“Top 5 Wednesday” is a weekly meme currently hosted on Goodreads by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes, where you list your top 5 for the week’s chosen topic. This weeks theme is: Ideal Mash-Ups.
I was debating whether or not to participate in this one because I usually dislike blurbs that go, “Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games!” or “The love child of Game of Thrones and Twilight!” because I think they’re easy ways of saying something without really saying anything.
Then I started randomly mashing stories together in my head and ended up getting attached to a lot of the combinations. And now I’ve made myself sad because I would REALLY love to read some of these and it kills me that they don’t exist (yet). Or maybe they do. Yell at me in the comments if you know any books that are similar to the following (a few of these might seem ridiculous, but bear with me here):
1. Brooklyn 99 meets The Lord of the Rings
This popped into my head out of nowhere and now I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s not even a hypothetical mashup, really. I just want a comical fantasy series featuring the law enforcement of Shire and their cleanup of the various shenanigans the local Hobbits get into. Oh, and clever and insightful social commentary about Middle Earth culture would be nice too.
2. Band of Brothers meets Wind in the Willows
So basically a panoramic drama featuring two armies of animals at war, with heartpounding action and tearjerking character interactions. We’re long due for a new Redwall-esque series and reading The Builders by Daniel Polansky only fueled my appetite for gritty stories about anthropomorphic animals.
3. Sailor Moon meets Dark Souls
Don’t look at me like that. Yes, this is a mashup of two complete opposites. Sailor Moon is a bright, cheerful story about magical school girls and romance and friendship defeating all evils. And Dark Souls is, uh…not that. The land you traverse in the game is desolate and unforgiving; the enemies you face range from eerie yet captivating to HOLY SHIT GET ME OUTTA HERE; the allies you meet are lost between apathy and disorientation.
With anime, I guess the closest is Madoka Magica. But I want this story to be told in a secondary fantasy world. I want a group of girls who are chosen, by prophecy or fate or whatever, to wield great magical powers and protect the world from monsters, both within and without. I want the grimdark alongside the themes of hope and friendship.
4. Mass Effect meets Ocean’s Eleven
I am dying for a fun scifi story about a heist set across a series of planets and galaxy not like our own. And if it also explores interesting, complex relationships between the heisters? Even better.
(Someone actually made a parody mashup poster of ME and Ocean’s Eleven, and it’s fantastic: https://pen-gwyn.deviantart.com/art/ME2-Shepard-s-Eleven-Poster-168557919)
5. America’s Got Talent meets Mad Max
An apocalyptic wasteland society that has an annual talent show of sorts in which the winner is awarded some mysterious, but highly coveted, prize. So a little like the Hunger Games, but with less murder and more interpretive dancing and magic tricks performed with your radioactive pet mongoose.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go write some hobbit fanfic.
Kind of sad at how everyone done a better than I did.
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Brooklyn 99 with anything would be a hit and worth watching 🙂 And that last one is kinda hilarious.
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That last one was meant to be grimdark but I guess my brain had other ideas. 🙂 And yes, B99 would make anything great!
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I have a dark sense of humor, so it can be grimdark and still be funny.
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“I just want a comical fantasy series featuring the law enforcement of Shire and their cleanup of the various shenanigans the local Hobbits get into. Oh, and clever and insightful social commentary about Middle Earth culture would be nice too.”
That’s a great idea! There are some detective stories in secondary fantasy worlds (Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy series comes to mind) but cleary we need more. 🙂
I also love heist stories and I’d like more of them is SFF.
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Oh wow, Lord Darcy was released in the 70’s. We definitely do need some new stories in that subgenre! And there’s a new fantasy heist book (The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn) coming out in May that I’m really looking forward to, so crossing fingers that it’s a good one!
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I’d probably give anything a try that is potentially like 99 and add fantasy??? Heck yes.
I agree with you, how I don’t always like when book blurbs say a book is like ___ and ____. I feel like my hopes always soar and then die because rarely does the finish product feel like the original two books.
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B99 is life!! And yeah, I’ve been burned by those blurbs way too many times. Nowadays my response is usually, “Uh huh, sure. Not today, Satan.”
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Hello I am totally here for Sailor Moon & Dark Souls mash-up. Please someone create this immediately.
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It crushes me that it doesn’t exist. 😭
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I love this list! Now I need to know what crimes go on behind the idyllic facade and manicured lawns of the Shire 😂
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There has got to be SOMETHING nefarious going on behind the scenes! 😀 It can’t be all parties and smoking pipe-weeds!
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I love the idea of the law enforcement in the shire. That would be a total hoot. Some of the other ones were pretty good too.
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Yeah, I mean SOMEONE has to keep the hobbits in order, right? 🙂
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Lol I am all for Sailor Moon meets Dark Souls. I also though that sounded closest to Madoka Magika before I scrolled down.
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IKR?? This topic has made me want to write all sorts of fanfics…
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Lol this topic has made me want to READ all sorts of fanfics ><!
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So creative! Love your last one, I could see that working and it would be a lot of fun.
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Thank you! The last one was super last minute but it turned out to be one of my favourite ones! 😀
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I would kill for a Mass Effect meets Ocean’s Eleven mashup!
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I just can’t believe there aren’t more (any?) stories about heists in space!
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Oh god, I can just imagine the Brooklyn 99 crew in The Shire and beyond. I wish this could actually happen!
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OMG, i looove Mass Effect. That combo would work wonders 😀
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I know! I got super excited when the idea popped into my head!
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