Oz Reimagined

I can't help but feel fortunate each time I open my front door to find the tell-tale rectangular shaped package that promises to contain a book. It's a promise of a new story, a new adventure, and I look forward to opening the book and diving in.

Last month, I found one such package containing Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen, with illustrations by Galen Dara. In 2011 I had read and enjoyed Brave New Worlds (Dystopian Stories), also edited by Adams, and I had been impressed by the mix of short stories.

Featuring a foreword by Gregory Maguire, each story in the collection is inspired by Frank Baum's Oz, (in contrast to the Oz of Judy Garland fame). However, as the editors note in the introduction, the authors were not asked to revisit Oz, but rather to reimagine it. The result is a collection of stories that are colorful, occasionally sad, often delightful, and always creative.

You don't necessarily need to buy the full collection to read a particular story by an author you follow. Each is available on Amazon in electronic format for individual reading, as well as in the full collection.

• The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz by Rae Carson and C.C. Finlay: witty and humorous, this tale sees the wizard arriving in Oz to rename it after himself and court the Wicked Witch...with unexpected results.
• Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust by Seanan McGuire: Dorothy is quite different from Garland's depiction-a detective in a dark and earthly Oz, looking for a killer.
• Lost Girls of Oz by Theodora Goss: Fun and fanciful, told in a series of letters from a reporter who investigates girls disappearing into Oz.
• The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story by Tad Williams: Set in Williams' Otherland world, this story is a whodunit that ties up nicely.
• Dorothy Dreams by Simon R. Green: We catch up with Dorothy in her later years, on death's door. Not my favorite in the collection because it seems to solve problems too easily.
• Dead Blue by David Farland: One of the shortest tales in the collection, but the writing is precise and the emotions are poignant as we see an Oz that is driven by advance technology rather than magic. Of all the stories, this is the one I most wanted to see expanded into novel length.
• One Flew Over the Rainbow by Robin Wasserman: As the title echoes, this story takes place in a mental hospital and felt tragic and sad.
• The Veiled Shanghai by Ken Lu: What if Dorothy lived in pre-revolutionary Shanghai?
• Beyond the Naked Eye by Rachel Swirsky: In a clever and satisfying reimagining, Oz echoes of The Hunger Games.
• A Tornado of Dorothys by Kat Howards: In this dark and horror tinged tale, Oz is a shadowed world full of ghosts that only Dorothy can release.
• Blown Away by Jane Yolen: Back in Kansas, Dorothy is missed, until one day she suddenly reappears. A little weird, for me.
• City So Bright by Dale Bailey: All is not well in Denmark...or in Oz.
• Off to See the Emperor by Orson Scott Card: This Oz origin story might fit well in one of Steven Spielburg's Amazing Stories episodes.
• A Meeting in Oz by Jeffery Ford: Life after Oz wasn't so kind to Dorothy, and she returns to settle a score.
• The Cobbler of Oz by Jonathan Maberry: A young, lame Winged Monkey finds herselfin possession of some magic slippers and embarks on a quest that will change Oz forever. A beautiful story and without a doubt, my favorite in the collection.