Anyone who's poked
around my Tumblr probably knows I'm a fan of the show Atop the Fourth Wall; the
show looks at and reviews bad comic books, and though it's my absolute favorite
show, online or off, I'm not going to talk about it (today) except as it relates
to this week's post.
For March, AT4W's
producer and host Linkara is looking at the history of his favorite super hero
team, the Teen Titans, who first got him interested in comics and leading him
to where he is today. That inspired me to look back at the media that got me where I
am today. My media, of course, is novels.
((And nope, don't
worry, not doing this for a solid month. It'd make my posting challenge quite a
bit easier, but I really don't have that much to say on each piece. I don't
think I do, anyway. Let's stop stalling and find out.))
Animorphs
K.A. Applegate
A group of five
teenagers take a shortcut through a construction site, and find the ship of the
dying alien Elfangor. The alien warns them of other aliens known as the Yeerks,
slug-like creatures who take over other creatures' brains, gaining complete access
of their mind and body. The invasion has already begun - but Elfangor gives the
teenagers a morphing cube, a device that gives them the power to acquire the
DNA of any animal they touch, and transform into that creature.
Animorphs was an awesome book series, even if I was a little
too young to understand how complex and mature the story was until I was older.
This is a series about kids fighting a
war, where they're inexperienced, incredibly outnumbered, unable to tell for
certain who's a friend or enemy - it's a gripping story for certain.
This series also
introduced me to a lot of my favorite animals, especially birds of prey, and
again, although I didn't absorb it at the time, it was an early exposure to
writing from the perspective of animals, with their unique senses and sizes and
instincts.
And last but not
least, the first "books" I
wrote were poorly-written clones of this series , so huge points in this
series' favor.
Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling
Do I even need to
summarize this one? Witches and wizards, magical boarding school, fun and deep
storytelling…
Funny thing about
this series; I started reading it almost on accident. In the fifth grade, my
friend brought Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to school
one day. I had nothing to read and although I knew (well, thought) Artemis Fowl
was science-fiction, I was more interested in reading that book than Harry
Potter. My friend was already reading Artemis, though, so I borrowed Harry from
him instead.
I was hooked. The day I borrowed the book I also had
a bad stomach-ache from heat-stroke, and although I was too ill to go to a
relative's party, I tore through almost the entire book that evening.
Apparently fifth-grade me had decided far
too early that science-fiction was the best genre.
While Animorphs may
have toyed with the idea, Harry Potter went full-throttle with the idea of
telling a story from a technically non-human point of view, and explored a
whole different world that drew from old stories and legends, but brought them
into a somewhat more cohesive, almost modern world. It was the absolute coolest
thing.
So were the book's
dragons.
Unlike Animorphs,
which was pretty far along when I started reading it and finished not long
afterward, Harry Potter was a series I felt like I grew up alongside, even
though I was only on board for the final three books release.
Warriors
Erin Hunter
The Warriors series,
by Erin Hunter, is the story of four Clans of wild cats. Each Clan has its own
territory, leader, and reputation among in the forest, but all share basic
beliefs and rituals, such as naming patterns and belief in a sort of cat-heaven
known as Star Clan. The Warriors universe has since expanded to multiple series
(though I've only read the original series and "The New Prophecy").
By the time I
started this series, I was working on dragon novels, and this was nice
confirmation that nonhuman point-of-view stories can
work. It was also an important reminder that I needed to keep my characters animals and not cram in the human-like
adaptations I was currently throwing into my stories.
Beyond that, it was
another good series that was just fun to follow. Certainly my cat wishes I'd
read it earlier so he could've had a cool name like "Lionheart" or
something.
"But nooo, you stuck
with ~*Butterscotch.*~ Way to go, Mom."
Michael
Crichton/Jurassic Park/The Andromeda Strain
Science! Science is
awesome! Michael Crichton put pure science
into thrilling book form, and it made me want to do the same. I try to
include science explanations for things when possible, even though I write
fantasy. Sometimes reality is just as fascinating as magic.
Dean Koontz/From the
Corner of His Eye
I was probably too
young for some of the material in this book when I first listened to it on
tape, but I'm still glad I listened to it. Koontz writes beautiful prose, and
although it can sometimes be overused, mostly it reminded me - as his book still remind me when I get too
bogged in mechanical plot details - that the language to describe what's going on is just as important
as the action on the page.
The Obsidian Trilogy
Mercedes Lackey
& James Mallory
"Kellen
Tavadon, son of the Arch-Mage Lycaelon, thought he knew the way the world
worked. His father, leading the wise and benevolent Council of Mages, protected
and guided the citizens of the Golden City of the Bells. Young Mages in
training-all men, for women were unfit to practice magic-memorized the
intricate details of High Magic and aspired to seats on the council. Then
he found the forbidden Books of Wild Magic-or did they find him? The three slim
volumes woke Kellen to the wide world outside the City's isolating walls.
Questioning everything he has known, Kellen discovers too many of the City's
dark secrets. Banished, with the Outlaw Hunt on his heels, Kellen invokes Wild
Magic-and finds himself running for his life with a unicorn at his side." -From Goodreads
This is a very
recent addition to my influences, but a much-beloved one. I'd The Obsidian
Trilogy is probably my favorite piece of high fantasy, and like Warriors, it
made me reconsider how deep my fantasy worlds were. You can tell the authors spent a lot of time
and creativity in setting up the world, the magic, the cultures, the
characters, and the story. There's so much original material and ideas here;
reading these books always makes me want to think a little more and work a
little harder on all the elements of my worlds, and to be careful of using
concepts the way they've always been used.
While these are far
from the only good books I've read, and not the only ones that've inspired me
somehow, these are definitely the ones with the biggest influence and most
obvious impacts. I really encourage you to check out these books if any of them
sound interesting. If nothing else, they all make for a great read.
