6 Fantasy Worlds We’d Move to In a Heartbeat

Our most recent obsession explores what happens to those who get jettisoned back to this world after finding happiness in another. Seanan McGuire’s forthcoming Every Heart a Doorway, available in April, takes place at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, where every pupil found a door to another world and, for whatever reason, has been cruelly forced back into this one. The places these children wound up run the gamut. Some were High Nonsense, and they’re returned speaking in rhymes and riddles. Others were Underworlds, where the line between wickedness and virtue is blurry.
What’s the same for each student is an innate desire to return; the doors they stepped through led them to a new “home,” perfectly suited to some specific aspect of their personalities. (Personally, we’d pick one of the Fairy Lands with cotton candy trees over hobnobbing with the Lord of the Dead, but that’s just us.)
Regardless, it got us thinking about what fantasy worlds we’d visit on a one-way ticket. This is utterly distinct from our “favorite” fantasy realms, because Westeros surely isn’t a place you’d like to move if you desire to live in comfort—or to live at all. No, we’re thinking more of a weekend on Risa than frequent encounters with Vogons. We want somewhere unique, full of wonder, predominantly pleasant, and fairly survivable. Here’s our short list.

Hobbiton (The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien)
Unless Gandalf is in town, the worst thing that typically happens in Hobbiton is someone running out of jam—or the Sackville-Bagginses are visiting (which may be why you’ve run out of jam). If you’re all about that bed-and-breakfast life, and don’t mind heaping doses of petty gossip, then this is your bag.

Discworld (Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett)
Pretty much the biggest selling point for Discworld residency, aside from sausages inna bun and encounters with Death, is the crime. The Thieves’ Guild has two convenient options: for the wealthy, pay an annual premium that allows you to arrange a convenient date to be reasonably robbed by a Guild member in the comfort of your own home. For those unable to afford the premium, you’ll be robbed either on the streets, at work, or in your home, but you’ll never be injured, and you’ll be provided a receipt that exempts you from any further robbery for the year. These are professionals after all.

Night Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor)
Unless you are a Night Vale Radio station intern—or a frequent patron of the library—your chances of survival in everyone’s favorite desert town are…decent, anyway. The town’s got a known history of portals to other worlds, so it shouldn’t be hard to find your way, circumventing the infamously unreliable roads. From there, it’s all Fireperson Appreciation Parades and Patsy Cline seances.

London Below (Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman)
The Floating Market has to be one of the coolest sensory experiences in fantasy fiction. The sights, sounds, and smells of people (using this term loosely) trading common garbage and rare magical trinkets at a rotating list of London’s biggest tourist destinations—Harrods and Westminster Abbey among them—seem mesmerizing. Meanwhile, the Earl’s Court is an Amtrak loony bin. Basically, this is Wonderland for urbanites: all the insanity, but with modern conveniences.

The Craft World (Craft Sequence series, by Max Gladstone)
The beauty of Gladstone’s universe is multilayered, mostly because the characters that populate it are so wonderfully diverse and complex. Life after the God Wars is far from perfect, sure. But it’s a place where necromancers work in law firms and mortals wield the power of gods. As far as fantasy goes, the legal wrangling and political shapeshifting are incredibly reasonable problem-solving techniques when compared with the genre’s typical bizarre supernatural issues. That there are so many badass intellectual women in positions of power makes it all the more tempting as a permanent relocation spot.

Watford (Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell)
Hogwarts or Watford? It’s a bit of a toss-up. They’re both appealing locales full of wonder and considerate coups timed to the academic calendar. But to be a little rebellious, let’s say Rainbow Rowell’s Hogwarts homage is the destination of choice. Why? Everyone at Watford is a little more self-aware and just a little more agitated about the all the villains constantly on their tails—probably a benefit from having read though the Harry Potter series.
What fantasy world would you move to?