Locus Focus - the Scary Settings Challenge

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

This week the Theme of Locus Focus is Scary Settings, so I want to tell you about the scariest setting of all:

The Human Mind!

There are lots of books that have the human mind as a very scary setting, but I want to tell you about the first book I read that made me see the human mind as a scary place to be:

Out of Mind by the Dutch author J. Bernlef

(note on the title: The dutch title is 'Hersenschimmen', which translates directly as 'Brain Specters', but a less direct translation would be 'Figments of the Imagination'

This story is about an elderly man afflicted by Alzheimer's disease. The book is written from the viewpoint of this man so as a reader you slowly get lost in his deteriorating mind. What makes the story even more claustrophobic is that the lead character is a Dutchman who moved to America. While his memory is failing him he begins to lose his knowledge of the English language, falling back on Dutch, which isolates him even further from the world around him. By the end of the book his (and therefor also the reader's) world has become so small and different he doesn't even recognise himself anymore when he looks in the mirror. The first time I read this book I really felt trapped at the end of the book and was overcome with relief when I closed it and could open myself to the normal world again. Not a happily ever after story I can tell you, but beautiful and touching in its sadness.



The book was made into movie as well, but it isn't as strong and scary as reading the book in my opinion.

Locus Focus - Ramblings about Schools

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

This Locus focus is a bit different as I'm not going to talk about which school setting is my favourite, but I'm going to ramble about one thing that I keep noticing about boarding school settings and that surprises me:

The schedules those poor students have to keep!!

Take the schedule that Spirit White has to keep in Legacies by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill. It's so packed I'm surprised she even has time to sleep. Lessons, after school activities, study hours, etc... I get tired just reading about it.

And the poor students in Lackey's Valdemar series aren't better off, they have so many things they have to do besides their lessons I applaud them for being able to graduate.

Another example:
Lyle House from the book The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong.

Not only do the 'troubled' teens who are 'rehabilitated' in Lyle House have a list of activities they have to do as long as my book wishlist (and that's a long list I can tell you) they're not even allowed some privacy when they need it.

How do all these kids cope?! I myself have no experience with boarding schools, but I do wonder if these books have a realistic view on boarding schools or if the writers of these books aren't aware they pack the days of these students too full of stuff they have to do. Because really: a full time job is nothing compared to what these teens have to do and they're not even getting paid.

Am I the only one to think this?
Does anyone have experience with boarding schools and can you enlighten me about the schedules that are kept?
Any book recommendations where the students are given some more time for themselves?
Let me know.

Locus Focus - Menzoberranzan

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

Menzoberranzan, the City of Spiders, is a fictional city-state in the world of the Forgotten Realms, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. It is located in the Upper Northdark, about two miles below the Surbrin Vale, between the Moonwood and the Frost Hills. It is famed as the birthplace of Drizzt Do'Urden, the protagonist of several series of best-selling novels by noted fantasy author R. A. Salvatore. (taken from wikipedia)

There are several things I love about Menzoberranzan.

The first is that the houses of the city are build in the stalactites and stalagmites in large caves deep underground. In real life and without use of magic this is probably something that could never be done, so it immediately creates this magical world for me even without knowing anything else about this city. Just with this fact alone there's so much world building, I think that's an amazing feat.

And then there's the society of Menzoberranzan.
The city is ruled by ruthless females, worshipping a spider Goddess named Lolth. Their lust for power divides the city, several large families (named Houses) struggle for power with each other. This creates a society that looks strong on the outside, but which is eaten from within and it lends itself for lots of political intrigue and backstabbing.

And as this city isn't just used in novels, but is created especially for the use of roleplay, this setting doesn't just stay in books, but can be used, enjoyed and shaped by every roleplayer who wants to and in this way you can add your own story to the magic that is Menzoberranzan.

Locus Focus - the Zuckermans' Farm

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

My Locus Focus today is the Zuckermans' Farm from Charlotte's Web by E. B. White. (again doing this from memory)

Zuckermans' Farm is a normal farm when you first look at it, but once you walk inside the barn you meet lots of interesting and cool animals and you understand why Zuckermans' Farm is special.

There's Wilbur ofcourse, the pig who befriends a spider and is saved by this friendship.

And the spider - Charlotte - ofcourse. A very intelligent and kind creature (most of the times, I don't think flies will agree).

And then there's Templeton. This rat may seem self centered, but without him all Charlotte's attempts to save Wilbur would have failed.

But there's so many more cool animals:
The sheep, geese and other animals all add their own voice to that special kind of magical place that is Zuckermans' Farm, although in the end it's ofcourse White's writing and Garth Williams' wonderful illustrations that make the place come alive and make this book and setting so wonderful that I keep rereading this classic.

Locus Focus - Forst Reach (Castle)

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

My Locus Focus today is the Castle of Forst Reach from the Last Herald Mage Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey, birthplace of Vanyel Ashkevron, the main character of this trilogy. I put most of my books in storage, including this trilogy, so I'll have to do this from memory, so sorry for any mistakes.

