Top Ten Tuesday (1)

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week they have a different theme for bloggers to post their top tens about, and this week we’re listing our…

Top Ten Settings I’d Like To See More Of (Or At All)

1. The Good Ole Fairy Tale Castle
 Best featured in: Beauty by Robin McKinley, Beauty and the Beast by Disney 
You can never go wrong with fairy tale castles! They have floor-to-ceiling libraries, kitchens w/ French cooks, invisible/visible servants, ballrooms, gardens, turrets, secret passageways, dungeons (weirdly, I like dungeons), stables, sometimes dragons. I can go on.

2. Down the Rabbit Hole
 Best featured in: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, the animated feature series The Vision of Escaflowne, the animated feature film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
This is a version of the portal fantasy in which a main character gets transported to another world where she/he must A. save that world and B. return home. I love portal fantasies because they begin in a familiar world, but then move onto a completely, new, fantastical world that readers discover alongside the hero/heroine. 

3. Paris during the French Revolution

Best featured in: Illusion by Paula Volsky, Les Miserables the Musical (yeah, yeah, I know Les Mis wasn't set during the French Revolution, but 50 years or so afterwards). 

I just saw the Les Miserables musical to film adaptation recently, so forgive me for being on a "FOR THE PEOPLE" high. I think Les Mis captured the Paris Uprising of 1832 beautifully, but I'd like to see more epic stories set during the French Revolution, like Illusion, which is a masterpiece, one of my all-time favorite books. Illusion is a alternate-history and fantasy, an epic novel set during the French Revolution with a riches to rags heroine who must overcome her prejudices and save the day!!!

4. Space
Best featured in: the Gundam series, Star Wars, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I want to see space done in the way that it's done in the Gundam series with colonies and lunar bases, as well as how it's done in the Star Wars series with planet nations and intergalactic warfare. I want to see a real Space Opera in book form. Give me, give me, give me!!!

5. A Historical Asian Setting (with fantasy elements)

Best Featured in: Korean saeguks (Korean historical dramas), like The Princess' Man or Queen Seondeok, Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara, the Final Fantasy game series, all Miyazaki films (see: #9 Miyazaki-inspired settings) 
I'm a sucker for Korean historical dramas. They're just so epic. I'd love a novel that's like a k-drama, with political intrigue, war, romance, lush costumes and settings, and mythological gods. For an Asian audience, there's a ton already out there...but there's very little "translated" into YA, like a YA novel with kdrama elements. Hahahaha. 

6. A Labyrinth

 Best featured in: Labyrinth w/ David Bowie, Pan's Labyrinth, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling, Percy Jackson & The Battle of the 

Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

I love labyrinths. They're creepy and gothic. The word labyrinth just sounds cool too. I want to read a book that takes place entirely in a labyrinth with high stakes if you don't finish!!!

7. A City in the Sky 

Best featured in: Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki, The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee 

8. An Absolutely Cluttered City with Buildings built adopt buildings

Best featured in: The City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau, the Final Fantasy series games, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, my dreams. 

9. A Miyazaki-inspired setting

Enough Said

10. A Futuristic Asian setting

Best featured in: MY NOVEL!!!!, Cloud Atlas, like all sci-fi anime/manga

Okay, so this is me cheating b/c my WIP is set in futuristic Korea. They say you write what you want to read, right? Win-win!!! 

What settings would you like to read in a novel???