Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's topic is:

Top Ten Most Vivid Worlds/Settings

I actually cheated and put 11 this week, but the last 2 are from books that I read a really long time ago and I can still recall things from the setting that are so vivid, so I knew they had to go on the list, right?


Also, I deliberately left off Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and Twilight because they seem so obvious and they are so popular.  But JK Rowling really wins this award, right?  So, I wanted to put some stuff out there that wasn't quite as popular.

      Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter world (City of Fallen Angels, City Of Lost Souls, Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince )

If you've read these books, you know what I'm talking about.  She has built this whole secret world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders and it is so vivid that I wish it were real!  It feels real when I read it.  The world building in this series is phenomenal. 

  

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Even though I love the world in both of these books, the world that she created in Elizabethan England is the best!  Not only is there the supernatural, but she has these vivid descriptions of the way life would have been in the Renaissance in England and on the Continent.  It was just breathtaking.  And of course, if brought this to my mind...... so if that's not a vivid setting, then I don't know what is!

      

           Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

     The world building in this book is freaking unbelievable.  It felt sort of like Russia, but totally different and I felt like I could actually see the places she described.

       Divergent series by Veronica Roth (Divergent, Insurgent)

       If you haven't read this series yet, what are you waiting for??  This is the best dystopian world I've found since The Hunger Games and in many ways, this world surpasses The Hunger Games because it is so much more complex.

      

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa


Did you really expect to NOT see Julie Kagawa on a list like this?  Her Iron Fey series is also vivid world-building, but I loved this one best.  If you think you can't stomach another vampire book, think again!  Pick up Julie Kagawa because this is not your average bloodsucker story!

 

      Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

       The world-building in this novel left me speechless with its beauty.  

      The Pledge by Kimberly Derting 

      This is a dystopian/fantasy sort of world.  But it was a very interesting    world that she created and I'm still thinking about it almost a year after reading it, so I would say that qualifies as vivid.

          

      The Goblin Wars series by Kersten Hamilton (Tyger, Tyger, In the Forests of the Night)

      I am so thankful that I won the first book of this series on a Goodreads giveaway, because otherwise I might never have read it.  If you like Irish mythology and folklore, you will LOVE the world-building in this series.  Especially the descriptions of going into the Faerie realm and all the creatures.  Plus Finn is pretty yummy! : )

      The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

      I'm going to be honest and tell you that the thing I liked most about    this book is the world it is set in and the way Victoria Schwab describes it.  The story was not one that I really cared for, but the author creates this almost dream-like world with her words that is magical.

        

      The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

    

      It has been over 20 years since I first read this book and I can still        recall many parts of it with perfect clarity.  Marion Zimmer Bradley is a master world builder and her creation of a magical Celtic Britain is beyond compare.

      Anne Rice's New Orleans

  

      I cheated and added number 11.  The New Orleans that Anne Rice creates in her novels is so incredible.  I have wanted to visit there since I first read Interview with a Vampire.  She goes into great detail about the places but also the smells and the sounds.  Her description of bougainvillea alone makes me want to go to New Orleans as soon as possible.