If you are like me, then you are a huge fantasy fan. It is easily my favorite genre and I have to force myself to read to read other books. But for this list, we will be staying with this genre as we share our list of the 21 must read fantasy books of all time!
Here’s the list from the article:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R Martin
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Night Angel by Brent Weeks
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Discworld by Terry Pratchett
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1 by Patrick Rothfuss
Temeraire by Naomi Novik
For me a lot of these are solid, but some are pretty questionable. I regret the time I spent with Night Angel, for example, and found Hunger Games to be entertaining, but not substantial enough to get past the first book.
Hunger games also isn’t fantasy, it’s Sci-Fi.
The fact that it’s on the list and not something like Spellmonger tells me the person who made this article isn’t really all that passionate about fantasy books and likely based their research off various google results for “popular fantasy series”.
Thanks for the summary. I can agree with each deserving its place…
Except First Law. Couldn’t get into that one, but may give it another try.
These lists are subjective. I’m glad my favourite one is in there (see user name) but it’s weird to me that Robin Hobb and Codex Alera aren’t on there
Also, stop putting Patrick Rothfuss on these things. His series will never be finished and we should stop getting people stuck on book 2
Nah, Martin still has a place. He’s written a ton beyond A Song of Ice and Fire. The Wildcards series has been going on for over 30 years.
Rothfuss wrote 2 books (I refuse to call whatever the hell is novellas were “books”) and has spent the time since going to conventions, playing board games, and raising bees. Which isn’t a problem, seems like a pretty chill lifestyle. What is a problem is his continued promises that he’s working on the book, getting angry at fans when they ask him about it, and his insistence that he’s a modern author despite not putting out a real book for over 15 years now.
Raymond E. Feist is the only author that made me “understand” why dnd is popular. (I did not have a group growing up to play it with.)
His early works are great–although I am less impressed by his later ones which got very repetitive.
But the collabs with Janny Wurts were wonderful.
Yeah Rothfuss is what, 10 years late on the final book now? Has he addressed that at all recently?
Crippling anxiety and depression, plus an overwhelming fear of disappointing his entire fan base by not living up to their expectations of his finale.
He reinvested his time into world builders and probably won’t come back to writing any time soon
I’m always sad to see Codex Alera not get the respect it deserves. Granted, considering its origin, it doesn’t deserve much respect, but the end product is just so good imo.
Also never see Embers of Illeniel make the list either. Mageborn is an alright fantasy romp but the Embers prequel series really steps into interesting territory for me. It’s that perfect level of fantasy setting meets Sci fi concepts. Like ye Olde battlefield earth.
Granted, considering its origin, it doesn’t deserve much respect
Can you elaborate on that?
Codex Alera started as a drunken bet between Jim and another party that he couldn’t write a series on just two wildly disparate concepts. They were “pokemon” and “the lost Roman legion” lmao idk about your feelings but book series founded on foolish drunken bets probably don’t deserve much respect. This is a wondrous exception to that rule.
That list reads more like a “21 books that I’ve read–with a few girl authors I heard were good or famous or black thrown in”.
Brent Weeks is not a great author, and while Jim Butcher is consistent in his output (barring the few years where his RL went to shit on him) his Craft suffers in his non-urban fantasy series. (He coasts a LOT on Harry Dresden’s voice and charm and culture references, and doesn’t get that crutch in his other series and it shows.) I LIKE Jim Butcher, but there’s tons of authors that can write circles around him. His career is based on completing books and getting them out the door, not creating masterworks.
Where’s Robin McKinley? Robin Hobb? Kate Elliott, who was writing and COMPLETING her Crown of Stars epic fantasy series at the same time Martin and Jorden were writing (and never completed their series)? Lois McMaster Bujold, whose Challion series is just as good as her Vorkosigan series? Jacqueline Carey? And if we’re including YA, which the Hunger Games suggests (although as one person pointed out, those are sci-fi), where’s Tamora Pierce? Patricia C. Wrede?
The person who wrote that list reads a very specific part of the genre and leaves a LOT of the greats out.
Robin Hobb
Ugh, I disliked the Assassin’s Apprentice series. It’s written like his mentors have some sort of plan for dealing with Royal, when really the entirety of their plan is “let him do whatever he wants, up to and including getting everyone killed and selling out the entire country”. That was the most disappointing, limp-dicked arc to a story I’ve read among books that are considered good by some people. I kind of enjoyed the first book or two while reading it, but I very much wished I had read something else by the time I was done.
Bro Jim has chops I don’t think a lot of people respect. I hated BG/PT more than most and am still pretty vocal about how blatant a cash grab it was, but that’s just the latest Dresden drip. Go back and look at Codex Alera again. The complexity of plot, the subtle politics and character relationships, and the over the top large scale action. Imo it’s pretty great all time fiction work, and it’s genesis was a drunken bet about Pokémon and the lost Roman legion. I’m honestly hopeful for the Olympian Affair, as the Cinder Spires series had a very promising start.
These lists are so subjective. For example, The Dresden Files have been around for a while, but I wouldn’t consider them to be the top of the fantasy genre. Also, no Robin Hobb?
I don’t dislike Dresden Files but I’m liking it less as it veers further & further from its initial premise. Book 1 and book…er, 16? the latest one…are so tonally different. Power creep, yeah, is part of it, but also it went from “fun noir throwback starring Detective Hard-Boiled” solving things cleverly (and without spellslinging ALL the time) to “what if a Jedi with the power of God and pop culture references on his side fought Irish folklore kaijus while Bigfoot was watching”.
Like… I’m strapped in for the ride and enjoying it besides but the series seems to have gotten a lot less intellectually stimulating and than before and is now “big powers do a fighting”.
Just me?
I agree on this. I’m enjoying it none the less and I like the direction its going in. To me, it’s like going to see a movie like “Nobody”
You know what you’re getting into. You know you’ll be entertained. You know it won’t be too long. And you know it’ll never make a list as one of the greats or win any awards.
Here are some of my favorites:
- Cradle by Will Wight
- Mage Errant by John Bierce
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
- The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
- Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
- The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan
- Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
- The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang
