Terry Goodkind

Derivative fantasy heavily ripped off from Robert Jordan, misogynist self-insert male protagonist, and the author was hugely derisive towards the idea his books were “fantasy” and not “literature.”

I think my two favorites were A Horse and His Boy and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They both made the world containing Narnia so much bigger. There was so much wonder, terror, and weirdness in VotDT

I remember reading Tricia Belden and the Mysterious Code when I was around 8. I loved the idea of secret codes, languages, and ciphers. Also, the world of the 1950s was just as magical, weird, and fantastical as an actual imaginary world.

I read the first three books at age 12, too! They really stuck in my head, and when we moved abroad for three years, I kept thinking about them, so reread them again when we moved back. The magic-with-hard-science-explanation, the stakes, and the ambivalence of the Lone Power…. The series is so good!

I heard Diane Diane was going through so hard financial times, so it might be a good time to but copies of her books to give for Christmas