Saturday, April 15, 2017

This Week's Oz Short Story

The third and final story of the 1977 issue of Oziana is "Two Friendships" by Stanley Worden, and it was the one I remembered the least from when I first read this issue forty years ago. The two friendships in question are Xew, leader of the Hotsnaps, and Hiram the giant hyena, who have set out to conquer Oz; and Button-Bright and Polychrome, who stumble over their plans and try to stop them. This one doesn't strike me as being quite so polished or accomplished as the other two stories in this issue, but it has its charm. The Hotsnaps and their ski-dad'l are a fun new Ozian race, if a bit disagreeable; while their adversaries, the Klunks, are basically living machines and machine parts. They all add to the lore of Oz. Button-Bright proves to be clever and resourceful, and he and Polly come up with some clever tricks to stop Hiram and Xew. And of course everyone gets their just desserts in the end.

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