Guest post written by Idolfire author Grace Curtis
Grace Curtis is a freeroaming writer from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Her debut Frontier, a queer space western about climate change (really), came out in March last year. The follow up Floating Hotel was a bestseller in the UK. When she’s not dreaming up stories, Grace can usually be found up a hill somewhere, climbing or hiking or lolling idly in the grass. Idolfire is her first work of fantasy.
About Idolfire: Two women embark on an epic journey in this sapphic fantasy with a slow-burn romance inspired by the fall of Rome, from the author of the Frontier and Floating Hotel.
Nothing says ‘Epic’ like a big trek, right? It’s a fantasy tradition that goes right back to Gilgamesh. Not only do they let the characters breathe, they also allow us to view the author’s world at ground level – AKA, the human scale. Here’s five of my all time favorites in no particular order.
Andrzej Sapkowski – Baptism of Fire
Many Witcher fans will cite the third novel as their favorite, despite the fact that nothing happens. In fact, it’s the uneventfulness that makes it great. War and conspiracy ravage the land. Geralt, ever the lone wolf, reluctantly assembles a team to find his missing daughter Ciri, and quickly gets sidetracked. Fans of the games will recognize the meandering (complimentary) tone and excellent character work that makes the Witcher feel less like a story and more like a wonderful place to spend time.
N.K. Jemisin – The Fifth Season
Proceed with caution: The Fifth Season is fairy food. Once you’ve tried it, all other fantasy will seem tasteless by comparison. It’s a bargain worth making, though. Jemisin assembles a fascinating, terrifying world, caught in an endless cycle of disasters, and sets three different women out across it. A mind-altering novel that puts twee sword n’ sorcery contemporaries to shame.
Ursula k. Le Guin – The Farthest Shore
A plague has stricken the land of Earthsea and nobody knows why. Our hero Ged, now Archmage on Roke Island, sets sail to locate the source. Like all the Earthsea novels, The Farthest Shore is a lot more than the straightforward fantasy epic it first appears to be; melancholy, thoughtful and strange. Ged’s journey to the edge of the world leaves him irrevocably changed – you may change yourself in the reading.
Christopher Buehlman – The Blacktongue Thief
‘They don’t make ‘em like this anymore!’ But actually they DO! The Blacktongue Thief is a modern novel with a very classical charm. A motley crew, a perilous quest, a richly imagined world ripe for capering across… Buehlman’s novel is deliciously dark and always, always fun. Plus, we really need more books where the heroes are at risk of being lowered into a large cauldron and turned into stew. That’s just good storytelling.
William Goldman – The Princess Bride
Yes, yes, yes, the movie is great, everybody knows that. But The Princess Bride novel is a curious little wonder that deserves a brighter spotlight. Underneath all the metatextual clownery, deft satire, and commentary on the art of storytelling itself, Goldman still finds time to make you really care about Buttercup and Westley’s adventure. This book is over fifty years old and there’s still nothing else around quite like it.
