Ratika Deshpande

Thu Nov 9, 2023 12:00pm 12 comments 11 Favorites [+]

Photo: Julia Zyablova [via Unsplash]

There’s something irresistible about reading about worlds-that-could-have-been, worlds full of astonishing sights and sounds and a million enticing scents. Worlds that take familiar places and things and make something new out of them, creating combinations that you wish existed in the real world. Writing that does this—in addition to providing readers with a good story—is my favorite kind, both as a reader seeking escape and a writer who wants to create similar havens for others.

Here’s a sampling for you.

book recommendations

Nine (Very) Short Fantasy Stories With Happy Endings

Ratika Deshpande

Thu Sep 21, 2023 12:00pm 8 comments 24 Favorites [+]

Photo: Lucas George Wendt [via Unsplash]

I love “bite-sized” fiction I can read while enjoying hot chai on rainy days. Lately, as the world seems to grow more pessimistic, I’ve been seeking out stories where good things happen, where characters make those good things happen… Little reminders that things can and do end well, and that we’re not always as helpless as we think. Here’s a list of some recent favorites.

Tor.com 15th Anniversary

Anyone Can Be a Hero in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive

Ratika Deshpande

Tue Jul 18, 2023 12:00pm 3 comments 27 Favorites [+]

There’s a complaint I’ve come across several times in the last year on The Stormlight Archive subreddit: there are, some readers lament, too many Knights Radiant, which are akin to superheroes on the planet Roshar. Radiants can heal themselves, manipulate gravity, change one object into another, see the future, play with pressure, create visual and auditory illusions, among other powers. There are ten Orders of the Radiants and each Order possesses two powers, which are fueled by stormlight—a form of investiture delivered by the highstorms and stored in gems of several varieties.

[Contains spoilers for all books of The Stormlight Archive]

book recommendations

Seven SFF Short Stories Featuring Students and Scholarship

Ratika Deshpande

Wed Jun 7, 2023 11:00am 10 comments 5 Favorites [+]

Photo: Robin Worrall [via Unsplash]

Until I read the Stormlight Archive books, I didn’t realize how much I needed stories centered on historians and their apprentices, and engineers and their laboratories. I cherished every scene in the books in which Shallan and Jasnah discussed the nature of scholarship and Navani guided the scientists working for her kingdom. I read and reread every note they made, the details of every book they read, every idea they researched, longing to join them.

Soon, I was hunting for similar books and short stories by other authors. Here are seven of my favorite short fiction pieces featuring students and scholarship, research and exams—and one visit to the principal’s office.

Pairing Five Fantasy Worlds With the Perfect Soundtrack

Ratika Deshpande

Tue May 16, 2023 1:00pm 3 comments 7 Favorites [+]

Photo: Konstantin Dyadyun [via Unsplash]

I’ve often wished life had background music. The universe couldn’t give me that, so it gave me the next best thing: fantasy music and ambience playlists on YouTube.

While there’s nothing like picking up a good book to get lost in an interesting world, there’s work to be done. You can’t read and work at once. But you can put on a “Magic Library – Fantasy Music For Inspiration” playlist in the background and pretend you’re a scholar investigating some arcane magic system rather than a college student completing a boring assignment.

But of course, you don’t have to be work on something to enjoy curated soundscapes. You could play Dungeons & Dragons (or any number of other games) to this music—or pick up an immersive fantasy series, made even more realistic by the background soundscape. Here are some music and ambience playlists for five of my favorite fantasy stories.

Brandon Sanderson

Sazed Is a Reminder That Everything You Create Matters

Ratika Deshpande

Tue Mar 7, 2023 12:00pm 11 comments 23 Favorites [+]

I’m a writer. In the fantasy world I’m currently building, I made scholarship a religion. I was frustrated by the lack of meaning I often found in my studies and disheartened to see how many of my peers found studying stressful. I love learning and wanted to create a society where everyone shared this love. Yet my world failed to provide me with the comfort and reassurance I needed to find meaning and continue writing.

That reassurance, instead, came from another religion—one that I discovered among the pages of Brandon Sanderson’s first Mistborn trilogy.

book recommendations

Six SFF Works to Brighten Gloomy Days

Ratika Deshpande

Thu Dec 9, 2021 3:00pm 3 comments 7 Favorites [+]

Photo via Unsplash

It’s difficult to do anything when one is sick or feeling down. While others might nap away a minor fever or watch Netflix, my go-to solution for when I can’t focus on any work during a sickness nor sleep any more (because I napped too hard during the day) is to read books. I also turn to reading for comfort whenever I’m just not feeling my best. Sometimes, the books find me and I realize they were exactly what I needed on an otherwise gloomy day.

The following is a list of works—from fairy tales and post-apocalyptic comics to science fiction and children’s books—that distracted me during a recent bout of fever, along with stories I’ve turned to when I wanted to take a break from my life and lose myself in a feel-good world where I don’t have to overthink everything, where I can just sit back and let the words take over…