Reviews
Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, by John Joseph Adams, Douglas Cohen
nuffy375's review
3.0
First things first: this is definitely a short story collection for adults. Sexual and violent content, as well as bad language, abound. I'm not sure why authors felt the need to go dark and depressing or violent with their treatment of children's stories. Occasionally it works, but...it usually just feels forced and...edgy for edginess's sake... I realize the authors were given free reign to write what they wanted using L Frank Baum's work for inspiration, but if I'm reading something based on Oz, I do want magic, and several of the stories are missing that magic.
As with all short story compilations, this collection has its ups and downs. Good stories; rough stories; boring stories; stories I didn't feel fit... Then again, there are also some solid stories, so...it is what it is.
Story Breakdown:
The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz by Rae Carson & C.C. Finlay - Fitting to the original series. The wizard's arrival, as he immediately humbugs. It has some fun word play, and is just silly.
Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust by Seanan McGuire - Adult Dorothy after all the shine of Oz has worn off. I don't really care for the pessimistic depiction of Oz, but it's a take, I guess. The easiest solved mystery ever. (I'm coming off of reading Agatha Christie, so that was especially disappointing for me.)
Lost Girls of Oz by Theodora Goss- A reporter investigates missing girls, and finds the hidden path to Oz. It was an interesting idea, but I didn't care for the direction it went after the halfway point. Honestly, this just made me want a story of the real world investigating Dorothy's disappearance in the style of journalism or, like, a Buzzfeed Unsolved script.
The Boy Detective of Oz by Tad Williams - Kansas/Oz is a simulation, and something seems to have gone wrong. This one could have been fun without the constant hounding about how the previous simulation went awry and the whole simulation thing in general. This was actually an interesting mystery with some fun payoff, but the setting...Woof.
Dorothy Dreams by Simon R. Green - Old Dorothy dreams of returning to Oz. Turns out, nothing she experienced was as it seemed...*rolls eyes so hard at this story*
Dead Blue by David Farland - Tin Man is a Cyborg, whose heart was giving out. The Wicked Witch is a Mech Mage. The Winged Monkeys are chimeras. That's the only point of this story I got: let's revise the world building of the characters. It was kind of interesting, but I didn't feel the story did anything.
One Flew Over the Rainbow by Robin Wasserman - A downer tale where our characters are re-imagined as normal people in an asylum: Tin, Crow, Roar, and Dorothy, who is new and convinces the crew to go to the wizard for contraband, so they can have a good time, and then leads them in a doomed escape attempt. This is not the story I'm here for in an Oz short story collection. The writing was fine and the parallels actually work reasonably well, but all the magic is gone, and it's such a downer.
The Veiled Shanghai by Ken Liu - A Chinese retelling of the original Wizard of Oz story along the lines of fairy tales being told by different cultures, using the themes and general premise to tell stories befitting their own experiences. I enjoyed this one.
Beyond the Naked Eye by Rachel Swirsky- The Hunger Games set in Oz...Four teams compete in a deathly race to get to the Emerald City first, so the wizard will grant their wish, but is the wizard just a corrupt, lying monarch in need of assassination? Interesting metaphor about emeralds and cities and observations about corruption and the masks people wear. I actually really liked this one. It worked surprisingly well in the Oz universe.
A Tornado of Dorothys by Kat Howard- Dorothy Gale is just another girl in a long line of "Dorothys" brought to Oz to fill the role in a story Oz needs to play out. It's a story about stepping off the designated path and making your own story. There was nothing wrong with the story; I was just kind of bored.
Blown Away by Jane Yolen - Story told from one of the farmhand's perspectives when Dorothy got blown away, only...in this story she doesn't go to Oz... This story is unforgivable for making Baum a puppy drowner and brutally murdering Toto. Negative a million stars!
City So Bright by Dale Bailey - Kind of Handmaid's Tale vibes where citizens are oppressed. The Wizard conquered Oz with brute force and brought "the industrial revolution" to Oz, which caused a major class divide in Oz. A lower class munchkin, who works as an emerald tower polisher, watches his best friend (a winky) die from apparent sabotage, as the winky was attempting to organize and start a revolution. The munchkin makes a plan to get out before he can be persecuted. I didn't hate it, but I didn't care for the writing style. It was very conversational with a lot of "I'm getting ahead of myself," which got kind of old. Adult Content of almost every kind.
