A Nice Condensed List of Essential Modern Fantasy

[sullivan_riyria]

I saw this over at reddit, and thought some people here might find it interesting or helpful when looking for recommendations. A guy set out to create a list of good books to read and used the following criteria:

• Must be considered a work of fantasy foremost
• Must have at least 1,000 ratings on Goodreads
• Must have at least 3.80 overall rating on Goodreads
• Only one book per fantasy world (Discworld, Midkemia etc)
• Only the first book of a series allowed
• No compilation books allowed
• No Young Adult fiction / Children's Literature
• Must be published after 1857

The List
1858 George MacDonald - Phantastes
1894 Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan
1895 George Macdonald - Lilith
1908 G. K. Chesterton - The Man Who Was Thursday
1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan of the Apes
1922 E. R. Eddison - The Worm Ourobouros
1924 Lord Dunsany - The King of Elfland's Daughter
1927 H.P. Lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
1936 Robert E. Howard - The Hour of the Dragon
1946 Mervyn Peake - Titus Groan
1950 Jack Vance - The Dying Earth
1954 J. R. R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
1962 Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked This Way Comes
1966 Roger Zelazny - This Immortal
1967 Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light
1969 Roger Zelazny - Creatures of Light and Darkness
1970 Fritz Leiber - Swords and Deviltry
1970 Jack Finney - Time and Again
1970 Katherine Kurtz - Deryni Rising
1970 Roger Zelazny - Nine Princes in Amber
1971 Roger Zelazny - Jack of Shadows
1972 Michael Moorcock - Elric of Melniboné
1974 Richard Matheson - Somewhere in Time
1976 Roger Zelazny - Doorways in the Sand
1977 Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come
1977 Piers Anthony - A Spell for Chameleon
1979 Tim Powers - The Drawing of the Dark
1980 Gene Wolfe - The Shadow of the Torturer
1980 Jonathan Carroll - The Land of Laughs
1981 John Crowley - Little, Big
1982 Marion Zimmer-Bradley - The Mists Of Avalon
1982 Barbara Hambly - The Time of the Dark
1982 David Eddings - Pawn of Prophecy
1982 Steven King - The Gunslinger
1982 Raymond E. Feist - Magician
1983 Piers Anthony - On A Pale Horse
1983 George R. R. Martin - Fevre Dream
1983 Tim Powers - The Anubis Gates
1983 Steven Brust - Jhereg
1983 Mark Helprin - Winter's Tale
1983 Sir Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic
1984 Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Dragons of Autumn Twilight
1984 Guy Gavriel Kay - The Summer Tree
1984 Glen Cook - The Black Company
1984 David Gemmell - Legend
1984 Barry Hughart - Bridge of Birds
1985 Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood
1985 Barbara Hambly - Dragonsbane
1986 Katherine Kerr - Daggerspell
1987 Clive Barker - Weaveworld
1987 Orson Scott Card - Seventh Son
1987 Jonathan Carroll - Bones of the Moon
1987 Tim Powers - On Stranger Tides
1987 Ken Grimwood - Replay
1987 David Gemmell - Wolf in Shadow
1988 Elizabeth Moon - Sheepfarmer's Daughter
1988 Tad Williams - The Dragonbone Chair
1989 David Eddings - The Diamond Throne
1989 Tim Powers - The Stress of Her Regard
1990 Robert Jordan - The Eye of the World
1990 Guy Gavriel Kay - Tigana
1990 R. A. Salvatore - Homeland
1990 Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - Dragon Wing
1990 Sir Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - Good Omens
1991 Simon R. Green - Blue Moon Rising
1991 C. S. Friedman - Black Sun Rising
1992 Tim Powers - Last Call
1992 David Gemmell - Morningstar
1992 Guy Gavriel Kay - A Song for Arbonne
1993 Andrzej Sapkowski - The Last Wish
1993 Roger Zelazny - A Night in the Lonesome October
1993 Joel Rosenberg - The Sleeping Dragon
1994 Terry Goodkind - Wizard's First Rule
1995 Christopher Priest - The Prestige
1995 Bernard Cornwell - The Winter King
1995 Sara Douglass - The Wayfarer Redemption
1995 Guy Gavriel Kay - The Lions of al-Rassan
1996 Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
1996 Robin Hobb - Assassin's Apprentice
1996 George R.R. Martin - A Game of Thrones
1998 Kristen Britain - Green Rider
1998 Guy Gavriel Kay - Sailing to Sarantium
1998 Sergei Lukyanenko - Night Watch
1998 Matthew Stover - Heroes Die
1998 Anne Bishop - Daughter of the Blood
1999 Steven Erikson - Gardens of the Moon
2000 Jim Butcher - Storm Front
2000 David Gemmell - Sword in the Storm
2000 China Miéville - Perdido Street Station
2000 Tim Powers - Declare
2000 Carol Berg - Transformation
2001 Lynn Flewelling - The Bone Doll's Twin
2002 Lois McMaster Bujold - The Curse of Chalion
2004 Jim Butcher - Furies of Calderon
2004 Guy Gavriel Kay - The Last Light of the Sun
2005 David Gemmell - Lord of the Silver Bow
2005 Brandon Sanderson - Elantris
2005 Neil Gaiman - American Gods
2006 Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora
2006 Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn - The Final Empire
2006 Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself
2007 Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind
2007 Simon R. Green - The Man With the Golden Torc
2008 Brent Weeks - The Way of Shadows
2009 Brandon Sanderson - Warbreaker
2009 China Miéville - The City and the City
2009 Jonathan L. Howard - The Necromancer
2009 Peter V. Brett - The Warded Man
2009 Chris Wooding - Retribution Falls
2010 Brandon Sanderson - The Way of Kings
2010 Brent Weeks - The Black Prism
2010 Guy Gavriel Kay - Under Heaven
2010 Nnedi Okorafor - Who Fears Death
2011 Michael J. Sullivan - Theft of Swords
2011 Douglas Hulick - Among Thieves
2011 Kevin Hearne - Hounded
2011 Mark Lawrence - Prince of Thorns
2011 Ben Aaronovitch - Midnight Riot

