The books about The Emerald City.

The books of Volkovs's Magic Land.

In this section, you'll learn about all of the Russian "Magic Land" books. The first of these books were written by Alexander Melentyevich VOLKOV. Later, Sergei Stefanovich SUKHINOV penned a major series of his own. You'll find all of them here, along with those of the other authors who also wrote about Magic Land.

Click on the name of an author, and you'll be taken to a page devoted to the series of books by that author. On that page, you'll see the cover of each book, along with a brief description of it. In the "Links" section, you'll find links to other Internet resources where you can actually read some of the books (in Russian)!

Aleksandr M. Volkov

Sergey S. Sukhinov

Other authors

The Wizard of the Emerald City
(1939)

A little Kansas girl named Ellie and her faithful dog Totoshka find themselves in Magic Land. In order to get home, Ellie must make a [long] journey through that magical country. And she must assist three beings in the granting of their fondest wishes. She meets Strasheela the live scarecrow, then the Iron Woodman and the Cowardly Lion, and the four of them continue on to the Emerald City to see the mighty wizard Goodwin the Great and Terrible, in order to ask him to grant those fondest wishes. But after a multitude of adventures, they unmask Goodwin, and he turns out to be a perfectly ordinary balloonist from Kansas, blown there long ago by a windstorm. In spite of that, he does fulfill the wishes of all three of Ellie's friends, and Ellie herself returns home with the help of a pair of Silver Shoes.

URFIN JUS AND HIS WOODEN SOLDIERS
(1963)

A sly, wicked joiner named Urfin Jus, who lives in Blue Land, gets his hands on a powder of life. The malicious joiner constructs an army of wooden soldiers, brings them to life with the powder, and orders them to conquer the Emerald City. Goodwin's successor Strasheela the Wise, Din Gior the long-bearded soldier, Faramant the Guardian of the Gates, and armed townspeople defend their beautiful city with great heroism. But there is a traitor in their midst, Ruf Bilan, and he opens the gates to the enemy. Finding themselves in captivity, Strasheela and the Iron Woodman send their friend Kaggi-Karr the crow to Kansas to seek out Ellie. Ellie, her uncle Charlie Black (a one-legged sailor), and Totoshka head for Magic Land to rescue their friends. Arriving in Magic Land after many adventures, the friends free Urfin Jus's captives, and later they defeat the wooden army. They send Urfin into exile and leave him alone with himself to think about his wicked deeds. Then Ellie and her uncle return home.

THE SEVEN UNDERGROUND KINGS
(1964 )

Traitorous Ruf Bilan, fleeing from justice via an underground passage, ends up in Underground Land a huge cavern below Magic Land, inhabited by the Ore-Diggers, where he accidentally wrecks the Sacred Spring with its Soporific Water, and thus, along with it, the centuries-old system of the land, whereby seven kings rule, one king at a time, and six of them are put to sleep while the seventh takes his turn and rules for a month. At about the same time, Ellie and her cousin Alfred, after wandering through a cavern in Iowa, likewise end up in Underground Land, and her Magic Land adventures begin anew. The kings conclude that Ellie is a fairy and hope that she will restore the Soporific Water for them. But this she cannot do. So Totoshka makes his way to the surface with a letter, and their friends from the Emerald City rush to the kids' rescue. Using a water pump, a squad of Winkies, under the direction of the craftsman Lestar, coax the Soporific Water up from the depths of the earth, and they put all seven of the kings to sleep at one time. When they awaken, they have forgotten about being kings, and become commoners along with their fellow Undergrounders. After that, the friends propose that the Undergrounders resettle on the surface. When it's all over, Ellie, Alfred, and Totoshka head for home on the back of Oyho the huge dragon. But before that, Ellie summons the fairy Ramina, Queen of the Field Mice, who predicts, sadly, that Ellie will never see her friends again.

THE FIERY GOD OF THE MARRANS
(1968)

Following his unsuccessful conquest of Magic Land and his banishment by its residents, Urfin Jus has been living for ten years in solitude in his old hut, with Topotun the Bear and Eot Ling the Wooden Clown for company. He tends to his garden, but he still has dreams of again becoming the monarch of Magic Land. One day, Carfax the giant eagle plummets to the ground not far from him, after being wounded in combat with another eagle. Urfin nurses the noble bird back to health. Then, with the aid of Carfax and a cigarette lighter accidentally dropped by Charlie Black, he presents himself to the backward Marran race (the Leapers) as a Fiery God able to produce fire at will, which they themselves cannot do. After winning them over, he commands them to make war on their neighbors. The Marrans conquer, first, Violet Land, and then the Emerald Island (as the Emerald City is now called, after a canal has been dug around it). But Ellie's younger sister Annie and her friend Tim come to the aid of the Magic Landers. They ride there on mechanical mules that feed on solar energy. Using an all-seeing magic box, a magic circlet, and a volleyball, they ultimately defeat the self-styled god, who flees in disgrace.

THE YELLOW FOG
(1970)

Five thousand years ago, when Hurricap, the creator of Magic Land, was still living, a wicked giantess-witch Arachna made an appearance there. She inflicted all manner of trouble on the people of Magic Land (except for the Gnomes who were her subjects): windstorms, floods, and earthquakes, which she knew how to conjure up. Hurricap determined to rid the land of this evildoer, and he plunged her into a long-lasting sleep. And now, five ages have gone by; Hurricap is no longer around, and Arachna awakens, wicked and malicious as ever. After learning from her Gnomes' chronicles about all that has passed during her long sleep, Arachna decides to seize power in Magic Land. But its people prove unwilling to give up their freedom, and so Arachna inflicts a lethal yellow fog on them. Once again, the people from beyond the mountains come to their aid: Annie, Tim, Charlie the sailor, and the little dog Artoshka. They fashion an enormous iron giant, Tilly-Willy, and the giant, with the assistance of Carfax the giant eagle, eventually defeats the witch. The yellow fog disappears, and once again the people of Magic Land see the blue sky and the bright sun.

THE MYSTERY OF THE DESERTED CASTLE
(1975)

A spaceship from the distant planet Rameria approaches the Earth, with the aim of conquering and enslaving it. After looking the planet over, the Extraterrestrials find what appears to them to be a safe spot. As it turns out, it's Magic Land, but the newcomers have no idea that there's anything magical about it. They are made up of the Menvits (the masters) and the Arzaks (their slaves). The Menvits are masters of a hypnotic gaze, and they use it to reduce other people to slavery. And so, the Menvits endeavor to take over our planet, and they want to begin with Magic Land. But their efforts misfire. The people from the Outer World (Annie, Tim, and Alfred) again come to their aid, and there are new adventures aplenty. Finally, with the help of the mice, they run a pipeline of Soporific Water to Hurricap's castle, which the newcomers have taken over, and they put the Menvits to sleep. The Arzaks supply themselves with emeralds, which, as it happens, free people from the Menvits' hypnotic gaze, and they set out for home with the hope of liberating their fellow Arzaks there.

The artwork on this site, unless otherwise noted, is by Leonid Vladimirsky.