The Tough Guide to Fantasyland [Paperback]

Diana Wynne Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1998

This authoritative A-Z guide constitutes an essential source of information for all who dare to venture into the imaginative hinterlands, providing acute insights into such subjects as: the varying types of virgin, why High Priests are invariably evil, how Dark Lords always have minions, and why Cooks all have filthy tempers. Whether you're a first-time visitor or a veteran Fantasyland traveler, The Tough Guide To Fantasyland has everything you need to get the most from your Tour, including: what to do when you're captured by a Goblin, where to find a Healer when you're stricken with the dreaded plague, and how to obtain the magic sword which will protect you from those pesky Barbarian Hordes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Suffering from a bit of deja vu after reading your umpteenth fantasy trilogy? Seen too many magic swords, musical elves and warring wizards? Then you're ready for the funniest and most complete "tourist's" guide to Fantasyland's standard character types, plot elements, and settings ever devised.

Diana Wynne Jones describes (starting, of course, with a map) every sword-and-sorcery cliché in wickedly accurate detail, arranged alphabetically. Elves sing in beautiful, unearthly voices about how much better things used to be. Swords with Runes may kill dragons or demons, or have powers like storm-raising, but they are not much use when you're attacked by bandits. You can only have an Axe if you're a Northern Barbarian, a Dwarf, or a Blacksmith. Jones also tackles hard-hitting questions: how does Fantasyland's ecology work when there are few or no bacteria and insects and vast tracts of magically irradiated wastelands? Why doesn't the economy collapse when pirates and bandits are so active and there is no perceptible industry?

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (U.K. Edition) was a 1997 Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee. It's a good companion to Jones's Dark Lord of Derkholm, a fantasy about what happens when your land is turned into a theme park for questing tourist parties. Fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books will enjoy both. --Nona Vero

Review

Fantasy fans with a sense of humor should enjoy this one. Ex-fantasy fans, who came to their senses, should enjoy it even more. -- Analog, Tom Easton

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: DAW; First Edition edition (December 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886778328
• ISBN-13: 978-0886778323
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,013,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diana Wynne Jones spent her childhood in Essex and has been writing fantasy novels for children since 1973. With her unique combination of magic, humour and imagination, she has been enthralling children and adults with her work ever since. She won the Guardian Award in 1977 with Charmed Life, was runner-up for the Children's Book Award in 1981, and was twice runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. She is married with three sons, and lives in Bristol with her husband.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up! This book is F-U-N-N-Y!, March 15, 2000

By 

Gwen Kramer "gwenhwyvar" (Sunny and not-so-sunny California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Paperback)

I think most of the negative reviews are from people whose tongue is not inserted properly in their cheek.Really, guys, who goes around COUNTING cliches and who can really catch every single one when it all comes dowen to it. This book is full of wicked humor and a skewering look at fantasy not to be missed.

True fans of any genre are the ones that can laugh at it. This book is great because it tells writers exactly what cliches to avoid and points out funny facts. (Come to think of it, when HAS a fantasy character, a serious heroic one, mind you, ever worn socks? Tell me if you know!)

Read it, be prepared for initial indignation, then laughter then get on with your life and for heaven's sake don't count how many times these tired cliches have been used! It spoils all the fun

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and Much-Needed, March 14, 2002

By 

Brian Libby "Gadfly" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Paperback)

If you like fantasy and have a sense of humor, get this book. Diana Wynne Jones knows whereof she speaks, and she hits many nails on the head. This is a delightful send-up of fantasy conventions and if you don't laugh out loud you will at least smile a lot.

In view of the current resurgence of LOTR (thanks to the movie)this book should be sold in conjunction with Bored of the Rings by the Harvard Lampoon, which I hear is being re-issued after many years. The two would make a nice gift set.

Like another reviewer, I am sorry that even more items were not included--such as Knights--but one author cannot think of everything and the book -is- 300 pages long.

It is fun to imagine what particular authors Ms. Jones might have had in mind as she wrote the different entries (although I don't suggest she is always being "author-specific".) In my own case, I am as it happens finishing up Elizabeth Moon's DEED OF PAKSENNARION, and the entry for "Female Mercenary" really had me chuckling. Hello, Paks!

I hope someone sends copies of this masterpiece to R.J., T.G., and several other people who badly need to read it.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ready to Quest (OMT)?, June 24, 2005

By 

David M. Mayeux "catholic teacher geek" (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (Paperback)

The Tough Guide To Fantasy Land
by Diana Wynne Jones
DAW Books, 1996

Diana Wynne Jones has been for me, since an early age, a favorite. Her fantasy stories are entertaining, thoughtful and often quite unique. And now I know how she figured out how to give her stories that unique quality, she cataloged all the cliches of genre fantasy first. Then she avoided using them until she put them in her Tough Guide To Fantasy Land.

This book is a dictionary of every trope and cliche that comes standard with the fantasy genre (OMT). With the pretense that all fantasy novels are actually tour guides of Fantasyland, Jones lists all the sights and events one can expect while on their specific tour. The writer is Management and what you can expect is dictated by The Rules (which SMELL slightly of Campbell).

Each entry is a wonderfully wicked stab at the pulp, and is cross-referenced and littered with Official Management Terms (OMT) which can be found in italics and every pulp fantasy novel ever written. Jones will inform you that SOCKS are simply not worn but amazingly all BOOTS will be without SMELL even after being worn for weeks on end (and they won't wear out either). Fantasyland ECOLOGY is suspicious at best, with no insects or really animals at all except for LEATHERY-WINGED AVIANS who will attack near the beginning of the tour, which of course makes you wonder just what the Management is putting into the STEW (which is mostly all you'll eat).

This book's only problem is a number of typos. It was an occasional distraction that I hope is fixed in later editions.

If you have ever picked up a trilogy of fantasy (for most tours have three legs, if more they become EPICS), you're looking to write a genre fantasy novel, or just want to read them all in one volume, then this will leave you laughing, entertained and ready if you ever make your way through the misting mirror into Fantasyland.