Episode: 510 High Fantasy

Episode 510 High Fantasy

Thank you for joining us on Reading With Libraries! We are so glad you are here to join our book group podcast!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we work with all types of libraries.

We started this podcast to provide information for our library community doing Reader’s Advisory work. It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! 

So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

This week we’re excited to explore a very popular genre: High Fantasy! We are so pleased to welcome new Guest Host Eric from the St. Cloud Public Library! Thank you so much for joining us!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages. Today we have drinks from the blog The Sword and Torch Inn. They warn: “The drinking feats mentioned in this list are not recommended in real life unless you happen to be an Orc barbarian or a half dragon.” We are sipping slowly and taking our chances!

Cheese Rind Cider

  • This is named because it is bright orange like a waxy cheese rind and tastes really good accompanied by cheese. It is actually made from carrot juice and flavoured with strong apples.

Werewolf Blood

  • This drink has a dark red tint, it is made from berries and grapes not quite good enough for fine wines, every barrel tastes very different because of the varying nature of the ingredients.

Oak Dale Whisky

  • A flavourful and clear whiskey said to be made with water from the purist natural spring and aged for more than 10 years in a secret underground location

Purple Fire

  • This is an exotic drink which although it is not alcoholic it contains small red chilies and sweetened by the nectar and petals from a blue flower. If you obtain a bottle it will still have whole chili inside.
  • The longer the bottle is left to stand the spicier the drink becomes. Some collectors will pay well for a very old bottle of this drink. 

Genre Discussion:

From Literary Terms.net: “High fantasy is a genre of fiction that concentrates on imaginary elements (the fantastic). This can mean magic, the supernatural, alternate worlds, superheroes, monsters, fairies, magical creatures, mythological heroes—essentially, anything that an author can imagine outside of reality. With fantasy, the magical or supernatural elements serve as the foundation of the plot, setting, characterization, or storyline in general. 

High or Epic Fantasy, which we’ll be discussing today, take place in an imaginary world and generally feature a hero on some type of quest. This subgenre became particularly popular in the 20th century and continues to dominate much of popular fantasy today. Prime examples include J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. 

While fiction in general is a popular way to tell stories, fantasy’s key asset is that it allows authors to do things outside the confines of the common world. By removing the limitations of reality, fantasy opens stories to the possibility of anything.”

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! 

You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information about the books we shared this week. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it!

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries and journeying with us through the world of High Fantasy! A special thank-you to Eric for sharing your expertise on this genre!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!