Mirror of her Dreams series by Donaldson - less eye-pokey than Covenant by a long shot, and actually does some deconstructing of its own so it might be useful to you. Very "So, we called for a hero from another world and we got ... you???"
The Magicians by Lev Grossman - I don't think it's out yet but I have an ARC I can send you if you need it. (Once it comes out, I think portal fantasy is about to hit the mainstream again in a big way.) The premise is basically, "What if some really awful, shitty people were the ones who got to do the portal fantasy?" Though what squicked me is that the author doesn't seem to realize that his characters are generally terrible human beings.
War of the Flowers by Tad Williams - Of the "Whoa, I'm a lame slacker dude in the real world, but my guitar playing / artistic dreams / misogyny make me AWESOME IN FANTASY LAND" sub-genre, but redeemed by a completely awesome take on the Other World (and by Williams' general awesomeness - the genre lameness really isn't his fault).
Wonderful portal stuff in His Dark Materials, but you can't really go wrong with Pullman as far as I'm concerned so I might be biased. :)
And of course there's the de Lint-influenced crowd (UnLunDun, Neverwhere) which mostly appeal to me because of how they reimagine our mundane world as a magical place.
Obsessed with as a kid:
Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony - A guy from a sci-fi culture ends up in a fantasy world where magic works, and ends up traveling back and forth often enough to earn himself some serious frequent flier miles.
(Plus some of the other stuff people have already mentioned - like Narnia which I freaking LOVED. I spent a lot of time rummaging in other people's closets, just in case.)
If you're really looking for bad portal stuff, you might want to check out the romance aisle. I couldn't name names, because I mostly skim them in the bookstore, but there's definitely a fair few that do the "I'm in a magic land and EVERYONE LOVES ME" thing. Or also the past.
Also:
You should email Ben Lehman about Land of a Thousand Kings, as I think he did fairly extensive research into this genre when he wrote the game.
I know there are more, but I'll post as I think of them.
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yati
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Date: 2009-04-21 08:17 pm (UTC)Mirror of her Dreams series by Donaldson - less eye-pokey than Covenant by a long shot, and actually does some deconstructing of its own so it might be useful to you. Very "So, we called for a hero from another world and we got ... you???"
The Magicians by Lev Grossman - I don't think it's out yet but I have an ARC I can send you if you need it. (Once it comes out, I think portal fantasy is about to hit the mainstream again in a big way.) The premise is basically, "What if some really awful, shitty people were the ones who got to do the portal fantasy?" Though what squicked me is that the author doesn't seem to realize that his characters are generally terrible human beings.
War of the Flowers by Tad Williams - Of the "Whoa, I'm a lame slacker dude in the real world, but my guitar playing / artistic dreams / misogyny make me AWESOME IN FANTASY LAND" sub-genre, but redeemed by a completely awesome take on the Other World (and by Williams' general awesomeness - the genre lameness really isn't his fault).
Wonderful portal stuff in His Dark Materials, but you can't really go wrong with Pullman as far as I'm concerned so I might be biased. :)
And of course there's the de Lint-influenced crowd (UnLunDun, Neverwhere) which mostly appeal to me because of how they reimagine our mundane world as a magical place.
Obsessed with as a kid:
Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony - A guy from a sci-fi culture ends up in a fantasy world where magic works, and ends up traveling back and forth often enough to earn himself some serious frequent flier miles.
(Plus some of the other stuff people have already mentioned - like Narnia which I freaking LOVED. I spent a lot of time rummaging in other people's closets, just in case.)
If you're really looking for bad portal stuff, you might want to check out the romance aisle. I couldn't name names, because I mostly skim them in the bookstore, but there's definitely a fair few that do the "I'm in a magic land and EVERYONE LOVES ME" thing. Or also the past.
Also:
You should email Ben Lehman about Land of a Thousand Kings, as I think he did fairly extensive research into this genre when he wrote the game.
I know there are more, but I'll post as I think of them.