[nquixote]

Here's my list (http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R1MR9VQM062AYP/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb=).

A lot of fairly standard classics; relatively few recent works. A few underrated gems (Zimmer, Vance, Wurts). No Potter (sorry!). No Jordan (not so sorry!).

The list, btw, is:

LotR (Tolkien)
ASoIaF (Martin)
Earthsea (LeGuin)
Mordant's Need (Donaldson)
Prydain (Alexander)
Cycle of Fire (Wurts)
The Dark is Rising (Cooper)
The Dark Border (Zimmer)
The Belgariad (Eddings)
Lyonesse (Vance)
Amber (Zelazny)
Death Gate Cycle (Weis & Hickman)
Pern (McCaffrey)
Dying Earth (Vance)
Gentleman Bastards (Lynch)

[Rob B]

Why not either

1) Add to this thread: Rate fantasy series you've read out of 10 (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17480)

or better yet..

2) State your list here in this thread so people don't have to go someplace else, come back and go back and forth to comment? The idea for the thread isn't bad since we don't really have a specific thread ranking series.

Just trying to keep discussion in one place and easier for members of the forum to continue participation.

[owlcroft]

In the tabulation below, an * asterisk signifies a "series" of only two books (which, though, I reckon still qualifies).


Aegypt, by John Crowley
Alice, by Lewis Carroll *
The Argo Mythos, by R. A. Lafferty
Aspects of Power, by Charles Williams
The Biography of Manuel, by James Branch Cabell
The Books of Parable, by Walter Wangerin Jr. *
Discworld, by Terry Pratchett
The Flat Earth, by Tanith Lee
Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake
Jerusalem, by Edward Whittemore
Kai Lung, by Ernest Bramah
The Nightmare Has Triplets, by James Branch Cabell
Oz, by L. Frank Baum
Paradys, by Tanith Lee
Qfwfq, by Italo Calvino
Rondua, by Jonathan Carroll
The Shadow Valley Chronicles, by Lord Dunsany *
The San Veneficio Canon, by Michael Cisco *
Time and the Gods, by Lord Dunsany
Twombley Town, by James Blaylock
Venus, by Tanith Lee
Vergil Magus, by Avram Davidson
Viriconium, by M. John Harrison
Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne *
Zimiamvia, by E. R. Eddison

[Mithfânion]

I am baffled by the description of Janny Wurts' books as:

Starts out at a hurtling pace and speeds up from there

Which is about the very last thing you hear people say about her very deliberately writing style. As Wurts says, she writes in this style because she wants her readers to savour every word.

[nquixote]

Why not either

1) Add to this thread: Rate fantasy series you've read out of 10 (http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17480)


Please go ahead and merge the threads if you like! Didn't mean to make clutter...

[Rob B]

You've added the list, which is good enough for me.

A few in the middle of the list, I've never read so I can't comment:

Prydain (Alexander)
Cycle of Fire (Wurts)
The Dark is Rising (Cooper)
The Dark Border (Zimmer)
The Belgariad (Eddings)

Tough to argue with your top three, though towards the middle of the list I'd probably include Mistborn, Wheel of Time, The Dark Tower and The Prince of Nothing

[ebusinesstutor]

My own list would look like this (not necessarily in order):


Amber (Roger Zelazny)
Chalion (Lois McMaster Bujold)
Pern (Anne McCaffrey)
Valdemar (Mercedes Lackey)
Darkover (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

[Hitmouse]

It is interesting the number of people who have not come across the books of Lloyd Alexander (The Prydain books, which were out of print for ages but always available on amazon or ebay) or Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising and related books) Both of these were written ostensibly for children but are good on an adult level as well. Avoid the terrible film of The Dark is Rising, which has little resemblance to the book.
Both the Prydain and the Susan Cooper books are set against a well-evoked Welsh background.

If we can have Winnie the Pooh then we can also have the following splendid juvenilia:

Uncle (and the other Uncle books) by JP Martin
My Friend Mr Leakey by JBS Haldane
The 13 and a half Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers