If there's one thing that I love, it's a good fantasy series. Once I got old enough to stay engaged with a story that spanned more than one novel, I realised that stand alone books weren't reallllly enough for me. That's not to say of course that I don't enjoy the simplicity of a stand alone story, I absolutely do, but a good series will always be a weakness of mine. Fantasy is the genre I would say I'm most fond of, a love affair that started with a second hand copy of Magician by Raymond Feist that I begged my mum to buy for me at a garage sale. I loved the smell of the dusty pages and of course I flipped it open and read the first page to see if it gripped me enough to want it. It did. It was such a long time ago that I don't actually remember with any precision what my first reactions were, only a vague sense of being completely enchanted and ready to be sucked down into the world of a young magician. Feist started me down a path I've deviated from but have always loved to walk. My great desire for fantasy of all kinds has fueled a desperate escapism I've indulged for many reasons over the years and I've read a LOT, and widely. Magic delights me, chivalry enacted all sorts of expectations in me that have had varying effects on my relationships with other humans, and fantasy inevitably lead into the land of fairy tales which bred a great and undying fascination with folk lore in me that continues to hurt my cash flow. I've put together a list of my top ten adventures. Some are fantasy, some are not, and all of them have been put in a random order - I cannot play favorites with these. Each picture featured in this article is fan art, because the covers are great but fan art deserves a nod. Each picture can be clicked on to view the original artists posting (most likely on Deviant Art), but the artists handles are also in the captions. Enjoy! The Gentlemen Bastard series by Scott Lynch This is fantasy of my very favorite kind - a dirt encrusted fantasy. The main character is a wily, clever, damn near anti-hero set against a realistic and gritty medieval setting. Locke Lamora is a victim of circumstance who resolutely refuses to be a victim and takes any and every chance to better his position. He is a nefarious con-man among a tribe of con-men raised specifically for the task of screwing people out of their money and he is SO, SO GOOD AT IT. Scott Lynch knows how to write a despicable young man with an incredible backstory. He releases information in tiny snippets for you to build up a very tolerable fondness for this charming ruffian. At one point Locke convinces an entire crew that he's a sea faring veteran. He learns how to be a captain in a matter of months. He's so good at being convincing that he pulls it off. What? I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes complicated plots, horrible twists, black mail, a bit of violence and the occasional cry. Each book is set in a different place as well, the back drop over which these plots occur is so varied, it never gets boring. Book one: bustling city. Book two: the open seas and high society gambling dens. Book three: his universes equivalent of a Venetian city. Book four: I ACTUALLY HAVEN'T READ, I'M SAVING IT BECAUSE I HAVE A PROBLEM FINISHING A SERIES OF BOOKS.
Alchemy and various other arcane arts are among some subjects that can be studied at The University, although fae magic and demonic forces do exist - life is still punctuated by dangers and although arcanists have advanced society, magic use is still looked upon uneasily by most. The Church stopped magical persecution only recently and fear is still an ingrained part of society. The general populous try to maintain their distance from things they don't really understand. Kvothe, our main character, does spend some part of his youth as an orphan, beggar and pickpocket on the streets of Tarbean before finding his way into the University by the skin of his teeth and his talent with a lute. He spends a lot of time almost messing everything up repeatedly. Rothfuss writes characters that are utterly real despite being steeped in a world of mythological and very real magic by turns. The series is unfinished as yet, besides a recently released novella based on a side character. Rothfuss likes to take his time about writing though, so seeing as Rome wasn't built in a day, we'll all settle down to wait for the third and final installment, and move on to other books. The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett I once posted a photo of my copy of book three on my Instagram and Peter V Brett liked it! This series is full of new magic, demons, runic power, martial arts, caste systems, fortune telling, the fall of kings... It's a vast new universe and I love the way it's set up. In terms of how brilliantly forged it is, not the medieval thinking in regards to how some people are treated and are unable to rise above their stations. However, this is the kind of series in which they absolutely do. No matter how life is dealt out to them they do the best with what they have and achieve incredible things through sheer determination of will, good acting and clever steps. One of my favorite charcters is a woman who plays the long game to rise in a harem to the position of first wife so she has complete control over the rest of the harem, and also assumes