Layered Worlds; or, Things I Love About Worldbuilding

So for the last two weeks, I’ve immersed myself in the world of Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series. And it has once again reminded me of something I love in fantasy and scifi worlds: history. Layers.

I discovered the Green Rider series in sixth grade. It wasn’t a series at that point. Now, almost twenty years later, the sixth book just recently released.

You know what that means? Marathon re-read.

This re-read has probably occupied most of my waking hours. I still don’t quite know how I accomplished any prep work for the audition last weekend. (I finally bit the bullet and attended open auditions for a professional theatre – I’m even mostly happy with how I did! Because of course that’s what you do to celebrate week 17 of pregnancy . . . )

Point is: I love reading worlds with rich layers of history and culture. I see it more clearly now that I’m reading them all together. Folklore ties to real people – some of whom still live – and real events whose effects are still felt. Cultures and factions interact with the weight of history behind them.

But the sense of that history itself is what I love most. Ruins of ancient times, relics of peoples lost even to myth, all interconnected and still affecting the modern day of the story.

I aspire to one day craft a world like that. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the hell out of the one Kristen Britain created.

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