I'm not usually a fan of sequels, but found myself absorbed in this one. Maguire's prose is always impeccable and, this is no exception. Through the lense of OZ, he explores the horrors of soldiers being forced to obey orders and the subsequent fallout, the coming of age of Liir, and a host of other social and ethical issues. Definately engaging and true to the characters of Wicked. ( )

The twists and turns of the plot were interesting enough that I kept reading in hopes of learning to like Liir, or find another character as interesting as Elphaba. There were little glimmers here and there, but it seemed that Maguire would present just enough of a character so that they might be likable or compelling and then reveal their grimy faults and disturbing habits. I've got the next book in the series and I hope it's more like Wicked than Son of a Witch. ( )

This was a neat follow up to wicked but left so much unanswered. Well written as we have come to expect from Maguire. Not sure if I like it as much as Wicked though, still a good read though ( )

The sequel to "Wicked", this introduces us to Liir, who may or may not be the son of Elphaba, from the earlier book. Liir tries to find his (possible) half-sister, Nor, and this leads him to the grim prison of the Emerald City, Southstairs. He manages to make his escape from there with the aid of the witch's broom. Later, near-crippled by the dragons who have been attacking various citizens of Oz at the direction of Shell, the self-appointed Wizard, and Liir's uncle (perhaps), he is brought back to life by the novice maunt, Candle, and strives to fulfil a promise to the Birds regarding the dragons, and to a dying princess whose disguise has long ago left her control. An interesting and intriguing book, perhaps a bit less satisfying than "Wicked", with some loose ends that I hope and trust that the concluding book, "A Lion Among Men", will clear up. ( )

I have literally JUST finished this book about a minute and a half ago, and my overall impression is.. wow. Now I wouldn't say it's "wow" as in "this is the best book I've ever read in my life", but I would say it as, once again, Maguire has managed to take us into the bizarro world of Oz and make us sort of like being there. The Oz of Maguires stories is kind of like the movie "Brazil", if you get my meaning. Everything is a bit twisted, and weird, and just slightly disturbing. But all of the weirdly twisted disturbing-ness of this world is very subtle, and compelling.

One of the reasons I love Maguire's work so much is his use of words. His words are so wild and unusual I have no idea where he gets them from! Even his character names are bizarre: Oatsie Manglehand, Trism, Iskaanary, Chyde, etc. And not just his names of characters, even names of places are weirdly cool like The Kells, and The Dissappointments. I love the names of the "maunts" which, you can infer by context only, are nuns - Sister Apothicaire, and Sister Doctor. These two in particular provide some much appreciated comic relief in their shinannegans. Also, there are animals and then there are Animals. The Animals are intelligent talking creatures, where as the animals are just the ordinary non-talking-thinking types. I will warn you, though, Gregory Maguire's work such as this is not for everybody! It is challenging at times in his use of language, and not exactly "happy" or "light" reading. I happen to love his use of weird words that, quite frankly, at times I have no idea what the heck he is referring to until later in the paragraph or chapter. But his style is so unique, I feel like it must be appreciated! But that's just ME.

Here is an example of what I mean: (the set up: in search for his beloved childhood friend Nor, Liir is taken down to the Southstairs district below the streets of Oz)

They found the set of steps leading farther down. Chyde asked for directions once or twice, and sent Jibbidee scampering to check the marks on buildings. "This'll be it, I guess," he said. "It's an Animal district, so you'll forgive the stench. Hygiene isn't their strong suit, as you know."

The air was so cold, though, with a wind whipping in from above that the smell seemed negligible. At any rate, Liir was too excited to care. He found himslef bobbing up and down, and once he nearly grabbed Chyde's hand to squeeze it. So what that Shell was a bounder, that Lady Glinda was a glamorous airhead! They've done something good; he'd gotten here. He'd find her, his only peer and friendmate, his half-sister if that version of history was true-- the girl who befriended mice, and shared her gingerbread, and who had giggled at bedtime, even when threatened by spanking. He would liberate Nor, and then--- and then----

I have sat down to read this book a half dozen times. I just couldn't get past the opening images. But had made this "deal" with myself that I wouldn't buy a book for a whole year (cough, cough) I decided it was time to read through the hundreds of books I already owned and this one was one of them. So, with my new found ferver in tact I plowed ahead.

