Top Ten Tuesday: Places Mentioned in Books that I’d Like to Visit

Since most of what I read is fantasy and science fiction, there are tons of incredible places that authors create that I wish were real!! Most of them seem pretty grim to be honest haha so I wouldn’t want to live there but this prompt is amazing because I definitely want visit so many for just little while! I also tried to find fan art from each book or series, or artwork that looks how I imagined, just to give you a sense of the places!

Again, thank you to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting/organizing Top Ten Tuesday!

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Kredik Shaw [in Luthadel] (original Mistborn trilogy; The Final Empire)

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TBH The Final Empire under the rule of the Lord Ruler sounds like a pretty bad place to be. I mean quoted from the book, literally “Ash fell from the sky.” Like, that’s the first line. Sooo I definitely would not want to live there. But!! His palace, called Kredik Shaw (in the capital city of Luthadel) sounds like it would be an incredible sight to see. It’s also known as the Palace of a Thousand Spires, and is made up of peaked spires and shear towers that rise up high in the air, with some thick enough to have rooms and stairwells inside them, and others so thin they are just thin metal rods. It sounds like an architectural marvel and I wish it was real!! (Though without the ash and the depression that emanates from the palace lol.)

The artwork here is various fan art that I found that was either directly inspired by Kredik Shaw or is unrelated art but fits with what I imagine Luthadel to look like.

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The villages in Aratay (The Queen of Blood)

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In this book (and the following sequels) the main land where the story takes place is Aratay, a land where every village/city is built on tree branches! It basically sounds like everything is an elaborate tree house/tree city, which sounds absolutely beautiful. Also kinda reminds me of the Ewok village in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. Also, the forests are full of malicious spirits that are entwined with nature, so even though it would be dangerous I’d love to go visit and see both the amazing tree cities and the spirits.

The images above are not necessarily from the book but they’re just cool images similar what I imagine the cities to look like.

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The Library (The Invisible Library)

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In this series, the main character Irene is a Librarian who works for the mysterious Library, note the capital L. The Library is an organization that collects works of fiction from different realities. That in itself is really cool, Librarians can travel to different realities that have differing levels of magic, and some of have fae, and dragons, and all that cool magical stuff! I think it would be amazing to just explore the library and see what the different texts from the different realities are like.

This is an underrated series so no real fan art, but what I imagine is that the Library is soooo immense that anything you can imagine or want in a magical library exists. So probably all of these images are there somewhere!!

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Red London (A Darker Shade of Magic)

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In A Darker Shade of Magic and its sequels, there are four different Londons that only people with special powers can travel to. There is Grey London, Red London, White London, and Black London. Or, as Lila calls them, Dull London, Kell London, Creepy London, and Dead London. The main character Kell lives in Red London (hence why Lila calls it Kell London), which is of the four is thriving the best. In Red London, magic is abundant. There is a river equivalent to the Thames that is a source of magic, and glows red. Also the whole city apparently smells like flowers! It really sounds like a beautiful place and as I’ve already been to Dull London (aka Grey London aka London most like the real world) I want to experience Red London!

So okay fan art would probably just look like regular old London with a red river haha. But I love this graphic (I can’t find the source??) with the descriptions of what Red London is like!

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Tortall (from most Tamora Pierce novels)

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Would I even be me if I didn’t mention a Tamora Pierce book???? The answer is no. I must stay on brand always and my brand is TAMORA PIERCE. Alright, if you read my blog post about her (which YOU SHOULD if you didn’t already because I’m really proud of it – here it is 🙂 ) then you’ll know that Tortall is the main country where many of her novels take place. This is a pretty standard medieval fantasy setting, but I would love to meet all of my favorite characters! There are also cool magical animals (featured in the later series) such as dragons, griffins, basilisks, creepy things called Stormwings, and many more that would be so cool to see. Honestly I would just die to be able to visit a place that is so important to me and dear to my heart.

