This was the oldest book in my ARC queue. It took me awhile to get to reading this not because of a lack of interest but because a death of a Kindle and a change in Kindle behavior meant I had lost the book to digital atoms. It's because I DID want to read this that I pursued getting my own copy.

I can't imagine anyone who reads fantasy not being familiar with L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (probably first from the movie) even if they aren't aware that there were many books in the series. The student-geared abridged version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first book I ever read cover to cover in one day when I was in second grade during a snow day in 1969 (yes, it was special enough that I remember it quite well).

Editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have collected an all-star group of authors to add their own Oz stories into the mythology.

I've wondered why the book has so much appeal, but I think Gregory McGuire nails it in his Foreword:

I don't mean to be sentimental. There's a lot to mistrust about home. It's one of the best reasons for growing up: to get away, to make your own bargain with life, and then to look back upon what terms you accepted because you knew no better, and to assess their value. Travel is broadening precisely because it is away from as well as toward.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this collection, but then I enjoy just about any trip to Oz, so that was to be expected. But as with nearly every anthology I've ever read, most of these stories were good, a couple stood out as being a bit better for me, and a couple seemed to miss the mark.

Perhaps the most unusual of the stories here, was Simon R. Green's "Dorothy Dreams." Here an aged, frail Dorothy dies in her sleep and goes to heaven where she sees everyone she's ever met - including her parents! - and they'll all go happily off to Oz. Not a bad story - just highly unusual. I see on Goodreads that this is considered book (story) number 12.8 in Green's Nightside series. I'm not very familiar with Green's work but found this interesting enough to get the first two books in the Nightside series to check out.

I particularly liked Kat Howard's "A Tornado of Dorothys." This was a little bit darker and maybe not as 'honest' with the franchise as some of the others, but I really liked Howard's writing. I guess I need to look for more of her work.

My favorite, however, is easily "The Cobbler of Oz" by Jonathan Maberry. I liked that we didn't need to see any of the most familiar characters and yet this was still an Oz story. I think that deep down I was hoping for more of these kids of stories - new adventures in Oz with new characters. Here a cobbler is asked to fix he most wonderful traveling shoes ever made - a pair of silver shoes made from dragon scales. But the only way to fix them is to find new dragon scales, and an adventure begins!

Yes, this does seem to push Oz into a new territory - adding dragons into the world - but Maberry makes it work.

My least favorite of the stories is "A Meeting in Oz" by Jeffrey Ford. My note in my Kindle reads: What is the purpose? How is this part of the universe?

Ford starts the story with:


The last time Dorothy returned to Oz, the silver slippers barely fit, the gingham dress was a dust rag in her broom closet back home, and Toto had been in the ground for fifteen years. She carried a briefcase instead of a basket. Her long overcoat covered a rumpled business suit—midlength skirt, a mint-green dress shirt, and a blazer. (...) From the open case, she took a pair of sea green pumps and slipped them on her stockinged feet. Also from the case, she drew a Colt .22 pistol and pocketed it inside her blazer.

Weeds poked up between the yellow bricks of the road, and its famous color was subdued beneath scuff marks and mold.


Dorothy tries to kill the wizard but ... well, he's a Wizard! Instead he sends her off to the Deadly Desert to perish. End.

I really don't understand the need to take something that both offers promise of great beauty and joy AND how we can probably find that beauty and joy right in our own front yards, and turn it into something disturbing to show there's never anything good for anyone. I highly recommend skipping this story.

With the strong exception of one story, this was an enjoyable journey and worthy of being considered part of the Oz canon.

This book contains the following:

Foreword: Oz and Ourselves by Gregory Maguire
Introduction: There’s No Place Like Oz by John Joseph Adams & Douglas Cohen
"The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz" by Rae Carson & C.C. Finlay
"Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust" by Seanan McGuire
"Lost Girls of Oz" by Theodora Goss
"The Boy Detective of Oz: An Otherland Story" by Tad Williams
"Dorothy Dreams" by Simon R. Green
"Dead Blue" by David Farland
"One Flew Over the Rainbow" by Robin Wasserman
"The Veiled Shanghai" by Ken Liu
"Beyond the Naked Eye" by Rachel Swirsky
"A Tornado of Dorothys" by Kat Howard
"Blown Away" by Jane Yolen
"City So Bright" by Dale Bailey
"Off to See the Emperor" by Orson Scott Card
"A Meeting in Oz" by Jeffrey Ford
"The Cobbler of Oz" by Jonathan Maberry
Looking for a good book? Oz Reimagined is a good collection of Oz stories, edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Wizard of Oz fan. Because of this, I had extremely high expectations. This book fell flat for me. I just...wanted more something. Not sure what exactly, but it just felt like a big 'something' was missing from this one.