The story begins with Oatsie Manglehand and her collegues on the road in a stage coach of sorts. They come accross several bodies on the side of the road. These happen to be maunts whose faces have been scraped. (See what I mean?) So, finally getting past this part after 4 years I was delighted to find that I was actually enjoying the story! Oatsie and her band find another unfortunate laying on the side of the road and when they go to retrieve the badly beaten and bloody body they find him still breathing. Barely. They decide to take him to their overnight rest stop which just happens to be the Mauntery.

At the time nobody knows who this unconscious stranger is, and he is left in the care of a young Quadling female named "Candle" who plays an instrument near him called a "domingon". This is how we find out that the stranger is in fact Liir, the Wicked Witch of the West's "son" ( I use quotes here as we as readers and even Liir himself are not sure if he is in fact her son) from the first story, and the music penetrates his sleeping mind and transports us into his past and how he came to be lying on the side of the road.

I really came to adore Liir. His character is not unlike Elphaba (the wicked witch) in that I ended up having a lot of empathy for the guy. He is extremely loyal, has his morals intact, and draped against the backdrop of of the sometimes despicable creatures we encounter in Maguires novels, he comes off as almost a saint at times! And standing witness to his struggles is very endearing. He is just trying to figure out who he is, and how everyone assumes he is the witches son and assumes he has some of her powers. In his inability to help the She-Elephant/Human we can see that he feels he has failed her and all of Oz, just by virtue of not knowing where he truly came from. And last but not least, reading passages of his times with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Cowardly Lion and their talk of the Wizard, makes me think about the movie and the original book and wonder, "Yeah! What IS the deal with the wizard hiding behind that curtain! What a scam artist!"

As I said before, Son of a Witch is not for everybody, and some people (like Wicked) will either love it or hate it. I for one loved it. And it will go on my shelf of favourite books in my office. I cannot WAIT to read the next one in the trilogy, "A Lion Among Men". For those of you that have already read Son of a Witch or end up reading it, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the book!

In "Son of Witch" we follow the story of Liir, the boy who is probably Elphaba's (The Wicked Witch of the West) son. Nobody really knows for sure though, and he really struggles with his identity as a result. In fact, he usually just avoids all questions that are family related!

After the death of Elphaba, Liir strikes out on his own, looking for his missing friend, and trying to figure out who he is in the process. Along the way he meets Princess Nastoya, Glinda, and even the Scarecrow! He also enrolls in the army for awhile, where he learns a lot, but eventually grows disgusted and leaves.

Thing are developing politically in Oz during this book. They go through succession of leaders after the Wizard leaves, and the consequences to the people aren't always good. Liir becomes more a more integral part of this than he wants or would expect.

I think I actually liked this book more than I did the first one. That could simply be because Maquire had more room to play here considering Liir is a new character to the Oz stories! It was interesting to see his nods to the original books though. I'm glad that I'm rereading the original series right now too :D ( )

Interesting, a much faster read than Wicked. ( )

dark, depressing. ( )

For everything that Wicked was, Son of a Witch simply spends too much time trying to live up to what it should be. Liir, who may or may not be Elphelba's son is content to be in a coma for much of the first half of the book; this should have been taken as a sign.

While Maguire is certainly very talented in creating an entire world outside of Dorothy's Oz, he seems to have poured the majority of his talents into building the atmosphere. Our main character, Liir never seems to care about his fate and lets circumstance guide him throughout the story. With this attitude, more and more time is spent introducing situations for Liir to float through and numerous side-characters come into frame in order to prop up the story. While some of it has its moments, it all feels like so much window dressing. ( )

OK, I must say that this book pretty much repusled me. I did read the entire book. It did have its good points, too. Considering no one ever thought that the Wicked Witch had a son. But a lot of the events that take place in the book are just disgusting. Only my opinion. This was the last book that I read by Gregory Maguire. I do not plan on reading any of his future books either. I think he distorts the characters a little too much for me. ( )

