I had a lot of fun with Daughter, being able to root everything in a real place, and describe it, and add a layer to it. So in a way, creating fantasy from scratch is less intimidating because you’re not going to make a mistake someone can call you on.īut at the same time there’s so much invention, it’s really a lot of work. Even if I were writing about high school now, I would find that a challenging subject because I’d have to research it to make it real. I have a certain level of intimidation about doing realism unless it’s realism that happens to be something that I in my ordinary life have come to know about. In Daughter of Smoke and Bone, you add a magical layer to a real city, whereas in Strange the Dreamer, you create a fictional city. It felt like the more I could read, the less I’d hold onto. They were making stuff up, and it was all faulty “science.” It’s just so nuts, sort of a fusion of spirituality and pseudo-science. It was really hard to get my mind around, and I came to the conclusion that the reason for that was that it totally didn’t make sense. I went on a tangent in order to create a system that would work for this book, because there are some plot elements that hinge on that.

One thing I did find myself reading about for Strange the Dreamer was alchemy. Something about that is just so exciting to me.ĭo you do much research when you’re writing a book? It’s that idea of seeing an island from a ship and having no idea what’s there or crossing a desert and having no idea what’s on the other side. There’s just something so mystical and appealing about the idea of seeing something that has never been seen by outsiders before. There are possibly lost cities that will still be discovered, but I think that belongs to a time before everything we’ve known. No one in our lifetime will really get to have that experience of discovering a new place. I love the idea of exploration and that sort of thing.

Why do you think they remain an enduring point of fascination? Taylor got on the phone with Inverse to discuss the continued allure of mythical cities, her new book, and more.įictional cities are a repeated aspect of your work. She is the author of the bestselling Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy and her new novel, Strange the Dreamer. Laini Taylor makes a living building fictional cities filled with gods and monsters.

Strange the dreamer by laini taylor