the role of a spiritual leader among her people. All women in this part of the universe are tested young and assigned a life path. While she goes into spiritual service she also ends up saving the king at some point and is taken as his wife. They make a formidable team. The world itself is wracked by the appearance of demons who rise up from the core of the world at night to destroy humanity. Thesa was once powerful nation that was shattered by the sudden appearance of these corelings. Science failed humanity them and now ancient symbols called wards protect them. They protect people, towns, forts, anything within the circle of them. Messengers are the only people brave enough to roam the land to make deliveries of cargo, mail, and people, with their own personal circles they set each night that the demons can't cross. The main character Arlen is an angry young man. His fathers fear of crossing the wards to save his wife brands him a coward in his eyes as he rushes out to help save her. She eventually dies of her wounds and Arlen decides he would rather leave his father to his fear and become a Messenger as he has always felt an affinity for warding. Eventually he discovers that he can brand his own skin with these wards in order to actually fight the demons that rise up from the core. Instead of merely protecting people as messengers have been doing for years, he starts to take the fight back to the corelings. This magic, of course, comes with a price. Dune by Frank Herbert Let's give some love to old science fiction, a landmark in the world of futuristic stories, the first novel of which was published in 1965. I was raised by a Trekkie, and as such my love of sci-fi was fostered real young. I remember a school holiday during primary school, when we had rented the movie series based on the first couple of these novels. The entire reason I grew to love these books is because I find James McAvoy really, really hot... Sorry. Not sorry. I think I may have watched Dune and Children of Dune a dozen times, so naturally I found a copy of the first book and consumed it. Herbert's interest in ecology and environmentalism as well as his portrayal of declining empires and shadow governments make his construction so terrifyingly real. "Dune is representative of a general trend beginning in 1960s American science fiction in that it features a character who attains godlike status through scientific means." - Brian Attebery/Decoding Gender in Science Fiction The Dune series has been influential in the world of science fiction, music, pop culture and even art. Some of the fan art generated based on Arrakis, the planet of which Dune is set, and the music inspired by the history and effects of the spice Melange, is well worth hunting down. The Dune series itself is only six books long, but there are so many other works published as prequels and companion books exploring the Dune universe by Herbert's son Brian with the help of sci-fi author Kevin J Anderson and notes he had found from the writing of the original books. One of my favorite books in the Dune-iverse is definitely The Butlerian Jihad, which covers the events of the rise of artificial intelligence, thinking machines and the use of computers, leading to the outlawing of this type of technology. "The target of the Jihad was a machine-attitude as much as the machines. Humans had set those machines to usurp our sense of beauty, our necessary selfdom out of which we make living judgments. Naturally, the machines were destroyed." - Leto Atreides in God Emperor of Dune. This is a universe well worth exploring. Valdemar: Last Herald Mage by Mercedes Lackey I spent a fair bit of time at my parents friends house during school holidays. They had great internet and, well, the amount of books in that houuuuuuse... oh my. A lot of high fantasy. Mercedes Lackey was among one of the authors that I fell in love with and this was the first series I ever read that featured homosexual characters. The main character Vanyel keeps many secrets from his fellow mages, an emotionally neglected son of the homophobic head of a highborn family. Van is completely alienated. He's delicate, quiet, almost feminine, and is sent of to learn to be a swordsman in the hopes that it will "make a man" out of him and make him a candidate for the Guard. He is eventually sent to his aunt in the Heralds, mage like warriors who bond psychically with the sentient steeds who choose them, called Companions. His aunt doesn't have time for him either but he begins to have confusing feelings about her protege and eventually they become lovers. SPOILER: his life-bonded partner dies. This part in the series completely ripped my heart out. Tylendel goes mad over the murder of his twin brother, to whom he was psychically linked. He enacts revenge upon those responsible, at which point his Companion repudiates their connection and Ty throws himself off a tower because he is unable to live with what he has done. Vanyel, at this point, is a completely tortured soul whose heraldic gifts suddenly come to full fruition inside of him in a catastrophic explosion caused by his anguish over his lovers death. I'll leave the story line alone there, but his trials and tribulations are a bittersweet journey that culminate in his saving his entire kingdom from complete destruction by dark forces.
