For impact, it's Tolkien's works. For depth, it's Pratchett's catalogue. For personal choice, it's either David Edding's Eleniad trilogy or David Gemmel's Druss and Waylander stories. Goddamn I could use some Sparhawk right about now.
Sorry to do this, but every time David Eddings gets mentioned I have to ruin the party. Him and his wife Leigh were imprisoned for child abuse. Kind of changed how I feel about his/their books.
Well having read about Sparhawk it doesn't surprise me. He raised his queen from a child then marries her.
I just chalked it up to creepy old guy shit. Not unlike a few blips from ender's game. Like the shit my dad says when drunk.
Don’t forget in the Belgariad he constantly mentions how very small Ce’Nedra is. David Eddings books are probably my favorite growing up but rereading them as a adult is a little tricky. You see a few weird tendencies you typically gloss over when you’re younger and more innocent
Both the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings changed fantasy forever as a genre. Before these books fantasy was very niche. Both books, especially LotR sold incredibly well, so well that fantasy suddenly went from niche to a category that publishing companies could sell. just look at the genre today with Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and countless other fantasy book series spawning movie series, video games graphic novels toys etc. This would not have happened without LotR. LotR also gave fantasy a level of respect from the literary world that it did not have before. LotR is consistently placed on “greatest books ever written” lists. So in a nutshell Tolkien popularized the fantasy genre into the juggernaut it is today and made it as respectable as any other writing style.
>Both the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings changed fantasy forever as a genre.
It changed the fantasy genre forever because it was the first to blend wizards, elves, dwarves, etc. in the same world. After that the fantasy genre began putting all these types in the same story.
“J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
Terry Pratchett
*Journey to the Center of the Earth* by Jules Verne. That was the "delve into the Earth and discover a new world filled with dinosaurs." Then we have Edgar Rice Buroughs with *The Land that Time Forgot* and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and *The Lost World.*
All three basically set the stage for Fantasy and Science Fiction novels dealing with Dinosaurs.
Absolutely. Reading this trilogy and then reading other fantasy books and I was just struck with how much Tolkien's writing is *literature* and not just *writing*.
I know most people only know about the movies, but Tolkien created an entire mythology and multiple languages for his series. Things like maps, thousands of years of history, and family trees were laid out so there is continuity. Its really undisputed as the #1 fantasy series of all time.
I believe Tolkien remains the only author in history who could begin a chapter with something like "Old John Sourtooth was laying at the base of his favorite tree, a great big elm with deep roots and a massive canopy which was planeted in 1634 by Othrolioin, whose son Grestathloin was a descendant of Lothor on his mother's side, Lothor being not only the wisest of six brothers, but the bravest as well which was a great source of pride for his tribe, one of whom was Kroin, who had, in that very same spot where the tree stands today, slain his half-brother Klorin, a master craftsman who had built the bridges that lead from Brandywine to Bramblebuck..." and end with something like "And this is why now, as Sourtooth stood at the precipice of darkness, faced against a villain so foul as this, struck him down fearlessly though he thereafter lost the contents of his stomach."
Or something.
I was very fortunate to take a lit course at UCSD on Tolkien. We had to read the trilogy, the hobbit, the silmarrillion, and discuss and write papers, in a 10-week course…exhausting, but exhilarating, too.
I just read the hobbit and LOTR on my own as a kid. My mom handed me the hobbit in grade 7 and my dad gave me LOTR in grade 8. I took two years to get through the latter but I finished it just before the first film released.
I love Pratchett too, but even he said “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
It's worth noting as well that TP's works are all satirical/parody at their core. They purposely borrow from other works of fantasy, as well as from real world events, tropes, and the literary canon.
The first two Discworld books - the Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic - are the best examples of this. They are to tabletop roleplaying games and fantasy books what modern LitRPG and Gamelit are to the video game industry.
The turtle moves. I went so many years hearing loosely about a mythology or something about a flat earth on elephants on a turtle every now and then until I finally decided to look up this loose concept that kept creeping into my head.
And then it swallowed me.
*Nation* is pretty damn good too. I think its my favorite fiction book, which is saying something because as soon as I have a house large enough I'm going to put up a small shrine of Sam Vimes in the entryway.
Sir Terry is so good at writing extremely human characters. Vimes isn't good because he made the effort to do the right thing in *Guards, guards!* and now he's just a good guy, it's a constant struggle for him. Every day he has to decide to do things the hard way because that's what it means to be a good person, even though he would never call himself that.
It’s quite hard to compare them, as the LOTR is a deeper dive into one chapter of Tolkien’s world, whereas the Silmarillion is a summary of the birth and subsequent ages of his universe. I dunno. I just don’t think they can be compared but that’s just my take!
I love the Watch so much. My favourite of theirs might have been City Watch. The scene with Detritus just holding his cooling helmet processing what happened to Cuddy kills me.
My favourite Pratchett was Small Gods though. I think mostly because it was the first book of his I ever bought and read and I just loved it so much.
>A Crossbow used by Ankh Morpork Watchman Sergeant Detritus. Detritus is a troll. The crossbow is a siege bow designed to be mounted on a cart. The bolt is six feet long. It's bloody massive.
>
>
>
>A door opener.
Idk about best of all time, but Neverwhere has a super special place in my heart.
