Sunday, July 29, 2018

This Week's Oz Short Story

The second story in the 1995 edition of Oziana is "A Princess of Oz" by Dave Hulan, with illustrations by James Vincent III. Trot, bored one day, decides to explore Ruggedo's old caverns under the Emerald City, where she discovers Delva and a group of her Delves excavating under the palace. She is pressed into service and outfitted into a mining outfit, with digging gauntlets that prevent her from reaching the transportation pills in her pocket. She has no choice but to dig, looking for silver. Eventually, Trot realizes that the Delves plan to collapse the Emerald City into the ground so they can collect all the city's silver. Fortunately, an encounter with a sympathetic woodchuck lets her get to a pill, and she wishes herself to e where Ozma is. Fortunately, that's in Glinda's palace with the Wizard, so the three greatest magic workers in Oz put their heads together and deal with the Delves. (Trot, meanwhile, puts on fresh clothes and has her first real meal in days!) The problem solved, Ozma officially bestows Trot with the title Princess of Oz for her bravery and resourcefulness.

I like how Hulan takes all kinds of elements from all over the Oz books and combines them into a new story. And Trot is terrific in this tale. And I think that's about all I have to say about it!

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