Each Thursday the Fantasy Review Barn takes us travelling through fantasy tropes.  This week’s instalment looks at:

‘MENTOR.  A tour official who will be at your service until halfway through the tour, when you will unexpectedly lose him‘

Well, I confess that I so wanted to throw Dumbledore and Gandalf into the mix here but as I seem to have either Harry Potter and LoTR virtually EVERY week I’m leaving them out!

Delauney – mentor to Phedre

Kushiel’s Dart is the first in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy Series.  Based in Terre D’Ange, a nation founded by a rebel Angel called Elua, and his companions.  An unusual concept where the inhabitants are the descendents of fallen angels.  Kushiel’s Dart follows the story of Phedre whose beauty is marred by a red mote in one of her eyes.  She is sold into the House of Night where a wealthy benefactor recognises her for what she truly is.  An assignette – one of the only ones borne for many years – marking her as somebody who likes both pain and pleasure and turning her into one of the most sought after courtesans.  Her mentor Delauney however has more ambitious plans for Phedre than simply pleasing the nobles whilst between the sheets!

Chains – and the Gentlemen Bastards

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.  Chains is a great character.  He teaches his little band the art of subtlety, how to blend in with a crowd, how to spot a mark, how to speak multiple languages, cook, read and fight with their weapon of choice.  His charges are experts in the art of disguise and deception.  They play the long game and entertain with their snarky humour and bad language!

Jasnah and Shallan 

Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson.  Jasnah is sister to the Alethi King.  She is a great scholar and also something of a renegede – refusing to believe in religion and preferring cold hard facts.  Shallan becomes Jasnah’s apprentice after hatching a plot to actually steal from her but her plans don’t go according to plan.  The two of them share a lot in common and Jasnah begins to train Shallan in more than the ways of a scholar.

Kelsier and Vin

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.  Vin starts off the series as one of the lowliest members of a street gang who is recruited by the underground movement gathering force to overthrow the Lord Ruler.  Kelsier is something of a legend.  One of the Skaa who has escaped from prison and discovered his mistborn powers.  He undertakes to train Vin in the use of her own magical abilities in order to persuade her to join the movement.

Abenthy and Kvothe

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.   Kvothe is the young son of a couple who travel as part of a performing troupe.  During the course of their travels they are joined by a scholar named Abenthy who befriends the young boy and once he discovers his mental abilities teaches Kvothe in the ways of science and ‘sympathy’.  This is to be the inspiration for Kvothe wanting to join the University (well that and his desire to gain access to the archives and learn more about the monsters who killed his parents!)

Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany

The Tiffany Aching series of books from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.  Granny Weatherwax is the ‘first’ witch amongst all the other witches and whilst Tiffany is trained and lives with other witches during the series I would say that Granny Weatherwax is the most inspiratiional.

Every Thursday The Fantasy Review Barn takes us travelling through the tropes of fantasy.  This week’s guide to Tough Travel we’re going to look at: LARGE MAN…He is very calm, very strong, and not at all stupid. In some cases he will have been a BLACKSMITH, which accounts for the ease with which he severs the chains in the Galley!

I’m sure I make this more difficult than it should be – and I’m sure these are all incredibly easy ‘picks’ but here’s what I came up with:

Fezzik – the giant from the Princess Bride by William Goldman.  Fezzik is the strongest man alive.  He loves to fight and wrestle – but only if he can have a fair fight.  His BFF is Inigo Montoya – and btw if you have six fingers on one of your hands ‘prepare to die’.  I love this book – and in fact the film as well!  It’s inconceivable to not do so!

Snorri ver Snagason from Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Fools.  Snorri is a huge, axe wielding Norse.  He’s on a mission of revenge and he’s going to pair up with the biggest
coward in the Broken Empire.  Well, not so much pair up as become ensnared.  A great pair to read about – it’s difficult to actually say which one is my favourite and to be honest Snorri virtually steals the limelight from The Prince of Fools himself – Prince Jalan.  Actually, if I recount Snorri’s story at the beginning of the book he was bought from a slave ship so he probably was chained in a galley at some point (although I’m speculating – but, speculation is good, speculation is our friend!)

