There’s no place like home. You can’t hear that sentence without thinking of The Wizard of Oz. But one of the things I never quite understood about that classic tale was Dorothy’s urgency to leave Oz, a magical place where she had friends, and go back home to Kansas. It’s one of the reasons I wrote Dorothy Must Die, an Oz retelling where Dorothy takes a bit of a dark turn and “no place like home” becomes “no place like Oz.”
I love books and movies that take you through the proverbial looking glass—seeing another world through the perspective of someone just like you makes the experience even more visceral. You get to experience the wonder through the eyes of the protagonist who has never stepped onto the Yellow Brick Road, or dropped down the rabbit hole, or stepped into the wardrobe…
As a writer, I love comparing worlds. Fantasy worlds may have witches, magic, and talking bunnies who are late for important dates, but they also have “real world” problems that are not so far from our reality. Fantasy investigates everything from war to love to bullying. And inevitably, there are things left behind in the real world that catch up to the characters in the new one. My protagonist Amy leaves a difficult relationship with her mother behind that continues to inform her interactions in Oz.
I may be a little biased, but I still think that Dorothy’s entry into Oz may be one of the best to ever be put on the page. Not only did Dorothy’s house land in a new world via tornado, but it landed on a Wicked Witch and set Dorothy off on her legendary journey down the Yellow Brick Road. As for my series, I created Amy Gumm, a modern tough girl who gets to Oz when her trailer is picked up by a tornado as well. But Amy faces a very different Oz than the original Dorothy Gale, complete with a now-evil Dorothy that Amy has to fight, most likely to the death. In the upcoming third book, Yellow Brick War, Amy still faces the decision of which world she belongs in. I cannot wait for you all to see where she ends up.
Here are a few other works that I love with “portals” to other worlds:
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
Schwab gives us not one, but infinite Londons. It’s the Sliding Doors of my dreams, with magic and fighting and romance and princes. Kell is one of the last travelers, charged with traveling between each London as a messenger, but he is secretly a smuggler as well. When he encounters thief Lila, she steals from him literally and figuratively—steals his heart, of course! The book makes me jealous for not having written it, and thrilled for getting to read it.
Splintered by A.G. Howard
Howard tells the story of Alice’s daughter, Alyssa Gardener, who grew up believing her mother was crazy, until her mother takes a turn for the worse and Alyssa must take her own trip through the looking glass. There she finds a terrifying Mad Hatter and a whole cast of familiar characters beautifully twisted by Howard’s prose. Alyssa’s crush and bestie Jeb follows her to Wonderland, and Alyssa must figure out who to trust as she learns that her mother was right all along.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Even after all these years, I still love these books. Meeting the White Witch, the Lion, and Pan as a kid left me wanting more of the fantasy genre. It was, and still is, absolutely fascinating watching the children grow up and have to decide which side of the wardrobe they belong to.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Raised by otherworldly creatures, artist Karou travels between worlds and finds herself in the middle of a war between devils and angels. As Karou discovers her true identity, a gorgeous angel saves her and changes the course of both their worlds. The world-building and beauty of Taylor’s words make this one of my favorite series.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
When ex-Army nurse Claire steps back in time, she leaves behind sexy ex-MI16 husband Frank only to find love again in Jamie and the Scots. It’s romantic, complicated, and sexy. I can’t get enough of it!
Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series—the third volume, Yellow Brick War, is available now from HarperCollins. Stealing Snow, available Fall 2016 from Bloomsbury, begins another series that straddles the real world and the fantasy one. Before turning to young adult literature, she worked in television industry where she received a Writers Guild of America award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. Danielle lives in New York City.
Honorable mention to the great Joel Rosenberg series; “Guardians of the Flame”. Some very well done work at taking the polish off the apple, as it were, in the fantasy paradise.
The Mordant’s Need duology by Stephen Donaldson and Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar tapestry are my favorite portal fantasies. I did really like Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I never thought of Outlander as a portal fantasy but it is another of my favorites, just what I’d call time travel. A Darker Shade of Magic is at the top of my to-read list.
Since I have the chance to ask – Is Amy Gumm’s last name a referral to Judy Garland (real name Frances Gumm)?
The Saga of the Pliocene Exiles by Julian May is my favourite portal fantasy (and sci-fi) series.
“Portal fantasy” is the term I’ve heard applied to this sub-genre. The looking glass in Mordant’s Need is not nearly proverbial (I really must read that duology again someday) and remains my favourite as well. I’ve an old fondness for Terry Brooks’ Landover series, although I doubt it would survive a reread so well. I can’t begin to think of Outlander as fantasy genre. And of course there’s that other series being talked of so much here on Tor.com, Lev Grossman’s Magician trilogy.