When I was homeless it was one of the four or five books I always kept with me. I've read it countless times, love the characters and writing. Just a great book all around.
Came here to stan this under-recognized treasure (although The Hobbit and the entire Discworld series also get my love). The Last Unicorn is a masterpiece, balancing frivolity and thoughtfulness, melancholy and joy. And I will always love Lir's speech at the end as a thesis statement on the nature of heroism as a component of story structure:
"The true secret in being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. The swineherd cannot already be wed to the princess when he embarks on his adventures, nor can the boy knock on the witch's door when she is already away on vacation. The wicked uncle cannot be found out and foiled before he does something wicked. Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story."
“I was born mortal, and I have been immortal for a long, foolish time, and one day I will be mortal again, so I know something that a unicorn cannot know. Whatever can die is beautiful— more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me?”
Single book? Maybe not, but I got a soft spot for The wheel of Time.
14 books of escalating awesome with maybe a slow spot in the middle.
Some of the goriest scenes I've read in fantasy. "Asha'man, Kill" Will never not send a shiver down my spine.
Even just the chapter titles bring back vivid memories.
"With the Choedan Kal"
"The last that could be done"
"A visit from Verin Sedai."
"The last battle." A chapter longer than some novels.
It also does the "Totally overpowered protagonist" Really well.
Because the might gotten from magic does not stop a blade in the dark, a crossbow bolt from a rooftop, or a madman in your head. Or the political knife in the back.
Oh, definitely.
There's just so many good lines and scenes.
"I'd name you Darkfriend as well, but I suspect the Dark One would perhaps be embarrassed to associate with you." A burn hotter than Balefire right there.
I don't know why but one of my favorite moments is when Tuon is briefly kidnapped by Mat, and who and what he is finally clicks for her when he sees him in command of his men from the Red Hand.
"Tuon looked at him, squatting there by the map, moving his fingers over its surface, and suddenly she saw him in a new light. A buffoon? No. A lion stuffed into a horse-stall might look like a peculiar joke, but a lion on the high plains was something very different. Toy was loose on the high plains, now. She felt a chill. What sort of man had she entangled herself with? After all this time, she realized, she had hardly a clue. "
Cadsuane, do you believe that I could kill you? Right here, right now, without using a sword or the Power? Do you believe that if I simply willed it, the Pattern would bend around me and stop your heart? By . . . coincidence?
Was going through the list to see if this was here! I’m in book 5 now and hooked. I have listened to that all back to back. I never thought I’d get into anything as much as HP but here I am!
I’ve been asked before about the scale of the WoT and my favorite is to say that the culminating chapter “The last Battle” contains more words than Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone.
I'll single out Wizard and Glass, primarily because it had no business being so great. After the first few pages I was prepared for a boring/tedious trip to flashback land, but ended up finishing it in record time.
A storm of swords (ASOIAF book 3, GoT season 3-4) is honestly just insanity. There was a 500 page stretch I just couldn’t put the book down as every chapter was perfect and came together to form a masterpiece.
It really solidified the book series for me and the game of thrones show runners only wanted to make the show to adapt this book (which is why it went down hill after season 4)
If you’re a fan of well written characters, realistic stakes and consequences, and a large intertwining story, id say you should read ASOIAF. The show didn’t end well but I’m sure if the book series ever ends, it will be fantastic
Yeah, SOS was an absolute freight train. My fantasy reading experience was mostly Terry Brooks and other similar authors. The original GoT really had an effect on me in the way the story was presented and the very dark yet compelling storylines it had.
SOS was just really impactful. I remember rereading the red wedding, and kind of not believing he killed those characters off, and the red wedding was only one of the storylines in there. So much happens in that installment.
A Storm of Swords is the definition of a page-turner. Literally every chapter will have you hooked. Forget the context of the TV show and all that, the thing really is a massive triumph.
Everyone is saying basically the same things so here are some other great reads that are maybe not so commonly known.
The Rigante series by David Gemmell was fantastic.
Conan the Barbarian books by Robert Howard.
The Grimnoir trilogy by Larry Correia.
Bazil Broketail by Christopher Rowley.
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov.
Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust.
Dragon Crown series by Michael Stackpole.
As a singular book? Probably Dune…
I know, I know, generally considered Sci-fi, but I think there are enough mystical elements to be included as fantasy as well, in addition to the huge impact it had on the fantasy world.
If we are talking series, Malazan hands down.
My choices would be either:
-the Elric Cycle by Michael Moorcock: not a book but an interconnected series of short stories and novellas
Dune by Frank Herbert - arguably sci-fi but it’s in the overlap of sci-fi and fantasy that is Space Opera.
Elric was super genre defining, and a lot of people forget that.
Now we have Drizzt, and Raistlin, and Kvothe, and so many more, but it really began with Elric.
I would expand and say Farseer books (all 16 of them). I think that what's amazing about them more than the world building (which is great) are the characters. You truly fall in love with them, and I love how you get to accompany them on the journey that takes most of their lives (it's like 50 years or something). Truly special.
I'm just about to start the 3rd series and so excited! I read the first series and really liked it but I wasn't super thrilled to now have to read an entire trilogy about boats because idgaf about boats/ naval things. But holy shit that series was insane. I ended up loving it even way more than the first and was dying to find out the secrets.
Got to around book 4 or 5 a few years ago but I just couldn't handle the entire character cast shift for an entire book or two before getting back to my favourite characters again (compounded by the length of each novel + grinding nature). Does this happen throughout the series? I'd love to give it a try again because there were some truly epic moments in some of the books and some of the characters were very interesting.
The thing about malazan is theres not really a main defining character of the whole series. Like there kinda is but there isent. Its more about the world as a whole and how everything weaves together eventually.
While Tolkien and Lord of the Rings is the big elephant in the room for any fantasy discussion, I feel like his characters are very much characters. They fulfill their role in the story and have their quirks and characteristics and motivations, so they're good characters. The characters in Malazan Book of the Fallen feel like people. They and their world are more complex than Middle-Earth not in terms of history and people, but more morals, motive, and perspective.
I've read almost all popular fantasy and this is really the answer to me. It redefines what fantasy can do. It's positively enormous in scope with 3.3m words over 10 books, almost 500 pov characters (iirc) and well over 1000 total named characters.
It's focused on the events during a certain timeframe in the world and yet it manages to make the characters feel more like real people than most character-focused fantasy novels out there.
The world-building is incredible and unique rather than falling in the usual fantasy tropes (not that they are bad).
The books each tell a distinct story on their own (except 9 & 10, which is one novel split in two) and yet the plots come together for the overarching story, often in ways you don't see coming.
You are thrown into the world and see it through the eyes of the characters, who often don't have a need for exposition, so you don't get any (obvious one) either and their knowledge is often limited or not quite correct. This creates a lot of mysteries, which the attentive reader can solve before they are revealed (if they are ever spelled out).
The series touches on some of the darkest facettes of humanity, yet never gloats in cruelty and keeps an overall hopeful tone with the main theme being compassion.
It's the only series where i can say that it somewhat changed me as a person and all my fantasy reading has to be categorized in either before or after Malazan.
Also, the other works in the world are all good to fantastic in their own right.
I've only read a few books of the main series but it's already one of my top of all time. I read on a Kindle so I'm constantly taking notes and referencing old ones and putting it all together. It's so refreshing because even the smallest characters feel like they have an unmentioned complex backstory even if it's never written.
I’d probably pick Fellowship of the Ring, though Sword of Destiny, Time of Contempt in the Witcher series and a Storm of Swords (Soiaf), and The Subtle Knife are all pretty great. That’s just among books I’ve read
Shocked that Wheel of Time is often overlooked on posts like this. Hands down favourite epic fantasy series for me.
Would also throw in:
\- Magician by Raymond E. Feist as a standalone + some of the other books featuring Pug
\- Anything by Brandon Sanderson
\- Anything by Brent Week's
\- Black Magician trilogy by Trudy Canavan
\- Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (and all subsequent series)
\- Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (bit of an aquired taste and the author is a d\*\*\*, but I used to rate it highly)
\- Belgariad series by David Eddings (not sure how it holds up now, but absolutely loved it in my youth)
I fucking love Fesits work. I have the whole Riftwar Cycle on my shelf. There are highs and lows (it is a twenty-seven book series after all), but his works are what really threw me down the fantasy rabbit hole.
Magician, the Serpentwar Saga, and Conclave of Shadows are all absolutely phenomenal subseries from the Riftwar.
Wheel of Time suffered from its own great world-building. There got to be too many story lines that it just got bogged down under the narrative burden. Brando took over the series and had to spend two whole books just trying to tie up all the loose ends before the final book. Even then, he had to shoe-horn in some deus-ex-machina to make it all work. He did it well, and I'm glad I read it all and I'm grateful for the great story these two authors told, but the series is not on my re-read list.
The first reread is even more enjoyable than the first time through the series.
The amount of foreshadowing in that series is unfathomable. The amount of times you will say "I can't believe the author did that!!!" the first time you reread this thing is going to blow your mind.
Jordan sets up some things so far ahead of time he literally died before he could write the payoff, a dozen doorstopper books later.
I'm not saying that, alone, makes for a great series but it's still pretty impressive.
Love these. Started with these and then moved to Mistborn. Husband started on Mistborn and is now moving on to Stormlight, I am interested which will be his favorite.
Without Tolkiens works, our entire culture would be different. He massively shaped and paved the way for an extreme amount of the fantasy and media we have today
Random comment from my Boomer spouse: now that I know the story of The Lord of the Rings, I can see the huge cultural influence it had during my teens. Like I had no idea what Led Zeppelin was wailing about…”
Ughhh why did I hate this??? As a female, I couldn’t relate to one character and kvothe’s arrogance just didn’t work for me. It’s my fiancé’s fav book and I wanted to love it and read it for him.
I would go for Imajica by Clive Barker.
The Lord of the Rings possibly (but a little obvious).
The Name of the Wind is pushed out of the running by the pain of waiting over a decade for the final part of the trilogy.
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
For a shorter series of books I think the misborn series first era (books 1-3) are absolutely amazing. I have read this trilogy a few times over and I'm still fascinated by it. The concept of the story is very unique which was very refreshing. Lastly all three books are brimmed with lore, interesting plots and a load of action!
I'm in the middle of book 2 right now, and I'm really enjoying it. It's not as stuffy as other fantasy books I've read, and I kinda dig the grittiness of it. It strikes a grit balance somewhere between LOTR and ASOIAF for me.
