‘ The far land of Spare Oom where eternal summer reigns around the bright city of War Drobe’
16 September 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Fantasy Review Barn, Portals, Tough Travelling
Surely Narnia has to be on this list – reached by a little girl playing hide and seek in a wardrobe in a spare room:
This week over at the Fantasy Review Barn Nathan is taking us Tough Travelling looking at the tropes of fantasy. This week the topic up for discussion is:
PORTALS TO ANOTHER LAND
Fantasyland often has some unique entry points; not every traveler is born within its boundaries. It is a regular event for someone from a non-magical place to suddenly find themselves in this world of dragons, magic, and danger.
Now, I’m not sure all of these are portals but here goes:
- The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly – in which a young boy called David climbs through a hole in the Garden Wall straight into the land of fairy. A wonderful retelling and mismash of lots of old favourite fairytales in a lovely coming of age story.
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones- in which Howl’s castle has a door in which depending on which way the handle is turned leads to a number of different places.
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman in which Coraline finds a small doorway with a tunnel beyond and an alternative family that seems to be too good to be true.
Is the rabbit hole a portal? I can’t make my mind up – it certaiinly leads to a different world. I tend to think of portals as being doorways and whilst this rabbit hole doesn’t have a door it’s certainly the entrance????
Anyway, what about these doorways:
ddd
Books and travelling with Lynn 
Coraline and Monsters Inc. are great picks. Exactly the kind of portal stories this topic called for.
I was pleased with Coraline – I was trying to get away from the same old choices I seem to use!
Lynn 😀
Excellent choices Lynn! 😀 I too wasn’t sure what to class as a portal or whether going back in time counted… but I went for it anyway! It certainly makes me want to read more children’s books!
Yeah, I had quite a lot of other choices but I wasn’t sure that they fit. Like the Shining Girls – is the house a portal or is it a time travel machine??
Lynn 😀
Yes two of mine are time travelling ones! Oops!
I don’t think there’s a problem with time travelling portals to be honest – I just over think it!
Lynn 😀
I was considering mentioning “The City on the Edge of Forever” in my reply. 😀
Neil Gaiman is popping up on all the lists! All different books too, it seems. I had no idea he wrote so much about portals 😀
And I love the inclusion of Monster’s Inc!
Yeah, he does seem to have had a thing – I guess you could say Neverwhere, Stardust, Coraline and probably even The Sandman would be choices. Trying to think if the Ocean at the end of the Lane had a portal…
Lynn 😀
Yes I like the Monsters pick as well. I went with a different Gaiman book this week, but good choices all around.
I think Gaiman is actually a really good choice for this week. I do like his books but I hadn’t realised just how big a ‘thing’ he had for portals.
Lynn 😀
I think the rabbit hole is definitely a portal! I am also very pleased to see Narnia on your list 🙂
Narnia has to be the absolute must for this one – into a wardrobe and out the other side into a snow covered Narnia. It’s just brilliant.
Lynn 😀
LOL on Monsters.Inc!!! I still have fond memories of that movie from when I watched it with my nephew, and I still laugh when I see the role reversal about monsters being spooked by human children 🙂
Haha, yeah, I want to watch it now!
Lynn 😀
The rabbit hole is a portal. All great choices, Lynn.
Oh good, I wasn’t sure! I always doubt my own choices for some reason.
Lynn 😀
I’d say they’re all portals. Others… hmm.
As I recall, a number of Witch World books feature portals, but I’m really fuzzy on them at this point.
There’s The Forgotten Door. …And I’m having trouble thinking of portals in print at the moment…
Print! Right! In the Myst games, the portals to various other worlds are all literally books! I need to read the tie-in novels still.
They’re something of a staple in D&D and the like. A couple notable examples are: B7 Rahasia which features a maze of small rooms all connected by portals. The clue to how to navigate the maze are on bottles of wine…. One of Mystara’s most striking features is the ‘arch of fire’: lava continuously flows out of a portal from the elemental plane of fire on top of a mountain and arches through the air to a portal to the elemental plain of fire on another mountain a couple miles away.
Stargate. Movie and series. ~_^
Of course – Stargate (doh to my brain!)
I know that I have another few portals nagging at the back of my head but they’re shy and won’t come forward to be counted!
The Forgotten Door sounds very intriguing – just had a look – is that a book by Alexander Key – there are a few with the same title?
Lynn 😀
Yes it is. I first encountered it in one of those grade-school English textbook anthologies, where it made a lasting impression, despite not remembering the author or title, before running into it again. 😀 At that point, Alexander Key was still an unknown name to me, so that came as a surprise when I looked it up today!
I initially missed that this was more looking at portal fantasies instead of the more permanent structures I was thinking of. So a few highly recommended ones:
Mordant’s Need by Stephen R Donalson (which I liked much more than the also portal fantasy Thomas Covenant series).
GATE current anime (based on a light novel series).
The Devil is a Part Timer anime based on light novels (reverse portal fantasy–various fantasy people are coming to Earth).
Interesting – will look at the Donalson book – I haven’t read the Thomas Covenant series but I quite fancied it. Will go and take a look at Mordant’s Need.
Ta
Lynn 😀
Monsters Inc. is a great choice! Of course rabbit holes count. 🙂
Hah, well good. Alice is on the list – I should of course have had Alice Through the Looking Glass – that’s absolutely without a doubt a portal!
Lynn 😀