Off to See the Emperor by Orson Scott Card - L Frank Baum's son meets Theodora ("Dottie") and follows her on a journey to The Land of the Air to retrieve her mother's ring that had been taken by a crow. At first, I didn't care for this story. Theodora is annoying. However, by the end of the story, I really enjoyed it. It was especially interesting, since I just read Finding Dorothy, and some of Baum's biographical details work into this story.
A Meeting in Oz by Jeffrey Ford - Dorothy willingly left Oz after 4 years as an eleven-year-old. Now she's a jaded adult, back in Oz with a grudge about how her life turned out. This story also kills Toto, and is just...dark. I don't see the need authors seem to feel to make these stories so edgy. It's all just so unnecessary...This story is also lacking magic, because Oz's magic drained as Dorothy grew up and lost her innocence/had bad things happen to her.
The Cobbler of Oz by Jonathan Maberry- A cobbler tells a little winged monkey girl the origins of the silver slippers, and she goes on a quest for the silver dragon scales needed to repair them. I think this was my favorite of the stories in the collection. It had magic, was sweet, and fit themes Baum would have appreciated. Strong ending to the compilation.
As with all short story compilations, this collection has its ups and downs. Good stories; rough stories; boring stories; stories I didn't feel fit... Then again, there are also some solid stories, so...it is what it is.
Story Breakdown:
Spoiler
The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz by Rae Carson & C.C. Finlay - Fitting to the original series. The wizard's arrival, as he immediately humbugs. It has some fun word play, and is just silly.
Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust by Seanan McGuire - Adult Dorothy after all the shine of Oz has worn off. I don't really care for the pessimistic depiction of Oz, but it's a take, I guess. The easiest solved mystery ever. (I'm coming off of reading Agatha Christie, so that was especially disappointing for me.)
Lost Girls of Oz by Theodora Goss- A reporter investigates missing girls, and finds the hidden path to Oz. It was an interesting idea, but I didn't care for the direction it went after the halfway point. Honestly, this just made me want a story of the real world investigating Dorothy's disappearance in the style of journalism or, like, a Buzzfeed Unsolved script.
The Boy Detective of Oz by Tad Williams - Kansas/Oz is a simulation, and something seems to have gone wrong. This one could have been fun without the constant hounding about how the previous simulation went awry and the whole simulation thing in general. This was actually an interesting mystery with some fun payoff, but the setting...Woof.
Dorothy Dreams by Simon R. Green - Old Dorothy dreams of returning to Oz. Turns out, nothing she experienced was as it seemed...*rolls eyes so hard at this story*
Dead Blue by David Farland - Tin Man is a Cyborg, whose heart was giving out. The Wicked Witch is a Mech Mage. The Winged Monkeys are chimeras. That's the only point of this story I got: let's revise the world building of the characters. It was kind of interesting, but I didn't feel the story did anything.
One Flew Over the Rainbow by Robin Wasserman - A downer tale where our characters are re-imagined as normal people in an asylum: Tin, Crow, Roar, and Dorothy, who is new and convinces the crew to go to the wizard for contraband, so they can have a good time, and then leads them in a doomed escape attempt. This is not the story I'm here for in an Oz short story collection. The writing was fine and the parallels actually work reasonably well, but all the magic is gone, and it's such a downer.
The Veiled Shanghai by Ken Liu - A Chinese retelling of the original Wizard of Oz story along the lines of fairy tales being told by different cultures, using the themes and general premise to tell stories befitting their own experiences. I enjoyed this one.
Beyond the Naked Eye by Rachel Swirsky- The Hunger Games set in Oz...Four teams compete in a deathly race to get to the Emerald City first, so the wizard will grant their wish, but is the wizard just a corrupt, lying monarch in need of assassination? Interesting metaphor about emeralds and cities and observations about corruption and the masks people wear. I actually really liked this one. It worked surprisingly well in the Oz universe.
A Tornado of Dorothys by Kat Howard- Dorothy Gale is just another girl in a long line of "Dorothys" brought to Oz to fill the role in a story Oz needs to play out. It's a story about stepping off the designated path and making your own story. There was nothing wrong with the story; I was just kind of bored.
Blown Away by Jane Yolen - Story told from one of the farmhand's perspectives when Dorothy got blown away, only...in this story she doesn't go to Oz... This story is unforgivable for making Baum a puppy drowner and brutally murdering Toto. Negative a million stars!
