Two Fantasy Reader Tags

When I saw that I’d been nominated for two tags about reading fantasy in the same week, it seemed like a great coincidence! A big thanks to Hannah’s Book Reviews for nominating me for the Get To Know The Fantasy Reader Tag – you can find her answers here 🙂 Hope you enjoy these tags, they’re really fun!

Rules:

• Make sure you give credit to the original creators of this tag – this tag was originally created by Bree Hill.
• If you want to, pingback to the post you first saw this tag
• Have fun!

The Questions

What is your fantasy origin story? (The first fantasy you read)
I was brought up on a strong diet of Enid Blyton (I basically spent my entire childhood begging to transfer to Malory Towers) so the first fantasy book I ever read was probably the Magic Wishing Chair Series. I was also majorly obsessed with the Rainbow Magic fairy books growing up.

If you could be the hero/heroine in a fantasy novel, who would be the author and what’s one trope you’d insist be in the story?
See, most of my favourite authors’ characters DIE PAINFUL DEATHS. That’s the problem with being a fantasy heroine – as cool as it would be to live in these magical places, the places are generally pretty violent! To be honest, I think I would be a terrible heroine (ie. very useless) but if I had to pick, I’d have Holly Black write me into one of her Folk of the Aire books because I’d love to visit the world.

What is a fantasy series you’ve read this year, that you want more people to read?
I’ve read a surprising amount of fantasy already! Back in January, I read The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern and whilst I had a few problems with it, it’s the height of fantasy. You can find my review here 🙂

What is your favourite fantasy subgenre? 
I have to admit that I didn’t know much about fantasy subgenres, but after doing some digging I’ve discovered that I prefer high fantasy books. I feel very fancy using these terms! I love the idea of starting from scratch with a fantasy world that the author can shape however they want, because quite often, urban fantasy books are quite similar with the whole we must hide our identity from the real world… There’s also a lot less painful scenes where the characters are shocked by this new world revealed to them because, well, they’ve lived there their whole lives. Although information dumps are definitely a problem in high fantasy!

What subgenre have you not read much from?
Did you know that steampunk fantasy is a thing? Or about The New Weird subgenre? I didn’t. My research brought up some pretty cool books that I really want to try! As for new subgenres, I recently tried my first portal fantasy graphic novel, The Hazards Of Love. It sounds a bit strange, but was SO good. Here’s my review 🙂

Who is one of your auto-buy fantasy authors?
I love me a bit of Ransom Riggs.

How do you typically find fantasy recommendations? (Goodreads, Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram..)
Mostly through Goodreads, but I like to take recommendations from friends or other bloggers. Pre-COVID, I used to love going to the bookshop and just picking the prettiest books I could find, but hopefully we’ll be able to do that again soon.

What is an upcoming fantasy release you’re excited for?
5 words: Rule of Wolves. Leigh Bardugo.

What is one misconception about fantasy you would like to lay to rest?
Fantasy is only for children. Believe me, I’ve read enough of From Blood And Ash to know that that is not for kids… Find my review here!

Also, it annoys me when people think that the chosen one trope starts and ends with Harry Potter. Whilst that series is a flipping brilliant example of how in-depth fantasy worlds can be, the chosen one trope has been around for – well, forever. Look at Dune by Frank Herbert! That was released in 1965 (speaking of, you can find my review here 😉 ). And then there’s more modern books like Carry On or even the Shadow and Bone series. These authors aren’t stealing from a more popular book just because they have similar themes.

If someone had never read a fantasy before and asked you to recommend the first 3 books that come to mind as places to start, what would those recommendations be?
Ahhhh I feel like most of my favourite fantasy books might be a bit full-on for a novice fantasy reader (Gideon the Ninth who?) but I’d have to go with:

• The School For Good And Evil by Soman Chainani
• Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Who is the most recent fantasy reading content creator you came across that you’d like to shoutout?
I really helpful site when I was looking at the subgenres of fantasy was Thoughts On Fantasy, so go and check out their site!

I’m tagging: 

• I Literary Can’t
• Lost In Neverland
• Ana Bookshelves Blog
• Bellis Does Books
• Tessa Talks Books
• Past Midnight
• Windows To Worlds
• The Sassy Library Fox
• And…

YOU!

If this looks like a tag that you want to give a go, let me know in the comments and I’ll link up your site 🙂

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The Fantasy Winter Retreat Book Tag

The next one! (Wow just doing one tag is enough effort 😅). This tag was created by Sumedha, and I was tagged by Paperbacktomes – you can find their take on it here.

The Fantasy Winter Retreat Book Tag Summary

You get to go on a week-long retreat to chill and have fun after the stressful 2020 experience. Set the scene of your dream winter retreat and, using the prompts, round up the characters you’d like to vacation with!

Step One:

Travel destination and accommodation
After being stuck in England, going to somewhere hot would be very nice! And somewhere where it doesn’t rain that much because, like I said… England.

Step Two: Who’s Joining?

I’m picking some of my favourite fantasy characters and heading to the beach – Normals, muggles or Mundanes need not apply. Who are you inviting?

A fun character who’s presence would cheer up any situation
I don’t know how much glitter we’d need at the beach, but I’m sure Magnus Bane from the Mortal Instruments would provide more than enough…

A character who would parent everyone
James Potter is the true mother hen of the Marauders. Fight me. Also, if James is going, looks like Remus and Sirius are coming too (I need my unlimited supply of chocolate!). However, it wouldn’t be the wildest coincidence if Peter’s banned from the plane…

A character who would plan games and other activities
Alby from the Maze Runner might like something to plan other than, you know, how to survive a deadly maze. Although, the only thing on my agenda is lazing on the COVID-free beach.

A character who would rather cozy up in blankets and sleep/laze around all day
Nina Zenik. That’s it. She’s the cat.

A character who had to cancel other plans to be here
I’m hoping that Dorian and Ezra from The Starless Sea would have had to cancel a lot of dates to come to the beach – because they have a serious amount of catching up to do!

A character who brought their work along with them
I have the same answer as Isha from Paperbacktomes but I think he’s the perfect answer. David Kostyk from Shadow and Bone is definitely the sort of person to be working on holiday until he passes out from sunstroke.

A character who would not leave their partner’s side
Post Any Way The Wind Blows Simon and Baz will definitely deserve to be at the beach.

A character who is amused by everyone’s antics
Harrowhark from Harrow the Ninth would never do something as juvenile as play in the sea (well, maybe when no one’s watching…). Although, I’m assuming she’s still in full satanic nun outfit and makeup, so I’m interested what that looks like 😂

I’m tagging:

• The Bookish Mutant
• The Chaotic Bookclub
• Claudia Reads Books
• Always Trust In Books
• Upside Down Books
• Break even Books
• And…

YOU!

If this looks like a tag that you want to give a go, let me know in the comments and I’ll link up your site 🙂