Rock – part of the bridgemen four crew from Sadeas’ army.  Rock is the third son and as such, in spite of his giant stature – he is not permitted to fight.  He chooses instead to cook – he originally achieved the status of cook to high prince Sadeas but was relieved of his duties and given a spot on bridge four after using chull dung as the chief ingredient in the prince’s cuisine.  Remind me not to get on his bad sad.  He’s a great character.  Insightful, respectful and he can see Spren!  Syl certainly has an epic time winding him up!!

Jean Tannen – I don’t strictly speaking know if he counts because I’m not entirely sure just how ‘large’ he is (queue filthy joke).  But, I never miss an opportunity to throw in the strongman of the Gentlemen Bastards  He has a deadly reputation with his weapon of choice, hatchets, also known as ‘the sisters’ (queue about another ten filthy jokes!).  On memorable quotes:

“I don’t have to beat you. I don’t have to beat you, motherfucker. I just have to keep you here… until Jean shows up.” Locke – getting a beating from a rival street gang and waiting for Jean to come to the rescue.

Hagrid from the Harry Potter series – is HP going to make it onto every week’s Tough Travel or what!  I had to do it – really I did.  Anyway, Hagrid is a bit giantesque!  He was a student at Hogwarts until he was tricked by Tom Riddle (you know who).  His wand was snapped but he was kept on as gamekeeper.

This is a cheeky one – but, the Monster from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.   I had to go there!  “Give my creation life”

Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s choices over at The Fantasy Review Barn.

Every Thursday The Fantasy Review Barn takes us travelling through the tropes of fantasy.  This week’s guide to Tough Travel sees us looking at Invisible Colleges.  Here goes:

Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan.  Tyen studies at the Academy which is situated in the Capital of Leratia.  At the Academy a strange mix of magic and archaeology seem to go hand in glove.  Tyen seems a fairly gifted student who becomes the focus of attention when he uncovers a sentient book on a dig in a remote part of the world.  The book quickly becomes an object of desire putting Tyen at risk – even from his own professors.  One of two story lines that start off the first book in the Millennium’s Rule Trilogy.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.  Really needs no introduction but….  The story begins with Kvothe, an innkeeper, telling his story to a Chronicler where we eventually learn of his time as a student at the nation’s University – a very old and mysterious place where students can be taught anything from sympathy to alchemy.  The University is built on top of an ancient city which is now a labyrinth of underground tunnels where Kvothe finds a secret entrance to the Archives – (which is very handy – as the archives were his main motivation for joining the University in the first place and yet in a cruel twist he finds himself banned from the place!)

Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil and Kaja Foglio  –  Agatha Heterodyne is the long lost daughter of a hero.  The story is an alternate history based in a European ‘type’ setting.  At the start of the story Agatha attends the Transylvania Polygnostic University – a struggling student who seems to make a lot of mistakes.  The university seems to be run by madcap scientists. I’m not quite sure how magical or not some of the inventions are (and to be honest the University doesn’t play a major part) – but it seemed to fit!  Described as Gaslamp Fantasy by the author – I enjoyed this – it’s good fun.

Totally-obvious-but-how-could-it-not-make-the-list – Harry Potter.  Based at Hogwarts school of Magic which is reached by train from platform 9.5. To give this a slightly different twist I thought I’d look at the hidden classroom – the Room of Requirement where HP teaches magical defence to Dumbledore’s Army in preparation for the return of ‘you know who’.  A sort of a school within a school – okay, maybe the Room of Requirement is a bit of a stretch!

The Study books by Maria Snyder.  In Poison Study Yelena is an orphan who finds herself in prison and due to execution – rather than be executed she becomesa food taster.  Anyway, long story short Yelena has magical abilities and in the second book she attends an Academy to learn how to fosucs them!  Poison Study, Magic Study and Fire Study – don’t really need any explanations do they!

I know there must be loads of fantasy schools/colleges and Universities out there – so feel free to chuck in your suggestions!!  I struggled with the magical aspect.