Some parts I really like and other parts dragged a bit, especially when Liir was in the military. I preferred Wicked much more. ( )

Son of a Witch is the story of Liir, who may or may not be Elphaba's son, and what he does following her death. The answer to that is 'not a heckuva lot.' He wanders around, joins the army, meets with some birds...
This is a profoundly boring book. It picks up at about the halfway point, but doesn't come to any sort of thrilling conclusion. In fact, this book seems like a bridge. As to what, I do not know. Apparently, there's a third book featuring a lion. ( )

A brilliant take on the classic fairy tale. Maguire is very creative with turning a classic story into a modern, humorous adventure. Due to its content, I would only recommend this book to Seniors in high school and above.

I thoroughly enjoyed Wicked, so I was really looking forward to this book. I couldn't get past the first 30 or so pages. Very Boring and didn't seem like it would get any better. ( )

A year or so ago I read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and found it pretty enjoyable and thought provoking. Enough so that I picked up the follow-up book, Son of a Witch. It took a while to finally getting around to reading the second book...and by now I've seen the musical and forgotten elements of the first book (which are definitely radically changed for the musical).

My overall feeling is that Son of a Witch has way too much going on and isn't terribly focused. While Wicked had a moderately clear message it was trying to convey, I often felt lost as to the direction Son of Witch was going. Perhaps it was done intentionally by Maguire to help us feel just as uneasy and confused as Liir. If so, I think it went a little overboard. It also felt like many aspects of the text were there for shock value rather than substance since many of the actions and themes were just dropped in the reader's lap without any further discussion or contemplation by the narrative.

The narrative style was a bit confusing at first, transitioning between current action and dream/coma flashbacks. I got used to that style fairly quickly, but then the coma ended...apparently before Maguire was done with the backstory, because the next many chapters continued the flashback tale even though Liir was no longer in his coma. It wasn't awful, just a little unsettling and felt like bad planning from the author. Once the backstory has finalized, Liir just seems to wander idly around Oz, picking up quest after quest, but not really focusing whole heartedly on any one task. He constantly behaves like a victim of circumstance, all the while bemoaning his fate and his lack of action.

The main storyline, once extracted from all the extraneous threads in the book, was actually fairly interesting. Over the course of Liir's young life, Oz is transitioning between one political faction after another. While the changes of power are relatively free of violence, each new ruler brings new trials, disasters, repressions and violence. The flashback history while Liir's in a coma takes us through a couple of puppet governments (one almost literally with the Scarecrow...though "not Dorothy's Scarecrow") and finally leaving us with the Emperor. Liir becomes aware of the vile machinations of the Emperor and disagrees with the actions of the government. He helps uncover a mystery plaguing many travelers around Oz (a violent and tragic "face scraping" of travelers...which threatens to throw rival groups into war, or at least keep them from any form of peace). Liir even leads a small rebellion against the Emperor, but he really isn't motivated in this and just sort of wanders off.

Generally, this book felt like it was trying to make a number of political and social statements but in the end it just felt like a statement about inaction, complacency and finding your own purpose. Any statement was muddled amid too many distractions. There were many great paragraphs and "sound bites" that would make for cool one-off quotes, but the ideas weren't lasting enough to help pull the book off.

All of that said, I am still interested enough in the vivid and intriguing Oz that Maguire has crafted, such that I will likely seek out the third book (A Lion Among Men) to see what happens next. But sadly, my expectations have fallen a bit.

***
2.5 stars (out of 5) ( )

I thought that this fable of a country led down the wrong path by the failures of its rulers was every bit the equal of its more popular predecessor, Wicked. ( )

This is the sequel to Wicked written (I believe) ten years later, and the first of what is apparently being called "The Wicked Years" series. The premise is (roughly) to take the world from the Wizard of Oz and present it as a more realistic, though magical, place, instead of a fairyland, and more specifically, from the Wicked Witch's point of view. I quite liked Wicked, but with some reservations.

