Title: The Marvellous Land of Oz [Oz 2]
Author: L. Frank Baum
Genre: Childrens, Science Fiction
Length: 154
Rating: 4 Star
Description/Synopsis:
First issued in 1904, L. Frank Baum’s The Marvelous Land of Oz is the story of the wonderful adventures of the young boy named Tip as he travels throughout the many lands of Oz. Here he meets with our old friends the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, as well as some new friends like Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, and the amazing Gump. How they thwart the wicked plans of the evil witch Mombi and overcome the rebellion of General Jinjur and her army of young women is a tale as exciting and endearing today as it was when first published over eighty years ago.
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
There will be spoilers within this review.
This book received a 4 star rating from me because the book was really solid. It is not the best 4 star book I have ever read, but I had a thought about what I was going to get when I went into it, and that is exactly what I got.
The land of Oz as we all know it is a little bit bonkers and not quite standard, and the writing style in this book reflects that. There are few moments I had to just go with because it was a bit weird for me. There was a moment when two of the characters had a conversation with each other about how they can’t understand each other and need an interpreter, despite the fact they clearly understand each other.
In the book the Emerald city gets taken over by a revolt of girls. Normally I would find this interesting, but I found this actually really rather insulting. The girls don’t think they could do a better job than the current person in charge, they just want to take over so that they can take all the jewels and empty out the cities treasury. They were just vain and stupid people. Made me a bit angry that that is the way the women are portrayed. But it was small annoyance I suppose… Kind of.
One thing I did find really interesting was the ending. When we find out that Ozma was in fact a boy throughout the story and her whole life and then must turn back into a girl so that she may rule Oz. We don’t really get any idea or any showing of how exactly that affects her. The brief look we get of this person after seem to have done a number of their personality, they seem more mellow to me. I would really like to know more about how that whole serious way of life thing affected them.
From certain bits of this book I think the second movie was supposed to be based on it, but it is really not the same story. Has anyone else ever seen that movie or read any of the other books? Do parts of the other books come into play?
Either way I will be reading the rest of the books because I want a better grasp of what was happening in this world. I will also be revisiting the movies.
So everyone who has seen the movie and liked it should read these books. I think people of all ages