Winter is coming. And it's a season that dovetails so well with fantasy, doesn't it?
Snowbound Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
A frigidly cold Russian village in The Bear and the Nightingale.
The White London of A Darker Shade of Magic.
And of course A Game of Thrones, with that memorable line about winter. What is it about cold and snow and ice that makes us think of magic?
My Clandestine Magic trilogy has some Hades and Persephone themes, and since that's the seasons myth, it's hardly surprising that winter keeps coming up. (Or that it makes an appearance on the second book cover.)
But even without that connection, I would have been tempted to write some of the trilogy in the dead of winter anyway. There's just something about it, something magical. Instead of rain, we get snow (well, depending on where we are). Or breathtaking frozen fog. Or ice crystals that transform perfectly ordinary things like spiderwebs into items of otherworldly beauty.
Also: Winter always makes me want to cozy up under a blanket with a book.
Magic.
Here's one of my favorite quotes from Spinning Silver, which has a harsh-winter backdrop and a wonderful reimagining of the Rumpelstiltskin story:
You have fed each other, and you kept the wolf away. That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away.
What winterish books (fantasy or otherwise) would you recommend? Let me know. 📖
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A few more cool & bookish things
Looking for fantasy books that are free in Kindle Unlimited? There's a bunch right here (speaking of winter ...). Looking for free-for-everyone fantasy stories? Got you covered there, too.
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