The Howl Series by Diana Wynne Jones When I was in high school, I was obsessed with this author. I spent a lot of time trying to convince the school librarian that she needed to buy in more of her works. I am a pest. I have always been a pest. Sometimes it works. You've probably heard about Howl's Moving Castle because of the anime movie adapted by Studio Ghibli from the first book. It's one of my favorite Ghibli movies but the books themselves always held great fascination for me. Diana is a British author who writes wonder into every book she writes. Ghibli produced a gorgeous film, but they had SO much to work with. When I read one of her novels I am transported elsewhere and that is without a doubt exactly what I require from a book. Book two is only slightly related to the story of book one, in that Sophie and her child with Howl, Morgan, appear towards the end as part of a djinni plot to steal princesses from around the world. They are discovered by a carpet salesman from Zanzib who gets tangled in the djinni plot after falling in love with a princess. Book three: The House Of Many Ways, is refreshingly centered around the bewildered grand-niece of the Great Wizard Norland, who goes to stay with him but finds his enormous house utterly empty and capable of magically bending space and time. She has several terrifying encounters with germanic fae sprites called kobolds, a young and bitter "wizards apprentice" with whom she inexplicably ends up sharing the magical house and becomes involved in an intense search for missing royal money - a case that was being investigated by her Great-Uncle when he disappeared (likely due to some sort of fae interference), but has been taken up by Sophie and Howl.
The Hunger Games by Suzane Collins If you haven't heard of these books I'll be real surprised. Dystopian fiction is another little favorite of mine, I've loved Enders Game, The Maze Runner, Divergent, and tv shows like The 100, Dollhouse and The Walking Dead. I think the Hunger Games may be a standout for me in terms of a series in that genre that really affected me with its narrative. Runner up for that honour goes to Enders Game - the culmination of the plot shattered me from the implications to humanity - I don't like to predict what's going to happen in a story and right up until the end I had no freakin idea what was coming. "District 12: Where you can starve to death in safety." - Katniss Everdeen Hunger Games didn't so much shock me in terms of what happens to humanity because I'm a completely disillusioned human and I've read a lot of dystopian fiction and sci-fi, but the story grabbed me. The main characters are simple, scared, oppressed people. They survive by playing by the rules and keeping their heads down, though Katniss does take calculated risks to keep her family fed and her willingness to take risks only increases over the course of the three books. An aspect I very much enjoy during the series is resistance. Resistance to government, to the status quo, to whatever feelings characters may be experiencing for each other, resistance to being heroes. It's written in a way that it doesn't feel like the characters are being unnecessarily ridiculous: they are put under such terrifying and stressful circumstances that they are constantly being tested as people, as members of society and they question anyone and everything around them because nothing is really as it seems. The scariest thing is that it all seems so very realistic as an outcome for real world society. I couldn't even tell you the amount of times I ended up silently weeping over the pages in horror or pain at what these people are put through and how utterly and terrifyingly plausible everything is. The Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire I don't remember when I first picked up Wicked but it was a long time before it became a stage show - I've been super into fairy tales and re-tellings for years and this one is hands down my favorite. This revised look at the roots of the famous Wizard of Oz tales is so good I fully accepted it as canon the instant I finished it. The Wicked witch was always a simple villain and everything about Maguire's backstory breeds sympathy and understanding into everyone who reads these books. The first two books are about the young wicked witch - Elphaba, and her son. Novels after these events are from the perspective of the cowardly lion and Elphaba's grand daughter, a young lady named Rain. The best thing about Gregory Maguire is his skill at extrapolation. Every book he has written in this style is in my possession and each one of them is a skillful re-telling of a tale you're already familiar with. The Wizard Of Oz is the most obvious, but he's also done Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, The Little Match Girl, even a story about the Tooth Fairy. The first one I read was Mirror Mirror, and I had no idea it was based on Snow White's story, I never made the connection with the title, and didn't even realise until nearly the end of the book what was going on. I love being surprised by books, and Maguire weaves a strong yet subtle narrative. This genre can be a divisive thing, for sure - some will advocate heavily that the original stories shouldn't be adulterated and honestly I used to be part of that group. But if you take into account the way that fairy tales are passed down to us, the way that stories are passed from generation to generation, around campfires, at gatherings - each recounting changes in its telling, by the very nature of memory these stories change each time they're told, each time they're translated from one language to another, details are reformed in ways they weren't before. Wicked is such a believable interpretation of the motives behind Baum's original characters because his rich back stories weave a commentary on the social, ethical and political nature of good and evil, themes never explored in great detail initially. Now that the world is used to dialogue of this nature in open forums, novels like these are a perfect platform to keep people thinking critically. "People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.” Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling If you thought we were getting through this list without there being a nod to Harry Potter on it, you were sadly mistaken. I don't think I really need to tell the populous at large what this series is about because it's possibly one of the most famous stories on the planet, but I will mention briefly that it is about an orphaned child who discovers after a childhood filled with things other than love and care, that he is a wizard. Hijinks ensue. As a kid, I avoided these books directly. Everyone at school, who did not like me because I was weird, went crazy for this young wizard, so naturally I didn't want to have anything in common with my peers. Eventually I succumbed to the lure of magic, as I always do, but I violated my cardinal reading rule by starting with book two. I know. I know... at this point I've been a part of the wizarding world for more than a decade and I've made friends from every house. The wizarding world is all-inclusive. It has a way of loving everyone who joins it and encourages everyone to band together. There is a place for everyone, and parts of each character are totally relatable if you're weirdo or not. I have parts of Hermione's book obsession, Luna's oddities of behaviour and dress, Ron's love for chicken drumsticks, not to mention a ginger family. It has always been my experience with fandoms that there are often very elitist people who defend their titles as the Biggest Fan Ever by demanding that you know every single thing about the books and the movies, the differences... this has never been a problem in the Harry Potter fandom. It's simple: You love Harry Potter? I love Harry Potter! Yeahhh, friends! “The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” - J.K. Rowling Magicians by Lev Grossman When I decided to talk about my favorite books, this is the one I left until the end because it's the one I want to recommend to people the most. It's not a series for young people and although I read it relatively recently, a few years ago I think, it still had a profound effect on me. These books are Narnia meets Harry Potter, meets Stephen King. This is not gentle fantasy. This is not a cute story of overcoming your circumstances to become a hero. It's modern day magic in a shady universe within New York. Memory fuckery, hedge witches, rituals, shape shifting, and in terms of violating the rules and regulations of the only magical school in North America... inexperienced practitioners open themselves up to true fucking horror, mutilation, physical violation - a host of truly disturbing consequences... and you can bet they do. "Magic doesn't come from talent, it comes from pain." - Elliot Waugh There's a whole host of characters who bring a variety of talents to the table. Quentin Coldwater has been obsessed with a series of books since he was a child and this is how he finds an entrance to the world of magic. He suffers clinical depression and struggles to make meaningful connections with other humans. After he stumbles across the body of his interviewer for a college alumni program, he is magically lured to Brakebills to take an entrance exam which he somehow manages to pass - anyone who doesn't make it past this point has their memory wiped. Quentin very quickly discovers that magic is hard work and can be deadly. "It is one thing to know of magic, it is another thing to be a Magician. Magic is born of the notion that our world is governed by laws of physics which keep us trapped on this isolated rock, is limited, incomplete. At Brakebills we take students who have that notion, and teach them to transform it into something tangible, hopefully without blowing themselves up in the process. Because magic is not something to be dicked around with!" - Dean Fogg Quentin was obsessed with a series of books very like Narnia as a kid, an obsession that grew and grew and when he was a young adult struggling to overcome depression he would while away hours re-reading that series of books over and over again. Little did he know that the books themselves were based on real events. The parallel to his journey at Brakebills is that he finds out that the land of Fillory is real and reachable. He manages to find his way there during the series, but it is not the triumphant reveal of an idolised world and though he eventually finds happiness there, it is not to last. This little collection of books is one that sticks with me. My editions are beloved and well-thumbed, the pages bent out just a little in a curve that I try to remove by squishing the books in tightly with others on their shelf. I think I might re-read them this year if I manage to clear a few more books off my list, which is definitely the goal, but to finish the series I'd have to buy the last book... Maybe I'll have gotten through my TBR stack by the time Christmas rolls around and I'll be able to treat myself then! Books are incredible. They do amazing things, taking us out of our lives and dropping us into different times, countries, realities. If there is no other reason to live other than to hold books in my hands and tell stories to other humans then surely that is wonderfully good enough for me.
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” - Jane Austen
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