REVIEW: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum

 

SYNOPSIS

This is the story of Dorothy, a young farm girl from Kansas, as she is swept up in a cyclone and dropped into the strange land of Oz, a fantasy and untamed realm of magic. Here she quests for a way home by searching for a user of magic strong enough to send her back home.

She makes friends along the way, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Lion, each one suffering a predicament they believe only magic can fix, and she and her friends are forced to fight through the wilds of Oz and some evil inhabitants who lurk there.

MY INITIAL TAKE

Now, we have a children’s book whose fan base was so rabid, (as we all know most children and adults are) that the author was enslaved to pump out sequels until his death. Frankly, I don’t think that the book was that good, but then again, I didn’t read it until after I aged out of the intended audience range. Unlike usual, I will talk about events that do spoil plot points, but it’s story almost everyone knows, even if they haven’t read the book

This book, to me, is a simple and whimsical tale about a fantastic adventure with almost child-like attributes in descriptions and threats. It's a fun book, but mostly for a boring afternoon, or if you read it to children.

And sometimes, that's what you want. Nothing big or fancy, just a simple tale meant to entertain (I don't buy that silver nonsense. It's just looking into things too deeply.)

WHAT I LOVED MOST

Frankly, the most lovable thing about it is that it’s a cute story, with fun and silly characters. The story doesn’t require much thought, yet the situations are quite imaginative and fun to read. There’s not much to say about the book, as much of it is widely known, but there are a few differences, with one making the ending make far more sense.

LOVING CRITICISM

The most criticism that I can muster would be that the book is principally a children’s book, and people at a higher reading comprehension level may find it boring and unengaging. Like the last section, I don’t have much to say.

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER

Honestly, my favorite character would be a tie between Dorothy’s three companions: the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman, and the Lion.

The Scarecrow is an animate scarecrow who was made a few days before meeting Dorothy while she traveled through Munchkin land that seeks to be given a brain. He starts the story as clumsy and naïve, he begins to show a sense of cleverness. He creates intelligent and thoughtful solutions to Dorothy and the others’ problems, but because he equates having a brain with intelligence, he ironically believes himself incredibly dull.

The Tin Woodsman is a woodsman who was cursed by a witch to slowly lose his body parts until he had replaced all of it with Tin because he loved a girl. He believes himself incapable of love, and so abandoned his pursuit of the girl. Yet, he felt guilty and as such seeks to regain a heart. He thinks of himself as cold-hearted, but he is one of the most compassionate and sympathizing people in the whole book.

The Lion is a lion who lives in the forest, but was so intimidated by everything, used his reputation as a lion to frighten everyone away. He is the last to join Dorothy, and like the others, has a wish he wants granted. He desires courage, even though he shows it as he throws his life on the line for the others whenever they have need of his strength.

The reason I like these characters is the irony of their tales. Each one desires a quality that they fail to realize that they possess. The Wizard even points this out to them, and when they force him to give them it anyway, his solutions are obvious placebos. They really learn to show it as they continue on their journey, but they have become so focused on it being contingent on a physical quality, they fail to realize it until they receive placebos from the Wizard.

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

Yes, though I do caution some. This book is different, and actually longer than the classic film, but it is meant for a young audience, and as such, may not be appealing to some.

ANALYSIS: The Hero's Journey in "Throne of Glass" Series by Sarah J. Maas

 

SYNOPSIS

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

INTRODUCTION

What better way to start off the new year than with a good hero's journey?

I picked "Throne of Glass" up in my favorite bookstore when I was sixteen and have been a faithful fan of Sarah J. Maas ever since. I think this book is better than some reviewers give it credit for, and it gives a great example of the hero's journey--I would even say it gives many.  

This analysis of Celaena's hero's journey will include spoilers for the series! To be marked with (!) before a spoiler. 

