I decided to retry this one after learning that Maguire is releasing another Oz book entitled A Lion Among Men, which will center around the Cowardly Lion.

This book picks off pretty much where Wicked ends. This time it centers around Liir, the bastard child of the Wicked Witch, who has recently passed on. The young man is looking to define his own place in the new world order as Oz shifts leadership and he must contend with the fact that he is unsure about his own parentage.

One of the things he is compelled to do is search out his missing half-sister, Nor, whom readers of the previous volume know ended up badly. It is as part of this search, that he finds himself traveling through much of Oz. This gives him an opportunity to travel the world his mother once played an important role in.

He also gets to know a Munchkin girl named Candle, who is softspoken but has great musical talent. The two become friends and, perhaps, a little bit more.

During his journey, Liir, finds himself serving in the military and meeting important people from the Princess Nestoya to Glinda, and in all fairness, he is treated well by all. He is an everyman that finds himself rising to the occasion to do good, or at least the best that he can.

I really found myself dawn into Liir's story this time, which was something I had a great deal of difficulty doing the last time around. The writing is just as rich as most of Maguire's other books. He also embeds wonderful social and political criticism in the tale in a way that is just not often seen in today's literature.