Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, contributors are tasked with listing their ten favourite books that have a destination title, or a title that contains the name of a place. This includes either fictional or non-fictional place names and serves as a rather interesting challenge for participating bloggers.
I had a fun pulling this latest list together, and it proved intriguing to dive through my various bookshelves to see what cool novels and comics I could find with the appropriate titles. It turns out that there were quite a few books I have read that featured destinations or places in their titles, and I managed to come up with quite a unique list. This post features an excellent blend of fictional and non-fictional place names, and I think they play off each other nicely. While this list is a little heavy on books from my favourite authors and universes, I am happy with how everything turned out, and it represents a very Unseen Library take on the topic. So let us see what made the cut.
Honourable Mentions:
A fun name for a great historical read.
The Moscow Offensive by Dale Brown
An outstanding thriller that pits Russians against the United States with advanced weaponry.
Rome’s Sacred Flame by Robert Fabbri
A complex and entertaining historical fiction book that covers an insane period of Roman history.
Warhammer 40,000: The Guns of Tanith by Dan Abnett
A particularly awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel. The place name, Tanith, refers to the home planet of the main regiment of the book, although as it’s been destroyed at this point and more of a concept, I decided to only include this as an honourable mention.
Top Ten List:
The Gates of Athens by Conn Iggulden
A great historical fiction book about the Persian wars in Greece and focuses on the turbulent politics of Athens during the period.
The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold
An intriguing fantasy debut from a talented Australian author. The title references the main setting for the series, Sunder City, a formerly great magical city laid low by catastrophe.
Warhammer 40,000: Siege of Vraks by Steve Lyons
I have a few Warhammer 40,000 novels in this list, as the franchise has a tendency to name books after war locations. The planet of Vraks identified in the title was a fortress world, and this book recounts a particularly brutal siege to claim it. An outstanding Warhammer 40,000 novel with a catchy title.
Hill 112 by Adrian Goldsworthy
A complex and fascinating historical fiction book from earlier this year. The titular Hill 112 was a vital World War II location in the early days of the Allies’ invasion of Normandy, and this book provides a powerful account of the battle to claim and hold it.
Usagi Yojimbo: Duel at Kitanoji by Stan Sakai
I had to feature an Usagi Yojimbo comic on this list, and the one I chose was the brilliant and moving volume, Duel at Kitanoji. Following the events that led up to a duel between two samurai masters that the protagonist deeply respects, this was a particularly impressive Usagi Yojimbo comic. The place, Kitanoji, referenced in the title, was a shrine where the two duellists chose to fight to the death, and I think that it helps to create a memorable and complex name for this volume.
The Secret Runners of New York by Mathew Reilly
An awesome young adult thriller that follows a group of students who follow secret pathways around New York to visit a future version of the city.
Warhammer 40,000: The Fall of Cadia by Robert Rath
Another epic Warhammer 40,000 novel with a place name in the title is The Fall of Cadia by Robert Rath. Recounting a major lore event in the Warhammer 40,000 canon, this book follows the last day of the iconic Warhammer world of Cadia as it faces its doom during the 13th Black Crusade. A particularly impressive and captivating read, this was a very easy choice to include on this list.
Traitors of Rome by Simon Scarrow
There were actually a few books in Simon Scarrow’s long-running Eagles of the Empire historical fiction series that featured Rome in the title, including the next, upcoming entry in the series, Revenge of Rome. However, for the moment I have included the excellent novel, Traitors of Rome, which proved to be an exciting and intense addition to the series.
A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist
A key book in Raymond E. Feist’s original Riftwar Cycle trilogy, this title refers to the major battle of the book that sees an epic confrontation at the town of Sethanon.
Star Wars: Darth Vader: The Shu-Torun War by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca
The final entry on this list is the very cool Star Wars comic, The Shu-Torun War. Part of an extremely awesome series that focused on the iconic character of Darth Vader, The Shu-Torun War was a strong entry in the series that recounts Vader’s actions in brutally supressing a rebellion on the vital planet of Shu-Torun. An impressive comic that takes the reader on a dark adventure, this was a fantastic addition to this list that I was glad I could include.
That’s my latest list. As you can see, there are some great books out there that feature titles with destinations included within. I like the cool range of books and locations I picked out in the above list and proved to be a lot of fun to pull it together. All the above books are fantastic reads as well, and you can have an amazing time getting through them. In the meantime, let me know what your favourite books with destinations in the titles are in the comments below.
The Unseen Library 
I came so close to including A Darkness at Sethanon in my list this week! It is, I confess, the only book on your list that I have read, but I loved it, and read it several times.
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Nice variety of destinations here! Great list.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Rome has been a popular pick this week.
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Great list! I haven’t read any of these but The Last Smile in Sunder City looks amazing 🙂
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairy.blogspot.com/2024/11/top-ten-tuesday-destination-titles.html
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