# Help Me Find Pure Escapist Fantasy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 22, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630 "2017-06-22T19:31:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/61 "2017-06-23T20:39:01Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Aaand another book I own but haven’t read yet. Recommended to me by a friend. I think you’ll like it. > [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > You were the one who mentioned it in the “Rec a book with good female characters” thread, right? I stayed up to God-knows-what-hour last night reading it, and finished it this morning. I can’t wait to read book 2. Yep, I’m the culprit! Tremaine is made of 100% awesomeness molecules. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/62 "2017-06-23T20:51:06Z")
I’ll add the heavier stuff to the list, but it’s not for me right now. No abuse or assault themes will be good for me at this time. Seems like you all are pretty much nailing my taste, though. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/63 "2017-06-24T01:34:02Z")
Have you ever read Pamela Dean’s _Tam Lin_? It’s a modern retelling of the old Scottish ballad of Tam Lin. Fantasy, but mostly it’s about characters and people talking about literature. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/64 "2017-06-24T01:39:42Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’ll add the heavier stuff to the list, but it’s not for me right now. No abuse or assault themes will be good for me at this time. I don’t remember specifically whether that’s an issue in **The Magicians** , but --spoiler/trigger–it’s a giant issue in the sequel, **The Magician King**. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/65 "2017-06-24T04:03:34Z")
Seanan MacGuire’s October Daye books. Her name is only one of her minor problems 🙂 Fourteen years before the series starts the eponymous heroine (a changeling) has her life fairly well sorted. She’s married to a human man and they have a daughter. She’s working as a PI. Then she follows the wrong suspect and spends the next fourteen years as a koi carp. She can’t explain to her family where she’s been and she feels she’s let her friends in faerie down… October has been working a dead end job and avoiding everybody until something happens that drags her right back in. Ten or possibly eleven books so far and they fit right into my category of light but not stupid. There is an interesting over arc of plot, some not stupid romance and a lot of good humour. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/66 "2017-06-24T09:05:44Z")
A koi fish. Yowsa. That sounds strangely intriguing. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_Carlson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc79bd/32.png) [@Not\_Carlson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_Carlson)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/67 "2017-06-24T11:23:50Z")
Bookwise, I quite liked the \*Dragonriders of Pern \*books in my youth. (Don’t know how I’d find them if I tried to re-read them now.) As I recall, they feature very strong female characters occasionally getting hot and heavy with hunky, roguish men in a fantasy/soft sci-fi world. Easy reading. These days my favourite escape is Steven Universe. Always makes me feel good. So many warm fuzzy feelings. (Sadly, no hunky men.) > [@StGermain](#): > > Robin McKinley, either her YA stuff (which is great for adults) or her Sunshine, which isn’t really for kids. Beauty, **The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown**. I second The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. Good, upbeat, escapist fantasy. I hope your staycation does you good. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/68 "2017-06-24T11:53:43Z")
_The Magicians’_ trilogy, like many of Grossman’s novels, is all about people’s dreams remaining unfulfilled (though the main character gets a happy ending). Just be aware of that if you want to go there. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630/69 "2017-06-24T13:01:40Z")
The very famous Jack Reacher novel series has loads of escapism, violence, and life-or-death stuff. The protagonist is male, to be sure; the woman will be the cop/FBI agent/soldier he happens to team up with. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-pure-escapist-fantasy/789630.md?page=3)