Calendar Girls: Best High Fantasy

Well, another month has gone by, and I seriously don’t know where it has gone. Do you think I misplaced it somewhere? But since March has left us, it’s time for Calendar Girls to be back in action, and I’m super excited to bring you a new one…even though I realize just how unprepared I was for the topic this month. D:

First, let’s discuss a little bit about what Calendar Girls is…and trust me, it’s not just for Girls!

Calendar Girls is hosted by bloggers, Flavia the Bibliophile and Melanie Noell Bernard – both have amazing blogs full of fun, bookish posts. Calendar Girls is a brand new monthly blog event inspired by Neil Sedaka’s 1961 song Calendar Girl. Just like in the song, we decided to use a specific them for each month and choose a book based on these themes! The event is meant to incite discussions with other bloggers about books we’ve read and loved, is meant to help bloggers meet other bloggers, and also for bloggers and readers to find out about blogs which they normally may not have come across! Want to know more? Click on the links above! And it’s not too late to jump on the Calendar Girl train (and it’s not just for girls)! Join now!

This month the topic was the best High Fantasy book…and let me just tell you, I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know about high fantasy. I was like…is there a low fantasy? What does high mean?? So, a handy Google search gave me a wonderful definition and then another lovely Google search gave me some options of YA High Fantasy. I was like, Yay, you got this now…until I realized that the ones on the list were not any I actually read or had really enjoyed. Sooooo…I was back to square one, until somehow a choice popped into my head and I was running with it.

Without further ado (I mean, no more long rambling paragraphs when you just want to see my pick), my choice is…

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

That’s right, The Princess Bride! It’s got fencing, fighting, true love, strong hate, harsh revenge…well, you get the drill.

So, I asked myself – because you know, you routinely do ask yourself weird questions – what makes this high fantasy? Well, it’s not Lord of the Rings or anything, but here is a world that is completely made up with imaginary wars, a magic that plays by its own sets of rules (I’m looking at you, ROUSs and Fire Swamp), and magicians that can be a little eccentric. It may not be the highest high fantasy, but it’s the one that I enjoyed most.

Now, if you loved the movie, you will probably enjoy this one. However, the truth is, you might not enjoy it more than the actual movie. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed this book so much, but it’s a lotttttt like the movie and William Goldman has a habit of going off on super random tangents for a really long time. XD But they are entertaining for the most part.

If you’ve never read this story or seen the movie before, I definitely recommend. It’s hilarious, and the setting is wonderful. You won’t be able to stop laughing throughout the book, and the magic in it is magical itself…except for the Rodents of Unusual Size. They’re just wrong. -_-

So, I took another unusual picking for this month, and hopefully it counts? XD I apparently need to get on my High Fantasy YA reads! So, what do you think? What is your favorite High Fantasy read? Let’s discuss in the comments below!