September 2022 SFFKit: Quests & Journeys

Fantasy and science fiction have a lot of options for quests and journeys, from the physical road trip or explicit quest, to more mental or metaphorical journeys. Feel free to interpret however you like!

Here's a handful of options from the many available.

Fantasy

https://www.librarything.com/tag/fantasy,+road+trip
https://www.librarything.com/tag/fantasy,+quest

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

SF

https://www.librarything.com/tag/road%20trip,science%20fiction
https://www.librarything.com/tag/quest,+science+fiction

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerra

Enjoy, and be sure to add your selections to the wiki.

I have had Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier on my shelf for years and as it is tagged "Quest", this looks like the perfect opportunity to finally read it!

>2 DeltaQueen50: Ooh, I remember really liking that one!

The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway has been sitting on my virtual TBR shelf for about 3 years. Maybe now is its chance.

I'm planning on finally getting around to Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames.

>5 whitewavedarling: I'll be reading Kings of the Wyld as well.

I finished my read in August for this one as it was a book group read. Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

I just finished An Unkindness of Ghosts, which takes place on a generation ship and includes the protagonist's quest to solve the mystery of her mother's life and death.

Currently reading Fool's Quest.

Finished In Plain Sight (Arcane Casebook 1) by Dan Willis. It is a fun cozy sort of SFF with the world being magical. It also involved a quest for special spell book that seems to kill everyone who searches for it.

I am going to include News From Nowhere because it kind of fits here. As a journey but not a quest or adventure. This is a utopia fantasy. The narrator goes to sleep in 19th century and wakes up in the 21st century, utopia socialism England. He spends time walking about various places in England until he returns to his life.

I'll probably be reading Beneath a Sugar Sky by Seanan mcGuire for this month. It is the third novella in the Wayward Children series, in which children have experiences of travelling to other worlds through unique doorways. The books are mainly about how the children adapt or not to the world they travel to, and the difficulties they face when coming back to the "real" world.

I have completed my read of Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier and although this book had both a journey and a quest, I much preferred the first book in the duology, Wildwood Dancing.

I read two books (short stories really) that both qualify as quests.
Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. One was Old English, the next Middle English of course, both are examples of English literature development. Appropriate reads as Great Britain enters a new transition.

🤖 October thread is up! https://www.librarything.com/topic/344184

COMPLETED Paradox Bound by Peter Clines. Eli Teague joins Harriet (Harry) Pritchard on a history-travelling (NOT time-travelling) quest but I can't tell you what the quest is for without SPOILERS.

Finished: Paybacks a witch.
A very light read about a woman returning to the magical town she left, in order to be the arbiter of magical combat between the scions of the magical families that founded the town. She left to avoid her familys status as the weakest family of witches amongst the founders, and her return is an unwitting quest to reclaim the self she abandoned, and understand her true role in creating and maintaining the magical town that she truly loves.
Pretty nice atmosphere, the equivalent if scrolling through an Instagram feed around halloween. The worldbuilding was ok, and I appreciated the matter of fact way bisexuality was handled (ie. Noone cared) and the romance was handled well. A competently written story, I just didn’t care very much about the story, or the characters.

I just finished Son of Avonar by Carol Berg, in which the main characters travel around in search of a legendary gate between worlds -- so it involves both a journey and a quest! It's solid, well-written epic fantasy, but nothing mind-blowing.

I've been really bad about posting this year... but I have read several books that fit here this month.

A graphic novel, Y, the Last Man, Book 4, by Brian K. Vaughan. The series starts with a mysterious plague that kills all male mammals except our not-so-intrepid protagonist Yorick and his monkey. Yorick is determined, despite much societal breakdown, to get from the US east coast to Australia to find his fiancee. As of book 4 (of 5), he hasn't managed to find her yet, but we are getting some hints about the origin of the plague.

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, in which the titular thief is taken out of prison in exchange for his help stealing a mysterious artifact and does not enjoy the journey to get there much at all. I did, though :)

And I reread The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente too, with my daughter this time. I'd forgotten about the quests, though I remembered the journey. And the wyverary, of course.

>19 antqueen: Ooh, I really hope you continue with the Megan Whalen Turner series, it's so good!!!

I read The Rogue and the Peasant by Amberley Martin, a sort of fractured fairy tale in which the two main characters are both on quests to fulfill their destinies. There's also a journey that is interrupted by a kidnapping.

>20 christina_reads: I have the next one on my wishlist already!

My latest read fits!


Destroyer by CJ Cherryh

Another rollercoaster ride by CJ Cherryh, with Paidhi Bren, Banichi, Jago and other characters we love, all caught in the beginning of a civil war.

Finished Kings of the Wyld for this challenge (more than a week ago now, but wasn't able to report due to Hurricane Ian), and absolutely loved it. Full short review written.