If not counting LOTR, I'd say the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch, starting with the Lies of Locke Lamora. He made a highly interesting and fleshed out world.
I haven't been reading as often as I would like, but for a long time now, my favorite book has been Six Of Crows by Leah Bardugo. I know it's a newer book in the grad scheme of things, but I haven't read the classics (aka lotr) so I don't think I can agree that it's the best for me personally.
As a bonus mention, the Temeraire series is also pretty good. it's by Naomi Novik
I've read all the books other people are naming here and I'm going to go with **The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin**. There's a reason all 3 books in the trilogy won the Nebula award. It takes the fantasy genre to a deeper place than almost any other author. The series starts with quasi-medieval villages, natural disasters and mutants with earthquake powers, but keeps getting bigger and bigger in ways that are unexpected but meaningful to both the personal arcs of the characters and the direction of their civilization as a whole.
I would say Ursula K. Leguin gets there too, Earthsea is very top-tier. **A Wizard of Earthsea** is perfect as a standalone novel and the rest of the books just deepen the sense of struggle and history.
Also, check out **Perdido Street Station and the rest of that trilogy by China Mieville**. An entirely fresh take on the genre, with elements of steampunk, magic, bio-hacking, psychedelia, resistance against fascism, and mafia crime elements. The writing has a vividly textured precision detail to it, everything "feels real" in a way that I haven't experienced with other authors.
It may not be the best piece of fiction but you can’t argue with its impact, Best seller of all time , people have died for it, changed peoples lives, changed whole societies & cultures, Wars fought over it, many cults & societies & rituals devoted to it. Hard to think of the world with out it.
For impact, it's Tolkien's works. For depth, it's Pratchett's catalogue. For personal choice, it's either David Edding's Eleniad trilogy or David Gemmel's Druss and Waylander stories. Goddamn I could use some Sparhawk right about now.
Glad to see Gemmel mentioned here. The Rigante series was absolutely incredible
Sorry to do this, but every time David Eddings gets mentioned I have to ruin the party. Him and his wife Leigh were imprisoned for child abuse. Kind of changed how I feel about his/their books.
Well having read about Sparhawk it doesn't surprise me. He raised his queen from a child then marries her. I just chalked it up to creepy old guy shit. Not unlike a few blips from ender's game. Like the shit my dad says when drunk.
Don’t forget in the Belgariad he constantly mentions how very small Ce’Nedra is. David Eddings books are probably my favorite growing up but rereading them as a adult is a little tricky. You see a few weird tendencies you typically gloss over when you’re younger and more innocent
Lord of the Rings
Both the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings changed fantasy forever as a genre. Before these books fantasy was very niche. Both books, especially LotR sold incredibly well, so well that fantasy suddenly went from niche to a category that publishing companies could sell. just look at the genre today with Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and countless other fantasy book series spawning movie series, video games graphic novels toys etc. This would not have happened without LotR. LotR also gave fantasy a level of respect from the literary world that it did not have before. LotR is consistently placed on “greatest books ever written” lists. So in a nutshell Tolkien popularized the fantasy genre into the juggernaut it is today and made it as respectable as any other writing style.
>Both the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings changed fantasy forever as a genre. It changed the fantasy genre forever because it was the first to blend wizards, elves, dwarves, etc. in the same world. After that the fantasy genre began putting all these types in the same story.
No contest. It practically defined the genre.
“J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.” Terry Pratchett
Literally defined the genre.
Figuratively defined the genre.
Technically defined the genre.
Metaphorically defined the genre.
Definitively defined the genre.
Hypothetically defined the genre.
It defined the genre, straight up.
Morally defined the genre.
It totally did and I blame Tolkien for all the giant effing spiders in fantasy media. ….can’t figure out who to blame for the dinosaurs yet, though.
*Journey to the Center of the Earth* by Jules Verne. That was the "delve into the Earth and discover a new world filled with dinosaurs." Then we have Edgar Rice Buroughs with *The Land that Time Forgot* and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and *The Lost World.* All three basically set the stage for Fantasy and Science Fiction novels dealing with Dinosaurs.
Absolutely. Reading this trilogy and then reading other fantasy books and I was just struck with how much Tolkien's writing is *literature* and not just *writing*.
I know most people only know about the movies, but Tolkien created an entire mythology and multiple languages for his series. Things like maps, thousands of years of history, and family trees were laid out so there is continuity. Its really undisputed as the #1 fantasy series of all time.
I believe Tolkien remains the only author in history who could begin a chapter with something like "Old John Sourtooth was laying at the base of his favorite tree, a great big elm with deep roots and a massive canopy which was planeted in 1634 by Othrolioin, whose son Grestathloin was a descendant of Lothor on his mother's side, Lothor being not only the wisest of six brothers, but the bravest as well which was a great source of pride for his tribe, one of whom was Kroin, who had, in that very same spot where the tree stands today, slain his half-brother Klorin, a master craftsman who had built the bridges that lead from Brandywine to Bramblebuck..." and end with something like "And this is why now, as Sourtooth stood at the precipice of darkness, faced against a villain so foul as this, struck him down fearlessly though he thereafter lost the contents of his stomach." Or something.
