Next up from the 2016 issue of Oziana was "The Rinkitink Conspiracy in Oz" by Baruch Adelman. This one misses the mark, in that it's more of an appendix to Rinkitink in Oz instead of an extrapolated new ending, so I can see why it didn't win. There are four chapters, and each one is how the story ended told from the point of view of four different characters: Rinkitink, Roquat, Dorothy, and Bilbil. Dixie Dingus is a reporter for The Emerald Examiner (apparently one of the less well-read newspapers in Oz) and has been tasked with getting the scoop on the real events. Rinkitink and Roquat give wildly diverging tales that make them look good. Dorothy maintains the published version is the correct one, but Dixie pokes enough holes in it that she, the reader, and even Dorothy have doubts. Bilbil's account is probably the most accurate, but it's also the shortest and least exciting, which is probably the point. I think this would have worked fine as a standalone story, but not as part of the book itself.
The next item in that issue is "The Adventures of King Rinkitink" by Andrew J. Heller, which was the winner and published as part of the published edition of King Rinkitink, so I can skip that. I'm going to be out of town next weekend, so I don't know if I'll get a chance to discuss the next one then, but it's short so I will try.
No comments:
Post a Comment