IN WHICH The Girl Ventures to Fantastical Lands

"I didn't know assassins like to read." - Throne of Glass

I'm not an assassin, though I certainly wouldn't tell you if I was. However, it turns out assassins are awfully fun to read about, at least kick ass girl assassins in young adult fantasy novels. Despite the fact that I never got into the Game of Thrones books, I've been steadily reading more and more fantasy novels over the last year. I particularly like the young adult fantasies (big surprise), which I found initially through reading The Midnight Garden blog that reviews young adult literature for adult readers. I love the total suspension of disbelief required in fantasy. If you want to forget the worries of your own life, why not jump into a world of magic, sword fighting, royalty, and a dragon or two?

Now to my understanding, there are many sub-genres of fantasy, but many of the ones I have read recently exist in completely new worlds, so the author must create an entirely new land and society for the reader, which essentially means anything can happen. The more successful novels do a good job of world building. My recent favorite is the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Beyond focusing on a totally awesome assassin as the heroine, Maas establishes one land and set of characters in the first book, a good chunk for readers to swallow without choking on too much new information. She then continues to grow the story's world, in terms of both traveling to new and interesting lands and introducing a larger set of characters. As the series develops, the story becomes more complicated and compelling.

There also tends to be a medieval bent to many fantasy novels. They are set in warring lands run by monarchies, sword-carrying guards play a large part (and are frequently romantic interests), the non-magical fighting involves daggers, swords, and arrows instead of guns, and most characters must travel by walking, horse riding, or boarding a boat. Again, it is a world very different than our own today, even if these elements have existed in the real world.

And then there is the magic. Many plots revolve around how one country does or does not have access to magic. Gots to have the power! In Throne of Glass magic has been erased from one country and the characters must find a way to get it back. In Finnikin of the Rock an entire land is sealed off by magic for more than a decade, and in The Girl of Fire and Thorns a society of sorcerers invades the main land looking for the natural source of magic hidden there. Many of the characters have special abilities due to magic as well, though this often makes them outcasts. For example, in Graceling the heroine is born with a talent - or magical grace - for killing, making her a great assassin but terrifying to befriend. So many girl assassins!


The little feminist in me adores all the emphasis on powerful women in these novels, and I tend to read the ones with female protagonists, though Finnikin of the Rock's main character is male. I can see why so many young girls would like the focus on independent heroines who can protect themselves. At points, however, I'm a little worried about the focus on violence, but that is nothing new to young adult literature and honestly adds a lot of excitement to the story. At the very least, most of the characters aren't killers by choice. Lastly, the teenage girl in me likes the romances. I mean these leaders of the king's guard always seem pretty sexy. But practical things - like saving a nation - often get in the way of love, and I appreciate that romance usually remains a small portion of the plot and never becomes the sole focus of the story (take that Twilight).

Over the winter break, I read The Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, which had a heavy religious focus that weirded me out a bit but was still a good story. Now I need to figure out what's next. I've got The Iron Trial on loan from the library at the moment and want to check out several others, including Shadow and Bone, The Winner's Curse, and The Raven Boys. I'll just continue this trek into nerdier lands.