The Places You Go Trivia Quiz

Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Xanadu

The story is that Coleridge wrote his poem "Kubla Khan" in 1797 following a dream he had under the influence of opium. It was almost twenty years after the writing of the unfinished poem that Coleridge published it at the urging of Lord Byron.

Answer: Atlantis

First mentioned in the works of Plato, the story of Atlantis grew through countless other references and retellings into a huge myth representing the ideal society and the fortunes and frailties of mankind. It is such a powerful myth that people even to this day are still searching for the "lost continent."

Answer: Shangri-La

Shangri-La is the location of James Hilton's 1933 novel, "Lost Horizon." It represents a sort of Garden of Eden hidden from the troubles and turmoils of the modern world. The name could be based on the place in Tibetan Buddhist tradition called Shambala, a realm of harmony between man and nature.

Answer: Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Discworld is a flat world, supported by four elephants which are standing, in turn, on a huge turtle called the Great A'Tuin. The fortieth novel in the series was published in 2013. The series is perhaps best known for its stable of characters, including the wizard Rincewind, three witches (Esmerelda Weatherwax, Gytha Ogg, and Magrat Garlick), the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, and Death (who only speaks in capital letters).

The series is often divided into sets of novels grouped by the main characters.

Answer: Pellucidar

Barsoom is the Martian name for Mars in Burroughs' stories of John Carter of Mars. Amtor is Venus in his series of adventures of Carson Napier of Venus. Mordor is in Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Answer: The Shire

Located in the northwestern reaches of Middle Earth, within the Kingdom of Arnor and the region of Eriador, The Shire is an out-of-the way land inhabited only by Hobbits. Geographically, The Shire is very similar to England, especially in terms of agriculture, climate, and culture.

Answer: Lilliput

Lilliput is an island found in "Gulliver's Travels," a satire written in 1726 by Irishman Jonathan Swift. In this classic work, Gulliver also finds himself in other places such as Brobdingnag, an island inhabited by giants, Laputa, a flying island, Glubbgubdrib, and Luggnagg, inhabited by immortals called struldbrugs.

Answer: Westeros

Westeros is the continent on which most of the action of George R. R. Martin's series "A Song of Ice and Fire" takes place. A native of New Jersey and former college professor of English and journalism in Iowa, Martin was inspired to pen his epic fantasy series by English history's Wars of the Roses, as well as Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe."

Answer: Arrakis

Frank Herbert's "Dune" won the 1966 Hugo Award and the first Nebula Award given in the novel category. It is the story of the attempt by the Atreides family to control the planet of Arrakis against the powers of an intergalactic empire. One cannot help but think of the "Star Wars" films as a comparison.

Answer: Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" is a rollicking tale of pirates and buried treasure. The story was originally published in serial form from October 1, 1881, to January 28, 1882, in a British children's magazine called "Young Folks." Devil's Island is the nickname of the infamous penal colony of French Guiana known as Cayenne. "The Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell is a children's novel published in 1960.

It tells the historically-based story of a young native girl stranded on an island off the coast of California in the 1840. "The Island of Doctor Moreau" by H.G. Wells was published in 1896.

It tells of the efforts of Doctor Moreau to create human-like creatures from animals found on the island.

Answer: Watership Down

Richard Adams' "Watership Down" was published in 1972. Adams created a culture for rabbits, including language, mythology, and other human characteristics. The destruction of Sandleford, Fiver and Hazel's original warren site, forces the rabbits to seek Watership Down. Sandleford and Watership Down are located in the county of Hampshire in England, not far from the town of Newtown.

Answer: Dinotopia

Dinotopia was first conceived and created by James Gurney, who both wrote and illustrated the first book, intended for children, called "Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time." It was published in 1992. He then added three sequels. Other authors have picked up on the idea and expanded the series. "The Land That Time Forgot" was a 1924 novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The Isle of the Blessed is a concept from many cultures, corresponding to Elysium of classical Greek mythology and the Isle of Apples of Celtic culture, among others. Thule represents the far northern "end of the world" location of classical and medieval European thought.

Answer: Fillory

Gritty and more realistic, perhaps, than Narnia, Lev Grossman's Fillory first appears in his 2009 novel, "The Magicians." Subsequent novels "The Magician King" (2011) and "The Magician's Land" (2014) complete the trilogy.

Answer: the Sea of Monsters

Rick Riordan's second installment of the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series finds near-mortal enemies needing to find a way to cooperate to free Grover from Polyphemus' grasp and secure the Golden Fleece and its healing powers to save the tree of Thalia and Camp Half Blood. Percy is the son of Poseidon and a human mother and Clarisse is the daughter of Ares and another human. Written for children, the series is also a real page-turner for adults.

Answer: Gilligans

The fourth people whose country surround the Emerald City are the Gillikins. Gilligan's Island is, of course, not an imaginary literary place, but an imaginary television place, the site of the shipwreck of the Good Ship SS Minnow. The Emerald City is actually surrounded by a desert, with the four countries lying beyond, Gillikin Country to the north, Quadling Country to the south, Munchkin Country to the East, and Winkie Country to the West.

Answer: Landover

Other enjoyable characters in the "Kingdom of Landover" novels include the Earth Mother, the Iron Mark (leader of the demons of Abbadon), the Mud Puppy Halfwhistle, the court jester Questor Thews, the court scribe Abernathy (who had been turned into a Wheaten Terrier), the Paladin, and others. The incorrect answers are all small Iowa towns, each with its own magic, to be sure.

Answer: Narnia

The two children are the youngest of the four Pevensies, who first entered Narnia through a wardrobe. In "Voyage of the Dawn Treader," along with their cousin Eustace, the children enter Narnia through a painting. Narnia is the brain child of C.S. Lewis, while Xanth is a series of novels by Piers Anthony, Pern is the dragon world of Anne McCaffrey, and Riverworld is a series by Philip Jose Farmer.

Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Crichton adopted the same title for his sequel to "Jurassic Park," which also features dinosaurs. Burroughs included the meeting of dinosaurs and modern men in his novels "Pellucidar" and "The Land That Time Forgot," the latter being another "lost world," discovered by a U-Boat crew in the center of Antarctica. I included Cooper because I like his name.

Answer: Deverry

Firmly rooted in Celtic culture, Deverry was founded by Gallic Celts fleeing the Romans. They were taken by magic (dweomer) to Annwn, in a parallel universe. Kerr's Deverry series was composed of fifteen novels, culminated in "The Silver Mage," published in 2009. Alagaësia is the realm of Christopher Paolini's novels which began with "Eragon." Shannara is Terry Brooks' magical series set in the Four Lands. Terabithia is a location in Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia."

Answer: Tralfamadore

In Vonnegut's "Hocus Pocus," Tralfamadore's inhabitants are multi-dimensional and control all facets of humans' lives, while in his "The Sirens of Titan," they are machines. Krynn is a world created by Tracy Hickman and Laura Hickman in their "Dragonlance" series. Argabuthon is a planet in Douglas Adams' series, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," while Gallifrey is the home planet to the time lord protagonist of the BBC TV series' "Doctor Who."