My favorite books that inspire the creation of worlds

This is a book about one of the nine princes of Amber. A family of trans-dimensional dynasty of immortal warriors and sorcerers that can walk through the layers of reality as easily as getting a cup of tea. But it starts with a man who lost his memory in a car accident convinced that someone is out to get him. From the first chapter it’s a wild ride through the multiverse they call shadow as the Courts of Chaos and the Lords of Order chase after one man.

This book showed me how great a story could be when an author cut loose and let you follow along on one of the best “hellrides” ever. I am sure it wasn’t the first book showing how crazy the multiverse was, but it was branded in my mind forever. 

What would you do if you were just an average, boring man? Living an average boring life. But then you found you had incredible powers. Not little by little... but full-on fire hose-level powers. Then you found out that all you knew about yourself, and your life were lies. And everyone wants you. This is another novel where the protagonist finds himself running for his life or freedom through the universe. Just one this time.

This book appealed to the escapist in me. Just as every teenager wants to be special or miraculous, this was the epitome of a normal man finding he was definitely not normal and trying to live with the consequences. It’s a pretty common theme, but this story took it and ramped it up to a level 10 on the excitement meter.

What if you were crippled from birth but you knew that you were destined for greater things and larger-than-life heroics? Miles’ embryo was damaged by an attack on his mother before he was even born. Try as he may, he can’t succeed in the only career he ever wanted... the military. He failed at that but fortunately he’s an unimaginable genius, with a streak of luck the size of a planet. He’ll just stumble into making his own army and try not to be executed for treason.

Another normal man... even below average, physically at least. But he can drag his failing body around and overcome obstacle after obstacle to achieve... well... some facsimile of his dream. There’s a lot of humor in these books. Not necessarily joking humor but the kind that takes the reality of the situation seriously even when the most absurd things happen. I really like that.

This one is a little more faded in memory. It's about a man and his companion giant spider as they travel a road of interdimensional gates. He starts off as a swordsman, barely able to get spells to function, and through luck and design becomes one of the most powerful existences in the multiverse. After six books, that is.

Aside from a rollicking good time following this hero and companion spider on their adventures I learned a bit of about pacing. How to bring a character from low power to high power and not get lost in the ‘fantasy’ of power tripping. Like many other of my favorites, it was one step along the path of infinite possibilities.

This book was a full-on fantasy. About a boy that wants to learn magic, in a world where there are five types of magic. Through talent, luck, determination, and a heck of a lot of imagination he wiggles onto the path of magic in order to achieve his goal. Five times.  

Aside from being a journey of learning for the apprentice, it was also a demonstration of how to make magic... science.  Not by waving your hand and saying magic was merely advanced science but by having each magic school have clear and concise rules and in turn having a world that made sense if you had to follow these rules. It was an eye-opener that showed how good a magical world that made sense could be.