Son of a Witch

Son of a Witch, first published in 2005, is the sequel to the novel Wicked, and therefore the second novel in Gregory Maguire's series now entitled The Wicked Years. It follows the trials, travails, and travels of the eponymous Liir, who is technically only very plausibly the son of the erstwhile and so-called "Wicked Witch of the West," Elphaba Thropp.

When Wicked came out, it had a certain freshness: a newness of concept that even other Oz fiction had not trod. (I consider here only the professionally-written and published Oz fanfiction.) Son of a Witch has lost that freshness. Moreover (or, perhaps, instead), where The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and perhaps even Wicked) had a certain timelessness to them, Son of a Witch feels very much like what it is: a novel of the early 21st century.

Its last strong connection to the Oz of the novels is Dorothy Gale herself, who is probably the only character in the entire series about whom it can honestly be said, at all times, that she means well; she features only briefly, in a few flashbacks. As most fanfics become over time, The Wicked Years' second installment is a thing in and of of itself more than it is an work based on Oz — a continuation of Maguire's work, rather than of Baum's.

This is not an inherently bad thing, but it should be recognized.

(possibly continued tomorrow)