Top Ten Books that Feature Travel

1. The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien. I mean, obviously. LOTR is practically a Middle-earth travelogue – and Tolkien is so very good at describing landscapes.
2. The Gunslinger – Stephen King. I love Roland’s lonely journey through the desert: atmospheric and apocalyptic.
3. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making – Catherynne M. Valente. A tour of a whimsical Fairyland cast in Valente’s gorgeous prose? Yes, please!
4. The Scar – China Mieville. The Scar is set on a floating city made of ships: so its characters are travellers who never leave their homes. Plus it’s just a damn good book.
5. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – Becky Chambers. The journey of the Wayfarer‘s crew is so delightful that eventually it becomes more important than the destination.
6. The Last Hero – Terry Pratchett. This illustrated fable tells the tale of the Disc’s first spaceship – it’s funny and humane and ever so delightful.
7. The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant – Stephen Donaldson. Our Heroes traipse through a ruined Land. It’s bleak, but so cathartic.
8. Sabriel – Garth Nix. The Old Kingdom is such a vividly realised world – there’s always this sense of everyday life going on just around the corner, even if we can’t quite see it.
9. The Clockwork Rocket – Greg Egan. A clever meld of science and narrative – featuring, yes, a clockwork rocket.
10. Fly By Night – Frances Hardinge. A picaresque romp through a country not unlike seventeenth-century England. Another one that’s saturated with clever little worldbuilding details.

(The theme for this post was suggested by the Broke and the Bookish’s weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday.)