Saddle up and ride your pony (or dinosaur)
25 March 2015
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Fantasy Review Barn, Favourite steeds, Tough Travelling
This week over at the Fantasy Review Barn Nathan is once again taking us Tough Travellings. This week’s topic
BELOVED MOUNTS
A combination of suggestions from several people, as it seems many want to talk about the various animals that people in fantasyland ride. So be they horse, bear, or other let’s talk about favorite rides.
Dragons – The Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist. Contained Dragon Lords who rode on the back of dragons. Also The Dragonflight by Ann McCaffrey – a strange mix of sci fi and fantasy.
Horses – not just any horses though! Sandseed horses from the Avibian plains that can travel at great speed. Brought to us by Maria Snyder’s study books. Kelpies from the Sithe world beyond the veil created by Gillian Philips in her Rebel Angels series. Dangerous beasts, carniverous and difficult to tame.
Dinosaurs – well, dinosaur really as I have only one – Sue, a zombiefied t-rex ridden by Harry Dresden in Jim Butcher’s Dead Beat.
Polar Bear – Iorek from Philip Pullman’s Dark Trilogy series. This may be a bit of a cheat as you wouldn’t really cal Lorek anybody’s ‘mount’ – not if you wanted to stay alive. However he does consent to Lyra being carried on his back so I’m having it!
Bats – a huge, talking bat called Rii who carries Eric, from Rebecca Levine’s Smiler’s Fair.
Hon Mentions:
Lotr – Shadowfax, Great Eagles, Fell Beasts (used as flying steeds by the Nazgul), huge crazy elephant looking beasties.
Harry Potter – Buckbeak, a Hippogriff
Ohh, and this – not sure what it’s called but I’d like to ride one:
Books and travelling with Lynn 
zombie T-Rex? I think I know why I have not read more Dresden. Starting to turn into Simon RR Green it appears.
Haha, no, that was only a very minor scene – I won’t elaborate though!! :D:D:D
Lynn
The creature in question is a Tantan. It’s from The Empire Strikes Back and is used for patrol on the ice planet of Hoth as well as a way to keep Luke from freezing to death.
Yes, I know far too much silly trivia for my own good.
Yeah, I well remember the scene with Luke and the dead critter – I just couldn’t remember what the animal was called.
No amount of trivia can ever to be much.
Lynn 😀
I always find it interesting what my brain can keep in its knowledge bank and what it dismisses. Name of the creature from Empire Strikes Back, check. Remembering to do something important…not so much.
Haha love it!
😀
Dragons, Dinosaurs AND Tauntauns? Congratulations, you win the internet. 🙂
Haha, so good that everybody else knows what a Tauntaun is – me, no idea and yet it was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of this post.
Lynn 😀
Zombie T-Rex? Why have I not read this series yet??? Haha, great call with Rii the bat!
Rii was great. I mean, I’m not sure I’d like to meet a huge ass talking bat – unless I knew it was friendly first, maybe then.
The Jim Butcher Dresden Files are pretty good so far. I’ve not caught up yet though.
Lynn 😀
Dinosaurs! I think you’re the only one to have those 😀 And the tauntaun! You know, I think that’s the one that gets killed and ripped open so Luke can hide inside and keep from freezing (EWW).
Ahh I remembered another book featuring bats – it’s Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins! They have giant bats, cockroaches and rats there – so cool 🙂
Oh my God – giant bats, cockroaches and rats! Wow, just wow. Sign me up.
Yeah, the tauntaun was definitely ripped up and used to keep Luke warm – yuk!
Lynn 😀
Since I read only the first book in the Dresden series, I didn’t know about the zombified dinosaur, but now I’m beyond curious!!! 😉
haha, so much creativity in this series. The zombie dinosaur has a minor role but it was pretty good fun.
Lynn 😀
You’re the only one so far with a dinosaur! As for what Luke is riding in that photo, it’s a Tauntaun – and you really wouldn’t want to ride one; they stink. 😉
I still want to ride one – stinky or not – I’ll get a peg for my nose. There must be some more dinosaurs out there – we all need to scour the fantasy world to find another dinosaur steed. We. Can. Do. This.
Lynn 😀
Great choices. I love Iorek and I was also thinking of Shadowfax. I would also have to add Sam’s pony Bill from The Lord of the Rings although I don’t think he was rode much 🙂
Iorek was great wasn’t he – I think he was my favourite.
Lynn 😀
Love the Star Wars reference! I forgot all about the dragonriders in Feist’s series. Not sure how I let them slip my mind.
You know – I only had Feist on my mind because he as on somebody else’s list either last week or the week before – it’s been a while since I read the first three so I needed a reminder to get them back on my radar.
Lynn 😀
That is a tauntaun – “and I thought they smelled bad on the OUTSIDE!” You remember that scene? One day I’m going to have to buy my kid one of these tauntaun sleeping bags: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/bb2e/
By the way, one of my picks is a Star Wars mount too! *grin* 😀
Yay for Star Wars – may the force be with us!
A tauntaun!!! That makes me so happy.
Though, of course, things don’t end so well for that particular tauntaun…
Yep, I didn’t know it as a tauntaun – but I totally love it too.
This is of course true – although, without him Luke would have died and the dark forces would have ruled supreme!
Lynn 😀
Thank you, unnamed tauntaun that saved the universe.
Hehe!
Lynn 😀
We’re in complete about the armoured bears and how unlikely it is that they’d let anyone call them mounts…but they’re cool so we included them. 😉 Oh my god, the later books in the Dresden Files have dinosaurs?! I NEED to get caught up on that series!
Iorek is such a great character. I was kind of hoping you’d have him on your list too.
The Dresden Files – well, I can’t deny that the dinosaur has a very minor role – but it is very enjoyable.
Lynn 😀
I am not a fan of Jim Butcher but a zombie T-Rex sounds pretty amazing!! Impressed with your list this week, you got all the animals 😛
Thanks. TBH I didn’t really enjoy the first Dresden book but I just decided to carry on – I’m nowhere near the end yet so I’ll see how I get on.
Lynn 😀
I’d LOVE to ride a bat – that sounds super cool and probably pretty dizzying:). That’s definitely peaked my interest for that book!
I liked Smiler’s Fair – it was a fairly unique read and I loved the giant talking bat.
Lynn 😀
The Star Wars pick was a Tauntaun… though I’m not sure if you’d really want to ride one, since they smell badly, especially when you cut into their flesh with a light saber…
Your bat choice reminds me of the talking bats from “Gregor, the Overland”, also called fliers, that I totally forgot to include in my list… even though I can excuse that with the fact that i already had them as pets…
Mmm, Gregor the Overland – intriguing. Did you just say you have bats as pets??
I would still ride a tauntaun – you’d just have to, smell or not!
Lynn 😀
Uhm, actually I meant, that I wrote about the Flier in Tough Travels with pets and now I hate myself, because the Fliers are much more than pets and would much better fit too “Beloved Mounts. But it’s too late…
Ahh, I see! I can be a bit dense sometimes and need things explaining!
Lynn 😀