Tough Traveling: Quest Objects
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information. Compulsive list-maker that I am, I’m very excited to take part!
This week’s tour topic is: Quest Objects
QUEST OBJECTS can be various, but are quite strictly defined by the Rules. They are:
1. Material Objects. CUPS, JEWELS, ORBS, RINGS, SCEPTRES, STONES, and SWORDS.
2. Places. HIDDEN KINGDOMS, ISLANDS, OLD RUINED CITIES, POOLS of enchantment, STONES, TEMPLES, VALLEYS, and, less frequently, Fountains (which may double as Fountains of Youth)
3. Persons. See APPRENTICES, HARDSHIP, and PRINCES.
4. Knowledge. Usually for BIRTHRIGHT or MAGIC or both.
5. Most rarely of all, SELF-KNOWLEDGE
I love this week’s theme. You can’t read fantasy without tripping over a quest object, so I’m hoping today to use some titles I haven’t had a chance to feature before:
The Barrow by Mark Smylie
Swords as quest objects is a big thing in fantasy. Mark Smylie’s dark fantasy adventure novel The Barrow follows the classic quest narrative: to find the sword (not just any sword! A fabled sword which belonged to a long-dead wizard), unearth the Barrow. To unearth the Barrow, follow the map.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
Keys are another popular quest object. Seven golden keys are at the center of Quentin’s quest in The Magician King, when he stumbles upon a fairy tale mentioning them while on a journey to the Outer Island. The tale grows more complicated and dire when he discovers grave consequences for magic and magic users everywhere if these keys aren’t found.
Heartwood by Freya Robertson
Another classic quest narrative, following a group of warriors on an epic adventure to retrieve the heart of the Arbor, the essence of the great tree that binds all the land and its people. But five nodes located in five different hallowed sites must be activated first in order for the sacred tree to heal.
Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb
Quest objects can indeed be places. The four books in this series follows a group of dragon keepers and their dragons on an extraordinary odyssey along the Rain Wild River in the hopes of rediscovering the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra, the magical lost haven for dragons and Elderlings alike.
The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes
Hey, quest objects in heist stories are merely regular quest objects that you have to steal, along with a bunch of your lock-picking, safe-cracking, shape-shifting and acrobatically gifted friends! In this case, Loch and her team are hoping to retrieve a priceless elven manuscript that was stolen from her family. I featured this book’s sequel in my WoW yesterday, which got a bit of interest so I figured I’d take this opportunity to pimp this great book.
Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay
Quest objects can be animals, too. 250 prized Sardian horses were gifted to Shen Tai by the Taguran empress, a former Kitan princess, as a reward for a noble task. Of course, the empress doesn’t realize that her extravagant gift has immediately made this humble man an attractive target to thieves, assassins, and politicians, not to mention other dangers (royalty, they just don’t consider such things). Shen devises a plan to keep himself alive in order to travel to the capital and deliver the valuable horses to the Kitan Empire.
The BiblioSanctum 
I do love a good quest for something
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It’s classic.
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Oh this time I don’t know about these books I confess. But they sound like a goos choice.
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Heartwood counts because it has FIVE QUESTS, and even more so because they were all exactly the same. =)
I had The Barrow on my list and forgot about it by the time I actually started typing.
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LOL yeah, as quest books go, Heartwood was a bit of an overkill.
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Great list! And a reminder that I really need to read both The Barrow and Under Heaven! And Rain Wild Chronicles! I swear I wonder what I do with my time with all these unread books I see… 😉
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At least you’ve read all the Fitz books…Rain Wilds is the only series of Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings world that I’ve fully completed 😛
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Wonderful picks! I wish I could say that I have read all these books, but I have not. Heartwood is absolutely a classic quest driven book. Guess my apathy toward it made me forget about it. But the rest of the bunch sound very good though. 🙂
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I remembered Heartwood quite clearly, because like Nathan said, it was practically five quests in one, and I believe I’d made a comment in my review about it being the classic quest narrative 🙂
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I do have Heartwood but didn’t actually read it (whoops!). I like the sound of The Barrow – will have to check it out.
I was having a look at The Magicians – it has some very mixed reviews doesn’t it!!
Great list.
Lynn 😀
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The Barrow was a blast, I highly recommend it. But it’s definitely not for the faint of heart!
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I haven’t read a single one of these! But I’ve loved all of the books by Guy Gavriel Kay that I’ve read so far. You are so right about royals. Sometimes they really need to get their shit together and realize that other people aren’t always living the high life!
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Guy Gavriel Kay is great! I would definitely check out Under Heaven and its sort-of-follow-up River of Stars. He’s such an amazing writer, and such beautiful prose in both these books.
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Under Heaven has a bit of a strange premise and man do I want to read Palace Job….
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You really should read Palace Job, it’s your kind of book!
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Holy crap, Mogsy, I have read not one of those. Not one! I have been meaning to check out Robin Hobb for quite a while now, and I do still want to read The Magicians, but for now that’s just sad. *promises to do better* 😉
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