#FantasyFunMonth Book Tag

#FantasyFunMonth by @JillWilliamson on Twitter

So… this isn’t exactly a tag, per se, and it’s six months late at that, but I saw this cool Twitter tag thing from Jill Williamson back in March and thought it would be fun to take the questions and instead of doing one every day for a month (which would be exhausting) turning them into a tag on a blog post!

At the time, I had just done a February Fantasy month, and I was busy, so I didn’t get around to this till now. So! Let the fantasy fun begin!

1. Fantasy Currently Reading

King’s Warrior by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, and enjoying it muchly. 🙂

2. Fave Fantasy Series

The Lord of the Rings, The Prydain Chronicles, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.

3. Fave Fantasy Quote

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”

— Lloyd Alexander

4. Fave Fantasy Hero(ine)

Oh, so many. There are several I could choose… but I’m going to pick some I’ve been thinking of lately.

For hero, I’m picking Tom Lynn from Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, because he’s a great hero. I said a lot about him in my review.

And for heroine, I’m picking Wilhelmina from The Skin Map and The Bone House by Stephen R. Lawhead (which are the first two books of The Bright Empires 5-book series, which I’m reading, and have read the first two so far and loved). Mina is just… I don’t know. She’s amazing. I want to be her. 🙂

5. Fave Fantasy Book Cover

Five Enchanted Roses. You gotta admit, it’s pretty gorgeous. 😉

6. Fave Fantasy Map

The map of Middle-earth is classic, so I’m going with that one.

7. Fave Fantasy Sidekick

Lockwood from Illusionarium by Heather Dixon. (Hush, it’s totally fantasy; I know it’s mostly steampunk but I’m saying it’s fantasy anyway because I want to answer Lockwood.)

8. Movie Better Than Book

The Princess Bride is one of the only movies I liked better than the book, but it’s simply the best as a movie, so I’m going to go with that one.

9. Epic Fantasy Fave

The Lord of the Rings put the “epic” in Epic Fantasy, so that one. 😉

10. Fave Fantasy Book Title

Kestrel’s Midnight Song by J.R. Parker. I’ve always loved that title. ❤

11. Fave Fantasy Animal/Beastie

Dragons and Griffins are classic… and they can fly, so there’s that!

12. Fave Fantasy Stand-Alone

This one suddenly makes me realize how many books have sequels. O_O Um. No clue. I guess I’ll just put Howl’s Moving Castle here and pretend there weren’t two more books… (They’re sort of about other people, so maybe that counts?)

13. Guess That Fantasy (from quote)

Instead of guessing one or making you guess, I’m just sharing a random fantasy quote that I love saying randomly. ❤

“SOUNDS GROSS,” he said. “SALAZAR PREFERS WOOD. TAPESTRIES ARE ALSO ACCEPTABLE.”

— Paper Crowns by Mirriam Neal

14. Fave Fantasy Magic System

My mind is horrifyingly blank on this one. I know there must be some, but I can’t remember!

15. Highly Recommended Fantasy

Off the top of my head: The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall, Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Paper Crowns by Mirriam Neal.

16. Last Fantasy You Bought

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett are recent ones I’m excited to read, since I’ve heard such good things about both. 🙂

17. Book Better Than Movie

How about… ALL OF THEM? XD

18. Cheezy Fantasy Fave

Hmm. I’m not good with things like “cheesy” because I don’t really like calling things that?

19. YA Fantasy Fave

How about By Darkness Hid, To Darkness Fled, and From Darkness Won by Jill Williamson.

20. Fave Fantasy Cast

The Lord of the Rings and Howl’s Moving Castle kind of can’t be beat on this one… (I know, I know, I keep answering with those… I can’t help it!) But there are SO MANY fabulous fantasy casts. I just can’t choose.

21. Fastest Fantasy Read

Anything by Diana Wynne Jones. I always buzz through those really quickly.

22. Fave Wizard/Mentor

This reminds me of the Silmarillion Awards we had a couple months back… 😉 Um. I’ll go with Howl and Chrestomanci for favorite wizards (though I think Chrestomanci’s technically an enchanter? I don’t remember) and Cosimo (The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead) and Beana (Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl) for mentors, and Gandalf for both Wizard/Mentor.

23. Fave Childhood Fantasy

The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. They introduced me to fantasy as a wee thing, and I still love them muchly.

24. Fave Fantasy Romance

So many wonderful characters. Hmmm.. Off the top of my head: Sophie and Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle, Mendanbar and Cimerene from Searching for Dragons, Ginger and Hal from Paper Crowns, and of course Faramir and Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings. THEY’RE ALL SO PRECIOUS.

25. Fantasy Never Finished

I… always finish, so I can’t think of one… I do remember starting The Once and Future King by T. H. White once and not getting around to finishing it at the time because it was so long, but I do fully intend to get back to it at some point.

26. Middle Grade Fantasy Fave

I never know exactly how to know which those are… But I’ll go with The Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman, since they’re likely for a younger audience but I love them to death.

27. Fave Fantasy Weapon

The sword of King Mendanbar of the Enchanted Forest, from Searching for Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede! It’s just the best and it’s so handy and magical and I love it.

28. Slowest Fantasy Read

It was called Hero’s Song by Edith Pattou and I should have liked it because it was based on Celtic mythology (I think?) but it was so. slow. and it took me MONTHS to read it and I just couldn’t like it which made me sad. -_-

29. Fantasy Read Repeatedly

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. ❤

30. Most Anticipated Fantasy

An Earthly King by Hazel B. West (cover reveal coming Sept. 9 on her blog!!), Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, and King’s Blood by Jill Williamson (which sadly seems to have moved its release date to next year. *wailing*). I WANTS THEM, PRECIOUSSS. ❤

31. Fave Fantasy Author

J. R. R. Tolkien and Diana Wynne Jones, naturally. 😉

How about you? Feeling fantasy-ish now? Agree with any of my picks? (SO hard to choose!) Answer the questions in the comments or steal this tag idea if you want! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Dream away in those pages . . .

~ The Page Dreamer