Today is Wednesday!
In addition to it being Pot Pie day at KFC, it is also Top Five Wednesday!

This week's topic is:  Top 5 fictional cities

hmmm
Okay, well I got my Top 4...the 5th one, well I'll explain it when I get there.

At Number One, we have: Tai-tastigon the Holy city from P.C. Hodgell's "God Stalk". The first book in the Chronicles of the Kencyrath series.

This is the place where we meet our main character Jame. She has amnesia and is wandering the streets on the day that the spirits are walking the town. Luckily she is brought into an inn, and our adventure begins.

Tai-tastigon was a very interesting city, an inspiration for my own city/series which I am still working on. The Cloudies who live above everything and laugh at the the landed's efforts. The Temple district, full of temples to all sorts of gods. And the Thieves Guild.
I loved this place. I loved all the trouble and adventures Jame got into here. I would love to be able to enter into the book, into that world, and go to the market places. Wander around the streets, and hopefully not get robbed blind.

Number Two: Rhiminee the capital city from Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series

This is the base of operations for Seregil a man of many talents, most of those best performed in the dark with dark clothes on. In other words he's a thief. And a bard, and related the the royal family. Seregil's companion in his adventures is a young man named Alec. It is through Alec's eyes that we see Rhiminee and explore the different sections for the first time. In one rather nice chapter, Mrs. Flewelling  has Alec ride around the city through the different gates/sections. We, as readers, get to be educated on the different sections. It is actually quite a clever way of showing us where we will be conducting our adventures.

Rhiminee is also another city that I would love to be a citizen of. To join the salons, and be at the markets, and worship at the temples. To see or have my future read by an oracle. To visit the Oreska- the citadel of the wizards.  Maybe to be taken on as an apprentice? :D

Number Three:  Constantinople from Judith Tarr's "The Golden Horn" part two of the Hound and the Falcon series.

I know that Constantinople is a real place, but it carries a aura of mystery and mysticism. Hence it has a special place in fantasy fiction writing and as a setting in romance novels, and historical fiction. Since the current writers (at least the ones I read) have never been there in the time periods of which they write it, I consider it a fictional city. hee hee hee.

The Constantinople of Judith Tarr's world may be in a sense the most realistic, since she is a student of history. Set in A.D. 1203 at the onset of the conquest of the city there is a cloud that hangs over the city, and the unfolding action involving our main character of Alfred and his companion Thea. However Constantinople is a very rich city, and even as it sits at the edge of being plundered and pillaged, it is the Golden City of legend.  Judith Tarr brings such life and vibrancy to the city that it makes for an exceptional setting for something fantastical.

Number Four:  Actually this is kind of two in one. First is Ruatha Hold and Second is Benden Weyr of Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonflight" novel.

What a cool concept! A dragon rider...and IT MADE SENSE! Telepathic dragons which helped their chosen riders fight "Thread" from the alien red star. Upon reading this book for the first time as a teenager, it was so cool and fulfilled so many dreams of mine. I wanted to be chosen as a dragon rider, although I am deathly afraid of heights and would probably never be able to ride on one for fear of falling off. *laughs*

Still this world was very rich and teeming with life. The histories, the songs, the medieval-ness of the world and yet, always a secret somewhere in the depths of their history that they had lost eons ago.
Ruatha Hold, when we first go there is cold and overrun; a shell of what it used to be.  However as Pern turns, it slowly begins to regain the beauty and respect it used to have 400 years ago. It is a vivacious medieval hold and doesn't seem like a bad place to visit...AFTER the Lord Fax has been dispatched.

Benden Weyr is where most of our action takes place. Where our Weyr leader resides and of course the dragons. We live in the rocky, mountainous, bowl that is the Weyr. With it's ledges for the sunning dragons, the "pastures" for the cattle, and it's pond/lake for the dragons to bathe in. It was such a different, yet interesting place. A hard life for a woman who wasn't a dragon rider, but probably more interesting than one in a hold.

Number Five: Now, most of my books are held in grey containers outside. Many of the fantasy and science fiction ones are out there, and I couldn't remember titles, lands, or planets. So suffice it to say, this one goes to those futuristic cities with their computers who talk to you. Where you can just plug yourself into the system and be apart of all that knowledge and technology.

If it wasn't for the fact that I HAVE to go outside, I think I would love to be plugged into my computer 24/7. Might be a strange way to live, and my mind might deteriorate faster and I may die, but what a way to go. So to futuristic cities on far flung planets with space ships, space docks, and space pirates I want to go there and live in your cities. :D

Those are my Top 5 Fictional Cities, what are yours?