Fantasy worlds you'd want to visit

[Pyan]

I think it was more influenced by the rural area near Birmingham (where Tolkien grew up) and Oxfordshire (where he wrote the books).

This is correct - Tom Shippey makes it clear in his collection of Tolkien studies, Roots and Branches - there's an essay called Tolkien and the West Midlands: The Roots of Romance included in it, which is based on an interview with JRRT.

 

[Lucky_Lola]

Having grown up in the south of New Zealand, watching the LOTR movies was a little jarring for me. At the premiere screening of The Two Towers when the hobbits first laid eyes on Isengard, I turned to my friend and we both grinned and said "that's the Shotover valley!"

I'd love to visit Earthsea, being an islander the concept of a vast archipelago appeals to me. I'd also quite like to see Carey's Terra d'Ange and Pug's island on Midkemia.

 

[woodsman]

The appeal of the shire is the peace, at least for me. If my only worry is how much gossip I can get at t'pub and if my turnips are bigger than the next door neighbours: I want to be there. Its a utopia of sorts.

I wouldn't be so hasty to dismiss its beauty though. I grew up on the edge of Romney marsh, no great distance from the Weald and the North Downs. Beautiful area. I always looked at pictures of places far away and thought how much more beautiful they were.

Yes, there's something immense to be felt in waking upto a view of mount Cook, climbing on the Jungfrau, seeing sunrise over Uluru, watching the sun go down in Barca or just getting lost in the streets of Tallin old town. When I come home there's a beauty in a different way. That of greeting an old companion who you love because you know their worth. An area where the very trees are counted friends, where you watch the seasons pass looking forward to the changes each one heralds. A land with so many memories tied to it, that no vista no matter how stunning, can ever really compete. I think the shire would have that sort of feel to it.

Then again I'm probably overly sentimental

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Yes - the appeal is peace, tranquility...

The Shire was indeed based on Tolkien's local countryside. The "Westcountry" accents are presumably intended to indicate the bucolic, unsophisticated nature of the hobbits. Insulting, if that was the case...

 

[Jojo999]

I'm sick & tired of Earth.

I'd like to live in the Mars or Venus of Edgar Rice Burroughs imagining for his Mars/Venus series books.

 

[prdimitrov]

The only way I would like it, is if I created it myself.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I'm no great Moorcock fan - but his End of Time always struck me as somewhen I would like to go - as long as I could have one of those power ring thingies and not be stuck in a zoo somewhere.

 

[Jojo999]

I've always been enamored with stories of a far future Earth where science and magic are often one and the same. Places like:

1. The far future Dying Earth of Jack Vance.

or

2. The Urth of Gene Wolfe in the Books Of The The New Sun.

or

3. The Radix world of A.A. Attanasio

and

4. The far future World's End/Gondwane books of Lin Carter

 

[thatollie]

I'd like to be a monk in the world of Neal Stephenson's Anathem because their Spheres and Bolts sound so cool.

Also, I would love to go to the first world in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and find out what species my dæmon is.

 

[Rodders]

Well, i am kind of looking forward to the new Star Wars MMORPG so that i can visit the Star Wars universe from time to time.

 

[Robsia]

I would quite like to live on Pern, although it would have to be during an Interval naturally. But I would love to ride a dragon, and Robinton was the only crush I have ever had on a character who exists solely in a book.

 

[Jojo999]

Speaking of dragons, I would love to live the simple life in Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea world.

 

[Mouse]

Also, I would love to go to the first world in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and find out what species my dæmon is.

Oh yes, also this one for me. How could I forget His Dark Materials?!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I would definitely want a retirement home in The Shire...

So would I!

I'd like to visit Narnia during the peaceful reign of King Caspian X. And there are certain places I'd love to visit in the Riddlemaster books. Not Hed, which seems too ordinary, but An would be interesting. And the Hayholt in Tad Williams's books, and Gormenghast.

But it's a good point that it's harder to think of places in recent books that I'd like to visit. Probably someplace Steampunkish. Thaiburley in Ian's books would be fun to explore.

I have a weakness for great rambling piles of architecture.

 

[Talysia]

I'd be another eager visitor to the Shire. As for others, well, I'd love to visit Pern (like Robsia, during an Interval), Earthsea, and definitely Ankh Morpork.

 

[severence25]

The world of the wheel of time in the age of legends before lanfear bored into the dark one's prison always sounds pretty cool

 

[D_Davis]

I'd like to live in the Valley of the Wind (Nausicaa).

 

[chrispenycate]

I'd consider moving to the discworld; but not Ankh Morpork. Probably somewhere like Lancre (yes, I know; that's somewhere that people come from, not move to). Or the chalk, except for the sheep.

But essentially I'm a Science Fiction sort of person; there are thousands of worlds, ships or habitats where I'd be useful.

 

[Metryq]

The only way I would like it, is if I created it myself.

While being able to create one's own universe sounds like a lot of fun, I'd rather discover unexpected things. Even then, any fantasy world I'd like to visit is because of the characters, not the setting. In Brigadoon, Mr. Lundie lists that as one of the conditions for an outsider being able to stay after sunset (staying for someone, not Brigadoon itself).

 

[chrispenycate]

Brigadoon? Beowulf?

(When you stalk through a wurm, keep your head…)