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This month for book club, I read two fantasy books. Is it right and proper for someone with a degree in English literature to admit that they prefer fantasy books above all others? That’s not going to surprise anyone, is it? It is a close call between fantasy, horror, and sci-fi when trying to pinpoint my favorite genre. Yes, I love the classics and have even been known to argue in favor of a literary canon – everyone should read Shakespeare, even in high school – but fantasy is the genre I return to when I want to lose myself in a book. Keep reading for a brief history of my favorite fantasy.

Fantastic Beginnings

Some of the first books I considered favorites were fantasy. A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth come to mind. Granted, those are very science and math heavy for fantasy, and a recent re-read of Wrinkle was disappointing. Nevertheless, these books made me a fan of books. I also loved The Chronicles of Narnia at a young age and, thanks to my sister, read a lot of Roger Zelazny. I remember a set of Oz books, but I can’t remember if I read them or just looked at them. Credit also goes to my Granny for reading me fantastic poems like The Owl and the Pussycat and Jabberwocky. If it wasn’t for fantasy, who knows if I would have grown up to be someone who reads. It was stories like these that sparked my interest early and kept me coming back for more.

Teenage Fantasy

There’s this funny story about when I was a teenager and my mom’s church had told her that kids should not be allowed to play Dungeons & Dragons or else those kids would go to the devil. They also told her not to let me watch Smurfs, which might have been the first documented occurrence of me taking a stand for what I believe in, because I believed in my Smurfs. Maybe I also never played D&D because I didn’t understand how it worked and it seemed to take longer than Monopoly, which my kids will tell you, I try to avoid like the plague. So here’s the funny part…. my mom was dead set against me playing it, but when I asked her for a Dragonlance novel at the mall book store, she didn’t think twice about buying it. Games are apparently harmful, but books are just fantasy, I guess. On subsequent trips to the mall, my mom proceeded to buy me the whole Dragonlance Legends series, and more. I was obsessed with finding out what happened to those twins. And if Tasslehoff Burrfoot isn’t the best character name ever, well, I don’t know what is. (Feel free to suggest your favorites in the comments.)

Later Daze

I did go through a phase in my early adulthood when I was not reading much. I was a single mom with two little kids, so mostly I was reading to them. At some point, I made some grown up friends, and we started going to dinner and movies. We would pop into the book store to kill time in between. I think this is where I learned that the secret to overcoming a reading slump is to dig into a good series. “Good” could be a relative term here, but it just has to be something that keeps you reading once you start. I discovered a renewed love for reading, and for fantasy in particular, when I picked up Shadow of a Dark Queen by Raymond E. Fiest. I devoured the Serpentwar Saga and moved on to a few of his related series. This is what really got me reading again.

Recent Reads

As I said, this month I read two fantasy books for book club. I read these simultaneously, as one was A Darker Shade of Magic via Audible and the other was Throne of Glass via Kindle. Each of them is the first book in a series. I honestly have read so many Book Ones that I could spend the rest of my life just finishing a variety of series. I am not sure if I will carry on with the subsequent books in either of these. There were things I liked and disliked about both of these. I felt like ADSOM moved a little slowly. There were points where it was sluggish. I liked the idea of different Londons, and it does end with a bit of a cliffhanger that made me curious about what happens next. TOG on the other hand kept me on the edge of my seat better, but some of the language in this book was excruciating, and the lead character is a bit of an OP complainer. Imagine that you were just liberated from slave labor and you instantly go into whiny diva mode. It made me disconnect from the character, but I still liked the story and the beginnings of the mythology. My chief complaint with TOG was that all of the melodrama made it sound like it was written by a teenager. I garnered some forgiveness for it after I discovered that it was, in fact, written by a teenager. Rumor has it that the writing gets better. There are also rumors that this series gets very steamy later, and is not appropriate for the young audience for whom it was intended…. Now you know that increased my curiosity on this one! I have also been instructed to direct prospective readers to the prequel novellas first for some context that I was missing. In short, the most likely way for either of these Book Twos to get on my TBR is to get themselves elected by one of my book clubs.

Fantastic Futures

Despite loving and reading a lot of fantasy, there are some glaring omissions from my “already read that” list. I have never read The Lord of the Rings. I have slept through the audiobook of The Hobbit, and I have seen all of the movies, but I haven’t read the books. Maybe someday. I have also only read one book by Ursula K. Le Guin. That feels a little like sacrilege. I would like to read more of hers and explore lots of other female writers of fantasy. Except maybe not Octavia Butler. Kindred scarred me for life. That book is intense! I’m afraid to even attempt any of her others. I haven’t read Robert Jordan either. I would love to get suggestions of other fantasy I should be reading. Obviously, the books mentioned here are not an exhaustive list. I have read the Game of Thrones series and Harry Potter. I’m not a total heathen.

What are your favorite fantasy titles or authors? Leave a comment to let me know!