Literary Flights of Fantasy • February 2021

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Help select what we'll read and discuss next!


The topic is Flights of Fantasy.

This could mean books that have a fantasy genre element to them. Or it could mean a character who is prone to flights of fantasy/fancy, daydreaming or otherwise imaginative but unrealistic ideas, or a character who has a single flight of fantasy central to the story. Or it could mean a book to do with flying. Or it could be a book with 'flight', 'fantasy' or some similar synonym to either of those in the title.


Detailed nominating and voting guidelines can be found here. Basically, nominations are open for about four days and each person may nominate up to three literary selections which will go automatically to the vote. Voting by post then opens for four days, and a voter may give each nomination either one or two votes but only has a limited number of votes to use which is equal to the number of nominations minus one. Any questions, feel free to ask.

We hope that you will read the selection with us and join in the discussion.

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Nominations are complete. Initial voting is complete. Run-off voting is complete. Final results-

• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 468 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off 1 . 2015 . U.S.
  
  
• Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 274 Pages . Votes 0 . Run-off – . 1984 . England
  
  
• Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 410 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off 0 . 2007 . Poland
  
  
• Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 166 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off 3 . 1939 . France
  
  
• Sourdough by Robin Sloan
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 259 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off 1 . 2017 . U.S.
  
  
• A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin
  Post . Goodreads . Preview . 304 Pages . Votes 1 . Run-off – . 2016 . U.S.

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I'll begin with The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. This apocalyptic fantasy (is that an oxymoron?) drew me right in with the preview. And though Goodreads ratings may not be the best measure of how good a book might be, I will say that this book has a 4.28 with over 160,000 ratings which is an extremely high rating for a book with a lot of ratings that's not a sequel.

Goodreads . Preview . 468 Pages . 2015 . U.S.

This is the way the world ends. Again.

Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries.

Now Essun must pursue the wreckage of her family through a deadly, dying land. Without sunlight, clean water, or arable land, and with limited stockpiles of supplies, there will be war all across the Stillness: a battle royale of nations not for power or territory, but simply for the basic resources necessary to get through the long dark night. Essun does not care if the world falls apart around her. She'll break it herself, if she must, to save her daughter.

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For my second nomination I'll go with Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. I had a lot of options for nominations this month (as usual) and like the former, the preview of this one really pulled me in.

Goodreads . Preview . 274 Pages . 1984 . England

Mythago Wood won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and is regarded as one of the finest fantasy novels of the 20th century.

Deep within the wildwood lies a place of myth and mystery, from which few return, and none remain unchanged.

Ryhope Wood may look like a three-mile-square fenced-in wood in rural Herefordshire on the outside, but inside, it is a primeval, intricate labyrinth of trees, impossibly huge, unforgettable... and stronger than time itself.

Stephen Huxley has already lost his father to the mysteries of Ryhope Wood. On his return from the Second World War, he finds his brother, Christopher, is also in thrall to the mysterious wood, wherein lies a realm where mythic archetypes grow flesh and blood, where love and beauty haunt your dreams, and in promises of freedom lies the sanctuary of insanity...

[Bookworm_Girl]

My first nomination is Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft (Translator). Currently on sale for $1.99 in the US. WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE. WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE. I previously nominated another book by this author.

From Goodreads:

From the incomparably original Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration. Chopin’s heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller’s answer.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My second nomination is Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Lewis Galantière (Translator).

From Goodreads:

Recipient of the Grand Prix of the Académie Française, Wind, Sand and Stars captures the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying. Translated by Lewis Galantière.

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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

My first nomination is Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft (Translator). Currently on sale for $1.99 in the US. WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE. WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE. I previously nominated another book by this author.

I ended up reading that other book! Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

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For my final nomination I'll put up Sourdough by Robin Sloan. This magical realism book is a lighter view on the topic and could fit in more ways than one, and again the preview was fun and intriguing.

Goodreads . Preview . 259 Pages . 2017 . U.S.

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?

[Bookworm_Girl]

My final nomination is A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin.

From Goodreads:

A gorgeous fantasy in the spirit of Pan’s Labyrinth and John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things.

Set in a world similar to our own, during a war that parallels World War II, A Green and Ancient Light is the stunning story of a boy who is sent to stay with his grandmother for the summer in a serene fishing village. Their tranquility is shattered by the crash of a bullet-riddled enemy plane, the arrival of grandmother’s friend Mr. Girandole—a man who knows the true story of Cinderella’*s slipper—and the discovery of a riddle in the sacred grove of ruins behind grandmother’s house. In a sumptuous idyllic setting and overshadowed by the threat of war, four unlikely allies learn the values of courage and sacrifice.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

I ended up reading that other book! Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

Did you like it? I still want to read it.

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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Did you like it? I still want to read it.

Yes, I liked it. I wouldn't say I loved it but it was an interesting read that was atmospheric and cultural (being set in the wintry cold on a tiny speck at the very edge of Poland). I would almost say it was quirky with some things such as the narrator's strong belief in and use of astrology, but the tone of the novel was a bit too darkly realistic, serious and sombre for that adjective... sometimes with dashes of black humour might be a more appropriate description. The mystery was good and though I solved it a good ways before I still thought it was well constructed.

The narrator of the story, an older lady living alone who some might call a bit 'out there' and who is investigating the mystery, is definitely a unique character and reading up on the book afterwards I found the author said she liked the idea of using for the narrator and really getting the perspective of a character who might be well on the sidelines in other books, perhaps relegated to a tiny colourful supporting appearance at best. I listened to the audiobook and the person who read the novel did a great job and fit perfectly- she was an older lady who spoke in a Polish accent.

It would have definitely made for an interesting discussion in the book club for a number of reasons, and I think you'd enjoy it. I found there's also a Polish film made of the novel though I haven't watched it.

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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

My final nomination is A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin.

From Goodreads:

FYI for anyone who might be manually searching for this on Goodreads- for some reason, the book does not show up at all on searches (or at least the ones I've done). It's strange as I've never had that happen before in all the books I've searched for on Goodreads in the past. I had to go to the author's page where there it was accessible, and of course on the first post list of this thread the link will be there.

ETA- Also, there's a quirk with its preview as well. The book begins with a lower-case 'remember the plane hurtling above the village.' If you click the preview link in the first post of this thread for it, it can look as if a possibly previous part might be missing, but I checked against a preview of it from another source and confirmed that the 'remember' sentence is indeed how the book begins.

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Nominations are complete and voting is now open!

Voting will close exactly four days from this post.

Each person has FIVE votes to use.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will start with 1 vote for each of the following books.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Sourdough by Robin Sloan

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I'll give one vote each to

-The Fifth Season
-Flights
-Wind, Sand and Stars
-Sourdough
-A Green and Ancient Light

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Initial voting is complete and we're down to four! We have a tie between:

-The Fifth Season
-Flights
-Wind, Sand and Stars
-Sourdough


Run-off voting is now open!

Voting will close exactly TWO DAYS from this post.

Each person has THREE votes to use.

If the run-off ends in a tie, the selection that received all its votes first will win.