The Call to Adventure in "Throne of Glass"

In the series' first installment, Celaena Sardothian arrives at the Glass Palace to compete to become the King of Adarlan's official champion, sponsored by his son, Prince Dorian. Celaena is asked to compete for her freedom, something she has never truly had. If she fails, she will be returned to the slave mines of Endovier, a place she was willing to die to escape. 

The "call to adventure" is an important part of any story, and it requires several important ingredients. First and foremost, to be a proper call to adventure, it must matter to your hero. By placing Celaena's freedom on the line, Maas has created sufficient motivation for the girl to act. However, more than just the plot of the book has been kicked off here. A decade ago, Celaena's loving parents died, and she was forced to flee from her wartorn home country, finding herself on the doorstep of Arobynn Hamel, a self-styled assassin king who takes Celaena in and trains her to become an assassin. In the prequels, we see that though Celaena is full of swagger and attitude, she is ultimately subservient to Arobynn until she finds a greater friend and genuine love in Sam Cortland, the son of a courtesan. However, Sam's death at the hands of Arobynn breaks her, and any moment she had gained to change her world is sapped. 

For the first time, Celaena has hope for freedom. All she has to do is win the competition and serve her time as the royal champion and all she ever wanted, a peaceful life in the country, is hers. But a CTA has to do more than just matter to a protagonist. It has to disrupt their life so much that they must act. Maas does this by putting Celaena in prison so that she has no real choice, but also by bringing the bright and driven Princess Nehemia into her life. Celaena and Nehemia are fast friends and find that they both find the king tyrannical. Without Nehemia to guide her forward, Celaena may never have had the motivation to actually begin her journey, as Nehemia's vision is unable to be completed without her. 

Celaena's call to adventure comes in the form of the two things that matter most to her: freedom, and love and friendship. 

Crossing the Threshold in "Crown of Midnight"

"Crown of Midnight" is most people's least favorite book in this series. It's slow and stagnating. Not much of note happens with Celaena, and much of it is people trying to get Celaena to react in some way. Perhaps Maas didn't need to drag this story on quite as long as she did, but there was a reason for this book.  

Before I get into Celaena's arc in this journey, I want to bring up another major journey in this series. Dorian is one of many viewpoint characters, and while this is undeniably Celeana's story, he seemed more important than many other characters, to the point of being a deuteragonist. He is one of our first viewpoint characters, along with Chaol and Celaena, his actions kick off the plot, and he serves as a foil for Celaena. The two share many similarities. !They are both bookworms, both very confident and flirtatious, both royalty, and both heirs to their kingdoms. They even met once before Celaena's world came to a crashing end, back when she was a princess. 

Foils aren't just the same character, though, and Dorian differs from Celaena in a few distinct ways. !Whereas she was the princess of a destroyed kingdom, he was the son of the conqueror who destroyed it. Her father guided her through the isolation her volatile magic caused for her, while Dorian was terrified of his father finding out. 

You can buy "Throne of Glass" on Amazon or your favorite bookstore.

REVIEW: "Shadow of the Fox" by Julie Kagawa

 

SYNOPSIS

Every millennium, whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers has the power to call the great Kami Dragon from the sea and ask for one wish. The time is near...and the missing pieces of the scroll will be sought throughout the land of Iwagoto.

When demons kill half-kitsune Yumeko’s adoptive family, she’s forced to flee her home with one part of the ancient scroll. Fate thrusts her into the path of mysterious samurai Kage Tatsumi, who is Yumeko’s best hope for survival. But he’s under orders to retrieve the scroll. An uneasy alliance forms, and Yumeko begins the deception of a lifetime, knowing her secrets are more than a matter of life or death―they’re the key to the fate of the world.