City So Bright by Dale Bailey - Kind of Handmaid's Tale vibes where citizens are oppressed. The Wizard conquered Oz with brute force and brought "the industrial revolution" to Oz, which caused a major class divide in Oz. A lower class munchkin, who works as an emerald tower polisher, watches his best friend (a winky) die from apparent sabotage, as the winky was attempting to organize and start a revolution. The munchkin makes a plan to get out before he can be persecuted. I didn't hate it, but I didn't care for the writing style. It was very conversational with a lot of "I'm getting ahead of myself," which got kind of old. Adult Content of almost every kind.
Off to See the Emperor by Orson Scott Card - L Frank Baum's son meets Theodora ("Dottie") and follows her on a journey to The Land of the Air to retrieve her mother's ring that had been taken by a crow. At first, I didn't care for this story. Theodora is annoying. However, by the end of the story, I really enjoyed it. It was especially interesting, since I just read Finding Dorothy, and some of Baum's biographical details work into this story.
A Meeting in Oz by Jeffrey Ford - Dorothy willingly left Oz after 4 years as an eleven-year-old. Now she's a jaded adult, back in Oz with a grudge about how her life turned out. This story also kills Toto, and is just...dark. I don't see the need authors seem to feel to make these stories so edgy. It's all just so unnecessary...This story is also lacking magic, because Oz's magic drained as Dorothy grew up and lost her innocence/had bad things happen to her.
The Cobbler of Oz by Jonathan Maberry- A cobbler tells a little winged monkey girl the origins of the silver slippers, and she goes on a quest for the silver dragon scales needed to repair them. I think this was my favorite of the stories in the collection. It had magic, was sweet, and fit themes Baum would have appreciated. Strong ending to the compilation.
mmichellemoore's review
5.0
Oz and short stories, what's not to like. As with any anthology, I liked some of the stories more than others. The illustrations/covers of individual stories were wonderful, a great anthology.
silvernfire's review
4.0
I don't usually have much patience with anthologies—I like to immerse myself in novel-length stories rather than the stop-and-go feeling of several short stories back-to-back. So I was surprised that I liked this anthology as much as I did. No, it wasn't perfect and I didn't care for some of the stories, but all of them were readable enough. Overall, the book was a welcome return to Oz.
Favorite: "The Cobbler of Oz" by Jonathan Maberry
Least favorite: "A Meeting in Oz" by Jeffrey Ford
Story that will stick with me the longest: "One Flew Over the Rainbow" by Robin Wasserman
Story that left me wanting to read more set in its world: "Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust" by Seanan McGuire
[4½ stars]
Favorite: "The Cobbler of Oz" by Jonathan Maberry
Least favorite: "A Meeting in Oz" by Jeffrey Ford
Story that will stick with me the longest: "One Flew Over the Rainbow" by Robin Wasserman
Story that left me wanting to read more set in its world: "Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust" by Seanan McGuire
[4½ stars]
haramis's review
4.0
I had high hopes for this anthology, and I don't think they were entirely met. There were some original and interesting things in here, but also what amounted to several retellings of the original story with only a slightly different form. The best of these, in my opinion was "Dead Blue" by David Farland, which had a melancholy feel to it, a bit like what happens when you pull the veneer of childhood off a beloved tale. The imagery in this one just kept coming back to me.
While I have to say that I'm not the biggest fan of Jonathan Maberry, "The Cobbler of Oz" was the strongest story in the book. It is right in tone, feel, narrative, everything. It most of all feels like a real Oz story.
Besides that I enjoyed Tad Williams' "The Boy Detective of Oz" and Jane Yolen's "Blown Away." While I enjoyed most of the other stories in the collection, they really didn't make much of an impression, and 4/15 isn't a very high percentage, thus the three-star rating. I would say that I feel like this is the high side of that, say 3.75, so I guess I'll round it up to four. Plus at $6.00, it's a steal.
While I have to say that I'm not the biggest fan of Jonathan Maberry, "The Cobbler of Oz" was the strongest story in the book. It is right in tone, feel, narrative, everything. It most of all feels like a real Oz story.
