A Lion Among Men

The Wicked Years, Volume 3

By: Gregory Maguire

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

In the much-anticipated third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion.

While civil war looms in Oz, a tetchy oracle named Yackle prepares for death. Before her final hour, a figure known as Brrr - the Cowardly Lion - arrives searching for information about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Abandoned as a cub, his path from infancy is no Yellow Brick Road. In the wake of laws that oppress talking animals, he avoids a jail sentence by agreeing to serve as a lackey to the warmongering Emperor of Oz.

A Lion Among Men chronicles a battle of wits hastened by the Emerald City's approaching armies. Can those tarnished by infamy escape their sobriquets to claim their own histories, to live honorably within their own skins before they're skinned alive?

Gregory Maguire's new novel is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics.

©2008 Gregory Maguire (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

Oh Burr

Once again what a story. The life of an animal living among humans and how humans treat animals.... Thank you John McDonough for telling to story, I love listening to you.

not as expected

there were some very good interesting sideline stories that tied the other books together with us. But for the most part a very boring telling of the life of the Lion. I would have much rather heard more about the Scarecrow or the tin Woodsman.

A very BIG story...

It's funny, but for such simply told stories (in many ways) ...the depth of detail accumulates very quietly. The story is BIG and it is ushered forwards from a different characters perspective in each book in the series. It's not simply a re-visiting of the neighborhood of a previously told story... it's a forwarding of a much bigger story. And before I knew it, ...the story had acquired a LOT of very rich details along the way. It's Elpheba's story, and Leer's too, and Ozma's ...and the Cumberland Witch's, ...and... Yackel, and Brrrrr.... , and.... Nor, ...and ...Shell, ...and... (Note: since this is all "audible" ...I really don't know how to spell these names correctly <lol>).

Still worth the listen.

After coming off of an excellent story line it seemed that the author found it hard to find his way to the second part of the story. It is still interesting, although to me, not quite as engaging. Although that could have had something to do with switching readers. It is never a good idea to do this in a series, but most especially not to the author! They write a great story, but usually always are crappy readers. I am getting ready to start the 3rd book in the series and am hoping it will be better again, as it is back to the original reader.

Final book explains ties up alot

Much is slowly explained but not everything. There's music in between some chapters that is just bizarre. Glad original narrator from first book is back.

An amazing intelligent story.

This entire book series is written in such an intelligent way for adults, but this one still captures the cuteness and lightheartedness of animal stories like "Wind In The Willows" or "Redwall", mixed with the fantasy of "Lord Of The Rings", but in its own style, and still told in a very smart way, you can't help but falling in love with all the characters, especially "Brrr", I felt like I was watching an awesome play in my mind when I read it, Gregory Maguire has a gift of making you feel like you're really the main character, I definitely felt like I was "Brrr" in this story, and this audiobook doesn't disappoint, John McDonough's narration skills really puts you in the story, he puts the right amount of emphasis and feeling with all the characters and the context of the story, hes amazing to hear, this is definitely a must have, both the book and audiobook.

Great

I like this book and hope he writes more about OZ

great book

another great addition to the series. as a person who has loved any storey to do with OZ. I feel in love with this series because it gave a different perspective of the witch.

Philosophical and wordy but worth a listen.

Not as interesting as Wicked or even Son of a Witch. However, I did enjoy the philosophical pondering even when they caused the tempo of the story to lag.

intriguing

I love the voice changes it brings you in and you can picture the whole thing