Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Blogging Challenge: Fictional Worlds I'd Like To Visit

Right, so, the usual bit of context: Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. Hit their homepage to see the current week's responses, and add a link to your own if you're so inclined.

This week's challenge is "Fictional worlds I'd like to visit," which (under the right circumstances) is most of them.

Several, of course, are worlds that I've created. That's pretty much why I write, in fact: so I can visit all the really cool places in my head. Well, that and because writing is cheaper than therapy. I don't usually name my worlds, since most of my characters just think of their surroundings as "the world", but...

There's a dark-fantasy setting which is characterized by three things:
-Magic actually works, if you speak its language.
-There are naturally-occurring (we think) portals to other worlds from there; magic does not exist in those.
-The sky has its own ecology, with predators and prey and scavengers, just as the land and the sea do.

There's a more classic high-fantasy world which is currently in the process of recovering from the recent defeat of the Dark Lord and his armies of monsters.
-Large sections of the world have reverted to wilderness.
-The war left behind all sorts of ruins, along with stray bits of magic and monsters.
-The monsters who made up the Dark Lord's armies were suddenly freed from his control when he died, and now have to figure out what to do next.
-The last survivor of the group of heroes that killed the Dark Lord is still roaming around the countryside with a bad case of survivor's guilt.

Then, of course, there's a variety of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns that I'm involved in, one way or another.

But there are plenty of worlds from other people's fiction that I'd love to visit, too. I've already talked about some of them, so let's look at a few that I haven't mentioned:

The Land of Pell, setting for the delightful Kill The Farm Boy, No Country For Old Gnomes, and The Princess Beard is a delightful and absurd place in which no classic fantasy trope escapes unscathed, and I'd love to visit it.

Hogwarts, of course, because even as a Muggle that would be pretty awesome -- and also because if you're visiting Hogwarts then you're not actually a Muggle pretty much by definition, and I'd love to be a wizard.

Arawiya, the setting for We Hunt The Flame. Yes, it's a land under a curse, but the various realms within it are fascinating, and there's a decent chance that the heroes might actually manage to lift the curse and restore magic to the land.

Camp Half-Blood, one of the chief settings for Percy Jackson and the Olympians, because who wouldn't like to be a demigod? Intriguing as it is in the Rick Riordan books, though, I think I'd actually prefer my friend Ana Mardoll's version.

Lastly... I'm not sure it has a particular name, but I adore the gothic Russian-folktale quality of Emily Duncan's Something Dark and Holy books. It's a dangerous place, but I'd love to visit it.

So there are my votes for this week's challenge. What are yours?

12 comments:

  1. Ah, I love your list! I'd love to visit Krynn (and hunt down Tasselhof!) and even Ravenloft, honestly. Also, I'm now looking at the Tales of Pell series because it totally sounds like something I'd love.

    Which makes me think of a book I read many years ago called Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming. Hahaha.

    Great list, I'd love to visit some of your own worlds, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I remember Bring Me The Head of Prince Charming! Thanks for dropping by!

      Delete
  2. All of your answers sound great to me.

    My post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting list. I never thought about visiting the lands I've created, or at least listing them in my post. I get to visit them all the times, like you mentioned. I like the list.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a great list! Interesting choices!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great list, and plenty I haven't read.

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to leave comments; it lets me know that people are actually reading my blog. Interesting tangents and topic drift just add flavor. Linking to your own stuff is fine, as long as it's at least loosely relevant. Be civil, and have fun!