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”.
Haven’t you been to a bookstore/browsed books online? They’re the same thing, that’s why they’re in the same category! /s
I don’t know Spellmonger; I’ll have to check it out
Nothing to say about a list that ranks Dresden files above earthsea and discworld!
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
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
He’s already disappointed us. Just put the darn book out already.
Disappointing us on schedule is different from writing something bad and disappointing us
And where’s Raymond Feist?!
Magician: Apprentice was my first foray into fantasy and the subsequent series made me a huge fan of the whole genre. It’s definitely on my list to reread.
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 gave up after book 3 so I don’t have much valid input here. :)
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.
The “oh so nerdy” references weren’t quite so ubiquitous earlier in, were they? The question popped into my head the other day but I don’t feel like going back to check.
I would never suggest someone read all of ASOIAF. It just gets ridiculous in length and complexity for no valid reason, and he’s likely to die before finishing the series. The first 2-3 books are alright though.
Also, no Hobbit? No Legend of Drizzt? Wtf. RA Salvatore is one of the best.
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
Legends & Lattes! What a fun little jaunt that was.
Some of my favs chosen there, so I’ll look into your choices I’m not familiar with.
Some of these books are true must reads, but several are just okay and a couple are downright bad.
Which ones would you leave off?
Patrick Rothfuss because he’s never finishing it. Not that he doesn’t deserve it based on merit, but it’s irresponsible to recommend him. Authors take time and most will eventually finish one day but it’s pretty clear he’s not.
Well, technically it’s 21 series, not books. 😀
Except why just A Wizard of Earthsea. I mean it was a trilogy…
There’s actually 6 books (book 5 is a short story collection that’s really useful before book 6). I just learned it wasn’t a trilogy this year and enjoyed the last few. Definitely a tonal shift though as she’s matured in her preferences.
Oh wow. I’ve got some reading to do! I read them in the late 1970s and there were only the three!
Enjoy the read! And the reread, they hold up great!
What do you mean there’s 6 books?! It was the earthsea quartet when I read it like 25 years ago?!
Yeah! There’s been more released since then! They’re enjoyable. And I’d argue they retain the same audience from back then, discussing and contemplating more advanced ideas, not that the others didn’t.
I don’t understand the love that the Dresden Files gets. Great idea with terrible execution. Butcher’s writing is just clumsy with bad dialogue and weak world building. The series was originally recommended to me because I was lamenting that Gibson had moved away from noir after Neuromancer and a friend thought Butcher would fit the bill.
Pet peeve of mine but grouping an entire series together as an entry in a list of individual books is so stupid. So many lists do this all over the net.
At least pick a stand out book from the series or something. Sorry but don’t promise me a list of 21 books then give me trilogies and series all getting their own single entry.
I came here to complain that there’s way more than 21 books on the list.
Read most of these and some I agree with, some I don’t.
Weeks is okay, but I don’t think Night Angel is a “must read”.
I liked the Dresden Files well enough, but I don’t think it is must-read either. They were fun reads, but he wouldn’t be in the top authors even of urban fantasy specifically.
I don’t read them really, but Harry Potter seems influential enough that it should probably be on the list. I might make a case for some Scott Lynch and Robin Hobb to be there too. Sorta surprised neither Terry Brooks nor Terry Goodkind made the cut either, though I haven’t personally read them since I was very young.
So, yes or no on the night Angel series? I enjoyed Week’s Prism series a lot, and have though about moving to his other books eventually.
Is it top 21 fantasy of all time material? No. But it’s a fun read, so give it a check out sometime.