The castle of Forst Reach is a weird building. One of Vanyel's ancestor's loved adding new things to the castle to make it more comfortable, like indoor bathrooms and such. In building the new additions to the castle he didn't take notice of floorplans and just added rooms where ever he saw fit. This makes the castle a confusing place as small staircases, extra rooms and such pop up in the most unlikely places. It takes the people living at Forst Reach some thinking at times to figure out how to get from one place to the other without hitting a sudden deadend.

All the changing and adding even resulted in some rooms getting closed off entirely and making them inaccessible for all but the more inventive people. Like the small storage room behind the library, which can only be reached through a window several floors up from the ground.

This room is Vanyel's sanctuary at the start of the trilogy (Magic's Pawn). Here he hides to escape weapon's practise and to play his lute. It is here that he overhears the conversation between his parents that will result in him being send away from Forst Reach, a decision that will change his life in both good and bad ways. It's also the room that will later in the trilogy change the life of one of his cousins as well.

All in all the castle sounds like a fascinating and cool place, where I'd love to take a look. Who wouldn't love a castle that's like some giant maze?
Well, probably the people living there....

(And just incase you're wondering: yup, the castle in the picture is Bran Castle, the so called home of Dracula.)

Locus Focus - Cherry Valley

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

My Locus focus today is Cherry Valley from the book 'The Brothers Lionheart' by Astrid Lindgren.

Cherry Valley is an almost fairytale like place in Nangijala, a land on the other side of the stars where people go after they die. A place were everyone lives in "the campfires and storytelling times". Cherry Valley is a valley full of cherry trees, little cottages and friendly people and there's a big river where you can go catch fish.

Here's a bit from the book about Cherry Valley. (I translated this myself from my Dutch version of the book, so sorry for any weird translation bits):

"First you wake up in the kitchen by the sun shining through the windows and the birds singing joyfully in the trees...

And then you go riding and the grass is covered in dew, it shines and sparkles everywhere, and bumblebees and bees buzz around the cherryblossom, and you bring your horse to a gallop, and you're almost not afraid anymore. You're not afraid it will suddenly end, like all good things do. But they don't in Nangijala. At least not in Cherry Valley."

Doesn't that sound like a wonderful place?
We all know what happens to lovely places like this in fantasy stories, so it's hardly a surprise that some evil overlord has decided he wants to conquer Cherry Valley and enslave the people living there. But because of how Lindgren describes Cherry Valley and because of the beautiful illustrations by Ilon Wikland you can really understand why people are willing to fight and even die to protect Cherry Valley.

Locus Focus - Titanic

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

My Locus Focus for this week is about Titanic.

There are lots of books about this steamship and it's tragic fate and I must confess I own a couple of them as the Titanic and what happened with it intrigue me.

From wikipedia:
An Olympic-class passenger liner, the Titanic was owned by the White Star Line and constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland (now Northern Ireland). She set sail for New York City with 2,223 people on board; the high casualty rate when the ship sank was due in part to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship carried lifeboats for only 1,178 people. A disproportionate number of men died due to the women and children first protocol that was followed.

The Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers, and used some of the most advanced technologies available at the time. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, the Titanic sank. The frenzy on the part of the media about the Titanic's famous victims, the legends about the sinking, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck have contributed to the interest in the Titanic.

What intrigues me most about the Titanic is not just the great tragedy of the sinking, but human behaviour. Reading about the sinking and the stories about how people acted fill me with wonder about human nature I can tell you. What is it that makes one man give his life so others can live, while another man thinks only of himself? What makes one person act like a hero and another like a coward?

It also makes me question myself: How would I react when faced with danger? I can only hope I never get in a situation where I'll find out the answer.

Locus Focus - Spinalonga

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

My Locus Focus today is a place from 'the Island' by Victoria Hislop, one of Voodoo Bride's favourite book.

Spinalonga is an island in Greece that has been used for a long time as a colony for lepers. And I'm not talking somewhere in the middle ages, I'm talking about the 20th century. People who suffered from lepracy where send to this island to live and eventually die there. Only when a cure was finally found for lepracy was the island abandoned and today it can be visited as a tourist attraction.

I think Spinalonga is a very intriguing place. I wonder how it must have been to live there, knowing you couldn't ever leave and would never see your friends and family again. How do you pick up your life when dislodged from your world and planted on this island where you are expected to rebuild your life (or what's left of it), going on day after day with the only certainty that you will only get worse and never better? The thing that really got to me in the book is reading how people did indeed manage to go on and start a new life on this island.

Locus Focus - Palace-Collegia at Haven

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

Today I want to tell you about the Palace-Collegia at Haven featured in many of Mercedes Lackey's books about Valdemar (a wonderful fantasy setting).

The Palace-Collegia is made up out of three different collegia:

First there is the Bardic Collegium.
Here the bards are being trained in their musical gifts. And let me tell you these bards aren't just any singing or musical instrument playing minstrel. They have a sort of magical gifts that make it possible to influence their audience, so next to their music lessons they are taught how to use their gift wisely.

Next up is the Healer's Collegium.
As you might guess this is the place that trains the healers.
And yes: Healers have a magical gift too that helps them in their healing.