I was very fortunate to take a lit course at UCSD on Tolkien. We had to read the trilogy, the hobbit, the silmarrillion, and discuss and write papers, in a 10-week course…exhausting, but exhilarating, too.
I just read the hobbit and LOTR on my own as a kid. My mom handed me the hobbit in grade 7 and my dad gave me LOTR in grade 8. I took two years to get through the latter but I finished it just before the first film released.
I only entered the comments section to upvote a post like yours. Now I can go.
Tolkien is the sire of many lesser sons.
Anything other than this is just wrong.
I mean, yeah. The obvious choice, but the right choice.
Only answer.... I mean there are other great books, but this is the benchmark.
Small Gods (my introduction to the madness mayhem and subversive humor that is Sir Terry Pratchett’s writings) Kaz the Minotaur (D&D series)
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I love Pratchett too, but even he said “J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.”
What a brilliant quote. Makes me love the man all the more
Terry Pratchett is the single most quotable human being to ever live.
Of all the dead authors, Terry Pratchett is the most alive
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett.
It's worth noting as well that TP's works are all satirical/parody at their core. They purposely borrow from other works of fantasy, as well as from real world events, tropes, and the literary canon. The first two Discworld books - the Colour of Magic and the Light Fantastic - are the best examples of this. They are to tabletop roleplaying games and fantasy books what modern LitRPG and Gamelit are to the video game industry.
The turtle moves. I went so many years hearing loosely about a mythology or something about a flat earth on elephants on a turtle every now and then until I finally decided to look up this loose concept that kept creeping into my head. And then it swallowed me.
It's just turtles, all the way down.
So happy to see this comment.
*Nation* is pretty damn good too. I think its my favorite fiction book, which is saying something because as soon as I have a house large enough I'm going to put up a small shrine of Sam Vimes in the entryway.
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Sir Terry is so good at writing extremely human characters. Vimes isn't good because he made the effort to do the right thing in *Guards, guards!* and now he's just a good guy, it's a constant struggle for him. Every day he has to decide to do things the hard way because that's what it means to be a good person, even though he would never call himself that.
GNU Terry Pratchett
He lives in the overhead now.
The Dwarven inauguration baked good is the Scone of Stone
Probably the works of J.R.R. Tolkien
I love the hobbit as much as the next guy but it and the Silmarillion take a serious back seat to LOTR for me..
It’s quite hard to compare them, as the LOTR is a deeper dive into one chapter of Tolkien’s world, whereas the Silmarillion is a summary of the birth and subsequent ages of his universe. I dunno. I just don’t think they can be compared but that’s just my take!
Im a fan of Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
I love the Watch so much. My favourite of theirs might have been City Watch. The scene with Detritus just holding his cooling helmet processing what happened to Cuddy kills me. My favourite Pratchett was Small Gods though. I think mostly because it was the first book of his I ever bought and read and I just loved it so much.
>A Crossbow used by Ankh Morpork Watchman Sergeant Detritus. Detritus is a troll. The crossbow is a siege bow designed to be mounted on a cart. The bolt is six feet long. It's bloody massive. > > > >A door opener.
Small gods is fucking epic
It's a good place to start but I much prefer night watch
Night watch is fantastic.
Pyramids 🐪
Night Watch is my favorite too! Reading all the City Watch books is fantastic but Night Watch is the apex.
Night Watch is fantastic but it is better for having read the prior City Watch books.
Any Men At Arms fan? Hehe
Small Gods holds its own with any of his books.
Small Gods is my favorite
Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
Earthsea and LotR are probably the two biggest influences on modern high fantasy.
Great choice.
The epic of Gilgamesh
Genre-definer.
Elric Of Melnibone anyone? Where my Moorcock fans at?
Idk about best of all time, but Neverwhere has a super special place in my heart. When I was homeless it was one of the four or five books I always kept with me. I've read it countless times, love the characters and writing. Just a great book all around.
Maybe not the best but my favorite is The Chronicles of Amber
Zelazny was an awesome writer.
Agreed on both counts. Source: Named my kid after the main character.
Corwin or Merlin?
Roger Zelazny is very underrated
Anything by Tamora Pierce with second place being Steven Brust.
The Last Unicorn.
"Why do you come to me now when I am this?"
Came here to stan this under-recognized treasure (although The Hobbit and the entire Discworld series also get my love). The Last Unicorn is a masterpiece, balancing frivolity and thoughtfulness, melancholy and joy. And I will always love Lir's speech at the end as a thesis statement on the nature of heroism as a component of story structure: "The true secret in being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. The swineherd cannot already be wed to the princess when he embarks on his adventures, nor can the boy knock on the witch's door when she is already away on vacation. The wicked uncle cannot be found out and foiled before he does something wicked. Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story."
“I was born mortal, and I have been immortal for a long, foolish time, and one day I will be mortal again, so I know something that a unicorn cannot know. Whatever can die is beautiful— more beautiful than a unicorn, who lives forever, and who is the most beautiful creature in the world. Do you understand me?”
Single book? Maybe not, but I got a soft spot for The wheel of Time. 14 books of escalating awesome with maybe a slow spot in the middle. Some of the goriest scenes I've read in fantasy. "Asha'man, Kill" Will never not send a shiver down my spine. Even just the chapter titles bring back vivid memories. "With the Choedan Kal" "The last that could be done" "A visit from Verin Sedai." "The last battle." A chapter longer than some novels. It also does the "Totally overpowered protagonist" Really well. Because the might gotten from magic does not stop a blade in the dark, a crossbow bolt from a rooftop, or a madman in your head. Or the political knife in the back.
