This Week's Novella Extract

One minor issue with The Lost Tales of Oz is that it includes two novellas, which take more time to read than short stories. As this is supposed to be a do-it-quick thing I can take just a little time out for on weekends, that means I have to get a little creative when dealing with these. The second novella I may just skip to (or go back to, depending on how the timing works) during my winter vacation when I have a little time to spare, but the first novella is The Other Searches for the Lost Princess by Nathan M. DeHoff, and this is split into three parts, so I can treat each part as a short story. This makes sense, since the whole work is a chronicle of the other search parties in The Lost Princess of Oz, the ones who didn't find Ozma. I started off in the Quadling Country wih "Meeting the Marshmallow Twins: The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman's Journey". It seems to be in part based on the romantic subplot of the movie The Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns, in that one of the Marshmallow Twins is in love with the princess of the China Country. But I'm getting ahead of things. The Scarecrow and Tin Woodman are just going around, asking any Quadling they meet if they've seen Ozma. They soon realize how long this could take, and take a little bit more proactive approach. They reach Bunkum Hill, where they find all kinds of fake news is being produced, and quickly make their way out with the help of two new arrivals, twins Marshal and Marsha Marshmallow. The group then has adventures at a club house (which inevitably getting hit by clubs), some Mystic Monks (who happen to be chipmunks), and a very chatty yak. They eventually make their way to China Country, where the twins part ways with the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, and not long after they find Cayke's golden dishpan and inadvertently help Ugu to reform.

It's a pretty light and frothy story, with some horrible puns on Bunkum Hill that I think L. Frank Baum, a former newsman himself, would truly appreciate. The twins don't really appear to do much, but they're harmless. This novella is off to a promising start.