Harry Potter's all but a portal fantasy, imho, given the way the wizarding world gets divided off. as you wrote somewhere up there. And I concur. A lot of the examples which want to spring to mind are everything-but portal fantasies. Harry Potter, where the magic world is completely unknown and separate, nevermind that it's technically part of our own. Neverwhere (although Gaiman has some actual portal fantasies, like Stardust and Coraline), where the magic world is just out of sight but again part of our own. Urban fantasy I think makes these sort of not-portal fantasies all the more common—in fact, they may be what's replacing that minigenre in large part. I have mixed opinions on all of them, but my view largely boils down to: They're good if the fantasy world is sufficiently separate and realistically hard to believe in. If a character finds Magic Wonder Land in their back garden and doesn't blink, I can't believe in either the character or the magic. When they find Magic Wonder Land and it's intelligently created and reasonably explained (as to why they hadn't found it before), I may well go on to love the book.
There are also portal from another world fantasies—not where someone comes to ours, but when they escape their fantasy world for another fantasy world. His Dark Materials comes to mind there. What makes those books a success is that each of the worlds within worlds feel real. A portal fantasy from our world makes the initial setting pretty easy to characterize, but when they start in a fantasy world there's an automatic extra area of worldbuilding which needs work.
In all cases and varieties of portal fantasies, including the old school our world --> magical world version, what makes it work for me:
Realistic world building, including: The fantasy world(s) should have good and bad points. If they're happy wonder worlds, they're pure escapism; if they're excessively dark undergrounds, they're cheap thrills. They need to be as real and varied as any non-fantasy world, while still preserving enough wonder, in whatever form, to make the reader want to visit.
Speaking of which, wish-fulfillment isn't bad. Mary Sues are bad, sure, but a portal fantasy should open a whole new world in the magic-carpet-riding-and-singing sense: it should have its own sort of beauty and wonder, it should inspire dreams.
Realistic disbelief and difficulties when encountering the other world. If the character accepts it too easily, they feel fake. If they fit in too easily, the world feels fake. If the transition isn't difficult, there should be a reasonable explanation as to why.
Examples of strict portal fantasies which I would consider remarkably successful include: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, Palimpsest, The Hounds of the Morrigan (okay, not quite so strict), Pan's Labyrinth, Coraline, Narnia.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yati
no subject
Date: 2009-04-21 11:43 pm (UTC)There are also portal from another world fantasies—not where someone comes to ours, but when they escape their fantasy world for another fantasy world. His Dark Materials comes to mind there. What makes those books a success is that each of the worlds within worlds feel real. A portal fantasy from our world makes the initial setting pretty easy to characterize, but when they start in a fantasy world there's an automatic extra area of worldbuilding which needs work.
In all cases and varieties of portal fantasies, including the old school our world --> magical world version, what makes it work for me:
Realistic world building, including: The fantasy world(s) should have good and bad points. If they're happy wonder worlds, they're pure escapism; if they're excessively dark undergrounds, they're cheap thrills. They need to be as real and varied as any non-fantasy world, while still preserving enough wonder, in whatever form, to make the reader want to visit.
Speaking of which, wish-fulfillment isn't bad. Mary Sues are bad, sure, but a portal fantasy should open a whole new world in the magic-carpet-riding-and-singing sense: it should have its own sort of beauty and wonder, it should inspire dreams.
Realistic disbelief and difficulties when encountering the other world. If the character accepts it too easily, they feel fake. If they fit in too easily, the world feels fake. If the transition isn't difficult, there should be a reasonable explanation as to why.
Examples of strict portal fantasies which I would consider remarkably successful include: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, Palimpsest, The Hounds of the Morrigan (okay, not quite so strict), Pan's Labyrinth, Coraline, Narnia.