Real Life Fantasy - Part Two of the Fantasy Series

The idea behind a good Fantasy novel is that it takes you to places where magical things are the norm, and adventure waits at every corner. Sure that isn’t surprising if you happen to be a medieval princess or live in an alternate reality, but it gets pretty darn exciting when you’re out weeding your lawn and suddenly you fall through a hole in the ground, turn up in a world of dwarfs, and you’re twenty-five pounds thinner to boot. Alright so maybe that last part falls more under Girl Fantasy, but you get the idea.

So basically, what I refer to as Real Life Fantasy is a story where our hero lives in the normal world and then something or someone leads them off the beaten track or endows them with strange and magical powers.

What I find most appealing about this type of story is the foil created when fantasy is set against reality. It leaves the reader with a glimmering hope that no matter how normal and unexciting their every-day life is, magic and adventure could be waiting to pop up at any moment.

We have some first class LDS writers who specialize in Real Life Fantasy, and like Girl Fantasy, these books are enjoyed by fantasy lovers of all ages. Just a note – any of them would make excellent choices as Christmas gifts.



M L Forman is the author of a wonderful fantasy series Adventurers Wanted. The first volume, Slathbog’s Gold, tells the story of fifteen-year-old Alex Taylor. Alex’s life is anything but adventurous. He lives in a pub with his step-father and step-brother. These aren’t bad step relatives, but Alex is looking for something more, and he finds it when he stumbles across Mr. Clutter’s shop window and a strange magical sign that only he can see. Thus begins an amazing adventure filled with heroic warriors, mysterious elves, and hard-working dwarves.



In the Farworld series, writer J Scott Savage creates two unique heroes with everything going against them. Marcus is a severely crippled orphan who requires the use of a wheel-chair to get around, yet despite his disability (or perhaps because of it) he is smart and resourceful. He has to be. Earth is threatened by a terrible evil that he must defeat. But Earth isn’t the only place under attack. Farworld shares the same enemy. In Farworld magic is normal and everything from the flowers to the people posses it to some degree, except for Kyja. Kyja is a girl with no family and no magic, but with a burning desire to make a difference. Together, the two misfits must work together moving back and forth from Earth to Farworld to save their homes from The Dark Circle. Currently Savage has two of the five book series available, part one - Water Keep and part two - Land Keep.



In the first book of his series The 13th Reality, James Dashner introduces us to thirteen-year-old Atticus Higgenbottom (aka Tick) whose invitation to adventure actually arrives in the mail. A strange letter warns Atticus that he will receive a series of clues/riddles that he must solve. At stake is reality itself and a future that Tick can’t even imagine. Dashner released book one, Journal of Curious Letters last year, and The Hunt of Dark Infinity a few months ago.