Top Ten Tuesday (#6): Books Featuring Travel In Some Way

This awesome book blog meme - hosted by The Broke and the Bookish - is where book lovers list their favourites inspired by a new topic each week. This week everybody is sharing their Top Ten Books Featuring Travel In Some Way and without further ado, here are mine - in no particular order... (Confession: I cheated a little and listed twelve. Oops.) The links go to Goodreads.

 

Contemporary Trips

 

1) Paper Towns by John Green - road trip

 

2) An Abundance of Katherines by John Green - road trip

 

3) The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith - aeroplane

 

Fantasy Quests

 

4) Age of the Five trilogy by Trudi Canavan

 

Perhaps the very best part of this trilogy is the unique world and the different species that inhabit it (oh, how I love the Siyee!). The reader gets to see all that as the characters travel all over the continent - methods of transport varying from ships to flying.

 

5) His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

 

Lyra and her companions travel so much and in so many ways throughout the series and I loved all of the vividly described places and the entire journey itself.

 

6) Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill

 

The aspect of Thirrin traveling through all kinds of lands seeking allies appealed to me greatly. I have been thinking about re-reading this book and its sequels for a long time - I ought to, as they were childhood favourites.

 

7) Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

 

Discovering the deserts, towns, forests, rivers, cities and mountains of Alagaesia alongside Eragon and Saphira was exhilarating and such an adventure for me. Their travels are among my favourites in the fantasy genre.

 

8) Graceling by Kristin Cashore

 

Riding by horseback and sometimes progressing by boat or foot, Katsa journeys a great length through the kingdoms. Graceling is a wonderful fantasy quest and the ups and downs of traveling are presented well and entertainingly.

 

 

Science Fiction and Dystopian Journeys

 

9) The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

In many ways, The Knife of Never Letting Go is different from other YA novels - and one of these differences has to do with traveling. While others take a car, aeroplane, horse or dragon, Todd does the unusual thing. It's so amazing that he basically just runs and runs and keeps on running, and the style all of it was written in felt, in my opinion, so fresh and taut with suspense.

10) Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Saba is one of my personal favourites among YA heroines and her journey is so much more than just moving from place A to place B. Saba also grows while traveling, building relationships and her sense of who she is. The vehicle she uses to travel across the plain is so cool.

  

Historical Travels

11) The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

I'm expressing a little Finnish pride here! The Egyptian affected me profoundly with its ideas and themes. This captivating, unfortunate story is told in an intriguing first-person narrative and Sinuhe's route through lands bordering the Mediterranean gripped me tightly.

12) Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Lina and her family's journey from Lithuania to Siberia is heart-wrenchingly painful because it is based on true facts from history. Traveling by train in unhygienic cars stuffed with too many people is definitely horrifying, but the storyline is captivating and laced with hope and goodness among hunger and filthy conditions.

Those were my Top Ten (Twelve) for this week - what books featuring travel have you loved? Feel free to comment or leave a link! =)


-Eve