# If you could be transported through space and time...



## jyarrow (Aug 15, 2010)

If you could visit the time and the setting of one of your favorite books, where would you choose to go and why?

I’ll kick this off by saying I’d love to retrace Georges Simenon’s boat-ride along the inland waterways  of France, as he explored settings for the murder in 'Lock 14' investigated by Inspector Jules Maigret.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

If it's a one-way trip, I'd go somewhere within the well-settled part of "The Culture" in Iain M. Banks' "Culture" books: no worries about material issues, super-AIs to keep the peace, pretty much do whatever you want to do within reason.

If it's just a temporary visit, then no question: Amber! And if a day trip to The Courts of Chaos could be arranged, that would top it off nicely. Why, simply because the first 5 books are my favorite novel of all time (it's really just one novel in 5 volumes, as far as I'm concerned.)


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## TWErvin2 (Aug 7, 2010)

*NogDog*,
If you were able to walk in shadows, then Amber would be an excellent choice, as you could technically visit any realm you desired. But if I could visit Amber for only a short time, I think Rebma would be where I'd prefer to visit.

But in direct answer to *Jyarrow*...As I read mostly fantasy and SF, and most of those stories involve great strife and upheaval, I am not sure they'd be great places to go to. However, Stephen R. Donaldson's the Land from the Thomas Covenant series would be a pretty spectacular place to visit. From Kevin's Watch to Andelain and more. So much potential beauty and discovery would await.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

TWErvin2 said:


> But in direct answer to *Jyarrow*...As I read mostly fantasy and SF, and most of those stories involve great strife and upheaval, I am not sure they'd be great places to go to. However, Stephen R. Donaldson's the Land from the Thomas Covenant series would be a pretty spectacular place to visit. From Kevin's Watch to Andelain and more. So much potential beauty and discovery would await.


As long as it's _after_ the SunBane's been sorted out! 

The cool thing is you could spend a long time visiting, and come back right after you leave.


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## Daniel Harvell (Jun 21, 2013)

Exploring the lands and realms of the Lord of the Rings would be amazing! I should probably beef up my archery and swordsmanship skills first, though.


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## Cindy Borgne (Mar 21, 2011)

I have to second Lord of the Rings. Would love to visit the shire and the Hobbits.


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## DK Mok (Jan 3, 2015)

I'd be tempted to visit Lothlorien, Rivendell, Mirkwood and Erebor from _The Lord of the Rings_. I love fantasy architecture, especially if it involves ancient forests and towering mountains.

One of the reasons I enjoyed the three _Hobbit_ films so much was because they were almost like a video tour of Middle Earth.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

I too would love to visit the Shire  (I'm about the size of a hobbit,unfortunately  ) as well as some other LOTR locations.

Also, this may not strictly qualify, but I just finished reading a novelization from a sci-fi TV show I used to watch and not only did I totally enjoy the book but now I feel the need to rewatch the show, which I haven't seen in a few years.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

The question reminds me of a joke I saw.

Narnia fans.... "Sure I would love to go there"

Lord of the Ring fans... "Sure I would love to go there"

Game of Thrones fans... "No, I'm good"


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## Guest (May 7, 2015)

geronl said:


> The question reminds me of a joke I saw.
> 
> Narnia fans.... "Sure I would love to go there"
> 
> ...


   

I was just thinking the same thing!

I'm thinking Faerun (Forgotten Realms), but only because I know the setting so well. I could make a living as a loremaster in Waterdeep.


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## loriann (Jun 20, 2014)

Paris 1920's from A Moveable Feast. It just sounded so wonderful. I got a kick out of Woody Allen's movie where the main character also loved that period and went back in time. When he met a beautiful woman from that era, she romanticized La Belle Epoch and wasn't impressed with Paris in the 20's at all.


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## V. L. Dreyer (May 11, 2015)

Oh, that's a hard question.  I don't think I'd really like to go back into the realistic past (because ew, diseases), or into fantasy realms (for much the same reason), but I'd love to visit futuristic, technologically-advanced universes.  I can't think of any books right now, but like the worlds from the Mass Effect games, or Deus Ex.  I'd love the opportunity to explore other worlds and cultures.


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## TurboChrge (May 26, 2015)

"Futuristic, technologically advanced universes" sounds good to me!! Most of what I read is about that type of stuff, but the problem is... theres usually something very wrong with these times and places, making for an interesting plot. If it's not war or violence then it's apocalypse or the end of the world or something close to that... Which is why it's hard for me to pick a specific book. I generally liked the time, place and setting of Final Days by Gary Gibson which I read recently. The cars suck up twigs and branches off the roads to create their own fuel and people use contact lenses as their phones/computers/Identification etc...

I also liked the book Nexus by Ramez Naam. I think if it wasn't for all the turmoil the world is in in that series I would most like to go there. It's the near future but people can take a pill that lets them communicate with each other through the mind, allowing you to even feel what others are feeling and experience what they have gone through throughout there lives. It eventually makes for a much more evolved form of human which, in the book, is referred to as post-human. Yes, I think that would have to be my first choice.


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## antsinner (Jun 1, 2015)

Tuf Voyaging. I just wanna hang out on the Ark and watch Tuf be amazing.
I think if you put too much thought into these things you're gonna end up a cynic. If you look too closely, you'll find that everything sucks.


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## SteveHarrison (Feb 1, 2015)

I'd like to go back to Sydney in 1788 when the British First Fleet arrived to settle the 'empty' continent to see the formation of this great city. I live only a couple of miles from where the fleet landed and I've always been fascinated how a very fragile and precarious settlement evolved into modern Australia.

In my novel, a 1795 convict ship is on the way to Sydney, but it gets swept through time into the present day. I would love to see what the crew and convicts missed on that voyage.


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

I'd like to see Trantor from the Foundation Trillogy. I'd like to see the technology. Middle Earth might be interesting, if not for the dragons and trolls and ring wraiths.


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## tjshortt (May 17, 2015)

I guess I'm a bit boring compared to everyone. There's no where I'd rather be than right here, right now.


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## Dennis E. Taylor (Feb 10, 2015)

Assuming I could do it in safety, I'd actually like to visit every hundred years or so from 10,000 BCE on forward, to see how people lived and how things changed.

Absent that leading assumption, fuggedaboudit. I'm very attached to my head and would like that to continue.


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## mary_r_woldering (Jun 3, 2015)

I always liked the long ago far away spin on mythology found in Evangeline Walton's Island of the Mighty series and any of the pulp-y 1930's fantasy novels by E. R. Burroughs (John Carter) and Robert E. Howard (Conan, Kull)


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## Istvan Szabo Ifj. (Dec 13, 2013)

I would visit the worlds of Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld, both written by Harry Harrison. Then The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Or the times of Horatio Hornblower, by C.S. Forester. And of course I would visit my own world, Crystal Shade.


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## Anne Southwark (Jun 7, 2015)

As far as the fantasy world, I'd go to Middle Earth, of course - danger or not!  But for historical fiction, I would really like to visit medieval Shrewsbury from the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters.  

I'd like to think that facing a risky adventure in those worlds, I could be as brave as any of the characters in it, and willing to take the risk.


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