For most of us, life is stressful enough to spend time reading serious and real-life books and novels. Seriously, you probably have too much of your own problems to try to understand someone else’s complicated and crazy life. This is the reason why we will introduce you to these three remarkable fantasy novels.
Fantasy is a genre of literature that is frequently misunderstood. Besides, it is often unappreciated. Yet it can take you far away from you own problems, into some colorful reality where you can travel through time and space, or get to know dragons, fight along the mages or just look at new species and ideas.
“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
― Lloyd Alexander
Three novels to make you relax and traveling outside the box, your own box.
Anne McCaffrey – Dragonflight
On a faraway world, very different from our own, a lonely girl wakes up. Her name is Lessa, and she is the sole survivor of a noble family that used to rule over the Ruatha Hold. Now, she hides as a menial worker in the fortress she rightfully owns. She wears rags in order to hide from the people who killed her father. But, why is she special? What made her wake up at this very moment? The dragons are coming, and with them, a new hope for this girl with a sad past, and strange abilities. Soon, she will never be alone again, and her adventures will echo through the time.
This beautiful story will captivate you from the first minute. It is an inspirational tale that tells a lot about things hidden in us, and the truth about what we are capable of. When you are struggling with some inner demons, this book might come in handy.
David Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy (1st book of Belgariad)
A long time ago, as the Storyteller claimed, the evil god Torak tried to kill his brothers and rule the world. However, a mighty sorcerer stood in his path and stopped him. The sorcerer then reclaimed the Orb that protected men of the West, and, as the prophecy said, as long as the stone remained in Riva, men would be safe from the evil god. But then, it was all a children’s tale, and Garion was not a child anymore. Therefore, he didn’t believe in magic or prophecies until one night he overheard his aunt Pol talk to the Storyteller…
From that point on, this five-book series is full of adventure, magic, and danger that follows the protagonists. Quick wit of the writer, a wonderful sense of humor, and things you never imagined are waiting behind the covers. But, this isn’t just an adventure. This book talks to the rejected and the lonely, to those who are looking for their spot in the sun. It will bring you to tears, and let you out feeling liberated.
Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter – The Long Earth
Joshua Valiente is an orphan, and his life is ordinary. Well, until one day, he downloads a scheme for a strange device from the Internet. Nobody knows what this device does, but thousands of kids from all over the world start making it – everybody loves a mystery, and it is so easy to make, and it is potato powered! When they turn their devices on, these kids find themselves in a strange place. Some are lost, some hurt, some crying, but Joshua is fine. He gathers them and brings them home. The device is actually a manner of traveling to parallel dimensions – and there are literally countless iterations of our Earth. This makes you wonder, what will they find there, and how will humanity react?
If anyone else had written it, this would have been a drawn out, heavy read. But, the master of the comic fantasy himself got his hand into this, and the book is a masterpiece. Existential dread is covered with some dry wit, the society we all seek to conform to is laughed at, and the human condition itself challenged. If you need to let your mind wander, nothing is better than this book because it will take you on a trip of a lifetime, and you will wonder where the time has gone by.
Sometimes, even the smallest details in a book can change how we perceive the world around us. A laugh in an unexpected place will brighten your day, a mystery will take your mind of small problems, and have you trying to figure it out before the writer points the solution, and an adventure will have your heart pounding together with those of the protagonists. Once you close that book, you will feel motivated to go out and conquer the world!