And last but not least the Herald's Collegium.
Now this is were the real action is! Here the heralds are being trained. The heralds are very important to Valdemar, they are a lot of things: administrative overseers, dispensers of justice, information gatherers, even temporary military advisors. All in all they help rule the country and help to keep it safe. To help them in their task and to make sure they don't abuse their powers they are guided by a magical creature that takes the shape of a horse: the Companion. At the collegium the students learn how to do their job, how to bond with their Companion and if they have a special gift (like telepathy, empathy, firestarting and cool stuff like that) how to use that gift.

Each of these Collegia has it's own main building, but as there's lots of things that are important to learn for each of these three groups there are shared lessons too, like Weapon's Class, Court Manners and Survival among others.

All in all I really love this setting and the possibilities this setting gives. and best of all: Lackey knows just how to use it too! So if you like fantasy and this sounds appealing I can advice you to start reading about Valdemar in this order:

The Heralds of Valdemar trilogy:
- Arrows of the Queen
- Arrow's Flight
- Arrow's Fall

The Last Herald Mage Trilogy:
- Magic's Promise
- Magic's Pawn
- Magic's Price

There are many more books set in this world, so after you read and enjoyed these there are tons of other books you can read.

Locus Focus - Chrestomanci Castle

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favourite books, so my locus focus for today is about Chrestomanci Castle. I must warn that I have the Dutch translation of this book so some things might be named differently in the English version.

Chrestomanci Castle lies close to the town of Bravenbeck in a world closely resembling our own, but because there's magic the technology isn't as far evolved as it is here, so the world resembles our world as it was in the early 1900's.

Chrestomanci Castle is home of the suave and charming Chrestomanci who supervises the use of magic on Earth. I must confess Chrestomanci alone is reason enough why I love Chrestomanci Castle, but there's more to the Castle. Just look at the below picture! Who wouldn't love a house like that? It's got so many cool features, including a couple of small towers. Add to that the fact that all of the staff at the castle are witches and warlocks and such, there's a small dragon living at the castle and there's a teacher who can teach you magic as well. The castle also has a large garden with a closed off part where really old magic can be found. All in all I'd love to visit the castle if only it were possible!

Locus Focus - the 100 Acre Wood

Locus Focus is a meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

I'm a day late as I was away on a trip yesterday, but here's my Locus Focus for this week:

the 100 Acre Wood from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh.

I love Winnie-the-Pooh and not only because Winnie's best friend is a pig. In Milne's stories the 100 Acre wood sounds like such a magical place. A place where anything can happen.

I'd love to visit 100 Acre Wood and have a picnic with Piglet, play a game of Pooh-sticks with Pooh, hear Owl spouting dubious wisdoms, listen to Eyeore's laments, hunt woozles or just take a nice stroll through the beautiful forest.

It seems the last part of my wish could become true as 100 Acre Wood was based on Ashdown Forest, Sussex, England.

"The forest is a large area of tranquil open heathland on the highest sandy ridges of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty situated 30 miles (50 km) south of London."

The landscapes depicted in E.H. Shepard’s illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh books are directly inspired by the distinctive landscape of Ashdown Forest, with its high, open heathlands of heather, gorse, bracken and silver birch punctuated by hilltop clumps of pine trees.

Hmmm... So I might visit Ashdown Forest some day, but somehow I do not think it will be that magical place I see in my mind's eye when reading about all the adventures of Pooh and his friends.

Locus Focus - R'lyeh

Locus Focus is a new meme hosted every Saturday by Enbrethiliel at Shredded Cheddar. "We all know of books that make their settings come alive, and this meme is a chance to write about them and share them with others." Visit her blog and link up!

My first Locus Focus is about H.P. Lovecraft's R'lyeh, the sunken city where the Great Old One Cthulhu sleeps. I chose this location as it sounds so mysterious, creepy and cool in the story 'The Call of Cthulhu'. It's this weird, twisted, alien place, something from another world and it has the biggest baddie of them all sleeping there: Cthulhu. Just seeing this huge, scary, squidlike creature drives you insane. Now if that isn't a cool place!

Some bits about R'lyeh taken from the story 'The Call of Cthulhu':

The nightmare corpse-city of R'lyeh... was built in measureless eons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars. There lay great Cthulhu and his hordes, hidden in green slimy vaults.

Without knowing what futurism is like, Johansen achieved something very close to it when he spoke of the city; for instead of describing any definite structure or building, he dwells only on broad impressions of vast angles and stone surfaces - surfaces too great to belong to anything right or proper for this earth, and impious with horrible images and hieroglyphs.

Johansen and his men landed at a sloping mud-bank on this monstrous Acropolis, and clambered slipperily up over titan oozy blocks which could have been no mortal staircase. The very sun of heaven seemed distorted when viewed through the polarising miasma welling out from this sea-soaked perversion, and twisted menace and suspense lurked leeringly in those crazily elusive angles of carven rock where a second glance shewed concavity after the first shewed convexity.

As Wilcox would have said, the geometry of the place was all wrong. One could not be sure that the sea and the ground were horizontal, hence the relative position of everything else seemed phantasmally variable.


And leaving you all with this picture of The Great Plush Cthulhu and his minions.