Magician of Oz: 1 [Paperback]

Why would the Wonderful Wizard of Oz leave that magical land and head back to the monotony of the Great Outside World? Well, don't expect to find any compelling reasons why in this "Oz" book. In fact, that is just one of many plot points that just don't add up. Not to say the book doesn't have a few good ideas; it does. Unfortunately they are drowned out in histories and characters that simply just can't be reconciled with the Oz Baum created and was perpetuated by Thompson, Neill, Snow, etc.

The main character, a young boy named Jamie, is really none too spectacular. Yet he is the one destined to become "Oz the Magnificent" after attending "Magic Club" meetings in the basement of the local library. The stunts he performs are supposedly masterful, yet any kid could learn the same tricks from a magician kit purchased out of a Sear's catalogue. And the author makes sure you know these are not "tricks" but "sleight of hand". The later phrase is only a fancy way of saying "deception", which is, simply put, trickery. Oscar Diggs started out just like that...a glorified balloonist/stage magician/ventriloquist. He did not learn to actually produce true magic until many years of tutelage under Glinda the Good. Yet Jamie just waltzes into Oz and takes up the mantle of Oscar in no time flat.

The book begins with Jamie's parents pulling out an old humpback trunk that had belonged to Oscar Diggs (the Wizard of Oz) who is supposedly Jamie's great-grandfather. Just like that, only a few paragraphs into the story, and it's already gone into left field. Oscar digs never left Oz to come back to America permanently, neither did he marry, and (despite what this story claims) neither did he die. Perhaps this could have worked if Jamie was Oscar's great-nephew. A far more plausible plot point and one many more Oz readers would accept. And one must beg the question that if Oscar were indeed a famous ancestor than why wouldn't Jamie's parents not have told him long before now, and why wouldn't he know a heck of a lot more about Oz?

Speaking of Jamie's parents, it's not hard to surmise that they are supposed to be an idealized version of a modern family. This might have worked if they had been developed better. The mother, and especially the father, seem very wooden and void of any tangible personality. It becomes tedious after the first few chapters, and the family activities are of very little interest.

After several non-descript chapters, Jamie arrives in Oz, the means of which hearken back to Baum's The Road to Oz, which is very imaginative. The first characters he encounters are several members of the Oz menagerie. The author handles them fairly well, but slips up in his description of Bungle the Glass Cat. This is only one of many, many discrepancies that are to follow. And they are very glaring indeed. So much so that it makes the story even harder to read.

Ozma is said by the author to have looked into her "Magic Mirror" to see Jamie before he came to Oz. It is stated over and over in Baum's Oz books that Ozma views her friends and subjects in a Magic Picture, a blank canvas that paints the person she wishes to see. Glinda's great Book of Records is an extremely large book that is chained to a marble table, yet the author has Glinda carry it around like a paperback novel. The Tin Woodsman's castle is said to be made of silver in this book, yet it is supposed to be made of tin, just like its owner.

And poor Dorothy, hungry for the companionship of a friend; never mind she has her two girlfriends Trot and Betsy Bobbin from America, not to mention Button Bright who has been with her for several decades, and her greatest friend of all, Ozma herself. So simple is Dorothy that when Jamie takes a coin and flips it across his knuckles, she squeals "with delight". Dorothy has traveled to Oz via cyclone, stormy seas, and an earthquake. She has witnessed Glinda the Good, the Wizard of Oz, Ozma, and others perform wondrous feats of true, supernatural magic yet a simple amateurish sleight of hand gets her giddy. It just doesn't jibe with her character at all.

And that is the main ingredient that this whole book lacks: magic. Jamie learns that by simply saying "Wham, Bam, Alikazam" he can cast any sort of spell he wants with no true training or any previous exposure to how Oz magic works. And the long lost magic words used by the Wizard ("Hocus, Pocus, Dominocus") makes the true Magician of Oz's abilities seem far too basic. Such simplistic magic phrases are better left to Bugs Bunny and Count Bloodcount. If only I could say "Abra-ca-pocus" and make this little ditty disappear...

When I was growing up, I loved the vocabulary and the storylines of L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Since his death, others have written Oz stories, some quite worthy of having Oz in the title, some being rather poor. "Magician of Oz," leans towards the latter variety.

The book follows the ... well, they're not adventures. Basically the story happens to the character Jamie Diggs, who is somehow Oscar Digg's grandson. Jamie gets to Oz and heads off with Ozma, Dorothy, and Glinda to the Tin Woodman's castle, where they will ask Aunt Em to make them potato soup. And somehow the Fighting Trees decide to exact their revenge for the Tin Woodman attacking them back in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

I'm sorry to report that this has to be one of the worst Oz books I've ever read, much less bought. The plot offers no compelling premise, and takes too long to start. (Jamie does not reach Oz until Chapter Seven.) And the references to potato soup are all over this book. This seems like a family joke, which is not surprising, as Jamie's parents have the same name as the author and his wife. (Yes, it's another "Harry Sue" in Oz.) For ordinary readers, it's uninteresting.

