A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in the Wicked Years (Wicked Years, 3) Paperback – August 25, 2009

This is my favorite of Maguire's Oz series. Not as gory as "Son of a Witch," and continues the story of young Nor, as well as other characters.

All three of the Oz books I've read by the author have been PHENOMENAL; this particular book was the only one (so far) which caused me, in some passages, to laugh -- to LAUGH OUT LOUD! I laughed so heartily while reading a few particular passages (or a line) that I dropped my Amazon Fire! This book contains all of the elements which made the first three of the books I've read in this series instant classics; it's the only one, however, which made me guffaw at times! It's beautifully written (although, as with the first two books, it's better to read this on an e-reading device with a built-in dictionary, as -- at least with me -- the book's vocabulary can be challenging), and its prose and storyline is intimate, sweeping, pulse-pounding and lovely.

L. Frank Baum was absolutely fascinated by (and exemplary of) Yankee ingenuity, and that's part of what made Gregory Maguire such a perfect heir to Baum in WICKED, his 1995 dark revisioning of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ. One of the greatest pleasures of Maguire's novel was to see how Baum's fantasy world of Oz might look from a more sober adult perspective, and though Maguire's own fantasy of what Oz might be ultimately superseded Baum's (which is appropriate, given that both books are about repeated regime changes), Maguire's dystopic fantasy was aided mightily by the efficient clockwork of Baum's plot acting as a motor propelling the events along. You knew that Elphaba would have to wind up in the Vinkus (or "Winkie Country") as the Wicked Witch of the West, and that Dorothy would come along eventually with that fateful bucket of water. (That Dorothy should show up to be merely a remorseful pawn in the extended games of manipulation waged among Elphaba, the Lady Glinda, and the Wizard was not only Maguire's grandest irony but one of the most satisfying parts of his book.) Maguire's first sequel, SON OF A WITCH, suffered greatly from the removal of this Baumian framework. The masterplot of this later work seemed based on the George W. Bush administration rather than anything dreamed up by L. Frank Baum (with Tip, Mombi, and the four-horned cow making only the briefest of appearances to remind us of Baum's own sequel to his first oz novel). Maguire's vision of sexual couplings hidden against a background of oppression and political upheaval seemed a bit adrift and unfocused, and few of the mysteries raised in Maguire's first book received any answer.This new sequel, A LION AMONG MEN, finds Maguire on much firmer ground: we're much more firmly rooted in Baum's fantasyland, with the Cowardly Lion (glimpsed only briefly in WICKED) now taking center stage, aided by the Glass Cat, that Baumian character introduced in THE PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ whose lazy snarkiness made it an absolute natural for inclusion in Maguire's books. Dispatched to interview Yackle, the mysterious old woman who kept appearing at different intervals in Elphaba's life, the Cowardly Lion finds her in the Cloister of St. Glinda not far from the Emerald City, and here we find answers to many of the mysteries from the first book in "The Wicked Years" series: who Yackle is, what happened to Elphaba's Grimmerie, what the inhabitants of the mysterious land of the Glikkus nestled in a far corner of Maguire's Oz are like, and (at last!) what the purpose is of the terrifying Clock of the Time Dragon that haunted the opening sections of WICKED. (We also find out why the Cowardly Lion acquired his adjectival descriptor.) Much is left open, such as the fates of Liir, the true Scarecrow, and (most maddeningly) the missing Ozma, and it's hard to see from how Maguire ends this book as to how the events of THE MAGICAL LAND OF OZ, however distorted, might later come to pass (or even how the Glass Cat will end up eventually at the home of Dr. Pipt). Equally frustrating is the fact that so much of this sequel's action is circumscribed in the Cloister and hemmed in by the Ozian civil wars started since the first book in the series. But even if this work is not quite up to the standards of WICKED, it is certainly quite a great deal stronger and more compelling than SON OF A WITCH.

If you were as excited by the style and language as much as the story of the first two installments of the series, "A Lion Among Men" will be another delightful read for you. Clearly, this volume in Maguire's "Wicked" series deals with the Cowardly Lion, Brrrr. As with the previous books, Maguire suffuses his characters with life and meaning that runs against what appears to be his natural inclination for glibness. As the book progresses, many of the questions that "Wicked" and "Son of a Witch" present are answered and moved forward to the next step.Maguire's language is as enjoyable and fluid as ever, though it feels as though his characters are increasingly more likely to use modern colloquialisms as the series goes on. In every instance, the linguistic anachronisms cause the eye to catch just a little bit longer on the words than necessary. This is most pronounced with Dorothy's dialog, of which there's perhaps more than in any of the other books.Misplaced colloquialisms aside, I loved this book. For me, Maguire's writing falls in that same space as is occupied by Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams in its ability to combine the sublime and the comical into one neat and surprisingly profound package.

The third part of this quadrilogy, was my least favorite so far. It's not bad by any means, but lacks the excitement of the first and second book in the series. In this vast world that Maguire has built, it is interesting to read the point of view of other characters, but I am unconvinced that the Lion (Brr) was the most appropriate choice. While the book is slow at times, the ending is pretty great as we finally get some answers to long time lingering mysteries. I am excited to see how it all wraps up in the final book.

No review, haven’t had time to read it!

I really enjoyed "A Lion Among Men", and felt it an apt title for Mr. Maguire's story of Brrr, the "cowardly" lion, who, due to happenstance, never seems to be able to find his place in this world.I thoroughly enjoyed this third volume of the Wicked Series and found that it satisfied a lot of my curiosity about some of the peripheral characters in the first two volumes. I am absolutely looking forward to volume 4 of this series, as I am sure Mr. Maguire will continue taking us along the path of the characters he has so cleverly taken to new depths through his expansion of Oz.Maguire's style is such that you really can never put his books down, "A Lion Among Men" included, and when you finish one of his titles, you are still hungry for more.I find that the development of Brrr's character through his somewhat doleful life experiences makes a lot of sense and I also enjoyed the depth that was given to the character Yackle, whom I've been curious about since she appeared in Volume I.If you enjoy the Wicked Series, this is a must read!

Tenía dudas de leerlo, ya que, decían que era el menos interesante, pero siento que me conectaron muchas cosas que habían quedado abiertas en los otros libros. Ya estoy lista para iniciar el último y solo espero que termine con lo que tengo en mente.

Roman littérature anglaise , ouvrage de qualité.

Good quality ,, have not read yet !!

If you have read the previous books, do not read this. Please.

Noioso, ho fatto fatica a finirlo. E' in inglese e ci vuole una buona conoscenza della lingua