Tin: 03/12/20

Tin by Candace Robinson and Amber R. Duell is the first book in the Faerie of Oz. There's also a prequel, Lion, for Kindle readers. Dorothy has lost her aunt and uncle and is days away from losing the farm ten years after her one and only trip to Oz. Now with nothing left to lose, she's finally welcomed back, only to find Oz a much different place than she remembers it.

For fans of Oz pastiches, Tin reads like a romantic blend of the film, Return to Oz (1985) and the miniseries Tin Man (2007). It's more latter than the former, save for the fact that the main character is Dorothy.

The Oz Dorothy returns to appears to be an alternate timeline, one where the events of the books that came out in the ten years after The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). Tip has transitioned in Ozma. Ozma failed in her attempt to defeat Langwidere of Ev and she in turn has invaded the Quadling Country.

In this case, Oz's dystopian state of affairs is a direct result of Dorothy's decade long absence. There is another twist in that this Dorothy isn't canon Dorothy. It's not that she's been rewritten, rather, our Dorothy is a changeling. In this regard, this version of Oz reminds me of the Captive Hearts of Oz four part manga by Ryo Maruya and Mamenosuke Fujimaru (2019)

Like all things Oz, Tin has a placement on the road narrative spectrum. If you don't want spoilers, please stop reading. Dorothy here is scarecrow (literally, in that she is Crow's daughter), traveling with and falling for a minotaur (Tin, who even in the Baum canon is fairly monstrous) (99). Their destination is the wildlands (99) as they are trying to defeat Langwidere and return Oz to self rule. Their route is the labyrinth (99), both for how they spiral in on Langwidere's location and for how the journey affects Dorothy's understanding of who she is.

Four stars

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