Review: A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
Note: I'm feeling very ranty today. You've been warned..
A Lion Among Men (Book Three in The Wicked series)
by Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire is a really hit-or-miss author for me. Some of his books I really enjoy reading. Mirror Mirror was excellent. Others are unbelievably awful. Lost was so insufferable for its “quirky”-but-actually-irritating characters. Then there’s the Wicked series. People really seem to love or hate the first book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. I was excited at the idea of it; my favorite series as a child was L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books. When I finally read it, I fell flat on that “Well, gee, that kinda sucked” bandwagon. The plot seemed all over the place with little resolution, and many of the characters were so flat and passionless that I couldn’t care whether they lived or died. I actually enjoyed Son of a Witch more, which seemed to go against the general reaction, but even that wasn’t a great book. Just slightly above mediocre, really. But like I said, the Wizard of Oz series provided some of my best childhood memories, so like a fool who has been warned I keep reading these books, even though I know better.
Note: If you haven’t read any of the Wicked books, it’s definitely not a series you can read out of order. In fact, I’m not sure it’s a series you can read over an extended period of time. There are so many narrative threads carried over from one book to the next (none of which ever reach some sort of conclusion) that if it’s been a while since you read the previous book, you’ll probably have to re-read it to make sure you’ve got everything straight.
So Book III follows the Cowardly Lion as he struggles to interview Yackle, a mysterious oracle that he believes can tell him the location of the Grimmerie. However, she turns the tables by asking questions of him, triggering flashbacks back to his childhood and the constant suckitude his life has been up until this point. (Note to author: Look, would it kill you to make a happy character? Next time write a book about someone who has been having a damn good time in Oz during all this political upheaval. There’s gotta be someone.) Yackle also reveals much of her own life story as the armies of the Munchkins and the Emerald City march closer and closer to the convent the two are staying in. To this convergence a dwarf and his troop of followers brings the Clock of the Time Dragon, a mysterious mechanical device with a talent for revealing secrets and the future…
What to say? This book sucks. All the Cowardly Lion does is whine about how much his life has sucked and make excuses for all the cowardly things he’s done in the past. He’s a bit player in the world, always enough of an outcast that he doesn’t witness anything juicy or get involved in a major scheme. He’s mocked by Oz’s media for being a dandified pouf of a lion…and really, that’s all he is. He’s so annoying.
A Lion Among Men also contains one of the most awkward sex scenes I’ve ever read as Gregory Maguire attempts to describe the lovemaking of the Cowardly Lion and a feisty little Ivory Tiger. Really. I know the guy loves to write his sex scenes and all, but couldn’t he have skipped it in this book?
Maguire is still capable of turning a pretty phrase, and his writing style remains as distinctive as ever. But the plot development of this book just blows. Literally NOTHING happens for the first four-fifths of this book as Brrr (the Lion; I just realized I never actually mentioned his name) and Yackle stare at each other and ponder moldy, musty memories. Finally, in the last few pages the plot makes a few fitful starts forward but by then you’re too irritated to care.
OK guys. I know this book came out last year so I’m sure many of you have already read it. Tell me why I’m wrong and that it’s actually a good book. No, really. I’m very curious to hear what other people thought of this book -or the Wicked series in general.
To read more about A Lion Among Men, buy it or add it to your wishlist, click here.