Visitors from Oz: The Wild Adventures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman

By Martin Gardner

Book Overview

No fable in this century has captured the American imagination more than L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. In Visitors from Oz, Martin Gardner, venerable storyteller and author of the bestselling The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031219353X
• ISBN13: 9780312193539
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Length: 189 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 0.5" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book

I am a HUGE Oz fan and I love this book. It's so exciting and addictive that I read it in one sitting. I especially appreciated the jokes. Unlike most humor today, they weren't offensive and were actually quite witty. I also found the portrayals of the characters to be faithful to Baum's books. The elements from "Alice In Wonderland" woven into the story were a little strange and slightly out of place, but since I love Alice too, I didn't have a problem with it. This is a wonderful book, but I can see how some people wouldn't like it. You have to like the style of writing and humor or else you might find it too corny.

Not for purists, but fun for the rest of us

Martin Gardner has given us a delightful addition to Oziana. In this book, denizens of Oz (Dorothy, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow) come to our world via a Klein Bottle. It's unlike any previous Oz book. In it we find the Internet, the gods of Mount Olympus (Apollo "used to take the sun around the earth, but he had to stop doing this when astronomers proved that the earth went around the sun"), characters from Alice's Wonderland and Looking-Glass Land, and the bear detective Sheerluck Brown. Oz purists may disapprove of all this, but I think it's great fun. "Visitors From Oz," with its humor and originality, is one of the very best of the post-Baum/Thompson Oz books.

ALMOST Perfect

Very good, except for a few things a nitpicky person like me picks up on. Martin Gardner keeps on endorsing other books of his (namely 'Annotated Alice'). The by far dumbest thing in the book was Scarecrow/Tinman comedy stint, forcing u to listen to Who's on First

A truly worthy addition to the Oz series

Awesome. I sat in awe reading the magical text of this book. I know some Oz purists complain that "Oz doesn`t have computers and telephones" and that crap. Just shut up for a minute and be enchanted by this brilliant book. I love mythology and thought it was brilliant to have the Oz characters interact with Jupiter and Mercury etc. Sam Gold is a very believable character and is my favorite character. Buffolo Boggs is sinisterly evil and will do whatever he can to stop Sam,Dorothy et al,even murder. Martin Gardner comes up with a brilliant solution to the question of why we mortals never found Oz. Also,the summaries of the previous Oz books are great for new readers(and if you already know these books you can just skip them,thats what I did). From Glinda recieving the E-mail to the brutal attack on Buffolo Bogg`s yacht to the Oz characters returning via the Klein Bottle,this is truly a great read.

A Worthy Book in the Oz Series

I found this book to be a worthy member of the Oz series. While it is more enjoyable if you have a knowledge of the previous books, even a newcomer with only knowledge from the movie can enjoy it.It has a sense of humor to the series without making fun of it and fans and novices will enjoy it. A quick read, perhaps better use of illustrations would have added to the overall enjoyment of the book. Hopefully more books will be coming from the author.