Discover Top Posts Tagged with #erec rex

Have you read Erec Rex: The Dragon's Eye by Kaza Kingsley (2006)?

yes

I didn't finish it

I've never heard of it

Voting ended onJul 3, 2024

#erec rex #kaza kingsley #fantasy #young adult #book poll #have you read this book poll #polls #requested

Everyone saying their childhood book crushes are Percy Jackson and Draco Malfoy... Please I was back there in love with Erec Rex

#books #Erec rex #please tell me im not alone im going to cry #i was in love with the cover art of him pls

I post once roughly every 4 years when periodically spiral back into the series expect a potential art dump mmmmmaaaaYhaps

#halfway through rereading the series again w my boyfriend rn #we’re on the third book rn #oouuuauaaagghhhh #hyperfixation moment #erec rex

A new installment! I never notice how much I’ve changed and evolved until I’ve made a direct comparison and I’m super happy with the progression. Here we have in descending order: 2020, 2018, 2015, and 2011. Nearly a decade later and I’m a little messed up about it.

Another late night ramble about some books I read when I was a kid, but I just remembered yet again something that stuck with me from my middle school years, and has bothered me ever since.

The Erec Rex series was another one of those young fantasy novel series that sadly fell to the wayside in the wake of the Harry Potter franchise success. I never finished it, but the 3-4 books I did read were nearly up there with Fablehaven. If you haven’t read my much older post gushing on why Fablehaven is so good, then here’s context for why I say this - in terms of well-written fantasy, in character, setting, creativity, and story, I consider Fablehaven to be my #1. Nothing has every topped Fablehaven for me in terms of world development, original takes on old concepts, and interesting characters, not to mention very well-written villains. And yes, I have read Harry Potter, all 7 books. I have read Dragonriders of Pern. I have read Chronicles of Narnia. I have read Artemis Fowl. I have read Dealing with Dragons. I read so many fantasy books in middle and high school, guys.

And nothing. Nothing. Has ever topped the Fablehaven books for me.

Erec Rex came pretty close to matching them. The series was just a tiny bit too off-the-wall at times, for me to call it a perfect match to Fablehaven. Maybe it was that I was getting older, and my sense of humor was maturing beyond the point where goofy dialogue and very on-the-nose puns didn’t tickle my funny bone quite so much anymore (though that ultimately came full-circle huhuhu). Regardless, this didn’t make the Erec Rex series a bad one, just a different kind of enjoyable.

However, one thing from the series has always stuck with me as being... surprisingly fucked up, in concept. And in order to understand this, you need to know that in the Erec Rex series, magic exists, but is ‘closed off’ to people who live on the surface world, while people who live in the world’s secret underground civilization DO have access to it. Anyone born of magical blood - usually exclusive to those born in the civilization below ground - will have a power of some variety, but it’s like My Hero Academia levels of versatility. You can have the ability to solve any math problem, or you can control the essence of magic itself, or you can turn into an animal, and everything you can imagine in between. Naturally, this means some people will have abilities more conventionally useful, or accepted socially, than others.

Of all the unique abilities presented in the books, the one I always remember the most doesn’t even belong to a main character, or even a side character. He is quite literally mentioned in the background, and shows up in one scene in the very first book, then never mentioned again as far as I’ve read. I don’t even remember his name, he’s written as that much of a conceptual throw-away.

And his power?

It’s the ability to have any wish he makes be granted on the spot.

He’s basically god. Timmy Turner without a Da Rulez book breathing down his spine. And he’s a throwaway character.

For the occasional goofy dialogue and heavy-handed puns, this one character’s existence - and the way the other characters talk about him - hit me pretty hard. This character (let’s call him ‘Jacob’ for now), is an extremely popular athlete in this universe. He’s the equivalent of a fantasy basketball star, and it kind of makes sense, right? Of course a kid born with the ability to have anything he wished would eventually become an extremely successful and well-liked sports star or something of the like. Even if the book explains the caveat that he’s forbidden from cheating in the game by just wishing he’ll win, he’s still allowed within the game’s boundaries to wish for subtle things to go his way, like someone tripping at the wrong time, or his pass to bounce in just the right way that it reaches a teammate. And from how the fans of the fantasy game talk about Jacob, he IS well-liked. He has fans, and jerseys, and action figures, the whole nine yards.

But the one time he’s discussed seriously in the novel, a majority of the conversation isn’t about how good of an athlete Jacob is - it’s actually mostly about his wife. Jacob (of course) marries the girl of his dreams, and their relationship is going steady and strong.

Yet the bystanders speak of her with pity. They talk about how her physical appearance is always changing - every time they see her, her mouth gets smaller, her hair changes, her eyes get bigger, she becomes kinder and more affectionate, etc. etc. Constantly subject to change by her husband’s wishes, and completely okay with it, because Jacob gets everything he wishes for.

I don’t know, it just- really struck me, how the one character that seems to have the most world-breakingly powerful ability in the entire series is just... someone to be pitied, along with their close friends and family who are affected the most by it. Because how can you know what you really want, when you always get whatever you ask for without challenge? It’s not a miracle, but a sad existence, and ultimately leaves no impact or legacy whatsoever. The book treats it as such, and I can wholly respect that.

#long post #writing #writeblr #Erec Rex #ramble #and now I sleep

someone ,,,, please talk to me about erec rex ,,

#i am desperate #or trollhunters #or jack blank #anythiNG PLEASE #erec rex #jack blank #trollhunters #txt

this fandom isn’t real but have some fan art i pulled DIRECTLY out of my ass

#erec rex #i hdhdhgfb hate myself