Of course in my heart it gets all the stars because it's an Oz book, but as far as my "First Fourteen" journey goes, this one has been my least favorite so far.

As is to be expected, there's a lot of imagination here with plenty of weird and whimsical places and creatures to found, but the plot is very loose and doesn't quite hang together as anything beyond a vaguely episodic mash of ideas. There are some moments here and there that set up for later events, but nothing that's super important to the plot in general.

There are some welcome and charming reappearances of characters from previous books, but they don't get too much to do. The ending is quite strange with a court trial that is quite silly with some of the usually warm-hearted characters making some rather mean-spirited actions, but this is thankfully over quickly.

There's some continuity issues here and for the most part it's unclear if this just wasn't a big deal or whether it's deliberate retcon.

Probably what I found most unappealing was the "rehabilitation" of the Wizard's character. I preferred when was kind of a reckless jerk, but here some of his larger sins are rewritten out of continuity, particularly his part in the fate of the royal family of Oz. It seems like Baum was trying to hero him up for future appearances, but I feel that is was a disservice to the grey morality and nuance of his earlier actions. Definitely far less interesting.

Dorothy is also shortchanged and not given much to do. Her mispronunciation of words is incredibly cute and serves to remind us that she is supposed to just be a small girl in spite of the grand adventures she's had, but she isn't given any opportunity to show the plucky pragmatism and agency that we've come to know her for. Here she just comes across as a bit precocious and bland which is disappointing.

With the negatives out of the way, it is still an enjoyable read with some wonderful moments of whimsy and heart. ( )

When Dorothy recovered her senses they were still falling, but not so fast. The top of the buggy caught the air like a parachute or an umbrella filled with wind, and held them back so that they floated downward with a gentle motion that was not so very disagreeable to bear. The worst thing was their terror of reaching the bottom of this great crack in the earth, and the natural fear that sudden death was about to overtake them at any moment. ( )

This is one of five books I purchased at a bookstore, and I suspect someone bought the entire series in 1919--after the publisher changed its name from Reilly & Barrow to Reilly & Lee. With that in mind, I think of these five, the only one that's the original edition is the 1919 book The Magic of Oz, which was published a month after L. Frank Baum died.
So... this is an early but not quite original edition. ( )

Dorothy and the Wizard journey to the center of the Earth.

2.5/4 (Okay).

There's some good stuff in here. For instance, one of the main characters is a kitten, and there's a weird scene with a Muppety old man. But most of it isn't particularly creative, nothing in it connects to anything else, and there are serious continuity problems.

(Aug. 2022) ( )

I read this aloud to my three-year-old son. I recollect that this was one of my favorite Oz books as a kid. I don't think it's a coincidence that it was just one of two that I owned as a Dover edition. The Dover editions aren't facsimiles to the extent that the Books of Wonder ones are—they are trade paperbacks, they have no end papers, the color plates are in black and white. But the book is reproduced at its original size, with all of its interior illustrations intact, meaning that this was one of my best examples of the artistry of John R. Neill, and thus the book was brought to life in my imagination.

It's a dark story, something the Shanower & Young comic adaptation brought out to good success. Unlike other Oz books, where our hero makes friends as they travel, Dorothy never really does; the people who are with her from the beginning (Eureka the Kitten, her cousin's cousin Zeb, Jim the Cab-Horse, and later, the Wizard) are the only people who journey with her. The lands they travel through have little respite for them: vegetable people who cannot feel sympathy, a valley of invisible bears who can slaughter you at any moment, the wooden gargoyles who don't speak a word, the dragonettes who would eat you if only they could. The best our heroes can hope for is indifference, such as they receive from the Braided Man. My favorite part this time though was a small one; as the adventuring party climbs a subterranean mountain, they look out on a strange sea and strange sky... and it's utterly indifferent to them. Insignificance is the best they can hope for beneath the surface of the Earth.

I didn't find it disturbing as a kid, I don't think, and my son didn't either as far as I could tell. Baum as always never dwells on this kind of stuff, and treats it all completely matter-of-factly. Our heroes are a little more callous than usual (the Wizard kills pretty easily), but they are in a callous world. Like in Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Ozma, one of the pleasures is the group of dynamic characters, all of whom contribute to saving the day in their own way at various times. I have seen commenters complain about Eureka and say Baum must not have like cats... but to me, Baum just captures what it is to be a cat, something he always excels at with his talking animal characters. Yes, she's selfish and annoying, but that's what makes her fun. The jokes at the trial of Eureka went over my son's head, but I enjoyed them. Indeed, this one was a pleasure to read throughout. It's dark, but it's also some of Baum's most imaginative work, with good tension despite the fact that it's a pretty linear journey. I like the handling of the Wizard here, and there's something moving about him being given a place in Oz at the book's end... even if does require Baum to ignore some of the basic facts he establishes in Marvelous Land about the Wizard, Mombi, Ozma, and Ozma's father! The backstory of Oz being divided between four wicked witches is a tantalizing one, though.

The main problem, of course, is the frankly stupid way Dorothy gets out of the subterranean world. At the end of Ozma, Ozma told Dorothy she'd look for her in the Magic Picture once a week, and magic her to Oz via the Magic Belt if she made a sign was in trouble. Here, we are told Ozma looks in the Magic Picture once per day.... but somehow Dorothy doesn't think to signal Ozma until two-thirds of the way into the book! It's a move that utterly destroys the tension, and makes Dorothy look like an idiot to boot. (Not that my son noticed.) But if you keep on reading, it's easy enough to ignore.