Encountering Fantastic Worlds—Part 2
Last week I posted here about some of my favourite worlds in Kids/YA Fantasy: Damar, Earthsea, Elidor, Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard, and Narnia.
I promised to return “soonish with some of my favourite worlds from adult Fantasy and also Sci-Fi.” And today seems like a very good day to talk about some of those favourite worlds from adult fantasy fiction.
This was actually more difficult than it might seem, for several reasons. Firstly, I realised that with some of the worlds on initial list, it was actually the magic system that I was really excited about, rather than the world per se. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time ‘verse fits into that category for me—although it is not my favourite series, I think the way the magic works is hugely creative and definitely hooked me into the early books. But I did want to focus on worlds that wowed me in some way, in much the same way as my eight-year-old self felt the magic when—as discussed last week—I first accompanied Lucy Pevensey through the back of a wardrobe and into a snowy, lanternlit wood.
Looking for that really distinctive element narrowed the field and so, too, did my decision that I didn’t just want to talk about the usual suspects. And I wanted to cover both older and newer worlds/works. So I hope a few of the worlds that follow may not be the ones you always visit …
Having said all that, I am still going to start with perhaps the most tried-and-true of all:
M is for Middle Earth (the only world that won’t be visited in alphabetical order) in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
My reasons—quite simply, I don’t think you can have a serious discussion about worlds and world building in fantasy and bypass Middle Earth. Whether you love it or not, Middle Earth is probably the defining model of a pre-industrial, heroic-age world, complete with a number of interacting races (hobbits, elves, dwarves—or dwarrow, if one is being Tolkien-correct—ents, humans, orcs and goblins being the main contenders); a considerable geography, from the Shire, through the Mines of Moria, to Lothlorien and Fangorn, Rohan and Ithilien, Minas Tirith to Mordor; a depth of backstory and history for all the different races; and even runic alphabets and languages! I think the richness of the landscapes and the strong sense of history woven through the narrative—the tale of Beren and Luthien and lost Beleriand, for example; or the association of Amon Sul with the last alliance between elves and men, when Elendil waited there for the armies of Gil-galad—are a major part of my enduring love for Middle Earth. (Which makes me so glad I live in it, too! 😉 )
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B is for Beszel—and of course Ul Qoma—in China Mieville’s The City & The City
Anything by China Mieville probably counts as another “usual suspect” these days, but when it comes to fantastic worlds I simply could not overlook the two interlocked and overlapping cities of his 2010 award winner, The City & The City. My realisation of the nature of this particular world was definitely a “wow” moment—the kind where you give a little laugh as you take in the sheer wonder and amazement of the idea. And then hold your breath again as it is executed through the unfolding story. Aspects of the world building I love include the Eastern European—probably Yugoslavian—flavour to the divergent cultural characters of the two cities in terms of ethnicity, culture, religion, governance, and architecture. And the way the citizens are trained from birth to “not see” the adjoining city that is all around them, as well as the physical way in which Beszel and Ul Qoma overlap as well as adjoin, like a series of puzzle boxes. I also enjoy how this fantastic world is very much part of this world, with all the attendant political, economic, and social interactions to be negotiated. And believe that Beszel and Ul Qoma are an excellent example of how the world can almost become a character in its own right, in classic fantasy.
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N is for New York in Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale
Urban fantasy is tremendously popular currently but I believe Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale, first published in 1983, is one of the defining novels in the genre. The world it establishes is a 19th century New York that is to all intents and purposes real—except for the magic: a white horse that rediscovers flight, a pursuit that traverses a century, a bridge of light to infinity … But really the heart of the book is the world, and the world is New York—Manhattan and Brooklyn and Up State—in a variant of ‘Gangs of New York’ meets ‘Westside Story’, and where a newspaper run like a whaling ship interacts with more than a dash of magic realism … (although the author himself does not care for that label in association with the book.) To be honest, it’s a hard book to describe but a fabulous world to encounter—do so if you get the chance.
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And now I’ve realised that two out of my three worlds so far are cities—and confess, guiltily, that there could be more to come tomorrow, when I shall return with the final 3 or 4 of my favourite worlds of adult fantasy. There will be a few honourable mentions as well, simply because it is so hard to restrict the list to just 6 or 7 … I’ve just noticed, too, that today’s worlds have all sprung from the pens of male authors. But no need to worry about gender imbalance in my preferences, because tomorrow’s world builders are all women! 🙂
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You can now check out the second instalment of my favourite adult fantasy worlds, here.