The Emerald City of Oz (1910) was L. Frank Baum's sixth Oz book, and marks a major departure from the stock plot he used in the previous three stories. Where all the books after Land of Oz involve Dorothy traveling to Oz and having adventures en route, Emerald City permanently installs Dorothy and her family in Oz. From here on out, they aren't what the Encyclopedia of Fantasy calls "portal fantasies," they're self-contained adventures in a world of magic.
That in itself would only be moderately interesting, but Emerald City has another, more important departure from past formula: suspense!
Our story begins not with Dorothy or anyone in the magical land of Oz, but in the subterranean lair of Baum's greatest villain, Roquat the Nome King. Roquat is unhappy because the Oz Expeditionary Force defeated him back in Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy took half his power when she confiscated his Magic Belt. The Nome King wants revenge, and won't tolerate any naysayers. When his Chief Counselor tells him not to be so angry, the King has his guards tie the Counselor up and throw him away.
There are two chief obstacles to the King's desire for revenge. The first is the Deadly Desert which surrounds Oz, and the second is the powerful magic of Ozma and Glinda (including the Magic Belt itself, parked in the Emerald City).
Roquat's chief military advisor, General Blug, suggests digging under the desert, which delights the King, but when Blug refuses to go up against Ozian magic (Nomes are not good at magic), Roquat has him thrown away as well.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch -- or in this case, back on Uncle Henry's farm in Kansas, there's financial trouble. Uncle Henry can't meet his mortgage payments and the bank is going to foreclose. Worse yet, they're both getting too old to support themselves. Dorothy is struck by the paradox that she's a Princess of Oz, a land where jewels and gold are as common as asphalt, but her family in Kansas can't pay their debts. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em are understandably skeptical about this, but Dorothy goes ahead and makes her secret signal to Ozma at four o'clock that afternoon and promptly vanishes.
Where would popular fiction be without mortgages? If you need a reason for a wacky scheme, a treasure hunt, a high-stakes card game, or a benefit show in the old barn featuring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, your local financial institution is always ready to help. Nobody ever declares bankruptcy or restructures the loan. It's pay or die, typically with a ridiculous deadline.
Once in Oz, Dorothy explains the problem. Ozma agrees that the obvious solution is to move the whole Gale household to Oz permanently. Dorothy can be a full-time Princess, she won't spend weeks every year getting shanghaied back to Oz, and her aged aunt and uncle won't have to work themselves into the grave. Ozma decides to wish Henry and Em to Oz the very next day. Dorothy's troubles are over!
Except that they aren't. The Nome King is still bent on revenge. He needs a new General (having thrown away the previous one in a fit of pique), so he offers to promote the next officer in line, Colonel Crinkle. But when Crinkle also refuses to undertake the invasion, Roquat has him purged: "Please take General Crinkle to the torture chamber. There you will kindly slice him into thin slices. Afterward you may feed hm to the seven-headed dogs." Darth Vader's got nothing on Roquat for underling turnover.
That's what makes an effective leader: don't tolerate negativity, motivate your subordinates, and always look for new perspectives.
The Nome King appoints a new commander, a cranky old Nome named Guph. General Guph has the Right Stuff. He's willing to undertake the conquest of Oz and he's comfortable with the threat of getting sliced if he fails. He always shows supreme confidence in himself and his mission.
With nice strategic insight, Guph realizes that since the Nomes can't overcome Ozian magic on their own, they will need allies. He sets out on a diplomatic tour to assemble an Axis of Evil while the hard-working Nomes begin digging the invasion tunnel. Back in Oz, nobody suspects a thing . . .
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