“When you can walk the rice paper without tearing it, then your steps will not be heard.”
1 November 2017 
It’s time once again to go Tough Travelling with Fantasy Faction, On the first day of each month, with a pre arranged theme in mind, we will all come up with out own individual selection of books that take us travelling through the tropes of fantasy. This month’s theme:
MENTORS
A Mentor will be at your service until around halfway through the tour of Fantasyland, when you will unaccountably lose him. Before that he will guide you, tell you what to do in the face of strange customs, and even sometimes instruct you in how to perform minor MAGICS. The Tough Guide suggests that the mentor will be several hundred years old, probably with a long white beard, which will give him the right to be bossy, smug, tiresomely philosophical and infuriatingly secretive about all-important facts.
Well, firstly, because I’ve just read this book I’m going to of with Ferius from Sebastien de Castell’s Spellslinger series. Ferius reminds me of Caine from the old Kung Fu series. She’s travelling on an unknown path, in a world with a western vibe and she has this sort of Karma attitude all about giving people a chance before turning to violence. Ferius is one of the Argosi people, their travels lead them to witness events that they believe could be world changing and they paint cards, a little like tarot cards, to reflect these events. Ferius is such an easy to like character – funny, sassy, full of one liners, doesn’t know when to give up. Yeah, I really like her.
An unusual choice next. I’m going with Toby Daye from Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series. I love this series and in fact need to press on with the next book. Toby doesn’t have a long beard and maybe she doesn’t completely fit the description above but I like that she’s become a mentor to a couple of characters in this series. I won’t elaborate because it will contain spoilers for those who haven’t read the series yet.
Another unusual choice – I seem to have gone for all the ladies so far – not a beard in sight! Brienne of Tarth. I’m not sure if this is also a cheat tbh. Brienne takes on Podrick as her squire – which I’m going to say is a sort of mentoring role. Anyway, I enjoyed reading and watching these two so they’re going on the list:
Finally, Master Lo who becomes a mentor to Moirin in Jacqueline Carey’s Naamah series. Master Lo teaches Moirin how to become calm using different breathing techniques. He’s instrumental in her decision to travel to Ch’in and he also introduces her to Bao.
I was trying to stay away from the two mentors that immediately sprung to mind and definitely fit the description above:
“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
Books and travelling with Lynn 
What an excellent choice of mentors, Lynn. I completely agree with Ferius in Spellslinger – and I can also understand why she can be so annoying. She sort of gives advice without saying why… And yes – I hadn’t thought of it before, but you’re absolutely right about Toby Daye:). As for Brienne – I LOVE her in the GoT – her voice is amazing and she is so charismatic to watch on the screen. I don’t know the Jacqueline Carey recommendation – but this is series I need to catch up with anyhow, given what a brilliant author she is. I’ll try to catch up with this one this month – I haven’t made it yet! But hopefully this coming month I keep well enough to keep up with my blogging schedule…
I love Brienne – such a good character, these don’t seem to fit the description exactly but I think they kind of work – I also wanted to have the faceless man Jaqen H’ghar – I love his character too.
Lynn 😀
We’ve just this minute finished watching the final episode in series 7 – oh. my. word!
Oh man, I had a post drafted where I was brainstorming for this topic, but never got around to typing it up. It’s just been crazy lately. But I had Jaqueline Carey on my list too, though I went with Delaunay…I am so predictable 😀
Actually, now I think of it Delaunay is a great choice and I just don’t know why he didn’t occur to me. It has been crazy lately – although your ‘crazy’ probably looks like pure insanity with the number of books you get through 😀
Toby is an excellent choice! I’m kicking myself for not thinking of her. 🙂
I wondered if I should have her really – but I do think she makes a good mentor to be honest – I was focusing on the beard though!
Lynn 😀
I like the choice of Brienne as a mentor, even though she is not that old and doesn’t have a beard. 😉 I also like Gandalf, Dumbledore… And what about Yoda? 🙂
I thought of Yoda – and then forgot him when I made the list – mmm, there is no forget! Except there is.
Lynn 😀
Brienne is a great and unexpected choice, indeed 🙂
I love the gruff but caring way she teaches Podrick and I’ve always like the way these two work together.
I love the Brienne/Podrick dynamic – they’re so easy to like.
Lynn 😀
I love how you’ve gone for mentors that break the mould – I particularly love that
Brienne of Tarth is on your list 😀
She’s such a good character isn’t she. I was watching something with all the cast talking about which character they would kill off next if they were GRRM – she was talking with the actor who plays Jamie and the two of them had such an easy going rapport and she was so nice – it made me like her character ten times more (if that’s possible).
Lynn 😀
Cool you have lots of non-bearded mentors on your list! I didn’t even think of Brienne but you’re right, she is a mentor – and just generally an awesome character. I haven’t read Spellslinger but I’m curious – actually I’ve read nothing by Sebastien de Castell and have been meaning to change that for a while.
The two Spellslinger books so far have been really enjoyable. They’re not the same – but, if you like The Iron Druid Chronicles or Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files I’d say you’d probably like these. They’re not set in our world like the other two but they have magic and critters and fun banter and they’re just entertaining.
Lynn 😀
Oh they sound fun! I had been planning to start with Great Coats, since that seems to be Castell’s most famous series, but maybe I should revise that plan. Have you read Great Coats? Do you know how it compares to the Spellslinger books?