MY INITIAL TAKE

Julie Kagawa was one of the first YA writers I read, and I loved the Iron Fey Trilogy (no, I do not acknowledge The Iron Knight because whiny Ash is a disaster). I stopped reading her books after being disappointed by her Blood of Eden series, which were just too grim and frankly depressing for me. However, Shadow of the Fox is a return to the things that made The Iron Fey so great: mischievous beings, well-researched lore, and a strong cast. The return to the more light-hearted style also highlights her growth as an author. Tatsumi manages to be brooding and mysterious, even when in his own narrative, something that, unfortunately, Ash missed the mark on in his standalone novel. Yumeko's playful pranks and naive-but-not-stupid nature bring to mind some of the best qualities of Meghan and Puck. 

It was nice to get a chance to explore non-Western myths and Kagawa's explanations of the unfamiliar vocabulary were thorough enough that I didn't feel lost. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this book, given that I haven't read YA fiction in a few years, but it was light-hearted and fun, an overall easy read, and it manages to avoid both talking down to its younger audience and depressing anyone who reads it. And the cliffhanger definitely makes me want to read the next book!

WHAT I LOVED MOST

As previously mentioned, the return to form for Kagawa hit a nostalgic note for me and reintroduced me to her writing. It hits all the tropes of YA fiction that I haven't seen as much since I've been reading more adult fiction: Yumeko is a plucky heroine, who while mischievous, refuses to take moral shortcuts; Tatsuki is the brooding boy archetype, whose heart melts with prolonged contact with Yumeko; Okame was a loveable scoundrel; and Daisuke was the knight (or samurai, as the case may be) in shining armor. It didn't really make me think too much. The characters aren't one-note or flat, but they are simple and straight-forward. Their motivations are laid bare. There are no schemes or deep secrets that make them overly complicated. It was some much-needed lightness after a long and emotionally draining year. 

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER

Daisuke stood out to me as a character with little screentime, but quite a bit of impact. He first appears in the little short stories about Suki the maid that appear in between each section of the book. Suki is the fake-out protagonist, and I honestly thought Daisuke was going to be the male lead in an unlikely romance between a maid and the equivalent of a prince. Even though that ended up not coming to fruition, that he was kind to Suki when the other nobles were cruel stood out, and he remembers her when she disappears. Unlike the other nobles who don't care about Suki at all, Daisuke remembers her name after their brief encounter and notices when he hasn't seen her for months. 

He is out of the spotlight for quite a while to the point I had almost given up asking, "what happened to flute-boy from the first chapter?" And then he reappears, in such a dramatic way that I couldn't help but laugh. I don't want to spoil it, as it is a major reveal, but it did so much toward painting a picture of who he is as a character, and it instantly shot him to first place in my books. 

LOVING CRITICISM

It's not so much a flaw as a personal preference, but I'm not a fan of gratuitous use of a foreign language for no reason. It just reminds me too much of the bad fanfic I read (and, guilty as charged, wrote) to really like it. The use of honorifics, like -san and -chan, were not problems to me, as those help to establish the setting and are used consistently. Random uses of hai and baka when the characters normally said "yes" or "idiot" just seemed a little out of place. 

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

I would recommend it for 14-18-year-olds who enjoy fantasy and are interested in different pantheons, I would recommend it. If you like The Iron Fey, it's likely you'll enjoy this series as well. For adults, if you want a fantasy that isn't dour or full of gratuitous sex scenes, this is a safe bet. 

You can purchase "Shadow of the Fox" on Amazon, or your favorite bookstore.

REVIEW: "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

SYNOPSIS

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

MY INITIAL TAKE

I first read this book eight years ago, and it was one of the first Neil Gaiman books I ever read, with the exception of Coraline. Since then, Gaiman and Pratchet have become two of my favorite authors. Pratchett always makes me laugh with his charming characters and witty dialogue, and Gaiman has a talent for crafting beautiful fairytale stories that remind me of playing in the woods behind the baseball fields, hunting for fairies. As a thirteen-year-old, I loved Crowley for his dramatic flair and his grudging love for humanity, and the comedy of it all made me laugh. Today, I still love those parts, but I can appreciate the philosophical discussions and debates of the book more than I could back then. 