Besides that I enjoyed Tad Williams' "The Boy Detective of Oz" and Jane Yolen's "Blown Away." While I enjoyed most of the other stories in the collection, they really didn't make much of an impression, and 4/15 isn't a very high percentage, thus the three-star rating. I would say that I feel like this is the high side of that, say 3.75, so I guess I'll round it up to four. Plus at $6.00, it's a steal.
princess_starr's review
4.0
I’ve always only just liked the Wizard of Oz and its various incarnations, updates, reimaginings and what have you, but I’ve never really loved it. The only Oz-related thing that ever captured my imagination was Ozma of Oz, which I read and reread all throughout the last two years of elementary school.* (And I first picked up because I had seen Return to Oz on a double feature with Labyrinth. Yeah…) I think the 1939 movie’s fine, I’m not enamored with it, I read the first book once upon a time, but I can’t remember more specific details, and I do really like both versions of Wicked, but I’m not crazy about it.
And it’s a shame, because I do think that more people should go and read the original books, because it’s hard to get a children’s series that’s not been ripped apart by criticism and allegory. (Not that Oz hasn’t been subject to criticism—c’mon, Baum was a massive feminist and it shows—but compared to Alice in Wonderland or the Chronicles of Narnia, it feels like he gets off easy. Or at least in my experience, that’s what it’s felt like.) And I think that most of it has to do that the movie is so beloved, that any attempt to go further into the World of Oz is automatically biased against it. Even the musical adaptation of Wicked, which is arguably the most successful of the Ozian derivatives, is still in a specific subculture that’s not 100% mainstream. And I do get disappointed with it, because I do think that there’s such a rich universe here that doesn’t get explored due to this ingrained pop culture subconscious.
Which is why I really like this anthology, because there is an acknowledgment that the authors are working against this holy text of 20th century films (and not just the fact that they have to remind you that Dorothy originally had silver slippers, not ruby). And yet, this adds so much more to the world of Oz and actually explores it, instead of just riffing on the same familiar story.
I would say about half of the stories in here are riffs and retellings of the original story, but what makes it work for is that all of the authors in the anthology have such wildly different takes and ideas of how to change things up that it kept my interest and I wasn’t rolling my eyes when I read three retellings/riffs in a row. For example, there’s “The Veiled Shanghai” by Ken Liu, which is one for one, but reimagines the setting in China during the May Fourth Movement in 1919. This is immediately followed by Robin Swirsky’s “Beyond the Naked Eye,” which throws in a Hunger Games-esque competition in place of the original story, only to serve as the background events as an assassination plot unfolds. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have Robin Wasserman’s “One Flew Over the Rainbow” which is the bleak, gritty realistic “reimagining” by recasting the characters in a psych ward (no, it doesn’t have a twist, thank God), and manages one of a gut-punch. And then there’s “A Tornado of Dorothys,” which feels like a bigger metaphor for the collection itself, as we see a Dorothy land in Oz and confront the Dorothys that came before her and that the story doesn’t really end.
This is not to imply that every story in this collection is just reimaginings of Dorothy’s journey—the other half of the stories involved here are original tales set in the same world, sometimes using familiar charactes, others featuring nothing but original characters and nods to what’s come before. “The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz” is an immensely fun prequel story that manages to play around with the character histories from what we know, “ and “The Cobbler of Oz” is a sweet fairy tale that is the perfect capper to the collection.
The only thing that I wasn’t as fond of were the number of stories that were darker—not to say that they were bad, but that’s when I felt things were getting a little too repetive in tone. Mainly the “darker side of the Emerald City” dystopic ones, which is a fair exploration, but again, those felt a little more like retreads than being interesting. I did like “Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust,” but when I got to “A Meeting in Oz,” I was getting bored with the ‘GRIMDARK in your beloved children’s story!” (See also “Dead Blue,” which is dark cyberpunk retelling that just didn’t quite work for me.)
I do really think that this is a strong collection overall—there’s stories in here that I didn’t like, but only one or two that I actively disliked, and even the ones I was lukewarm on, I did like the concept or the writing. And as I said, what works in its favor is that although there are similar stories or ideas, the writing and concepts vary wildly from story, and that’s what kept me interest throughout. I would definitely recommend checking this one out, even if all you know about Oz is the movie or Wicked.
*There were two Frank L. Baum books that I read so many times as a kid—Ozma of Oz being one, and the other was The Life and Times of Santa Claus. Which if you haven’t read, I still think it’s worth checking out. I might have to hunt down a copy and give it a reread, but I remember it being delightful.
