This addition to the Oz series was so full of inconsistencies that I felt distracted while reading it. Firstly, and most distractingly, The Shaggy man and Polychrome do not seem to recognize each other despite having spent a whole book together previously. The same book, I should mention, where both characters were first introduced. Also, the love magnet worked differently, and needed to be shown to someone to have an effect on them. Lastly, the Nome King has changed his name, the reason being that he had forgotten it when he drank from the Fountain of Oblivion in The Emerald City of OZ. Only, I distinctly remember Princess Ozma telling him what his name was after he drank from the fountain.

Despite the things mentioned above, Baum continues to actually have a plot and introduce new and exciting characters. Though I did feel like he was repeating some of the same ideas he had in other books, the rose garden/vegetable garden or the similarities between General Jinger and Queen Ann Soforth. The ending was alright, although parts of it were just as easily resolved as you can expect from an Oz book by now, and he finally answered why Toto doesn't talk, although that hardly makes up for everything that is wrong with this book.