Out of Oz

The Wicked Years, Volume 4

By: Gregory Maguire

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 28 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

The stunning conclusion to the smash New York Times best-selling series the Wicked Years

Gregory Maguire's Wicked Years series became national best sellers and the basis for a hit Tony-winning Broadway musical. Now, Maguire returns with the final installment in his transformative work, a thrilling and compulsively readable saga in which the fate of Oz is decided at last.

Once peaceful and prosperous, the spectacular Land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who's knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes. That Dorothy.

Yet amid all this chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now it is up to Rain to take up her broom - and her legacy - in an Oz wracked by war.

The stirring, long-awaited conclusion to the best-selling series that began with Wicked, Out of Oz is a magical journey rife with revelations and reversals, reprisals and surprises - the hallmarks of the unique imagination of Gregory Maguire.

Return to Oz: listen to another title in the Wicked Years series.; Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2011 Gregory Maguire (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

I absolutely LOVE everything about this series!

Would you listen to Out of Oz again? Why?

I've read the books already and would love it if I could afford to listen to them all as well. Gregory Maguire is an amazingly creative author and Jack McDonough couldn't be a better storyteller.

What other book might you compare Out of Oz to and why?

No comparison, really. Except for the other books in the series.

Which scene was your favorite?

I really liked the scene where Lady Glinda and Rain cast the 'Winter Upon Water' spell on Cherrystone's and his Dragons.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The land of make believe becomes a reality.

Any additional comments?

Keep 'em coming Mr. Maguire! I've already read 'Lost', 'Mirror Mirror', 'Confessions ..' and the whole 'Wicked' series. I'd love to see 'Wicked' on the big screen ...!!

Worth the Wait!

I've waited a long time for this - and it was only over too fast! There is some serious tying up of loose ends, some SHOCKS that had me in TEARS, and I must say, it's time now to listen to the whole series, because I'm sure I missed stuff. But Brrr is back, as lovable and neurotic as ever, we find out what happens to all of Elphaba's progeny (like that green baby!), and meet so many of the characters from the previous 3 novels. I can't say much more without giving stuff away, but if you've loved the first 3, you will love this! I sure did!

Loved it.

What did you love best about Out of Oz?

I feel that it's a fitting end to the Wicked Years. It wraps things up nicely, and the author answers some questions that seem to arise. Gregory adds some pretty wicked humor at the right times to give a good chuckle. Like wise, if you've fallen in love with any of the characters you'll experience tragedy as well. Most of all I love how the author re-wrote the world of Oz so that you find out that the Wizard of Oz may not have been everything youve known it to be.

What did you like best about this story?

Oh, there's so much. I guess, how attracted I got to some of the characters, and how much I detested some others.

Which scene was your favorite?

Grandma Beaver was pretty great.

Any additional comments?

I agree with many of the other listeners who have listened to Out Of Ozz and the earlier books. These books aren't for everyone. At times Gregory seems to just ramble on and you begin to wonder what he's getting at. There's a few things I would like to point out with The Wicked Years. To start with, this is not a series for your young daughter. If you watched the musical and then decided to read the book, Wicked, be aware that this series was written with a mature audience in mind.

This is a very introspective series. As you listen ( or read) you can somewhat see the author's own philosophies and questions that he's writing into his book. You can take it at face value of whats going on in the story or you can also follow his thought trains. He tends to derail sometimes and play around with some ideas. I think this is why many may not appreciate it. It's also not a book/ or series for people who think that every story needs to end on a positive note. As I said its introspective and I feel the author writes his own thoughts on life into the series.

To the point

Not the ending I was expecting, but that's good. I like being kept on my toes. Nothing is what you'd expect in the land of OZ and following the lineage of the Wicked Witch has left me wonderstruck. I know it's over, but I want more.

disappointed

this story was very richly detailed but also very slow to action. I was so incredibly disappointed at this story line. While it was a good story by itself, as tied to the wicked series it wasn't at all. There really weren't many revelations and I had hoped, in this very last book, that we would see tied ends, so to speak, for all of the characters that we have come to know and love and hate and understand. I had hoped to hear of Happy Endings and said endings, of just endings and unfair endings, but instead what was delivered was a selection of confused not really endings that either didn't make sense , didn't reveal anything, or just didn't say anything. we were left with hasty unexplained departures and quickened arrivals. I could definitely start to feel, more and more as I got through the book, the author's sense of rushing because he was no longer interested. for example, when Dorothy finally departs Oz for the final time we barely get a couple of minutes of an unexpected, unexplained description of her departure as hearsay after the fact, breezed over. There was no closure at the end of the book and not a feeling of the future of possibility for the character. Instead, the note that the author chose to leave off on, felt like a book, a story, a life, that ended midsentence. I feel like a lion Among Us was the last story that really told us something and shared something with us about us and all of these characters. Maybe it was my fault for having so many expectations of the book, but they were also hopes and wishes, because as I went through the series I was sucked into its magic as well. After reading the last page of this book, that magic had dissipated and disappointment had set in. I hope with all my might that Gregory McGuire will give us one last novel, perhaps later when Oz has come back to his heart, even if short-lived. Oz deserves her closer too.

I enjoyed it thoroughly

This one turned out better than I could have hoped. I particularly enjoyed the mixture of the mystical, ominous prose that the Wicked series is known for with a large amount of humor. Glinda and Dorothy, in particular, are always good for a chuckle, even a belly laugh or two.

It's very important to note here that John McDonough is a NATIONAL TREASURE, who brings this material to life in a way that few could, in my estimation. It remains a minor tragedy that he wasn't engaged to narrate Son of a Witch.

I want more!

I enjoyed the complexity of storyline. I also appreciated the vivid imagination of Mr. Gregory.

Expected much more

I was excited to read the last book of the series, wanted to know how it ended. But sadly it ended a sad disappointment.

Pandering

It was a satisfying enough conclusion to the Wicked book series, but I thought the constant quoting of other Oz sources to be a bit lazy writing. The musical Wicked even follows a different plot, let alone that Wizard of Oz and The Wiz are different properties. Why did Maguire have to include so many references to these other Oz stories??

Don't skip this one

This final story of the series is more like the first in that the story moves right along. It also has more ties to the story we know from the Wizard of Oz movie. If you read the first three, then don't skip this one.