Excited For the 'Wicked' Sequel, 'Out of Oz'?

The master of the L. Frank Baum reboot, and revisionist renditions of other inherently evil 'fairy tales' like Snow White, Gregory Maguire's gripping best-selling 'Wicked Years' series concludes this fall when Out of Oz: The Final Volume In The Wicked Years premieres on November 11.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West began the saga in 1995 with the sordid tale of Elphaba, the green girl with a grim existence and the political, social, and ethical environments that drive her destiny to become the infamous character.  

Son of a Witch followed in 1995, chronicling the story of Elphaba's son Liir. The continuing narrative of a fictional family could easily grow stale or cloying, and some critics panned it as such, but Maguire still delivered the most darkly ambiguous takes on good and evil in the Wicked sequel. In an interview from the Son of a Witch audio CD, Gregory Maguire gave two reasons for writing the book: "the many letters from young fans asking what happened to Nor, last seen as a chained political prisoner, and seeing the Abu Ghraib torture photographs."

Maguire's website describes the story as "seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion—the once tiny cub defended by Elphaba..." in 2008's A Lion Among Men, exploring enigmatic concepts of war and destiny.

The quartet will close with the release of Out of Oz, out this fall. The following is a synopsis from goodreads.com:

" The marvelous land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who’s knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes, that Dorothy."

"Amid all this chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now, Rain will take up her broom in an Oz wracked by war."

"The stirring, long-awaited conclusion to the extraordinary bestselling series begun with Wicked, Out of Oz is a magical journey rife with revelations and reversals, reprisals and surprises — the hallmarks of the brilliant and unique imagination of Gregory Maguire."

For those who can't stand the anticipation until autumn, it is rumored that when Gregory Maguire’s Facebook page reaches over 25,000 fans, the first of several excerpts from Out of Oz will be available to those fans who have joined. (If any other fans can find confirmation, please share.)

 Did Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men leave you less interested in the legendary lost girl's allegory, as some critics have complained? Or are you eager to read the culmination of Elphaba's clan's story?