The latest Oz reading

I'm not sure how I learned of this book, but I heard that Wolf Who Rules by Wen Spencer had a bunch of Oz references, and picked up a cheap copy. Well, yes, there is Oz, but it's not a lot, and I don't recommend this book for Oz fans unless you're an uber-completist like me.

Complicating matters is that this is the sequel to an earlier book, but I think I managed to pick up on the basics. It's the near future, as there are advanced space stations and hoverbikes (among other things). Different parallel worlds are also starting to intersect, and our heroine, Tinker, managed to combine technology and magic to prevent more spillover. In the course of events, however, Pittsburgh was trapped on an elf world, and Tinker married one of the Elven kings and was turned into an elf herself. In this book, Tinker is figuring out her new role as both a queen and an elf, coming to terms with all the changes in not only her life but her friends as well. She also starts to learn magic. She eventually realizes that all isn't quite as it should be, and the gateways between worlds may still be open and causing havoc. About halfway through the book, she starts dreaming about a yellow brick road and some weird characters, including herself perched on a pole in the middle of a field. Surprisingly, she doesn't recognize the allusions to some old movie, but one of her Elven handlers does, so she watches The Wizard of Oz (with Elvish subtitles, no less), and still isn't sure what her dream means. It comes clearer as the book progresses, however.

If you'd be inclined to read this sort of book anyway, you'd probably get a kick out of it, and Tinker is a great character. You might want to read the first book, however (called, appropriately enough, Tinker) for a better grounding before tackling Wolf Who Rules.