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Shadow Of Oz (2012)

by Nick Damon(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Secret Origin Press

review 1: It has been a long time since I have liked an "indie" book as much as I liked this one. While it started off a little slow once the chase began it was never ending action. I loved the changes in Oz and in the characters that we all know and love (as well as the introduction to some of the new ones) and how the story line "grew up" while still being appropriate for young adults. I love how there were scars and hurts to forgive between all the characters as well as Dorothy realizing that nothing was really as she remembered it any longer because, like her, Oz changed while she was away. I also enjoyed the nods to all the different versions and interpretations of Oz between the names of the witches and the line about "defying gravity". Maybe I read too much into those bu... moret they did make me smile. Was there a lot of back to back on impossible to get out of situations? Did it require a lot of suspension of belief in that our characters faced these challenges back to back and survived (for the most part)? Yes but again it is a book about Oz and to be expected because that is the way it is in all the different stories regarding this mythical land. I am really hoping that there are more in this series because it did end on a slight cliffhanger and I would love to see where else this story arch could go.
review 2: This isn't the usual type of book I read and review on The Flirty Reader. In fact, I can't tell you the last time I read a book without any sex in it. (I take that back, I read World War Z, no sex there.) But when I saw this book listed on my Bookgorilla email one day, I immediately took advantage. Here's why: I'm totally enamored with Oz. I haven't read all the books or anything. But I have seen the films, Wizard of Oz and Return to Oz millions of times. Plus Wicked is one of my favorite musicals. Something about the world is endearing and exciting for me. So I knew when I saw Shadow of Oz I would be interested. And I wasn't disappointed! I'll have to warn you though, this books isn't about the magnificence of Oz or about an adventurous of a young, naive girl, Dorothy, for that matter. Oz is in turmoil and of course Dorothy is the only one who can fix it. But Dorothy is also a cause of it's demise. You'll have to read to find out what. But the theme in this book is that there are consequences to all of your decisions. You see the consequences from Dorothy's wishes she made years before for the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man. They had a direct impact on what happened to Oz today. This is a true alternate universe that Damon has created. Dorothy has been stuck in the real world, New York City, for many years, never happy, just treading water in her dull existence. She has no friends, her co-workers barely know she's there, and she hasn't had a boyfriend. Her apartment is boring, her job is boring, and her life is just boring. A sharp contrast from her life in Oz. Until one day so starts seeing things: images in her mirror, a tree grabbing her sleeve, and crows crashing into a window and swarming her at work. Yes, Dorothy has a desk job. Dorothy thinks she's going nuts, but is she?The fact is: Dorothy lost all memory of her life in Oz. She feels so lost because that big chunk of her life has been erased and she has no reason to explain it. Who can put the pieces back together?By this point in the book, I was hooked. I loved the A/U aspect of Dorothy's life. I loved seeing the little hints of Oz interjected into that mundane world she was living in. Almost like hints that Dorothy surrounded herself with or was subconsciously attracted to.it's not until the help of a mysterious and handsome man dressed in odd green clothing comes galloping into her life on a talking horse, does Dorothy question her whole existence and yearn to figure out what she has forgotten about her past. I would question my whole life too if this happened to me. They journey back to Oz, a world now crumbling from the harsh reign of the Nome King. The heart of Oz, Ozma is missing, and only Dorothy, the Queen of Oz as she learns, knows where it's hidden. The Ozma is a large emerald that beats the life into the land of Oz. With it missing, the world as Dorothy knows will die, taking all of her friends and people of Oz with it. But she has no memory where she hid the Ozma. What I really loved about this story was the lore of the world. I know not all of it was accurate and a lot was changed from the cannon, but it still intrigued me. Like I would say to any naysayers, this is an A/U and Damon did an excellent job making the world his own as well. Damon takes you through a complex journey through the wilds of Oz with Dorothy and the Knights of Oz. You see them get into tangle after tangle, and you even see some of them die. This is not all unicorns and rainbows story, folks. There is darkness to Shadows of Oz. But there is also a tinge of romance which really made me happy. Dorothy and Jasper, you'll have to read it to find out more. I won't give it away. What I want to applaud Damon is the excellence of his storytelling and world building. Without telling the readers, Damon showed us what the journey for Dorothy and her friends was like. Plus the love story was written so subtly that it just made sense and dare I say hotter than a lot of graphic things I've read lately. All in all, this is a solid book. The only complaints I could point out are all the disembodied actions, creative dialogue tags, typical mistakes a proofer could take care of, and the cliffhanger chapter endings. I mean, seriously, every chapter was a cliffhanger. It made me think it was fanfiction for a while. Rating: Four (well, lip bites just seems wrong. So four Tik Toks. And on a side note, Ke$sha ruined Googling Tik Tok for me) less

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