Started by Fantasy Review Barn, now run by Fantasy Faction. Tough Traveling is back my friends! Yes, the best fantasy specific meme around is finally up and running again. So join us every week as we tour the fantasy genre. From high to low, from classics to new releases, from epic to urban; each month, we will guide you in search of a different trope, theme or cliché. For a history of what came before check the tag above.
This weeks topic (fittingly enough) is BEGINNINGS:
There is an official intro do this topic but I ignored and decided to focus on the beginnings to several of my favorite series instead. I will play by the rules next time, I swear.
Discworld by Terry Pratchett – A small group watch a town on fire. Small wagers are made on what exactly caused an explosion. No one is in danger, there is no desperate escape needed. As beginnings go it isn’t the most exciting but it obviously left an impression on me. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld has been my favorite series for so long at times I forget how simple the beginning was. Just two men, chatting about a disaster they are outside of, watching the now infamous Rincewind and Twoflower show up.
The humorous thing is for a great many readers this ISN’T the beginning they read. Because the more common advise is to start somewhere else in this wonderful series. And it is hard to disagree; The Color of Magic is unlike anything else in the series and in reality one could grab any Discworld book and use it as a starting point (I have even come to the conclusion that Night Watch is a perfectly fine first book for a curious reader).
But there is a real starting point to this series. And I am a seemingly rare reader who actually started there. So for me my greatest reading pleasure will always be tied to a city on fire.