Lots and lots of portals in Andre Norton Witch World, as I remember, not all of them bringing welcome visitors…
Great article! I recently read the classic by Poul Anderson; The Broken Sword. Usually I have a hard time getting into book written from the era of classic fantasy when the writing style tended toward the melodramatic, but it works perfectly for this book, making it read like a true Norse saga.
It’s fascinating how Anderson tells how the “new” religion of Christianity is making the old gods fade away.The fea world exists right along with the mortal one, but it’s invisible to most all humans.
Brandon Mull’s YA Beyonders trilogy was one of my favorites in high school. The protagonist ends up in another world when the hippo at the zoo eats him.
I’d add THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, which I suspect was among the first “portal fantasies” a lot of us read.
Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. I’m still oobsessed with it.
I’d go with Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant and Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept.
Great topic! I heartily endorse A Gathering of Shadows. In fact, Schwab is by far my favorite among the new-to-me authors of the last year or more.
I have very fond memories of Robert Sheckley’s Mindswap, although I think that’s more light sf than fantasy. I remember reading it as a student, another student remarking that “Robert Sheckley Mindswap” was a strange name (the type of the author and title being rather similar on that UK paperback), and replying that it wasn’t as strange as “James Joyce Ulysses”.
Not a portal fantasy, but they also step between the worlds in K. M. Moning’s “Fever” series through mirrors they call “The Silvers”.
And, later on, after the wall between this world and the Faery falls, holes in the fabric of the universe appear in the most unexpected places, like on the road or hanging in the air and you might stumble through them into a different world if you’re not being careful. Mac calls them IFPs, short for “Interdimensional Fairy Potholes”.
The first thing I thought of was the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray….
For a bit of New Zealand flavour, The Halfmen of O trilogy by Maurice Gee is incredible. Starts with the classic portal to another world, with some unique twists. And blood cats. You won’t forget the blood cats.
Barbara Hambley’s Darwath trilogy (Time of the Dark, Walls of Air and Armies of Daylight) was always my favourite portal fantasy taking two Californian misfits and placing them in the middle of the rout of humanity by the horrifying amorphous “Dark Ones”. Three fantastic books with wonderful characterisation and some incredible writing about landscape as well as political machinations. Hambley also finds space for some great sarcastic humour. Love this series so much.
I would second Donaldson’s Mordant’s Need as another wonderful portal series. Unlike most of Donaldson’s books treatment of female characters, Teresa the heroine from New York thrust into the warring land of Mordant ends up with significantly more agency than she started with and blossoms into someone of great substance. I must read these again soon as they are so good.
My favorite portal stories are the Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis and the follow-up, Not to Mention the Dog.
The first is set just slightly in the future where time travel has been discovered and is only used by academics. The first grad student gets caught up in a 14th century plague. The second book jumps around a lttle more and also has more humor. Just great stories.
You left off the whole Tarnsmen of Gor series, Burroughs John Carter of Mars, and several other great writers whose characters are cast into new worlds.
“The Magicians” already mentioned.
Philip Pullman’s trilogy “His Dark Materials” includes “The Golden Compass”.
“Inkheart” has far and away the best way to get to the alternate world. You get read into or out of the story.
In the “Throne Of Glass” series by Sarah J. Maas the evil enemy comes through a portal from another world.
In the Riftwar Cycle by Raymond Feist the rifts are portals into other worlds.
“The Tenth Kingdom” tv mini series.
And last, but definitely not least, in Dr. Who they call their portal a tardis.
Lots of my faves mentioned here, but almost all fantasy & not much scifi. How about Heinlein’s “Tunnel In the Sky”?
Hi, in the Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe section, did you mean “Mr Tumnus” instead of Pan?
Some of the greatest:
House Between the Worlds by Marion Zimmerman Bradley
Moonheart by Charles de Lint
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
I was all set to make a snarky comment about the ‘obvious misspelling’ in MI16 – glad I Googled that first. There is such a thing. I was sure the author meant MI6
In atonement for my arrogance, let me add Zelazny’s Amber to the list. And a book I remember enjoying but haven’t read anything about it in years; perhaps it was too religous: The Brother’s Lionheart by the author of the Pippi Longstocking books.
@22: it is so nice to see somebody else mention Lindgren’s books. I don’t know if I would call The Brothers Lionheart religious, and also if I would place it among portal fantasies because you literally had to die to pass from one reality to the other with no coming back, it’s more like the-life-after-death theme (which makes it a bit religious, I suppose, if come to think about it). But it is enjoyable and (bitter)sweet and I have reread it numerous times.
I am very grateful that somebody wrote this article but at the same time I am wondering why haven’t you included The Harry Potter Series? I mean it definitely takes to another world, not only world but to different dimensions…