oz Club. Sadly, the one I got was in a bad crumpled-up state because my dad had to hold onto it for a while, but it was all there and readable.

As it turns out, the Nome King was finally dethroned by none other than the Cowardly Lion. Apparently the Nome King had gotten himself drunk on "sparkling mercury," and the Lion snuck in there and stole the king's pants and Magic Belt. Dorothy was then able to use the Magic Belt to wish Ozma back to Oz and then save the day.

The whole edition is specifically about the Cowardly Lion of Oz which is just what I would feel would happen if the Lion had been the hero of the day. All the local newspapers would be about him actually. It even does a lot of promoting for the actual book by Ruth Plumly Thompson called "The Cowardly Lion of Oz."

At the very end of the newspaper, The Woggle-Bug writes his own article about the Cowardly Lion. It was a pretty good read and is even annotated. The best part of it though was the author's by-line which was listed as: Professor H.M. Wobble-Bug, T.E., D. Phil, D. Litt, Th. D., MSc, MA, BSc., EdD, ODd, D. Oz, TWWoO, MLoO, EMerald City Chair-insect Emeritus, Etc.

It was so long that it actually wrapped around the side of the newspaper. I loved it!

Once again, this is hard to recommend since only Ozclub members get these things, but I sure as heck enjoyed myself. I also want to mention that there was a lot of encouragement for people to write their own Oz histories in this issue. That put a smile on my face.

This blog was written on April 4, 2024.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Oz Short Stories

Last one of these, I promise. This blog is to list the Oz short stories that were not featured in numbered books. There's only three of them. Most of the canon short stories were featured in Book 47 "Little Wizard Stories of Oz" and Book 71 "The Collected Short Stories of L. Frank Baum." These were not included in any collection, so they get their own list.

- "A Murder in Oz" by Jack Snow (1958)

This story is not included in the curated list by Joe Bongiorno, however I personally consider it canon because of who wrote it. This was a short story set in Oz written by one of the mainline authors. It's also extremely good and worth the read. Anyone who does not consider this story canon is not taking Oz as seriously as I have. (No offense to Mister Bongiorno, of course, who probably did his best.)

- "Percy and the Sleeping Violet" by Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1995)

I just wanna state one last time how much I love Percy. I am so sad that I will never see him again.

- "Spots in Oz" by Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1997)

That's it! All books and short stories confirmed read. No more Oz for me!

This blog was written on March 21, 2024.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Spots in Oz [Short Story Review]

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

I'm here. I made it. I did the work and finished the journey.

"Spots in Oz" is a short story written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes. It was published in 1997 in the third issue of Oz-story Magazine. It is the very last canon Oz story that I am required to read.

The story centers around two children named Taffy and Fudge, a girl and boy respectively. They are Winkies who live a fairly normal life with their mother. Although there is a sibling rivalry happening which causes all of the problems of the story.

Fudge wants to use some herbs to make a spot removal for his mother, but his sister plays a mean trick on him and adds a bewitched flower to his formula. Meanwhile, Spots the Leopard and the Hungry Tiger are in the area when something bad happens.

Spots is a character that only appears in books written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes. He is a leopard that can actually change his spots. It's how he expresses himself. Basically, he speaks very little, and lets his spots do most of the talking. They change into little emojis, basically. This was a concept that happened long before emojis were even a thing, and it is very cute.

Unfortunately, the bewitched spot remover made Spot's spots disappear. This hilariously made him overtalkative because he did not have his special spots to help him communicate his feelings. The two big cats end up going to the children's house in an attempt to figure out how to solve this problem.

I won't spoil anymore. Afterall, it looks like this magazine isn't too hard to come by. Sufficed to say, I liked this story, and I do recommend it. I like Spots a lot! I think it was almost as good as her other character Percy the Rat... almost. I think Percy will always win the trophy with me. Either way, the story was charming and worth the read. Rachel is very good with characterization and dialog that sounds cute and natural at the same time.

Whelp! That's it! I have read all the canon Oz books and stories. It's all done. I am ready to move on. Thank you all for putting up with all these Oz reviews. I began writing the Oz reviews at book number twenty-three (Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz) way back in December of 2020. I have doggedly reviewed each one up to this final story, and I am happy to have come this far with you guys.

It's sad, but it's finally time to say goodbye to Oz, at least the canon stories anyhow. Either way, I had a great time, and I look forward to what other fairy tales I can find here on Planet Earth. Cheers!

This blog was written on March 21, 2024. (I've only just realized that these have been saying 2023 since the beginning of the year. Oops!)

