I just finished The Hobbit and I’m currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring, both for the first time. I’ve really enjoyed the description of their travels, the land, nature, and finding a good place to make camp for the night. Reading about them being so fortunate as to find a house to sleep in for the night makes me really appreciate climbing into my own comfortable bed in the warmth of my home.
Looking for more books that include descriptions of travel. It doesn’t necessarily need to be fiction, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be fantasy either. I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for to be honest 🤣
by acpyle87
4 Comments
An awful lot of fantasy books have travel in them as the characters are going on an adventure.
The green rider has quite a similar feel.
I haven’t finished wheel of time but what I have read so far they spend the whole time walking.
Patrick Rothfus The name of the wind – however there is little hope of the series being finished (sorry Pat)
As I said the heros journey – and it being a literal journey – is very easy to find. I could name a lot more, it just depends what vibe you are looking for
The Underland by Robert MacFarlane
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Amazing Adventures of Amina al-Sarafi by Shannon Chakraborty
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
Not exactly a book about travel… But Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer had me longing to cover the journey he undertook.. the way he describes his journey and the terrain he covered 🤯🤯
Paladin’s Strength by T Kingfisher
He’s a berserker paladin of a dead god, on the trail of a supernatural murderer; she’s a werebear nun on a quest to rescue her kidnapped sisters. They meet by chance, decide to travel together for a while, and gradually choose to trust each other. The travel takes up a lot of the book; they encounter different customs and cultures, and navigate different terrains. At one point, they can’t afford to stop to rest, so by the time they reach an inn it doesn’t matter that the beds are too short.
And the people they meet! T Kingfisher truly shines in the characters she creates. The barrel merchant who plants acorns wherever he goes, in the hope that even one might sprout; the gnole who thinks that oxen are far superior to mules; the travelling salesman (a quack, really) who makes no promises of miracles and does what he can for those around him.
Normally I find romance annoying at best, but it *works* here. There is a resonance between them, as despite their wildly different backgrounds, they both know what it is to have something dangerous inside them. They both know how to make themselves seem smaller, like less of a threat. And, if they hadn’t been sexually compatible, *nothing else in the story would have changed.* Istvhan would have still chosen to go with Clara when she had to make herself scarce; Clara would have still chosen to help Istvhan investigate the murders. Circumstances did not *force* them together – at any point, they could have gone their separate ways. Instead, they *chose* to reach out, to trust, to love.