Fantasy novels are all about escaping into another world, or at least a different version of this one. That is one of the things that was mentioned repeatedly in the post from Tuesday, the possibility for escape. Saturday is Halloween, another occasion for escaping into another world, or at least a character from another world, and getting the chance to be someone else for a little while. I would love to be Menolly, from Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. How cool would it to have a real fire lizard? Or convince my sister to dress up with me and we could be the Crow Girls from Charles de Lint’s books. It would be so veryvery.
So, my beloved readers, assume you had the whole crew of Industrial Light and Magic at your beck and call. If you could dress up as any character from a fantasy book for Halloween, who would it be and why?
Leave a comment, and we’ll enter your name into a drawing to win a copy of Ann Aguirre‘s Blue Diablo. You must leave a comment by noon Eastern time on Friday, October 30th to be entered into the drawing. Winner will be selected by some random method that may involve small children, ping pong balls, and goldfish bowls. Or not.
And make sure to come back on November 3rd to read our interview with Ann Aguirre on the release date of her new novel, Skin Games.
Drizzt Do’urden – Ultimate bad ass, and all around nice guy. Plus the weird eyes and long white hair would be sweet…not to mention the matching glowing scimitars. A large black panther companion would be a must.
Alanna of Trebond, of course–the original ass-kicking heroine. Justin, you would have to tell me where you got the purple contact lenses, I’d need them too!
Besides, how often do you get an excuse to run around in gold-washed chainmail? And I’m already roughly about the correct height, too. :D
Well, NOT any main character in a George R.R. Martin or Robin Hobb book. Probably no one in one of Steven Erikson’s Malazan books either, for that matter.
Maybe one of the wizards in Terry Pratchett’s Unseen University? Eat all day, horse around with spells, make fun of the Bursar, occasionally schedule a lecture in a non-existent lecture hall… What a life.
For me, it’s no question: Iorek Byrnison, the main panserbjørne from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. When I first met him in The Golden Compass, I thought he was the coolest thing ever. His personality and his warrior role cemented the first book for me. That’s certainly something that ILM could help me out with!
dress up? That’s no fun! Now if I could BE any character . . . Hmm, though might be fun to do a “if your significant other would dress up as any character . . . wait, must clear head . . . ”
If I could honestly go the whole industrial light crew I’m thinking I’d go as Mnementh–what’s cooler than a dragon after all?
If I had to go humanoid, I’ll take any sword wielding (two swords even better), dagger-carrying, wittily dangerous, steely-eyed when necessary character. And his horse (or dragon), of course.
So many to choose from, but for ease of choice, I’ll go with someone from my current read: Logen Ninefingers from Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law Trilogy.
… Say one thing for Nate Green, say he holds a special place in his heart for enormous, stoic barbarians.
“… Say one thing for Nate Green, say he holds a special place in his heart for enormous, stoic barbarians.”
lol…I’ve been driving my wife crazy with that phrase ever since reading that book. Say one thing for Justin say that he doesn’t take out the garbage.
Hmm. I don’t think I’d want to dress up like anyone from a fantasy book I’ve read. Oh! YES I do. I want to dress up like Valkyrie Cain from the Skulduggery Pleasant series (Derek Landy). Yes, that’s in YA.
I’m not sure who I’d want to be, but I know for sure I wouldn’t want to be one of GRRM’s characters. I might not make it home alive.
Well you might live, but everyone you love or care about would be slaughtered in a surprising way.
It would be really cool to be Loial from the WOT series. I’m not sure how I could handle the size. But the tufted ears and the droopy moustache and all, very fun. Or, you know, Harvey the invisible rabbit would be pretty darn cool, too.
Neighbor: Where are your parents?
Daughter: Daddy’s right there. He’s dressed up as an invisible rabbit named Harvey.
Neighbor: I see.
Daughter: Really?
Lol, the first thing that came to mind is Takhisis from the Dragonlance Chronicles. Not sure what that says about me… :)
That’s funny Ruth. My first response was either Sharra from The White Dragon or Lessa. For the dragons of course. But I think I’d pick Llanet from the Mageworld books. She’s cool, I’d get to have long black hair and magic powers. I’d expect to have Ari provided as my escort for the evening as well. If it was a comic book character, I’d be Storm from X-men.
That’s a hard question, I can think of so many… Oh, well… I’ll chose Jaenelle, from Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy. She’s innocent, but she’s powerfull, and then there’s Daemon, always there for her. ;)
I’d love to dress up as Brin from “Wishsong of Shannara”. (Could I have her singing power too? Awesome.)
I’d love to go as Anita Blake from the laurell k hamilton books, just to see if i can get a hand on a Jean Claude all for myself haha!
After having just read Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker I would probably choose to dress up as Siri. As queen she has some really nice gowns and she has that cool hair color changing trick.
I would love to dress up as Ivy from Kim Harrison’s The Hollows series. Who wouldn’t want to be a sexy vampire
Hi :)
I’d dress up as Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. His sword & outfit are awesome.
All the best,
RKCharron
:)
I was never really into dressing up, well, apart from being a dalek with my little brother and wandering round the house dressed in cardboard boxes. I think I want to be one of the characters from the Dresden files but I’m not sure which.
Hi, nice blog!! I haven’t read fantasy fiction in a long time. But, I did want to start reading the series starting with Blue Diablo!! I loved reading the Once Upon anthologies that Nora Roberts did. I would be any of the heroines from those books!! Thanks, Sue
I’ve dressed as Nymphadora Tonks, from Harry Potter, several times. I have this spiky purple wig (the costume shop didn’t have pink) and a Weird Sisters t-shirt. And when I trip over my own feet or spill my drink, I have an excuse for my klutziness–it’s in character! :)
Oh, I also dressed as Phedre no Delaunay once, and I would do it again if I had the guts to dye my hair black. I used a wig the last time and nearly baked myself alive with that long heavy head of plastic hair! She has awesome outfits in the series and there are so many worth copying…
Hmmm, I have also toyed with the idea of being Claudia from Interview with the Vampire, because I’ve done “creepy porcelain doll” before and it would be similar in a lot of ways. Bellatrix Lestrange, that would be fun. Leanna Hieber’s Percy Parker if I wanted to go Victorian–I would love to dress in her clothes! Again I’d need a wig, but this time because I’m not blonde enough…
Oh, and if we expand to movies, I’ve wanted to dress as Maleficent for ages, complete with raven.
I love literary and mythological costumes. It does often result in my having to explain them to people, though. ;)
Congratulations to Beleth who has won the copy of Anne Aguirre’s Blue Diablo. I predict you will thoroughly enjoy the novel.
To receive your copy, please send your mailing address to sbfrank@fantasyliterature.com. Thanks.
[...] Congratulations! Beleth has won Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre. [...]
[...] would disagree with that point of view. I’ve touched on the role of escapism in fantasy before, so today I want to take on the other side of the coin, and talk about the role that fantasy plays [...]