The author has claimed that he stuck closely to what Baum had established, but there are so many contradictions. Places Baum created have their names misspelled, Dorothy is described as a freckled Judy Garland lookalike, Ozma is too immature, and Glinda... is a little girl. Betsy Bobbin and Trot are oddly absent, as Jamie was intended to be a companion for Dorothy, when Baum established that she has many of them. Characters are mis-characterized; for example, Dorothy throws a bowl of soup in a fountain suddenly, almost as if she suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. Polychrome appears to be the Rainbow herself, not its daughter, and does the bidding of Glinda. Dorothy calls people "peasantry," and the Tin Woodman denies that he is royal.

In many places, dialogue that could be interesting is replaced with flat prose. A lot of the dialogue is stilted and clumsy. Poor writing plagues the text. The author, who stated the book was intended for 10-12 year-olds, comes off as condescending. The Sawhorse's speed is described as "a leisurely hurried pace." On page 126, the event of the Woggle-Bug giving the Wizard a gift switches from a proper past tense ("'Consider it a toy from a local wogglebug to a worldly humbug,' the Professor had commented to 'Oz the Magnificient.'") to an improper tense. ("The wizard blushed timidly, reminded of his nefarious past before the reign of Ozma and her kindness upon him.")

I could go on about the writing, but I think I've given you enough of a taste.

Despite what the title page says, there are no illustrations. There's a picture of a tree with gnarled branches twisting into the letters "O" and "Z," but that's it. The front cover is a light brown color with a design of a tree over it in white. Not exactly the most appealing cover.

Overall, I was severely disappointed. After reading the author talking about his work, I expected an excellent reading experience. Instead, it left me feeling sick. That's one serving of potato soup that did not sit well.

First of all, I want to say that James C. Wallace II is a very kind, helpful and generous fellow. He even sent me this book at his own expense, asking for nothing in return. I hope that nothing I say in this review will be construed as any sort of ill will toward him as a human being. He is a good guy, and I don't like the idea that the truth might hurt him more than I would want it to.

I have just finished "Magician of Oz," the first in his proposed Oz trilogy. Although he describes himself as the Royal Liaison to Princess Ozma, their lines of communication seem to have gotten crossed somewhere along the way. In fact, the title character himself is a misnomer. O.Z. Diggs, the Wizard of Oz that we all know and love, was a reclusive type of fellow who never married or had children. This character, however, is supposed to be his great grandson (I don't think ANY wizard could pull that off). Hence, we know that something is wrong before we even open the book. Not that Jamie Diggs isn't a likable character. He is. And I might have been rooting for him if he hadn't tried to claim that family heritage. Even worse, he ultimately takes the place of old O.Z. as the new Wizard of Oz, despite the fact that he is a ten-year-old who is only beginning to learn magic. (Yes, the title character of Baum's first Oz book has been written off in favor of this kid!)

We all appreciate a running gag, right? Who doesn't laugh every time Baum quotes the Glass Cat saying her oft-repeated "I have wonderful pink brains. You can see 'em work." We all enjoy in-jokes, right? I lost count as to how many of Ruth Plumly Thompson's characters are called "Bill" or "Uncle Billy" (yes, he really was an uncle of hers). But here, the author has not only named the protagonist's parents after himself and his wife, but the family's obsession with potato soup is not funny the first time we hear about it, and it just keeps getting mentioned again and again almost relentlessly. At least the Glass Cat didn't say her famous line every few pages.

Speaking of the Glass Cat, I am sad to say that not only is her signature line missing in this volume, but all of her vanity that makes her who she is has been dropped entirely. Indeed, all of Baum's familiar Ozites are bland and without any personality to distinguish one from another. They behave completely out of character here. Even the Lonesome Duck seems to be just another one of the crowd. "Jamie Diggs" decides he must rely on Dorothy to cast an important magic spell--and says so right in front of Ozma and Glinda, who go along with the idea! Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Glinda is a little girl now (albeit a few years older than Ozma and Dorothy). And poor Dorothy is desperate for friendship until charming Jamie comes along to save her from her loneliness.

There is a great deal of name-dropping. That is to say, the author mentions characters and places from some of Baum's Oz books, but with no real knowledge of them beyond their names. They are not revisited and the mention of them doesn't add anything to the action, and in some cases this unnecessary name-dropping makes the story drag.

Toward the end, the Fighting Trees wage war on Oz because of what the "Mad Tin Man" did to them about a hundred years ago. There is no explanation as to why they didn't think of it before now. The battle is very short and won without any great effort, almost like it was an afterthought and the author had run out of gas by that time.

There are plenty of grammatical errors. Normally I can overlook those as human error. In this case, however, I was actually finding them more interesting than the plot line. And even though there are two illustrators credited, there is only one very generic-looking spot drawing. Even the one-color stock cover looks like it is ashamed to be involved.

Finally, when young Jamie does return to his home in America, he finds that many days pass in Oz while only a short time passes elsewhere. That was never the case for Dorothy or any of the subsequent visitors to Oz. Perhaps Jamie was mistaking Narnia for Baum's fairyland?

If you bought this book expecting a well-researched Oz history by someone who respects Baum and his characters, it would be well within your rights to demand your money back.