I couldn’t find any art of the world itself so I’m just including my favorite fan art of the characters 🙂 From left to right: Alanna, Daine, Kel, Beka aka MY GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just missing Aly!

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Le Cirque des Rêves aka The Night Circus (from…wait for it….The Night Circus)

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As the name suggests, the setting of this book is a circus, a wonderful magical mysterious sometimes scary circus. Each tent has a magical marvel or performer or act within. There are things such as a blooming garden made entirely of ice, acrobats flying without nets, and a cloud maze where if you get lost and step off you float down to the floor. The circus also has no schedule and just appears without any warning, and can also leave similarly without warning – you may just wake up one day and it’s moved on. It just sounds so magical, how could you not want to visit?

I couldn’t find a ton of fan art but I did find some! The first is an illustration from a scene from the book, the second is art similar in style to the book cover, and the last is an imagining of what the circus looks like as you enter.

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The Archive + The Narrows (The Archived + The Unbound)

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I probably wouldn’t want to spend too much time here because the Archive is basically a library of Histories, which are essentially the dead. They are a record of each person’s life. I think it would creep me out if I spent too much time there but the concept is so intriguing that I would definitely want to go visit, and see what a History is like when it’s woken up. I would also want to see the Narrows, the place that is an in-between place that separates the real world from the Archive. It’s described as sort of a dark alley way, which sounds boring but the fact that it’s kind of like a pocket universe type place makes it interesting to me.

Sadly I couldn’t really find any fan art for this series so I just had to find images that I felt represented these places.

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London Below (Neverwhere)

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Yes! We do have another alternate London that I’d like to visit. I don’t know what it is about London but it seems to make a great fantasy setting. Maybe because it’s fun to take a well known place and put a spin on it? Anyway, in Neverwhere, London Below is basically what it sounds like, a grittier and more magical London that lies below regular old boring London. I don’t really know what the draw is for me but I think it has a lot to do with the mysterious way Neil Gaiman writes – I just feel like there is so much to be discovered in London Below that I want to go and find it for myself.

I love the fan art that I found!! There wasn’t much, but the first looks almost like a wood carving to me which is super neat. And I just love the second one and how it totally flips London Below, and makes it sort of like the Upside Down in Stranger Things.

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The Underland (The Underland Chronicles)

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Okay so Suzanne Collins is obviously famous for writing The Hunger Games trilogy but I’m gonna be real here – my heart belongs to the Underland Chronicles. They’re about a boy, Gregor, who lives in New York City. One day, his two-year-old sister falls down an air duct in his building and he goes after her, and they end up underneath the city in a place called the Underland. There are giant mice, rats, bats, and insects that live down there, along with humans. The giant animals and insects are sentient, and can speak. It sounds a little creepy, and it kind of is, but the cool part is that humans bond with the bats and are able to ride them. I’m sure it wouldn’t be for everyone haha but I definitely want to visit.

This artwork 😍 I’m pretty sure it’s the artwork from one of the cover redesigns and I loooove it.

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The whole world of the Edge Chronicles (The Edge Chronicles)

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So I didn’t put these ten in any particular order before this one, but I think you could probably see that this is my FAVORITE just based on the amount of artwork I included 😂. I am absolutely in love with the world of the Edge Chronicles. This maaaay have a lot to do with the fact that Chris Riddell did the illustrations, which are found on almost every page of each book, and he is my favorite illustrator. But actually I guess it’s the other way around, because I discovered him through these books. Anyway! I love the world that he and Paul Stewart created so so so much. The different species, the idea of a land that literally has an edge you can fall off of, a floating city on a big rock, and so much more. And sky ships??? Flying ships?? It’s all just so COOOOOOOOL. I wish this was real so badly.

Most of this artwork is the official artwork of Chris Riddell, with the exception of the last piece I believe.

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Would you visit any of these places? What’s on your list of places you want to visit?