SON OF A WITCH

Ten years after Dorothy "liquidated" the Wicked Witch of the West, conditions Over the Rainbow are dire. People are beaten, and their faces scraped off. The government is rotten. Rebellion goes unchecked. Liir, a kind of wandering slacker, recalls his adventures with Dorothy, encounters enchanted creatures, and undergoes gruesome hardships. Author/narrator Gregory Maguire's soft, fuzzy delivery is alive with good intentions but lacks the flair of a professional voice actor. Maguire's low-energy reading, combined with the rambling nature of the imaginative narrative, prevents this from being the top-notch audiobook it might have been. For all its moody cleverness, SON OF A WITCH feels like a setup for things yet to come. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]