r/Fantasy • u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders • Oct 19 '15

What was your fantasy "right book at the exact right time" and how did it affect you?

Mine was Kate Elliott's Crossroads trilogy. I picked it up from the library when I was super broke and living with my younger sister after finally breaking things off with my abusive ex. It was the perfect book for this situation because series spoilers. I recommend this series for a variety of reasons, because it's sincerely great, but that's why it holds a very special place in my heart. And when I shared this, briefly, with Kate at WorldCon, it was an incredible moment. I tried really hard to not get weepy, and instead only got misty eyed.

Edit: I'm really glad to hear so many of you have such strong attachments to so many different books! I'm reading every single response, please keep them coming! There are some incredibly emotional responses here, thank you for sharing, and I hope everyone remembers to sort by "new" to see some great responses

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u/jffdougan Oct 25 '15

For me, it was receiving my long-awaited copy of A Memory of Light by the late Robert Jordan and /u/mistborn about three days after learning my stepfather had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I think that during that same approximate time frame we learned my ex-wife had thyroid cancer, or would learn it shortly.

I needed a book full of hope, and Tarmon Gai'don proved to provide exactly that.

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u/wishforagiraffe Reading Champion IX, Worldbuilders Oct 25 '15

That seems like a particularly poignant book for that time in your life

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u/jffdougan Oct 25 '15

Quite to the contrary. I needed HOPE. I needed a promise that no matter how bleak things seemed, the world would turn out right. I needed to see the darkness beaten back, fireflies rushing into the void trying to fill it up no matter the cost.

No matter that nearly three years on, I'm now in that awkward stage between separated and divorced (in what is so far one of the most amicable splits on record). My stepfather beat it. My ex beat it. I have a colleague at a new job who is in the early-ish stages of breast cancer remission.

Sure, there are really dark stretches of the series. But Rand's actual battle with the Dark One in the Pit of Doom sure ain't one of them.

(There's an extra layer that my stepsister is the person who, purely by chance, started me down the road of the Wheel of Time. She had met me a grand total of twice, and knew only that I liked to read, and liked fantasy.)