In Other Lands stands out as a book about a British kid finding himself in a world of fantasy, but without falling into the troubling tropes of the genre.
The main character, Elliot, is a nuisance, a messy, upsetting and contrary teenage boy. He leaves his life in our world behind to live in the Borderlands, a classic fantasy land of mermaids, elves and unicorns, but he quickly finds out that even in fantasyland nothing is perfect.
There are a number of things that I love about this book. For one, it's funny. For the first couple chapters I was literally laughing out loud approximately once per page. Elliot's cultural references and sarcasm don't translate well to his new friends and there's a lot of hilarious culture shock from both sides. The book also shows a character in a fantasy setting who is resolutely pacifist. Elliot doesn't accept that swords and arrows are the best way to solve problems, an oddity in the genre and it also puts him at odds with the world he finds himself in. The thing that really stands out to me, however, is how anti-colonialist, or at least anti-empire, the book is. Elliot is constantly striving for peace between the various peoples of the Borderlands, struggling against leaders and generals who perpetuate a tradition of war.
And then there's the queer themes and the feminism themes (elves are fascinating) and the commentary on relationships and empathy and belonging and at this point I've run out of characters. Read this book, it's worth it!
