L Frank Baum wrote 14 Oz books, and I've read 6 of them.
The first one, despite all its shortcomings is by far the best.
I read them in the order they were written in. When I was on the second one, I suspected that the whole series was going to be a repetition of the original, and two chapters into the third one I was sure.
I'm ashamed to admit I carried on reading the rest because of my pig-headed author centricism.
These 6 are the only ones available as audio books from my libraries, so I'm joyously not reading the other 8. Oh frabjuous day, I said to myself when I was done with the last one.
In the preface to these sequels, the author attributes the story to his fans who "insisted" on more Oz stories. He also claims that he incorporated several of their ideas into these stories.
The Oz series is a perfect example of just why an author should not do that.
The first one was original, and that was the best thing about it. It had a number of inconsistencies however. Like the Tin Woodman who cries when a flower is plucked, but is happy to kill obviously more intelligent life forms like wolves and bees.
Everyone except Dorothy is already in possession of whatever it is they're seeking from the Wizard.
In my opinion, Dorothy was fully aware of this but kept this to herself and decided a bit of company would serve her well. Or they all knew, but wouldn't wish to admit it for fear others would challenge them on that point.
Tin doesn't rust. Iron does. Poppy flowers don't make people sleep.
However since the most general laws of physics have been violated in multiple ways during this, these are just petty and insignificant. (Here, general does not mean more or less true, it means absolutely true, in all generality)
Here's all 6 books that I've read. Even some of the dialogue is repetitive :-(
I rate the series a 3.0, and that's only because of the first book. Or it would have been 1.0
The first one, despite all its shortcomings is by far the best.
I read them in the order they were written in. When I was on the second one, I suspected that the whole series was going to be a repetition of the original, and two chapters into the third one I was sure.
I'm ashamed to admit I carried on reading the rest because of my pig-headed author centricism.
These 6 are the only ones available as audio books from my libraries, so I'm joyously not reading the other 8. Oh frabjuous day, I said to myself when I was done with the last one.
In the preface to these sequels, the author attributes the story to his fans who "insisted" on more Oz stories. He also claims that he incorporated several of their ideas into these stories.
The Oz series is a perfect example of just why an author should not do that.
The first one was original, and that was the best thing about it. It had a number of inconsistencies however. Like the Tin Woodman who cries when a flower is plucked, but is happy to kill obviously more intelligent life forms like wolves and bees.
Everyone except Dorothy is already in possession of whatever it is they're seeking from the Wizard.
In my opinion, Dorothy was fully aware of this but kept this to herself and decided a bit of company would serve her well. Or they all knew, but wouldn't wish to admit it for fear others would challenge them on that point.
Tin doesn't rust. Iron does. Poppy flowers don't make people sleep.
However since the most general laws of physics have been violated in multiple ways during this, these are just petty and insignificant. (Here, general does not mean more or less true, it means absolutely true, in all generality)
Here's all 6 books that I've read. Even some of the dialogue is repetitive :-(
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
| In this book | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | The Marvelous Land of Oz | Ozma of Oz | Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz | The Road to Oz | The Patchwork Girl of Oz |
2
| The Protagonist | Dorothy | Tip | Dorothy | Dorothy, Zeb, Jim and Eureka | Dorothy and Toto | A munchkin |
3
| quite against his/her intentions visits the land of | Oz | Oz | Ev | the Mangaboos | Oz | Oz |
4
| being taken there by | a Cyclone | a sawhorse | a storm | an Earthquake | a Road | his Uncle |
5
| accompanied by | Toto, a dog | a sawhorse | Billina | the wizard of Oz | the Shaggy Man | Scraps |
6
| The protagonist wants to see | the Wizard of Oz | the Scarecrow and later, Glinda | Princess Langwidere | Ozma | Ozma | Ozma and Dorothy |
7
| so that they can | Go Home | escape Mombi | Go Home | Go Home | Go Home | Unfreeze his uncle |
8
| They take along | the Scarecrow | Jack Pumpkinhead | 9 invisible piglets | Polychrome | Scraps | |
9
| who doesnt sleep and doesnt get tired or hungry | ||||||
10
| They meet a mechanical man who cannot sleep and who cant be hurt, doesnt get hungry or tired | the Tin Woodman | the Tin Woodman | Tik Tok | Tik Tok | the Tin Woodman | |
11
| They are accompanied by a creature | the Cowardly Lion | the Woggle Bug | the hungry tiger | Jim | Button Bright | the Woozy and Bungle |
12
| who is dealing with a psychological problem | fear of everything | being highly educated, and considering himself superior to others | always being hungry and having an inflated conscience | being old | Tabula Rasa mindset | The Woozy overestimates himself; the Bungle is snobbish |
13
| They thwart | the Wicked Witch of the West | Mombi and General Jingur | the Nome King | Gargoyles and invisible bears | the deadly desert | their luck |
14
| Only the protagonist gets what they were seeking | ||||||
15
| the rest of them stay in Oz and they claim to be happy about it | ||||||
I rate the series a 3.0, and that's only because of the first book. Or it would have been 1.0
