... and guide you to Charlie Jane Anders' (author of All The Birds in the Sky) #5 of her "10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break"...
5) No portal fantasy
The “portal fantasy” is a mainstay in both science fiction and fantasy, even though it’s mostly used in the latter. (You could argue that Hitchhiker’s Guide is a “portal fantasy.”) In this type of book, someone from our world discovers a pathway to another world, where he or she is our relatable everyhuman explorer, and we discover this new world through his or her eyes. It’s a tried and true notion, and Lev Grossman gets a lot of mileage out of it in The Magicians — both Brakebills and Fillory, in different ways, are strange worlds that Quentin visits from the “real” world, and there’s a lot of portaling. But we’ve heard many people say that “portal fantasy” is over, and so is the neophyte who learns about the magical world over the course of a book. Now, everybody wants stories where the main character is already steeped in the magical (or science-fictional) world as the story begins.
(I kept Charlie Jane Anders' link for reference)
I totally support breaking this "rule". Please open new doors, portals or whatever else you can open to help me enter new worlds! I want them ALL. I'm actually convinced that's where I went as a child when I got totally unresponsive as has been documented by a score of caretakers and family members. Isn't this what books are about? Escaping into worlds of magic that remove us from daily live, responsibility and ... news? I go from one room to another through a door (usually), why not let me continue entering another world through a portal of whatever kind? The only "portal fantasy" I find somewhat annoying if the only thing the protagonist does is try to get back. Like, really? You enter a new world (probably because he was depressed, lonely, or got something wrong) and all he wants is to go back? But if we get to explore and make the most out of it:
GET ME THERE!
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