Son of a Witch CD : A Novel

Submitted by Reviewer (not verified) on Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 23:32

Fantasy

HarperAudio: Son of a Witch CD

Made	HarperAudio
Date	2005-09-27
Media	Audio CD
Catalog	Book
Sales Rank	287662
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price	US$39.95
Our Price*	US$26.37

*Price subject to change

Amazon.com US$26.37

Amazon Canada CDN$31.35

Reviews:

Rating 3.0/5 from 206 reviews

Very Dull

Rating: 2/5 2008-07-23

I found this book extremely dull. I can't believe this is the same author who wrote Wicked. I found myself wanting to quit this book or at least read another book along with it because it is slow and it rambles. Mr. Maguire flips back and forth between the Liir now and the Liir from Wicked. Sometimes there's no warning of the flipping. It's in the middle of the chapters and there's no rhyme or reason. Just sad that he felt the need to write this book without a clear picture in his head of what he wanted. I think this is a typical middle book of a series which he's obviously writing now since Amazon has up as a subtitle Wicked Years 2. Middle books usually are just about what is going to happen. Which based on the ending I think will be something wild. Oh well. I'll chalk this one up as a rush job and try to remember to pick up another one of his books sometime in the future.

decent enough read

Rating: 4/5 2008-07-19

*spoiler alert*
liir was such indecisive character. He spent most of his time either escaping reality or thinking about how possible it was that elphaba was his mum. The story was extremely slow at times, but as if on que would pick up the pace once it got too droll. I didn't really have anything against the excessive self discovery/realisation bits, but I was definitely pissed off at how after all that happened, he was still the same wishy washy character he was at the start of the book. After all his wanting to be emotionally attached to someone, he just HAD to go and mess things up by being indecisive. Ah well, if only the end didn't leave you in the dark about so many things, like: Is he a bi? Has realising who his mum is, changed his perception of himself? Did the chic abondon him because of the baby(or his divided affections), or did she really try to lead the soldiers away from him?

Wicked was Brilliant, this book was better!

Rating: 5/5 (2 out of 2 think this is helpful) 2008-07-11

I enjoyed "Wicked" and felt it was a brilliant book. But I have actually enjoyed "Son of a Witch" more. "Son of a Witch" does not spend as much time examining the nature of evil as "Wicked" did, and for that it makes it a marked improvement over the original. It's quick-paced and thoroughly entertaining, a fairly easy read.

Good continuation of Wicked's story, technically clever, but weighed down by insultingly obvious political allegory.

Rating: 3/5 (2 out of 2 think this is helpful) 2008-07-10

Continuing the brilliant tale that was Maguire's first novel, Son of a Witch both exceeds and falls short of Wicked. As in Wicked, the dialogue waxes unrealistically and unnecessarily philosophical at moments, but not enough to really spoil the progress of the story. Maguire clearly picked up a few new words and literary techniques during the intervening decade, and particularly his descriptions of places and emotions are clever and precise beyond our expectations of even the more accomplished novelists of our day. The narrative is disjointed and often seemingly inexplicably so, but I think that Maguire meant to require a bit of thought from his audience. The real story underlying the various adventures and struggles of Liir is his life-defining search for an identity, and Maguire handles this very well. It demands a some extension of empathy and thought from the reader, and therefore rewards us with a story that is deeper and fuller than the words on the pages seem. In contrast, Maguire's allegorical criticism of modern American conservatism is painfully obtuse. I am certainly no fundie, but Maguire's political commentary at times becomes so obvious as to insult one's intelligence. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and look forward to the third book in this series, which promises to garner the sort of mainstream respect for the fantasy genre that authors like Terry Pratchett have been seeking for decades. 7/10.

Very interesting

Rating: 4/5 (1 out of 1 think this is helpful) 2008-07-05

This book is as much a sequel as a side story. Also clearly this is NOT the last in the sequence. The author leaves us with a nice cliffhanger or two. The story is about Liir, probable son of the "Wicked" Witch. Now regarded as a great heroine by many in Oz.
The way the author takes the story with such a different spin is great. The Lion, Tinman and Scarecrow are shown as petty, and childish.
I gave this a 4 because while a good story it is rather slow in the middle. By the way if you have not read the original wizard of Oz and perhaps one or two other original OZ books AND Wicked you will be completely lost. The book spends alomost no time explaining what has gone before.

Editorials:

Product Description

The long-anticipated sequel to the million-copy
bestselling novel Wicked

Beloved novelist Gregory Maguire returns at last to the land of Oz. There he introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts.

What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape -- but what of her powers? Can he find his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in the forbidding prison, Southstairs? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?

For the countless fans who have been dazzled and entranced by Maguire's Oz, Son of a Witch is the rich reward they have awaited so long.

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