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brookhorse's review against another edition
4.0
Another fun adventure with engaging characters and interesting locales. I'm glad the Shaggy Man has become a recurring character, he's one of my favorites. Also, we've finally been given the answer to WHY DOESN'T TOTO SPEAK?? I'm satisfied.
gregsaysstuff's review against another edition
3.0
The only reason I gave this three stars instead of two is because Baum finally ass-pulled--I mean, solved--. Otherwise, this is completely forgettable. An army with only one private has been done already, and the kingdom with only one civilian isn't any different. The Love Magnet has totally different rules now. The people of Oz are still dangerously obsessed with radium. Nothing terribly offensive took place. I'm glad the final chapter wasn't composed of just a laundry list of every character ever featured in any of these books in existence. But will I remember what happened next week at all? No. No I will not.
Spoiler
the Toto Conundrumkatharine_whitfield's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
cspeet's review against another edition
3.0
For me, this book was middle-of-the-road, as far as the Oz books that I've read. While there was an overall purpose to the storyline, many of the events were completely independent from one another and almost random, at times. Entertaining, but the plotting is lazy, and I would much prefer a plot where the complications arise from the characters' attempts to solve their problems. Just ok.
elvislove1234's review against another edition
2.0
I am reading the whole series on my kindle . It was okay in the series .
wilder_thanwhat's review against another edition
5.0
This was my favorite in the series so far. It was also my 7 year olds favorite and we read it in record time. It was fast paced, fun for both of us, made sense and didn't have as many terribly problematic characters. My daughter loved the dragon and polychrome (who was nicely tough in this one). "Shoshana's" review below is terrific and just my thoughts as well.
lejoy's review against another edition
3.0
If you read 'Tik-Tok of Oz' (Book 8) because you're a fan of the mechanical man Tik-Tok, first introduced in Ozma of Oz (Book 3), you will be sorely disappointed. While Tik-Tok does feature in this book, he is absolutely not the main character, nor the main focus, in fact I regularly forgot he was there at all, so little impact does he have on the story. He is also useless now, constantly falling over, despite having been rather talented and cunning originally.
To start off, Book 8 is a bad cover version of Book 3 (according to Wikipedia, this is because Baum adapted it from a script written for a film of Ozma of Oz). We get another army made up of officers with only one private, we get a little girl and an animal washed overboard, we get Tik-Tok and we get the Nome King. But don't worry, it also reuses ideas from Book 4 (royalty grown on a bush that the heroes pluck to save their lives) and Book 5 (Polychrome and Shaggy Man - my least favourite character - are back, the latter once again using his creepy love magnet). The Nome King in general behaves exactly as he did in Book 6, despite having had his memory wiped at the end of that book.
Eventually this story stops being the most derivative of the series and comes up with a few new ideas. However as usual this is still a big group of dull characters (way too many characters in this one all bringing nothing to the story) going from random place to place and overcoming peril so easily that it is never exciting. Only the last two chapters are set in Oz. I did enjoy the final chapter, in which our animal friends threaten to fight each other over who is the best little girl in Oz and Dorothy finally finds out why Toto doesn't talk (after the continuity error in the previous book, which I'm sure that Baum had to correct due to fans writing to him to complain). Seeing the 'regulars' is always the best bit, so I don't understand why Baum felt it necessary to continually create new bland characters going to new random places every book. We want to see our favourites obviously!
To start off, Book 8 is a bad cover version of Book 3 (according to Wikipedia, this is because Baum adapted it from a script written for a film of Ozma of Oz). We get another army made up of officers with only one private, we get a little girl and an animal washed overboard, we get Tik-Tok and we get the Nome King. But don't worry, it also reuses ideas from Book 4 (royalty grown on a bush that the heroes pluck to save their lives) and Book 5 (Polychrome and Shaggy Man - my least favourite character - are back, the latter once again using his creepy love magnet). The Nome King in general behaves exactly as he did in Book 6, despite having had his memory wiped at the end of that book.
Eventually this story stops being the most derivative of the series and comes up with a few new ideas. However as usual this is still a big group of dull characters (way too many characters in this one all bringing nothing to the story) going from random place to place and overcoming peril so easily that it is never exciting. Only the last two chapters are set in Oz. I did enjoy the final chapter, in which our animal friends threaten to fight each other over who is the best little girl in Oz and Dorothy finally finds out why Toto doesn't talk (after the continuity error in the previous book, which I'm sure that Baum had to correct due to fans writing to him to complain). Seeing the 'regulars' is always the best bit, so I don't understand why Baum felt it necessary to continually create new bland characters going to new random places every book. We want to see our favourites obviously!
lawrence_david's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
jenifera2's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25