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Ani-Droids [Book Review]

Many years ago, I read a short story called "Argo" by an author named Rick Griffin. This was actually before I was doing book reviews but still while I had my blog. This short story as well as the movie "A.I." inspired me to write and publish my book "The Fascinating Life of Animal Robots." I was extremely inspired. The short story was so good that I have followed this author ever since.

Rick Griffin is actually a multi-talented individual. He writes, he draws, and he has done full comic books. All of his works are independently published, and he is doing very well for himself, even more than me. I am also an independently published author. With maybe one exception, I consider his writing to be some of the best out there, which is really a huge compliment coming from me since I almost never read anything contemporary.

I do recommend you look into his books. He illustrates them himself, and his art is some of the best out there. Most of it is furry stuff, but it's all taken very seriously. He is obviously putting all of his love into the stories he makes. And when he taps into the science fiction genre, that is where he really shines.

"Ani-Droids" is a novel written by Rick Griffin. It was published in 2023, and it appears to be set in the same universe as his short story "Argo."

In this world, humans have anthropomorphic animals as robotic companions that help them with day-to-day tasks. The story revolves around Mira who works on them for a living, but her main concern is trying to circumvent something called the Behavior Code which puts all the ani-droids on a network, making them less individualistic and more of a hivemind. Mira had made friends with her otter ani-droid named Lily and wants dearly for her to be a close friend and not just some internet connected robot.

The search for this path around the Behavior Code is the main driving point of the book, and it leads to some very dark issues. As cute as the world looks in the beginning, the story gets very dark, but it is also extremely satisfying to read with a conclusion that gives you exactly what you want in a good book.

And I won't spoil anymore.

The thing is, this author is currently at the peak of his career, and I would rather people just buy his books and read them. He deserves support. He's earned it. This book is some of the best thought out science fiction writing I have ever read. It was such a satisfying read that I would happily dive into a sequel is he wanted to work on one. It's really that good.

I whole-heartedly recommend "Ani-Droids" to anyone who likes science fiction. It is filled with intrigue, action, and a whole lot of love. Also, you might also check out his other works of literature as well while your at it. Enjoy!

This blog was written on March 20, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Percy and the Shrinking Violet [Short Story Review]

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

So in the great list of Oz books I had to read, there were two little short stories that I had to obtain to wrap up the whole project. The first of these was called "Percy and the Shrinking Violet." It was written by Rachel Cosgrove Payes and it was first published in 1995. I actually own a real copy of this. It was published in the very first issue of Oz-story Magazine. It's an almost perfect copy too. I either got lucky, or there are a lot of flawless copies floating around on the internet.

Oh, and yes. The "Percy" in the title is Percy the Rat. If I have not made it clear yet, Percy is my favorite Oz character in all of history, and finishing up the books have not changed that opinion. This short story is absolutely a Percy story through and through.

The story goes that there is a horrible ruler named Violetta in the northern Gillikin Country of Oz who wants to replace Ozma as supreme ruler of Oz. She has one of her servants or slaves (depending on how you want to look at it) to bring Ozma a gift of some pretty violets. The problem is that these are actually "shrinking violets" which will make you shrink down to about a foot tall once you get a whiff of them.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for Ozma) it was Percy who intercepted this plan and ended up shrinking instead of Ozma. Jellia Jamb, Ozma head maid, also sniffed it and began to shrink right along with the rat. Now everything is getting to be too big for them. Eventually Ozma shows up, she sniffs the violets, and begins to shrink also. This is bad because the plan is for Violetta to take over the throne once Ozma is too small to rule anymore. It's up to Percy the not-so-giant rat to save the day by figuring out who, when, why, and where!

I won't spoil anymore because I actually want people to read the thing.

"Percy and the Shrinking Violet" may be a short story, but it is paced flawlessly as if it was as long as a book. All the pieces to make up a strong Oz story are present. It also isn't really that short, to be honest. I actually pecked away at it over the course of an entire day. If someone was very busy, they might make it last over several days. I just had plenty of time.

The character of Percy the Rat was as well-presented as he has ever been. He was the smart, clever, and witty rat that I have always loved and adored. This one character has made me actually jealous of fictional characters, because I would rather him be my friend instead of there's. And I just know he would reprimand me for not sharing him with everyone else.

"Percy and the Shrinking Violet" is one of the all-time best Oz stories ever made. It is fun, silly, and even exciting in one part. It gets one of the highest recommendations from me. Find yourself a copy and read it!

This blog was written on March 18, 2023.

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