“Tough Traveling” is a weekly Thursday feature created by Nathan at Review Barn where participants make a new list each week based on The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. This hilarious little book cheerfully pokes fun at the most prevalent tropes in fantasy. All are welcome to take part, and there is a link up over at his site. Join in any time!
This week’s trope is EXTREME CLIMATES:
Perhaps the handsome prince lives in a castle surrounded by green countryside and sunny days. The rest of the land is forced to deal with freezing cold, searing heat, and every other extreme climate mother nature can throw at you.
Yay, fun topic! I ended up with an even number of arctic and desert climates…and I had to use serious self-restraint to keep from listing Frozen!
 Narnia – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Although Narnia usually has a temperate climate, when the Pevensie children first arrive they find that it has been transformed into a world of eternal winter. The White Witch’s power has grown so great that she’s changed the weather…there’s a metaphor for climate change in there somewhere. |
 The North – The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
This series is famous partially for the armoured polar bears and I mean…they gotta live in arctic climates, you know? And trust those arctic climates to also be the home base for evil, child-kidnapping monsters who also hurt animals. Neither the weather nor the people appeal to me, but the armoured bears are pretty rad. |
 Umayma – God’s War by Kameron Hurley
On the opposite end of the hellish landscape spectrum we have Kameron Hurley’s desert waste-land planet Umayma. Complete with sandstorms, draughts, and scary sand beetles, this place is my worst nightmare. There’s no way I could handle a desert climate – as long as the sun’s shining, I’ll take ice and snow every time! |
 The Great Southern Desert – The Woman Who Rides Like a Man by Tamora Pierce
Alanna the Lioness spends some time learning military and martial arts techniques from the Bazhir, a group of indigenous Tortallan people who make their home in the Great Southern Desert. This aptly named sweltering swath of desert definitely caused the fair-faced Alanna a few sunburns! |