“Don’t think of this as a class, think of this as a book club.”
Those were the opening words of my Fantasyland prof this semester. A low-level English course, I signed up mostly because I needed more credit hours and class pickings were slim this spring. (Seriously, it’s not reassuring when you sign in to schedule for the next semester and you’ve taken almost all the available classes in your department. And the remaining ones all filled the same time slot. Yay…) And honestly, it was a relief. I stopped reading during the pandemic due to mental stress and a general lack of focus, so I was hoping it would propel me back into the reading landscape.
Did it work?
I currently have seven new books on my shelf from the Book Outlet and four ebooks checked out from the library. You tell me.
This class really did run like a book club, albeit one where a single person chose the readings. We read, we came to class, we discussed, and I frequently rolled my eyes at inane comments. (There’s a painful hilarity when someone in an English class goes, “So, has anyone heard of the Hero’s Journey? It’s this weird thing, I only know it because I read so much, so don’t feel bad if you don’t.”)
We read six books over the course of the semester, progressing from the oldest to the newest and analyzing the changes in the genre as we went.
Here are the Fantasyland books ranked from my least to most favorite.
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6. The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey (DNF’d)
I couldn’t even finish this one. I got to about the three-fourths mark and decided I was sick of Jaxom the horny fifteen-year-old. Like… Stars above, dude, calm down for five seconds. And the plot was never really clear? There was a lot going on, yeah, but the book read like a progression of loosely related problems rather than anything overarching. Maybe that would have changed if I had read further, but I just couldn’t stomach any more.
That said, the world is intriguing and Jaxom totally looks like Lord Farquad on this cover, so the book isn’t without its positive aspects.
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5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (2 stars)
I don’t care that it’s a classic, I don’t care that there’s a reason for the plot structure and narrative tone, I simply Did Not Vibe with this. The Hobbit is repetitive in a way that lessens any and all stakes, which isn’t inherently a bad thing. But if there’s no real stakes, something else needs to propel me through the book, like interesting characters or engaging style. And maybe the oral-storytelling tone works for some people, but it doesn’t for me, at least not in this case. The perks came in the form of the world and the tiny hints of characterization we got from the usually pretty distanced narrator. This was very much a case of “it’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not for me.”
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4. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (3 stars)
This book isn’t bad. I would never, ever say that. It isn’t bad, but it also isn’t very engaging. Which barely makes sense to me. The world is interesting, the plot is interesting, the characters are interesting. There’s no reason that I should think of this book and react with an indifferent “meh.” Individually, everything is intriguing. But the way it was put together failed to generate any strong emotions in me, either way. I was just so indifferent about everything the whole time. My reaction to both the good and the bad was essentially just, “yeah okay.” And it’s frustrating, because the individual elements really made me wish the book as a whole made me care more.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s a me versus Sanderson’s style thing. I tried Skyward a while back and had to put it down for similar reasons. Might try another of his, try to figure that out.
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3. Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stars)
Elantris is a “I don’t care either way” three-star rating. Wizard of Earthsea is a “hey, this is kinda cool” three-star rating. I didn’t always like the progression and pacing of the story (starting to suspect that quest fantasy is Not My Thing), but the plot was fun and the implications were really freaking cool. I didn’t always have a good time reading it, but it’s definitely the kind of book I love to talk about it after the fact. There’s so much to unpack, and it is so much fun to think about and discuss. This is a book about the Implications, and I adore the Implications.
(Also, a very particular Star Trek TOS episode gave me suspicions about certain plot-points, and is it turned out… Those suspicions were well-founded!!! We love when media themes connect almost exactly!!!)
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2. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (4 stars)
I’ve been going back and forth for years about trying the Dresden Files again. The first one never really caught with me, but I’m obsessed with kinda shitty characters, noir stylings, dry humor, and hidden-in-plain-sight low fantasy. I told my professor all of this, and she laughed and told me that there was a reason we were starting with book three and recommended proceeding from there if I liked it.
Needless to say, I loved it.
I do have complaints about how low-stakes the resolution felt compared to other parts of the book. The Big Bad felt like less of a Big Bad than many of the other antagonists. But that aside, Grave Peril succeeds at being what it is. It’s a fun, action-packed, easy read that kept me turning the pages to the point that I accidentally read it in two sittings despite trying to keep on the class schedule for reading. Oops.
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1. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (5 stars)
I feel like my Goodreads review says it all. The Fifth Season was my most anticipated read of this class, especially considering it’s been on my TBR for a long damn while. And it was definitely worth the wait. Seriously, this book went so hard and fit me so well that I’m already a quarter of the way through the sequel despite only finishing it yesterday and having a mountain of final projects. I am thoroughly intrigued with the world and thoroughly captivated by Jemisin’s writing, and no other book on this list can begin to compare.
Jemisin is a master at multi-POV writing, and this is coming from someone who adores multi-POV writing anyway. She’s extremely strategic about ending her chapters on an interesting note so that when you return to that POV three chapters later, you don’t have to go “oh, wait, where did we leave off” because it’s interesting and/or monumental enough that you remember. And she reveals more about the world and characters at such an effective pace. She guides you through worldbuilding and character development so fluidly, so subtlety that you don’t even realize it. When she answers questions, she makes sure to introduce new ones, so you’re always with the impression that there’s more to learn.
And that? That’s half the reason I picked up the next book immediately. So many new questions were proposed at the end of the first book that I just had to keep going – I didn’t want to wait. For all the answers she gave, Jemisin left just as many unknowns and they are unknowns that I Want to Know. Not to mention, she’s extremely good at leading readers to certain conclusions without ever stating them outright, to the extent that you’re convinced she stating it explicitly only to have your professor point out that she really didn’t and your mind just BREAKS.
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Despite the duds and occasional classroom frustrations (sweetie, sit down, we know what the hero’s journey is and you mentioned it last week anyway, also, no that’s not what the “needs of the many” philosophy means and you really need to learn that a “strong” female character is a complex one, not just an infallible one with some brawn also it’s great that you love ACOTAR but if I hear you refer to it as “a modern classic” one more time my head’s liable to explode), I thoroughly enjoyed this class. I still have to write my final essay, but the class as a whole served as an effective, if simplified, survey of the development of the fantasy genre.
Oh yeah. And it made me fall in love with reading again. No biggie. ❤
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Worlds of Our Choosing 