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Best Fantasy Worlds

V

Violanthe

New Member
Our newest Top 10 project is the Best Fantasy Worlds. If you would like to help out by submitting your list, your opinion is both welcome and appreciated. Lists can also be submitted by email form. If you do submit a list, feel free to post it here too, as a reply to this topic, so that we can all see and discuss your picks.

While we're collecting lists, I'm also interested in your candid opinions:

So what do you think? What are the most fascinating Fantasy Worlds ever created? Which are the most intricate? Memorable? Absorbing? Whether they are the worlds you love to lose yourself in, or worlds you wouldn't dare set foot in (but love to read about!), what are your favorites? Moreover, what makes a good Fantasy World?
 
The fantasy world I like best is that which Anne Bishop wrote about in her Black Jewels trilogy. I've always wanted my own magic closet storage area to put things into..it would make buying furniture and moving so much easier. I also like the idea of traveling on webs, where you can travel faster depending on what stone you possess. However..I'm not sure that I'd dare step foot in that world unless I was very powerful.
 
may be splitting hairs but are you distinguishing sci-fi worlds from fantasy? If fantasy only here goes (in no particular order):

Middle Earth (Tolkien - inspired so many others)
Earthsea (le Guin)
Narnia
Faerun (D&D - Where would we be without it)
Magnamund (Dever and Chalk - hey I liked Lone Wolf)
The Multiverse (Moorcock - possibly pushing the boundary of fantasy)
Pern (McCaffery - Dragons!)
Drenai etc. (Can't remember the title of the late Mr. Gemmell's world)
Midkemia (Feist)
The Realm of the Elderlings (Robin Hobb)
 
may be splitting hairs but are you distinguishing sci-fi worlds from fantasy?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. We want "fantasy" worlds in general, but we realize that there are a lot of crossovers and fiction that can't be pinned down as one or the other. If there's enough "fantasy" in it for you to call it fantasy, that's enough for us. Which is to say, it doesn't have to be 100% fantasy, but if you find some fantasy in it, then it's a "fantasy world"
 
Let me explore another notion about fantasy worlds - if I'm getting off track let me know.

What about fantasy worlds which appear multiple times in literature:

One type is the generic one; which was created back in legends or far in the past where the original creator has long been forgotten the second would be one created by a known author and since re-used by others.

The first category would include the likes of Hell and Heaven (Dante, Milton), Arthurian Britain (Mallory, TH White, Robert Holdstock etc.), Atlantis (could also fall into my second category if the theories about Socrates are correct), Faeirie (Spencer, Gaiman) etc.

The second would include the likes of Utopia - Created by Sir Thomas More, it has entered to lexicon to mean any society which is at or close to perfection (whether you agree with his idea of perfection or not is a different matter - I certainly don't)., Troy (Homer?),

Thoughts?
 
Sorry Violanthe - think I must have bored everyone away from the thread.
:eek:

It would have been interesting to see what the final poll showed
 
Let's get the discussion revived again.

I understand what you're saying about the types of fantasy worlds that do occur in the literature of a number of times, places and authors. I'm not sure what you're asking, though. Are you asking whether every instance should be considered together as one fantasy world? Or whether each instance, while connected in a single tradition, should be considered a seperate fantasy world?
 
I wasn't asking anything - I was just making a generic point. Bit disappointing the response to this thread. I hoped there would be a lot more interest - there seem to be plenty of folks on the forum that read sci-fi and fantasy, I was looking forward to seeing what people put.

Maybe try opening it up and saying just submit your favorite fantasy worlds rather than asking for 10?

cheers
 
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