If the other list grows I'll try to keep this one up to date. Some good titles to be sure.

[Loerwyn]

Well, I could cut that down by a few already...

[phil_geo]

Great list! I wouldn't call it "essential" given the method, I would call it most popular.

As an engineer, I appreciate the crowd sourcing of the list for a popularity contest. It's like the top 100 movies on imdb, as chosen by thousands of people. People can push up a book when it first comes out, but eventually it returns to a steady state.

Missing from the list:

Fred Saberhagen - Complete Book of Swords This surprises me.
TH White - The Once and Future King - out of favor the last 15 years or so
Anne Bishop - Black Jewels - I like her, but not that surprising it didn't make the list
Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte D'Arthur - also not surprising, it's essential but not popular

Other than that, I can't think of any books that belong on the list that aren't there already. Not bad, Interweb!

Whoops just noticed Phillip Pullman, His Dark Meterials isn't on there. That is also a big surprise. Was it considered scifi?

[sullivan_riyria]

Great list! I wouldn't call it "essential" given the method, I would call it most popular.

As an engineer, I appreciate the crowd sourcing of the list for a popularity contest. It's like the top 100 movies on imdb, as chosen by thousands of people. People can push up a book when it first comes out, but eventually it returns to a steady state.

Missing from the list:

Fred Saberhagen - Complete Book of Swords This surprises me.
TH White - The Once and Future King - out of favor the last 15 years or so
Anne Bishop - Black Jewels - I like her, but not that surprising it didn't make the list
Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte D'Arthur - also not surprising, it's essential but not popular

Other than that, I can't think of any books that belong on the list that aren't there already. Not bad, Interweb!

Whoops just noticed Phillip Pullman, His Dark Meterials isn't on there. That is also a big surprise. Was it considered scifi?

Good point...I just copied his title for the list, but yours seems more appopriate. I'll pass your titles back over there but update mine as well.

