This is the book where things get real. I love how finally Baum shows some of the real life consequences of Dorothy's adventures; her family had to take out a mortgage after their house was destroyed in the first book, Uncle Henry spent too much money taking a weird trip to Australia of all places in the third book, and now, the bank is foreclosing on the farm and Dorothy might need to resort to child labor! Luckily though, she's friends with the ruler of a magical fantasy world. So she moves there permanently with her aunt and uncle, who upon being instantly teleported there finally realize Oz wasn't just a dream (take that MGM movie).
On the other side, we have the Nome King and his General Guph preparing a truly threatening invasion of Oz. Actual high stakes unlike the last couple of books. The ending has been called kind of a cop-out by some, but I think it suits Ozma's character, and suits Oz as a whole. The only reason I give this 4 stars instead of 5 is it does contain a lot of filler, of the "Dorothy visits a random community of bizarre individuals and it has no bearing on the overall plot" variety. Not as bad as in the previous book, but still there. Some of the encounters, such as with the worrisome Flutterbudgets, are at least amusing, if pointless.
This book will be refreshing to those who managed to slog through the previous book.
Oz wasn't just a dream!
This is the book where things get real. I love how finally Baum shows some of the real life consequences of Dorothy's adventures; her family had to take out a mortgage after their house was destroyed in the first book, Uncle Henry spent too much money taking a weird trip to Australia of all places in the third book, and now, the bank is foreclosing on the farm and Dorothy might need to resort to child labor! Luckily though, she's friends with the ruler of a magical fantasy world. So she moves there permanently with her aunt and uncle, who upon being instantly teleported there finally realize Oz wasn't just a dream (take that MGM movie).
On the other side, we have the Nome King and his General Guph preparing a truly threatening invasion of Oz. Actual high stakes unlike the last couple of books. The ending has been called kind of a cop-out by some, but I think it suits Ozma's character, and suits Oz as a whole. The only reason I give this 4 stars instead of 5 is it does contain a lot of filler, of the "Dorothy visits a random community of bizarre individuals and it has no bearing on the overall plot" variety. Not as bad as in the previous book, but still there. Some of the encounters, such as with the worrisome Flutterbudgets, are at least amusing, if pointless.
This book will be refreshing to those who managed to slog through the previous book.