The Brides of Maracoor

A Novel

By: Gregory Maguire

Narrated by: Debra Wise

The first in a three-book series spun off the iconic Wicked Years from multimillion-copy bestselling author Gregory Maguire, featuring Elphaba’s granddaughter, the green-skinned Rain.

Ten years ago this season, Gregory Maguire wrapped up the series he began with Wicked by giving us the fourth and final volume of the Wicked Years, his elegiac Out of Oz.

But “out of Oz” isn’t “gone for good.” Maguire’s new series, Another Day, is here, twenty-five years after Wicked first flew into our lives.

Volume one, The Brides of Maracoor, finds Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, washing ashore on a foreign island. Comatose from crashing into the sea, Rain is taken in by a community of single women committed to obscure devotional practices.

As the mainland of Maracoor sustains an assault by a foreign navy, the island’s civil-servant overseer struggles to understand how an alien arriving on the shores of Maracoor could threaten the stability and wellbeing of an entire nation. Is it myth or magic at work, for good or for ill?

The trilogy Another Day will follow this green-skinned girl from the island outpost into the unmapped badlands of Maracoor before she learns how, and becomes ready, to turn her broom homeward, back to her family and her lover, back to Oz, which—in its beauty, suffering, mystery, injustice, and possibility—reminds us all too clearly of the troubled yet sacred terrain of our own lives.

Slooooowwww

This has such a slow start. I bought it, so I needed to finish it. The last few chapters finally ramp up the action and make it interesting. Not worth it.

Incredible performance by John McDonough.

What an incredible wrap up to a series of novels I haven't been this invested in since the wheel of time. Characters that you start out hating are beloved by the end. I can understand how the loose ends are completely intentional and while I'm mad about a little bit of it I also kind of like it. I don't know how to explain. I feel particularly challenged on an emotional and intellectual level on what might have happened in some of these situations and to some of the characters. I hadn't read past the original Wizard of Oz book so the twist in this novel completely blew my mind in such a wonderful way.

couldn't stop

As a lover of the Wicked series. I loved this new spin-off. I couldn't stop when I started.

a peak at the beginings

difficulty listening to the voice actor that read this but the story is good.

Amazing Turnaround!

I was slow getting vested in this story. I was so obsessed with the characters from the Wicked series that these new characters felt they were trying to replace friends in my heart. However, about a quarter of the way into the book these new characters had made their way into the family and my heart. I read through this faster than I have ready any book in a very long time. I didn’t think could get more obsessed with the Wicked universe but I was incorrect. I may need therapy.