I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, so when I saw Matthew Kressel’s October 12 post on TOR.com, on the fascinating topic of “Five Fantasy Books With Awe-Inspiring Settings”, I longed to do my fangal thing and comment saying, “Yes, of course—and also…!”

But I couldn’t remember my TOR.com user id and password—so instead, especially now I’m home again, I thought I’d better post on a few Fantasy worlds (other  than those mentioned by Matthew) that I consider awe-inspiring.

Starting with my friend, Mary Victoria’s “Chronicles of the Tree” trilogy (Tymon’s Flight, Samiha’s Song, and Oracle’s Fire—all published by Harper Voyager) where the world is an enormous tree that is at least the size of the Himalayas—and the entire world building, in terms of culture, technology, and religion is Tree-based. It’s an absolutely fascinating concept and one of the most innovative I’ve encountered in Fantasy.

And then there’s Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive (The Way of Kings; Words of Radiance — to date) where the landscape, flora and fauna are all shaped by the Everstorm, and there is a depth of mythology and cultural and technological expression that is connected to the nature of the world–not least the quest for the jewels created by Chasm Fiends and their connection to the dominant Shard culture…

A more long-established, but equally fascinating, Fantasy world, is Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea, a series of archipelagoes featuring diverse cultures (that included dragons, long before the latter became extremely fashionable) and infused by a magic system based on equilibrium—a world I have long thought one of the most complete and interesting I have encountered.

I thought I’d settle for three today, but may come up with a few more for you, later in the week–perhaps from SF, not just Fantasy… 😉