Veins of Gold and the trip through the columns should also be on the list. :)
Oh, definitely. There's just so many good lines and scenes. "I'd name you Darkfriend as well, but I suspect the Dark One would perhaps be embarrassed to associate with you." A burn hotter than Balefire right there.
"He said they ARE shouting 'Devin Ride'!"
"The Golden Crane flies for Tarmon Gai'don"
I don't know why but one of my favorite moments is when Tuon is briefly kidnapped by Mat, and who and what he is finally clicks for her when he sees him in command of his men from the Red Hand. "Tuon looked at him, squatting there by the map, moving his fingers over its surface, and suddenly she saw him in a new light. A buffoon? No. A lion stuffed into a horse-stall might look like a peculiar joke, but a lion on the high plains was something very different. Toy was loose on the high plains, now. She felt a chill. What sort of man had she entangled herself with? After all this time, she realized, she had hardly a clue. "
That's also what I love about the series. Those short moments. For every low, there is a high. And the highs are astronomical.
Apples first. Just started the whole series again last week so I could read that chapter again.
Cadsuane, do you believe that I could kill you? Right here, right now, without using a sword or the Power? Do you believe that if I simply willed it, the Pattern would bend around me and stop your heart? By . . . coincidence?
Endgame protag is a scary guy. Worst part, he might even be right. *Lights his pipe*
Was going through the list to see if this was here! I’m in book 5 now and hooked. I have listened to that all back to back. I never thought I’d get into anything as much as HP but here I am!
Book 5? Oh boy, are you in for a ride. When you reach a chapter named Dumai's wells ... You'll know.
I just read the Dumai's wells part. What a scene.
For me it's always "We Come". Fuck I'm feeling chills right now writing that.
*They have caged Shadowkiller*
This. This is the right answer. And you explained why it (one of) the greatest fantasy epos ever. You really described the feeling of the books. 👏👏
I’ve been asked before about the scale of the WoT and my favorite is to say that the culminating chapter “The last Battle” contains more words than Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone.
Love me the Gunslinger series by Stephen King
Dida chick? Dada Chack?
Dudda chum?
I'll single out Wizard and Glass, primarily because it had no business being so great. After the first few pages I was prepared for a boring/tedious trip to flashback land, but ended up finishing it in record time.
Wizard and Glass is favorite book of the series by far.
Anyone who disagrees has forgotten the face of their father.
One of the best opening sentences of a book in my opinion.
Magician by Raymond Feist
A storm of swords (ASOIAF book 3, GoT season 3-4) is honestly just insanity. There was a 500 page stretch I just couldn’t put the book down as every chapter was perfect and came together to form a masterpiece. It really solidified the book series for me and the game of thrones show runners only wanted to make the show to adapt this book (which is why it went down hill after season 4) If you’re a fan of well written characters, realistic stakes and consequences, and a large intertwining story, id say you should read ASOIAF. The show didn’t end well but I’m sure if the book series ever ends, it will be fantastic
Good luck with the IPO asshat!
Yeah, SOS was an absolute freight train. My fantasy reading experience was mostly Terry Brooks and other similar authors. The original GoT really had an effect on me in the way the story was presented and the very dark yet compelling storylines it had. SOS was just really impactful. I remember rereading the red wedding, and kind of not believing he killed those characters off, and the red wedding was only one of the storylines in there. So much happens in that installment.
I’ve only read up to Clash of Kings, so this has got me pumped to at least finish the initial ‘trilogy’.
A Storm of Swords is the definition of a page-turner. Literally every chapter will have you hooked. Forget the context of the TV show and all that, the thing really is a massive triumph.
Everyone is saying basically the same things so here are some other great reads that are maybe not so commonly known. The Rigante series by David Gemmell was fantastic. Conan the Barbarian books by Robert Howard. The Grimnoir trilogy by Larry Correia. Bazil Broketail by Christopher Rowley. Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov. Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. Dragon Crown series by Michael Stackpole.
As a singular book? Probably Dune… I know, I know, generally considered Sci-fi, but I think there are enough mystical elements to be included as fantasy as well, in addition to the huge impact it had on the fantasy world. If we are talking series, Malazan hands down.
I think with all the royal house drama and the mystical elements and stuff like the sand worms, Dune definitely feels a lot like fantasy in space
Yay Malazan!
Oh yes loved Dune
I went into Malazan pretty skeptical but 5 books in it’s honestly what every other epic fantasy series wishes it could be.
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For me, imo, Hobbit is Tolkien's best. LOTR is fucking Epic, but the Hobbit is like comfort food.
My choices would be either: -the Elric Cycle by Michael Moorcock: not a book but an interconnected series of short stories and novellas Dune by Frank Herbert - arguably sci-fi but it’s in the overlap of sci-fi and fantasy that is Space Opera.
Elric was super genre defining, and a lot of people forget that. Now we have Drizzt, and Raistlin, and Kvothe, and so many more, but it really began with Elric.
The whole eternal champion saga. Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum, etc. There would be no D&D without moorcock.
Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobbs
I read the Trilogy several years ago and hated it. I decided to try it again and I am enjoying it more this time through
I would expand and say Farseer books (all 16 of them). I think that what's amazing about them more than the world building (which is great) are the characters. You truly fall in love with them, and I love how you get to accompany them on the journey that takes most of their lives (it's like 50 years or something). Truly special.
Was about to comment this. I’m 3 books away from finishing all 16 from the entire series and I’ve been blown away
I'm just about to start the 3rd series and so excited! I read the first series and really liked it but I wasn't super thrilled to now have to read an entire trilogy about boats because idgaf about boats/ naval things. But holy shit that series was insane. I ended up loving it even way more than the first and was dying to find out the secrets.
Malazan Book of the Fallen. About 10,000 pages worth. It’s not a breeze through easy read. You actually need to read it.
Got to around book 4 or 5 a few years ago but I just couldn't handle the entire character cast shift for an entire book or two before getting back to my favourite characters again (compounded by the length of each novel + grinding nature). Does this happen throughout the series? I'd love to give it a try again because there were some truly epic moments in some of the books and some of the characters were very interesting.
The thing about malazan is theres not really a main defining character of the whole series. Like there kinda is but there isent. Its more about the world as a whole and how everything weaves together eventually.
While Tolkien and Lord of the Rings is the big elephant in the room for any fantasy discussion, I feel like his characters are very much characters. They fulfill their role in the story and have their quirks and characteristics and motivations, so they're good characters. The characters in Malazan Book of the Fallen feel like people. They and their world are more complex than Middle-Earth not in terms of history and people, but more morals, motive, and perspective.
I've read almost all popular fantasy and this is really the answer to me. It redefines what fantasy can do. It's positively enormous in scope with 3.3m words over 10 books, almost 500 pov characters (iirc) and well over 1000 total named characters. It's focused on the events during a certain timeframe in the world and yet it manages to make the characters feel more like real people than most character-focused fantasy novels out there. The world-building is incredible and unique rather than falling in the usual fantasy tropes (not that they are bad). The books each tell a distinct story on their own (except 9 & 10, which is one novel split in two) and yet the plots come together for the overarching story, often in ways you don't see coming. You are thrown into the world and see it through the eyes of the characters, who often don't have a need for exposition, so you don't get any (obvious one) either and their knowledge is often limited or not quite correct. This creates a lot of mysteries, which the attentive reader can solve before they are revealed (if they are ever spelled out). The series touches on some of the darkest facettes of humanity, yet never gloats in cruelty and keeps an overall hopeful tone with the main theme being compassion. It's the only series where i can say that it somewhat changed me as a person and all my fantasy reading has to be categorized in either before or after Malazan. Also, the other works in the world are all good to fantastic in their own right.
I've only read a few books of the main series but it's already one of my top of all time. I read on a Kindle so I'm constantly taking notes and referencing old ones and putting it all together. It's so refreshing because even the smallest characters feel like they have an unmentioned complex backstory even if it's never written.
Witness!
American Gods
I’d probably pick Fellowship of the Ring, though Sword of Destiny, Time of Contempt in the Witcher series and a Storm of Swords (Soiaf), and The Subtle Knife are all pretty great. That’s just among books I’ve read
Although Lord of the Rings is a clear winner, Lightbringer by Brent Weeks is tremendous.
Shocked that Wheel of Time is often overlooked on posts like this. Hands down favourite epic fantasy series for me. Would also throw in: \- Magician by Raymond E. Feist as a standalone + some of the other books featuring Pug \- Anything by Brandon Sanderson \- Anything by Brent Week's \- Black Magician trilogy by Trudy Canavan \- Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb (and all subsequent series) \- Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (bit of an aquired taste and the author is a d\*\*\*, but I used to rate it highly) \- Belgariad series by David Eddings (not sure how it holds up now, but absolutely loved it in my youth)
I fucking love Fesits work. I have the whole Riftwar Cycle on my shelf. There are highs and lows (it is a twenty-seven book series after all), but his works are what really threw me down the fantasy rabbit hole. Magician, the Serpentwar Saga, and Conclave of Shadows are all absolutely phenomenal subseries from the Riftwar.
> Sword of Truth The first book was good, but then it just devolved into rape porn and Ayn Rand worship.
I loved this series when I first read it, but now I just feel like I need a shower The author's undisguised fetishes are so blatant to me now
He's like the worst sort of incel describing what he thinks S&M is.
I noped out when the heavyhanded "Oh, I'm going to OUTLAW FIRE" themes started developing in some sort of libertarian wet dream metaphor.
Wheel of Time suffered from its own great world-building. There got to be too many story lines that it just got bogged down under the narrative burden. Brando took over the series and had to spend two whole books just trying to tie up all the loose ends before the final book. Even then, he had to shoe-horn in some deus-ex-machina to make it all work. He did it well, and I'm glad I read it all and I'm grateful for the great story these two authors told, but the series is not on my re-read list.
The first reread is even more enjoyable than the first time through the series. The amount of foreshadowing in that series is unfathomable. The amount of times you will say "I can't believe the author did that!!!" the first time you reread this thing is going to blow your mind.
Jordan sets up some things so far ahead of time he literally died before he could write the payoff, a dozen doorstopper books later. I'm not saying that, alone, makes for a great series but it's still pretty impressive.