And it’s a shame, because I do think that more people should go and read the original books, because it’s hard to get a children’s series that’s not been ripped apart by criticism and allegory. (Not that Oz hasn’t been subject to criticism—c’mon, Baum was a massive feminist and it shows—but compared to Alice in Wonderland or the Chronicles of Narnia, it feels like he gets off easy. Or at least in my experience, that’s what it’s felt like.) And I think that most of it has to do that the movie is so beloved, that any attempt to go further into the World of Oz is automatically biased against it. Even the musical adaptation of Wicked, which is arguably the most successful of the Ozian derivatives, is still in a specific subculture that’s not 100% mainstream. And I do get disappointed with it, because I do think that there’s such a rich universe here that doesn’t get explored due to this ingrained pop culture subconscious.
Which is why I really like this anthology, because there is an acknowledgment that the authors are working against this holy text of 20th century films (and not just the fact that they have to remind you that Dorothy originally had silver slippers, not ruby). And yet, this adds so much more to the world of Oz and actually explores it, instead of just riffing on the same familiar story.
I would say about half of the stories in here are riffs and retellings of the original story, but what makes it work for is that all of the authors in the anthology have such wildly different takes and ideas of how to change things up that it kept my interest and I wasn’t rolling my eyes when I read three retellings/riffs in a row. For example, there’s “The Veiled Shanghai” by Ken Liu, which is one for one, but reimagines the setting in China during the May Fourth Movement in 1919. This is immediately followed by Robin Swirsky’s “Beyond the Naked Eye,” which throws in a Hunger Games-esque competition in place of the original story, only to serve as the background events as an assassination plot unfolds. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have Robin Wasserman’s “One Flew Over the Rainbow” which is the bleak, gritty realistic “reimagining” by recasting the characters in a psych ward (no, it doesn’t have a twist, thank God), and manages one of a gut-punch. And then there’s “A Tornado of Dorothys,” which feels like a bigger metaphor for the collection itself, as we see a Dorothy land in Oz and confront the Dorothys that came before her and that the story doesn’t really end.
This is not to imply that every story in this collection is just reimaginings of Dorothy’s journey—the other half of the stories involved here are original tales set in the same world, sometimes using familiar charactes, others featuring nothing but original characters and nods to what’s come before. “The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz” is an immensely fun prequel story that manages to play around with the character histories from what we know, “ and “The Cobbler of Oz” is a sweet fairy tale that is the perfect capper to the collection.
The only thing that I wasn’t as fond of were the number of stories that were darker—not to say that they were bad, but that’s when I felt things were getting a little too repetive in tone. Mainly the “darker side of the Emerald City” dystopic ones, which is a fair exploration, but again, those felt a little more like retreads than being interesting. I did like “Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust,” but when I got to “A Meeting in Oz,” I was getting bored with the ‘GRIMDARK in your beloved children’s story!” (See also “Dead Blue,” which is dark cyberpunk retelling that just didn’t quite work for me.)
I do really think that this is a strong collection overall—there’s stories in here that I didn’t like, but only one or two that I actively disliked, and even the ones I was lukewarm on, I did like the concept or the writing. And as I said, what works in its favor is that although there are similar stories or ideas, the writing and concepts vary wildly from story, and that’s what kept me interest throughout. I would definitely recommend checking this one out, even if all you know about Oz is the movie or Wicked.
*There were two Frank L. Baum books that I read so many times as a kid—Ozma of Oz being one, and the other was The Life and Times of Santa Claus. Which if you haven’t read, I still think it’s worth checking out. I might have to hunt down a copy and give it a reread, but I remember it being delightful.
revslick's review
4.0
Everything that Wicked could have been and yet so much more. If you've read the original Oz books then don't miss this collection of short, imaginative vignettes. If for nothing else, read it for Cobbler of Oz - Baum would have wept for joy and delight.
bookshopcat's review
3.0
Some of the stories were worth mentioning, though overall I just expected more. Furthermore, while I was pleased with some of the authors' expansion of Oz, much of the stories took such a dark or dystopic turn that it turned me off the whole anthology.
tregina's review
4.0
I was hesitant about this book at first, because often when professional writers (those who haven't been steeped in the tradition, anyway) try their hand at what is fundamentally fan fiction, the results are fairly tepid. But I was really impressed with this collection overall, not only playing with point of view, tone, and continuing story but also time period and cultural setting and otherwise vastly divergent alternate universes. It doesn't hurt that I recently finished (re)reading the complete Oz series so the original stories are fresh in my mind. Oz really is reimagined here in very interesting and diverse ways.