Not in Kansas by R.G. Alexander

[reviews_and_ramblings]

The story is nice, maybe a little too short, only 52 pages.

It's a revisiting of The Wizard of Oz story, with Dorothy who here is named Kansas (like the United State) and it's not from Kansas, but from Iowa. Kansas is a independent wealthy man who decided to live like an hermit in his family land. When he is swept away from a tornado, no one notices his absence, and so Kansas is free to enjoy is adventure.

He awakes in a strange world, inhabited by half-man half-beast being; the first two he meets are a cat like man and a bird like woman, a strange couple indeed. When the two find this strange being with bare skin and blue eyes, they think that it would be a nice gift for their king and decide to bring Kansas to him, even if the cat-like man would like to have a taste. In this world sensuality is the normal behavior and sex is almost a recreational activity; Kansas will discover that even a simple bath in a pond has sexual consequences, and not thanks to another being, but since the waters are alive.

When Kansas arrives to the king's palace, the first human-like man he meets is Z, a wizard. He is almost "normal" if not for the fact that he is extremely handsome and gold colored. Z. tells Kansas that, if he wants to have the chance to go back to home, he should refuse the king... and here maybe The Wizard of Oz mixed with One Thousand and One Nights. And here maybe is where I'd like the story to be a bit longer: there is an acceleration that brings the reader to the end of the story when it would be interesting to have more; the relationship between the King and Kansas is only hinted, and almost chaste in comparison to all the other sexual experiences Kansas had before "consorting" with the King.

Naughty thought on the title: Not in Kansas means that the story is not setting in Kansas like The Wizard of Oz, or that the King is not allowed to "enter" Kansas (and I don't mean the State...)

Anyway as I said the story is nice and enjoyable, more funny than serious; this is not the classical fantasy tale heavy in details, but it's more a funny escapade in a world that maybe is the dream world in Kansas' mind.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/not-in-kansas

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Anne Cain