Top Ten Tuesday: Vivid Worlds

Over at The Broke and the Bookish, they have this thing called Top Ten Tuesday. Each Tuesday they give other bloggers a chance to participate in making a top ten list with them. This week the topic is "Most Vivid Worlds/Settings in Books". 

So here are mine: 

1. Narnia
-I've been a huge Narnia fan since I was a kid and my dad read the books to my brother and I as bedtime stories that I eagerly clung to. Narnia meant Aslan, it meant a magical world where animals could talk and children could win battles. It holds a very special place in my heart and still hasn't stopped taking hold of my imagination.

2. The Magical Version of our World Seen in Harry Potter
-I'm a latecomer to the "Potterhead" grouping, only having discovered the wonder of this universe in the last few years, but I'm hooked. I love everything about the way J.K. Rowling integrated magic into our world and hid it behind closed doors so that when you're reading it, you can almost believe that it's all true. Then again, that would mean I was a Muggle in a magical world, so that's a downside . . .

3. Middle Earth
-Granted, I've only read The Hobbit, but I loved every bit of the world Tolkien created there. Also, I've seen the Lord of the Rings movies so many times I can practically quote the majority of it. Altogether, Middle Earth gets my thumbs-up for being wonderful, yet dangerous; majestic, yet scary. Everything about it simply urges you to find out more.

4. The World in Robin Wasserman's Skinned Trilogy
-This isn't the type of world I would love to be a part of (like the first three), but it's one I found myself engulfed in. It's very believable and realistic, drawing you in and making you ask questions that most novels wouldn't dream of diving into. The way she has formed each dilemma, each evolution of the way our world turned out, is something you can almost see happening. And it's quite a scary thing to observe.

5. Panem
-Despite my dislike of Suzanne Collins' writing style, she did manage to create a rather vivid picture of the futuristic world her book is set in. It's another believable, yet scary place to live. I wouldn't want to set foot in it, but I could most assuredly believe it.

6. Alagaesia
-In Christopher Paolini's fantastically crafted world, I managed to lose myself in a book that took me longer than most to read. Where I tend to get impatient with books that I can't tackle in a few days (which are few, because I read pretty quickly), these ones were a pleasure straight through. Paolini etched every bit of his world in clear contrast and made every bit as real and defined as the world we live in.

7. Amara
-It's been a while since I've read Donita K. Paul's DragonKeeper Chronicles, but I enjoyed them immensely. The different creatures Paul created were interesting and original, her dragons were varied and interesting, the story wonderful. It was entirely well done. 

8. The World in the Dragons in Our Midst Series
-Bryan Davis created an incredibly imaginative and interesting world in his series' detailing the lives of Billy Bannister and Bonnie Silver. There are actually three series within this series, of which I've only read the first two and that was probably four or five years ago. Still, the details and intricacies of the world he created stand out in their excellence.

9. The Worlds in Howl's Moving Castle
-This book is a wonderful journey and one I intend to reread as often as possible in the future. A large part of this is due to the worlds within it (yes there are more than one, but they're all connected). They are worlds of magic and war, of impossible contracts and things that shouldn't come to life but do. It draws you in and invites you to stay for as long as you should choose to remain.

10. Faerie
-I'll finish off with a world I'm not sure whether I would want to live in or away from, but one that takes one's imagination and soars with it. There are so many things I loved about the world Neil Gaiman created in Stardust and I would definitely cite it as a vivid world that I am quite fond of.