[sullivan_riyria]

• Fred Saberhagen - Complete Book of Swords - rating is 3.70, which is below the threshold he placed.
• TH White - The Once and Future King - rating 4.02 so it qualifies
• Anne Bishop - Black Jewels - rating 4.18 and more than 1,000 reviews so qualifies - I added it to mine
• Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte D'Arthur - rating is good but too few reviews it only has 684 needs at least 1,000.
• Phillip Pullman, His Dark - it's classified as YA based on Amazon categories

Keep them coming though...would like the list to be as comprehensive as possible.

[Heather Myst]

I was glad to see Theft of Swords made the list. Congrats Michael!

[Mithfânion]

The value of such a list is mainly so that people less informed can get good recommendations. People see titles, check them out on Amazon, and think "hey I want that". And that's good. A definitive list can not be made anyway, and certainly this does not strike me as such, but it has loads of good titles nevertheless.

[RedMage]

Great list! I wouldn't call it "essential" given the method, I would call it most popular.

As an engineer, I appreciate the crowd sourcing of the list for a popularity contest. It's like the top 100 movies on imdb, as chosen by thousands of people. People can push up a book when it first comes out, but eventually it returns to a steady state.

Missing from the list:

Sir Thomas Malory - Le Morte D'Arthur - also not surprising, it's essential but not popular

........

Whoops just noticed Phillip Pullman, His Dark Meterials isn't on there. That is also a big surprise. Was it considered scifi?

Actually, Malory cannot be included on the list as he was a medieval writer. Le Morte D'Arthur was first published in 1485, per wikipedia and the list can only contain books published after 1857. But I do agree, Pullman's His Dark Materials should be on the list. I am also wondering where Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is at, published 1865.

When I go to bookstores I usually take a list of three to five books I want to get. They will usually only have two or three and yet, I still want to get at least four. I rarely look at these lists or even the "recommend me something like..." lists. I prefer to see what others are reading currently and go from there. Still, if I am in the mood for a particular subgenre or I want to read something I know will be good, then I do turn to these lists and the recommendation threads. As others have said, the rec threads are just so specific and the best of lists are, while good about older books, very subjective when it comes to new books from the last decade.

[DailyRich]

Absolutely no Stephen R. Donaldson??

[phil_geo]

Lord Foul's Bane is only rated 3.7, but several other books in the series are at 3.95, so does that mean the first book in the series gets on there? Hmmmm...

Alice's Adventures has a solid 4.03 rating with over 125,000 reviews. It's also the third most quoted book in the English language, so props.

Good call on Malory, although my translation was written in 1957 (Baines). It didn't look quite 500 years old. First edition would probably be worth quite a bit.

[sullivan_riyria]

I was glad to see Theft of Swords made the list. Congrats Michael!

Thank's Heather...I of course am glad as well. It's pretty amazing company to find myself in.

[sullivan_riyria]

. I am also wondering where Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is at, published 1865.

My Guess is because it's not "adult" It's classified by Amazon as:

Books > Teens > Literature & Fiction

He was limiting his list to adult fiction. Which is also why Pullman isn't listed.

[sullivan_riyria]

Lord Foul's Bane is only rated 3.7, but several other books in the series are at 3.95, so does that mean the first book in the series gets on there? Hmmmm...

Alice's Adventures has a solid 4.03 rating with over 125,000 reviews. It's also the third most quoted book in the English language, so props.

Good call on Malory, although my translation was written in 1957 (Baines). It didn't look quite 500 years old. First edition would probably be worth quite a bit.

For right or wrong I think his requirements are the first book has to be 3.80 or higher...which is probably why Lord Foul's Bane was knocked out.

Alice as I mentioned elsewhere is not classified as "adult".

[Obtuse]

Very nice, Michael. Thanks for sharing. Looks like I have a bit of research to do, especially on the older titles.

I will say, however, that the absence of The Darkness That Comes Before by R. Scott Bakker from this list (whether it reflects essentiality or merely popularity) is criminal. That it has only a 3.76 rating, while something as horrid as Green Rider by Kristen Britain has a 4.07, is nearly unfathomable.

[Baslim]

What about the Canterbury Tales?