Fan(dom) Favorite: Challenge Accepted

I grew up on number 4, Privet drive and in the Hogwarts castle, battling Voldemort alongside Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I solved mysteries with Nancy Drew. As a freshly-minted adult, I empathized with Bella Swan, always feeling out of sync as if I hadn't found my place in the world. I watched in awe in my early twenties as Clary Fray took up the hunt for her mother by becoming a Shadow Hunter.

I rooted for Percy Jackson as he made a place for himself amongst the children of other Greek Gods. I watched the machinations of Lestat's mind unfold with horror and fascination, finally old enough to understand so many of the nuances in the writing. I shifted to and from coyote form as I dealt with each supernatural challenge alongside Mercy Thompson.

Those are just some of the worlds from traditional, print books. I often read manga and watched anime as well, fighting evil by moonlight alongside Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts. I battled demons alongside Kagome in feudal Japan as she helped InuYasha to find shards of the sacred jewel. I caught cards with Sakura and tried on the outfits Tomoyo made. I trained alongside Vegeta and Goku as they prepared to battle Cell. I got lost in a virtual reality video game world where I fought for my life alongside Kirito and Azuna to make it back to reality.

But fantasy worlds don't occur solely in books or comics, and I also stood between humanity the forces of darkness along Buffy, Willow, and Xander. I fought demons with Prue, Piper, and Phoebe (and Paige) while trying to have a normal life. I practically lived at Sacred Heart with J.D., Turk, and Elliot while they went through residency. And I drank coffee and talked really fast with the Gilmore Girls.

It's impossible for me to choose one world in which I felt the most at home. Reading for me has always been a true, out-of-body experience. I owe that to my mother, aunt, and grandmother. My earliest memories are of them reading to me, giving me books, and feeding my love of reading and writing. Each new book was like a magical key, unlocking a new kingdom for me to lose myself in. I opened door after door with the turn of each page, plunging myself into the mind and heart of someone else, investing my very real feelings in their fictional existence.

I would guess many avid readers can identify with the feeling I'm about to describe. The untethered, drifting, chest-tightening feeling that rapidly overtakes euphoria upon reading the last sentences in the last book in a series. A sense of loss, and longing. The more I love a series, the stronger those feelings are, as I binge read my way through only to be hurtled back into the harsh reality of the real world, with no more story left to escape to in the world I was just ejected from.

The same feeling always accompanied the really good shows, and comics. When I enter a world, I invest in every aspect of it. I latch on to a character and empathize with their choices, emotions, experiences, and their reality. I rewatch the shows and reread the books and I learn something new or notice something I hadn't with each visit.

With all that in mind, choosing this one world was a choice of Heracles and his 12 labors proportions. I finally settled on the world of Harry Dresden.

I could write an entire essay on each and every world I've mentioned, and an analysis of all the characters, their motivations, and their story arc. And many of the worlds are very well written and expansive, which is ultimately why I chose the world of Dresden. There are 17 books in the series as I write this, and three books that aren't in the main series, but written in the same world with Harry's perspective.

The longer the series is, the easier it is to build a world organically, without shoving all its important details down the reader's throat. We've all read the stilted scene written to explain something the author needed to convey for the next parts of the story to make sense. Jim Butcher created Dresden's world subtly over time. New layers, new forms of magic, character growth, and rules are revealed with each new installment, and they flow together seamlessly. The world he has created is a world I can see without hesitation.

I can see the wee-folk, the sidhe and their regents, the wyldfae along with the summer and winter faeries. Their courts, the Nevernever where they live in a plane of existence that's aligned to ours, only crossing in certain places, the rules in which they are bound. It's all vivid in my mind with each encounter.

I can hear the bubbling of a potion, and giggle at the ingredients list. I see the copper and silver protective circles, and feel the draw of will to cast a spell. I ache with the drain of using too much magic, straining against the laws of physics in battle to come out on top, or die. I match wits with other wizards, and scrap my way to victory.

I am allured by the temptation of white court vampires even as I know what their touch can do. I despised the red court long before their ultimate conflict with Harry, disgusted by the manipulation and politics involved in using humans as bloodbags. I'm baffled by the black court vampires, and slightly terrified of them.

I'm fascinated by the rules and politics, each supernatural and even human faction having their own ruling bodies and councils. The intricacy and rules in which each species operates and governs their own, as well as collaborates with the rulers of other species is like a study in supernatural political science.

The Knights of the Cross, Karrin Murphy, the Order of the Blackened Denarius, and how they eventually all come together, merging into one storyline is enthralling. They begin as completely separate parts of Harry's world, but the beauty of it is eventually, everything can cross paths at any given time. Butcher weaves pieces of the world you didn't think would flow well together into intricate and captivating story lines.

Innumerable species, creatures, and combinations of alliances and rivalries pepper the pages of Harry's world. He is plunged repeatedly into those worlds, knowing some of the rules and picking the rest up as he goes, spinning through realms and conflicts - internal and external - sometimes gracefully, sometimes like a sledgehammer through a wall.

Butcher built this world to be tested and challenged, with rules Harry repeatedly violates as often as he follows them. But because it was created to withstand attack, the world as a whole doesn't suffer, but rather becomes stronger and evolves with each new case Harry finishes.

I can't begin to paint the picture of this fantastic place, even feeling like I know it well as a reader. It was carefully crafted and well-thought out. After describing the world, though, I realize it's not the small details, or how thoroughly built it is that makes it the best world to me.

For all his powers and intellect, this world forces Dresden to be human and relatable. He might be a wizard, and technically not "human" as the lore is written. But he has something in every installment of his story other stories sometimes lack - he faces a truly difficult choice. Those choices are realistic fiction - they are decisions he could actually encounter in the real world, tied up with a supernatural twist. And he doesn't always make the "right" choice. He is the hero, but some of his choices are questionable.

Harry Dresden is crafted in a way that allows you to relate to him. Because when faced with those scenarios and options, we all consider the easy road instead of the high road, or the choice that will save our loved over the lives of others. His options are the same that could reasonably be encountered in the real world, and it gives the story a level of realism some fiction doesn't have. This world gives voice to the light and dark within the human psyche, and explores what happens when we give even an inch to the darkness.

What happens when we compromise our morals for the power to save those we love and ultimately the world around us? How do we recover and redeem ourselves as people - and is that even possible? Those internal struggles (and more) are given life in Dresden's world. Unlike the more clean-cut worlds I grew up with, often present in YA fiction, I have learned and grown as a person from analyzing the world Jim Butcher created.

That isn't to say I haven't learned similar lessons from the other works I've read, or shows I've watched. But this world is somewhere I traveled after I was already grown. It's easy to pick out the lessons in YA fiction now, or find the underlying message in adult-targeted fiction. None, however, have repeatedly had me face my own inner self in the same way The Dresden Files has, in a world so immersible to me I can even smell the steak cooking at McAnally's and taste the bitter hops of his room temperature, home-brewed ale.

Is my choice the absolute best fictional world in existence? I would argue it's subjective; what is incredible and immersive for me might be off-putting to another reader. This is one of my absolute favorite worlds, and one I look forward to reading again. The beauty of books, though, is we have so many options to choose from. For now, I am off to find another world to explore.