Son of a Witch is about Elphaba (the Witch)'s probable son, Liir- who is, I think, a problematic character. The book was an enjoyable foray back into Maguire's Oz, and elaborated on some of the themes and questions left unanswered in Wicked, but didn't really add much, IMO. If you liked Wicked, Son of a Witch is about what you should expect from a sequel set after Elphaba's death: the world is emptier without her, and that's part of the point. I'm still not really sure what I thought of Son of a Witch, but I did enjoy it, and I think I plan on reading the next one, so I guess that passes for a recommendation. ( )

I'm marking Son of a Witch as "read" because I have no intention of ever finishing it. 130 pages in and I was still hating the characters. And bored. I can usually push through a book even if bored but not this one. Suffice it to say that it wasn't Wicked, nor was I really expecting it to be. How could it be? Without Elphaba. I was just hoping for it to capture some of the same magic. ( )

Not as good as Wicked. Too may smaller "stories" inside. I just wanted to read about Liir, Candle, and Trism. Would have been an awesome love triangle..but too much of everything else was going on. Too descriptive for me too. ( )

While this one wasn't quite as good as WIcked, it was still enchanting. despite the slow start, the story really picked up towards the end with lots of politics, interesting twists and great characters.

Liir is questionably the son of the wicked witch of the west. He is a tortured soul and on a mission. When the politics of Oz get in the way his life takes a few unexpected turns and the reader is taken on a great adventure in the process. ( )

enjoying it alot ( )

I did enjoy this book - I like Maguire's writing style - the blunt short sentences mixed in with the longer more elequent sections. It also kept me guessing - good read. ( )

Not as good as Wicked. I felt like there were too many side trips and extra characters in this story which weren't important to the plot. I might read one more of his stories but I'm hoping for an improvement over Son of a Witch. ( )

I think I enjoyed this more than Wicked...the storytelling seemed more powerful. ( )

The second volume in Gregory Maguire’s WICKED YEARS series follows Liir, the young man who may or may not be Elphaba’s son.

As is the case with all his novels, Maguire’s style owes more to literature than traditional fantasy. His prose is careful, deliberate, and often beautiful, and the novel’s structure follows suit. He alternates between present-day scenes and flashbacks to Liir’s past throughout the first part of the book. We spend time with the maunts of the Cloister of Saint Glinda as they investigate a series of brutal attacks and try to nurse Liir back to health in the hopes that he can tell them who’s responsible. At the same time, we see how Elphaba’s death affected Liir and what he’s done with his life since then. Maguire handles the back-and-forth very nicely; I wanted more of both stories in the best possible way. The two storylines feed off of one another, too; Liir’s story answers some of the questions the reader has about the Oz the maunts live in, and vice versa. There are plenty of those wonderful little “Ah ha!” moments that make reading a convoluted story so much fun.

That’s not to say that this is such a convoluted story as all that. The shifts between the present day and Liir’s past are easy enough to follow. It’s definitely complex, though; there are a lot of questions, and Maguire provides us with very little in the way of concrete closure. Instead, he gives us all the pieces and lets us put them together for ourselves.

His fantastic worldbuilding adds yet another dimension to the story. He continues to elaborate on Oz, filling in gaps left by Baum’s original version and his own retelling. We learn a lot more about what makes this country tick. We get some further insights into the government, the military and the religious organizations that play such a large role in Ozian society. It’s a thing of beauty.

The story itself is mostly a coming of age tale. Liir’s path to adulthood is far from smooth; his strange childhood hasn’t really equipped him to deal with life outside of Kiamo Ko, and he makes a ton of mistakes along the way. He does deal with the consequences of his actions, though, and he has some brilliant moments. Even though I already knew how it would end, (and believe me, the last line is a killer), I became caught up in his story. I was always eager to plunk myself down and read just a little bit more. That little bit often turned into thirty or forty pages.

SON OF A WITCH isn't quite as good as WICKED, but it’s still well worth your time. If you enjoyed Maguire’s version of Oz the first time around, you’ll want to get your hands on this as well.

(This review originally appeared in a slightly different form on my blog, ( )