WHAT I LOVED MOST

Crowley's reluctant goodness is still one of my favorite parts of the book. A demon cast down from Heaven for his curious and questioning nature, Crowley works as Hell's agent on Earth, and he finds he rather likes his job. At the beginning of the book, he meets with two other demons who share their evil deeds for the day: temptations for holy men, luring them down the path of sin. When asked about his own deeds, Crowley admits, with pride, that he cut the telephone wires in London that morning for a brief period. The other demons are completely flabbergasted, and Crowley explains the evilness of his actions: that minor inconvenience means that thousands of people were inconvenienced and their frustration would fuel more evil actions. These people would take out that frustration on friends, family, coworkers, and even strangers, who would take it out on others still--corruption on a mass scale. Crowley doesn't have to do real evil deeds--the humans will do them for him. This ties into my absolute favorite part of the book: Crowley's internal monologue on the nature and origin of evil. 

See, he argues that Hell and its demons are not the creators of evil, though they do push people in that direction. Rather, humans themselves create evil through their own choices to be selfish or cruel. I love this point, because cruelty, whether through action or violence, is a choice. Evil doesn't exist as an external force, but in an internal philosophy that one's own needs and desires are inherently and objectively more important than those of others. This is something often addressed in fiction, but what I like about Gaiman and Pratchett's approach is that this is never said to be all there is. Crowley also says that humans, while capable of "skin-crawling" acts of evil that drive demons to drink, are also capable of grace and kindness beyond Heaven's wildest dream. All that really matters is the choice. 

This message, that humans are not predisposed towards good or evil, is important to me. I believe that the power of the choices we make, even if it is a choice to do nothing, determines who we are as people. There is always a choice, even when the answer seems obvious or like the only one, and "Good Omens" shows us a cast of characters making choices, from Anathema Device following a book of prophecies to the letter, to Crowley and Aziraphale working against the Great Plan, even though it seems hopeless. 

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER

If I'm being honest, my favorite character has always been Crowley. He's funny and over-the-top, and I loved David Tennant's portrayal of him in the 2019 miniseries adaption. Tennant captured the fun and the humanity of Crowley. One of my favorite moments between him and Aziraphale is when he transforms a team of office workers' paint guns into real ones. Aziraphale admonishes him for it, insisting that he undoes it, and reminding him that someone could seriously get hurt. After some prodding, Crowley reluctantly admits that he never planned for anyone to get hurt, and he used his infernal influence to ensure everyone had miraculous escapes because it "wouldn't be any fun otherwise."Crowley does not want to be evil or to do evil things. He is a character who enjoys mischief and a hedonist, but real, widescale suffering is abhorrent to him, and the idea of wiping out all life on Earth is unthinkable. While his motivations are mostly selfish--he enjoys the life he has--there is good in him. He doesn't just run from the disaster, and he hesitates to truly or permanently hurt anyone. 

Beyond being fun and relatable, Crowley, along with his angelic counterpart Aziraphale, provide much of the driving philosophical discussions, beginning with their theorizing on whether the Antichrist is destined to follow in his father's footsteps, that is to fall. They discuss nature versus nurture, the absolutes that the Bible presents, and if fate exists. One of the reoccurring discussions they have is about demons and angels, and whether angels are capable of evil while demons are capable of good.

It is Crowley that questions the Great Plan, as he is wont to do. This is something I admire about his character. Even when everything seems hopeless, he just can't give up. Even though he professes to be a hard-hearted demon, he can't help but love the world around him, and he can't help but look for a solution. 

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK?

If you're a fan of either Gaiman or Pratchett (or both), then the answer is a resounding yes. I believe this is their best work, and as much as I love their other titles, none of them can top this in my mind. This one just speaks to both a loving exasperation with humans and hope for the future. If you haven't read either author before, then I recommend it to anyone who likes books that can both make them laugh and make them think. There is so much to love about this story, and if you don't like one character, you're bound to love another. 

You can buy "Good Omens" on Amazon or your favorite bookstore.