Have you ever cracked open a book and found yourself sucked into the story? Your bedroom has disappeared. You’re no longer comfortably sitting on your favorite reading chair. You’re in a faraway land…
A kingdom on the brink of war with mythical creatures. Faes, shifters, and dragons lurk beside you. Sword-wielding knights battle thieves and rebels to your left—the reverberating clangs of steel… Colorful bursts of magic escape from a wizard’s wand in the distance; the air is infused with magic that tickles your senses.
You sigh and turn the page, eager to journey deeper into this kingdom…excited to escape into the enchanted world that only exists inside the covers of fantasy books.
Readers of fantasy are a unique lot; fiercely dedicated to their favorite genre, and for good reasons. Fantasy is a genre that truly excites the reader’s imagination. Fantasy books make the impossible feel real. It is a genre that almost exclusively takes place in fictional locations and realms beyond the reality of time and space. And yes, even sometimes, logic. Don’t believe me? Fantasy books ignore the rules of reality, rewriting them and molding them into worlds where anything is possible.
Fantasy books allow us to live a thousand lives. They whisk us away on epic adventures that fuel the imagination. As the pages are turned, we are invited to join the characters as they:
Fantasy stories are fun and magical, but their characters’ struggles can mirror real-life challenges. A well-developed fictional character in any genre possesses realistic, believable, and relatable personality traits, successes, and failures; those existing within the pages of fantasy books often do so in extraordinary ways.
Yes, Harry Potter is a wizard, but he also struggles with loneliness and the desire to belong and to be loved. Let’s not forget about his desire to stay alive as he faces one potentially deadly encounter with “You Know Who” after another. Whoa!
Survivors who fight back. Fantasy books are filled with underdogs who rise and fight against impossible odds. (Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Cage of Tangled Thornes)
I remember the first time I picked up a fantasy book (The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien) and ran my fingertip over the map of Middle Earth inside the front cover; the neurons of my imagination sparked with giddy anticipation for my upcoming journey with a hobbit into a new, exciting, and dangerous world. Nothing is more enjoyable as a reader than losing oneself in a fantasy world that is so immersive it feels real.
Some of my favorite fantasy worlds to visit (aside from the aforementioned Middle Earth):
Fantasy books do more than tell stories. They pull us into magical, mystical, and unbelievable worlds. These realms ignite our imaginations with characters who touch our hearts and sometimes fuel our anger. We journey with them, sharing their struggles and decisions, failures and successes, loves and losses, battles and betrayals.
We love the morally gray royals and root for the outcasts and misfits. In another chapter, we befriend the shifters (Sentinels in my Thorne Chronicles series) and magical creatures, cast spells beside wizards, and help save kingdoms, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in battle with noble knights and brave heroines.
In fantasy worlds, hope, inner strength, and resilience abound. And maybe, just like the characters of our favorite fantasy books, we, too, will discover our strengths along the way.
What is your go-to fantasy book? The one you grab off your bookshelf when you’re feeling down and need to escape the real world for a while? Which fantasy character do you relate to the most? Who’s your fantasy Bestie? And tell me if you agree that fantasy is the ultimate way to escape from reality. I’d love to hear why you love fantasy books.
Follow Flawed Realms on social media, and don’t forget to explore our website for more fantasy-bookish chaos and fun!
The Which Fantasy Realm Do You Belong In? Quiz.