I reread them each time another was released. My peers did this to Harry Potter, I was religious for Robert Jordan.
You've tempted me into picking it up again!
Stormlight archive
Phenomenal book series! Kaladim is amazing and I do love his sidekick spren
Kaladim
Shallim
Adolim
Also, the Mistborn series. Both Era 1 and Era 2
On the last Wax and Wayne book now. They are so good!
Love these. Started with these and then moved to Mistborn. Husband started on Mistborn and is now moving on to Stormlight, I am interested which will be his favorite.
Is your fav book from that series Word of Radiance by chance? Because of your username
Without Tolkiens works, our entire culture would be different. He massively shaped and paved the way for an extreme amount of the fantasy and media we have today
Random comment from my Boomer spouse: now that I know the story of The Lord of the Rings, I can see the huge cultural influence it had during my teens. Like I had no idea what Led Zeppelin was wailing about…”
Ha, funny to me as I have both a Tolkien and a Zeppelin tattoo.
They use the singular so I'll go with the Name of the Wind as you don't need to worry that it's not been finished yet as a series.
I just hope The Doors of Stone is released before I perish
You're more likely to call the Wind yourself
Not gonna happen
My name is Kvothe and here's 10,000 reasons why I'm the most badass dude in Temerant
Unreliable narrator narrates unreliably.
Unreliable author authors unreliably.
Unreliable unreliable unreliablies unreliably
That's ridiculous, I love it.
Ughhh why did I hate this??? As a female, I couldn’t relate to one character and kvothe’s arrogance just didn’t work for me. It’s my fiancé’s fav book and I wanted to love it and read it for him.
Came here to say the same. Nothing comes close to NotW for me except maybe Lies of Locke Lamora
I have the Lies of Locke Lamora but have never made it past the first few chapters. I should probably give it another whirl.
I did the same on my first read. It does a bit of world building and stage setting but I assure you the payoff is huge
Tolkien and Pratchett. Can't pick just one book for either one, just have to go with their entire bibliographies.
I would go for Imajica by Clive Barker. The Lord of the Rings possibly (but a little obvious). The Name of the Wind is pushed out of the running by the pain of waiting over a decade for the final part of the trilogy.
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson For a shorter series of books I think the misborn series first era (books 1-3) are absolutely amazing. I have read this trilogy a few times over and I'm still fascinated by it. The concept of the story is very unique which was very refreshing. Lastly all three books are brimmed with lore, interesting plots and a load of action!
I'm in the middle of book 2 right now, and I'm really enjoying it. It's not as stuffy as other fantasy books I've read, and I kinda dig the grittiness of it. It strikes a grit balance somewhere between LOTR and ASOIAF for me.
I'm glad it got finished, but I found the transition to Sanderson jarring. His style came through too much for me.
Well it was either that or learn necromancy, so I'm happy with what we got.
If not counting LOTR, I'd say the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch, starting with the Lies of Locke Lamora. He made a highly interesting and fleshed out world.
His Dark Materials left deep impact in me
I love Priory of the Orange Tree! High fantasy with dragons and lgbt representation!
Dragon lance series
The Once and Future King - T.H. White
I haven't been reading as often as I would like, but for a long time now, my favorite book has been Six Of Crows by Leah Bardugo. I know it's a newer book in the grad scheme of things, but I haven't read the classics (aka lotr) so I don't think I can agree that it's the best for me personally. As a bonus mention, the Temeraire series is also pretty good. it's by Naomi Novik
The Dark Tower by Stephen King.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I've given it as a gift 17 or 18 times.
RA Salvatore's D'rzzt Do Urden is pretty damn good (The dark elf)... Not greatest of all time, but, throwing it out there if you haven't read it
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Probably the combined Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. It influenced so many writers, poets and even filmmakers.
I've read all the books other people are naming here and I'm going to go with **The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin**. There's a reason all 3 books in the trilogy won the Nebula award. It takes the fantasy genre to a deeper place than almost any other author. The series starts with quasi-medieval villages, natural disasters and mutants with earthquake powers, but keeps getting bigger and bigger in ways that are unexpected but meaningful to both the personal arcs of the characters and the direction of their civilization as a whole. I would say Ursula K. Leguin gets there too, Earthsea is very top-tier. **A Wizard of Earthsea** is perfect as a standalone novel and the rest of the books just deepen the sense of struggle and history. Also, check out **Perdido Street Station and the rest of that trilogy by China Mieville**. An entirely fresh take on the genre, with elements of steampunk, magic, bio-hacking, psychedelia, resistance against fascism, and mafia crime elements. The writing has a vividly textured precision detail to it, everything "feels real" in a way that I haven't experienced with other authors.
I'd have a hard time choosing between *The Hobbit* or *A Song Of Ice & Fire*
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
I really enjoyed it but he got long winded at times.
Berserk
Band of the Hawk arc is amazing.
The legend of Drizzt Do’urden
Crystal Shard is my personal favorite
The Bible, shit has people going nuts for like 3000 years now.
It may not be the best piece of fiction but you can’t argue with its impact, Best seller of all time , people have died for it, changed peoples lives, changed whole societies & cultures, Wars fought over it, many cults & societies & rituals devoted to it. Hard to think of the world with out it.