Wicked, the first book in The Wicked Years |
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| Author | Gregory Maguire |
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| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Published | 1995–2011 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
The Wicked Years is a series of novels by Gregory Maguire that present a revisionist take on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, its 1939 film adaption, and related books. The first novel, published in 1995, was Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, a book detailing the life of the infamous villain from Baum's books, now called "Elphaba". The novel was a huge success, and was later adapted into a smash hit musical in 2003.
A sequel, Son of a Witch, was published in 2005, and detailed the life of Elphaba's son Liir. A third novel was published in 2008, titled A Lion Among Men; the protagonist being the Cowardly Lion, now called 'Brrr'. Lion was the first book to introduce the title "Wicked Years". A fourth and final book titled "Out of Oz" is set to be released on November 1, 2011. Its promotional info reads "will feature all sorts of magical mayhem, with the Emerald City plotting an attack on Munchkinland, while the Cowardly Lion runs for his life. Young Dorothy pops in for 'something more than a cameo."[1]
Though these books are set in the land of Oz it is a very different land of Oz than is seen in the book by L. Frank Baum, and unlike the land of Oz these books are not intended for children. This land of Oz is beset with many social problems like the discrimination of sentient animals (called Animals in the book) and discrimination between the Gillikin and other humanoid races in Oz. As many of the protagonists in the Wizard of Oz are now either antagonist or neutral it also takes a cynical look at the land of Oz.
The first book is told through the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West (called Elphaba), an outcast aspiring social reformer with an allergy to water. The second is told through the perspective of her son Liir who is trying to find his half-sister Nor and incidentally finishes some of Elphaba's work. The third was told through the Cowardly Lion.
The Grimmerie (a variation on the words 'Grimoire' and 'gramarye') is a fictional book of spells in The Wicked Years universe. In both the original novels and the stage adaptation, the Grimmerie is written in a language that the people of Oz cannot read; in the novels, this is because the book came from Earth and is written in English, whereas in the musical, it is said to be written in the "lost language of spells". The Grimmerie is also the title of a behind-the-scenes book about the musical, published in the year 2005 (ISBN 1-4013-0820-1).
In the novel, the Grimmerie contains information on various supernatural creatures, including angels and an entire section on "Evil Particulars" (i.e. demons), methods of poisoning water and breeding a docile population, as well as diagrams of instruments of torture and weapons which Elphaba considers "too vile to use". It also contains:
In the musical, the Grimmerie is a pivotal instrument in Elphaba's magical powers. It contains a variety of incantations, written in a strange language, that allow her to perform various spells throughout the musical; the contents are considerably less gruesome than those of its novel counterpart.
http://www.ology.com/arts/gregory-maguires-out-oz-hit-bookstores-november
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