For me, portals have always been the ultimate analogy for the imagination, particularly the untrammeled imagination of youth. We can go anywhere in our minds and portals are a way we make it happen more ‘literally’ in books (in themselves a kind of portal, too). I’ve been hooked on portals ever since reading CS Lewis as a boy. As a grown-up, I discovered a fantastic garden of hedged rooms in Herefordshire and imagined each room holding a portal to a sacred place across the planet. Imagine if you only had to step outside your door to go somewhere amazing – but then found a killer was using the portals too…
Perhaps the most iconic of all portal fantasies, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe firmly established the trope of children discovering a new world of wonders and terrors through an innocuous, everyday item. This story of a land of humans and talking animals under the spell of the Winter Witch is truly epic, but the scene that puts a spell on me is far more intimate – Lucy’s pushing through the clothes in the old wardrobe to emerge into a snowy forest with a street lantern and a friendly, parcel-clutching fawn by the name of Mr. Tumnus.
Lucy steps into the Professor's wardrobe - but steps out again into a snowy forest. She's stumbled upon the magical world of Narnia, land of unicorns, centaurs, fauns... and the wicked White Witch, who terrorises all. Lucy soon realises that Narnia, and in particular Aslan, the great Lion, needs her help if the country's creatures are ever going to be free again...
A portal book that’s properly spooky. Frustrated like every child by her parents, Coraline opens a door she’s been warned not to open and meets her Other Parents in an adjacent apartment. The Other Parents are just like hers except they have buttons stitched over their eyes (I mean, what? If you aren’t freaked out by the idea of that…!?) A fabulous novella that’s much more than creepy, as we discover the true feeling between Coraline and her parents and even her compassion for the Other Mother.
"Sometimes funny, always creepy, genuinely moving, this marvellous spine-chiller will appeal to readers from nine to ninety." - "Books for Keeps". "I was looking forward to "Coraline", and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was enthralled. This is a marvellously strange and scary book." - Philip Pullman, "Guardian". "If any writer can get the guys to read about the girls, it should be Neil Gaiman. His new novel "Coraline" is a dreamlike adventure. For all its gripping nightmare imagery, this is actually a conventional fairy story with a moral." - "Daily Telegraph". Stephen King once called Neil Gaiman 'a treasure-house…
Northern Lights is the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, a dazzling series in which portals enable movement between parallel worlds including a steampunk version of our own and the strange, desert city of Cittagazze. It features one of the niftiest magic items ever conceived in the form of the Subtle Knife, which can divide subatomic particles and create new portals. How cool is that? Northern Lights with its gypsies, zeppelins, and armoured bears in Arctic snowscapes is my favourite of the trilogy.
The first volume in Philip Pullman's groundbreaking HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, now a thrilling, critically acclaimed BBC/HBO television series. First published in 1995, and acclaimed as a modern masterpiece, this first book in the series won the UK's top awards for children's literature.
"Without this child, we shall all die."
Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford.
The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight.
Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...
A gentler book, exquisite in its handling of the relationship between quarantined Tom and Victorian girl Hatty, whom he meets in the garden of his aunt and uncle’s house when the clock strikes thirteen. This book came second in the all-time Carnegie vote in 2007 – which shows how this tale of friendship with its perfect ending has truly stood the test of time.
From beloved author Philippa Pearce, this sixtieth-anniversary edition is the perfect way to share this transcendent story of friendship with a new generation of readers. Philip Pullman, bestselling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, called Tom's Midnight Garden "A perfect book."
When Tom's brother gets sick, he's shipped off to spend what he's sure will be a boring summer with his aunt and uncle in the country. But then Tom hears the old grandfather clock in the hall chime thirteen times, and he's transported back to an old garden where he meets a young,…
A fabulous blast and a great introduction to Greek mythology. Percy’s dyslexia and ADHD are causing him problems at school and when one of his teachers morphs into a monster his mum takes him to a special camp on Long Island where he can learn who he truly is. The riotous quest that subsequently unfolds takes Percy across the United States and to two of the best portal locations ever – Mount Olympus (on the 600th floor of the Empire State) and the DOA Recording Studios in Hollywood, which gives entry to the Underworld.
The Lightning Thief: the First book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.
The first bestselling book in Rick Riordan's phenomenally successful Percy Jackson series.
Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God. I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That's when things started really going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends, and generally trying to stay alive.
Lizzie Jones expects nothing but boredom when she moves with her mum to the cottage she’s inherited, deep in the English countryside. But then, with the help of her little dog, she discovers a magical portal to Kashi, the Indian City of Light, hidden in the cottage's garden. But Lizzie’s disbelief and wonder at the portal soon vanish as she begins to suspect a mysterious intruder might be the notorious killer, Pisaca of Kashi, using the portal to evade capture.
My favorite fantasy novels tend to be rather complex. Winding plotlines, mysteriously interconnected characters, whimsical settings, and intricate, thoughtful worldbuilding combine to create immersive stories that stick in the mind like overworn folklore. Time travel or interworld travel lend additional layers of intrigue and mystery, forcing the inescapable contemplation of a more thrilling, alternate reality. And if it’s all packaged in artful, breathtaking prose that breeds full-color images, audible noises, indelible flavors, nose-crumpling odors, and tangible textures, I will happily lose myself in the pages, truly forgetting about the strictures of everyday life… at least until I get hungry and remember I need to consume more than books to survive.
An Heir of Realms tells the tale of two young heroines—a dragon rider and a portal jumper—who fight dragon-like parasites to save their realms from extinction.
Rhoswen is training as a Realm Rider to work with dragons and burn away the Narxon swarming into her realm. Rhoswen’s dream is to Ride, but her destiny will pit her against her uncle and king, who have scorned her since before her birth.
In the Exchange, the waystation between realms, Emmelyn fights the G’Ambit, a gambling ring with members more intent on lining their pockets than protecting the realms—or their own lives.
Realm-devouring parasites threaten all existence. The Exchange is desperate to destroy them. But could their radical plans endanger the realms, too?
Soul-sucking parasites are overwhelming the realms.
Rhoswen of Stanburh is of age to train as a Realm Rider—a defender of the realms. Riders and their dragons work together to burn away infiltrating Narxon as they swarm in through tears in a realm’s fabric. But it’s not an easy battle: the mere touch of the smoky, dragon-like adversaries can reduce the lively winged beasts—and their Riders—to ash.
Becoming a Realm Rider is Rhoswen’s dream, but she carries far more responsibility…
