SFFWorld's unofficial Top 20 Fantasy Series List

[chris777]

SFFworld's unofficial Top 20 list.

I have calculated all the results and we have locked all voting. Top 20 below is the final list. Thanks to everyone who submitted their top10.

Here is the Top 20 list as of Fri June 5th 2015.

1. Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
2. As Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
3. Malazan by Steven Erikson
4. First Law by Joe Abercrombie
5. Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
6. EarthSea by Urula LeGuin
7. King Killer by Patrick Rothfuss
8. Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
9. Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
10. Farseer by Robin Hobb
11. Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson
12. Dark Tower by Stephen King
13. Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
14. Prince of Nothing by R Scott Bakker
15. Memory Sorrow Thorn by Tad Williams
16. Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
17. Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
18. Discworld by Terry Pratchett
19. Bas-Lag by China Mieville
20. Acts of Caine by Mathew Stover

Click here for a cleaner version with some extra data and interesting facts!

Click here for the raw data.

 

[chris777]

I will start.

1. First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
2. Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
3. Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
4. Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
5. Rift War Saga by Raymond E Feist
6. King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
7. Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker
8. Acts of Caine by Mathew Stover
9. Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
10. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Honorable Mentions:
The Black Company - Glen Cook
I actually have this tied with Mistborn and Night Angel.(I rate my books immediately after reading them). But I give slight edge to those 2 for no real good reason.

Riyria Revelations - Michael J Sullivan
Broken Empire - Mark Lawrence
These got real close to breaking the top 10 as well.

Malazan Empire - Ian Cameron Esslemont
If ranked on it's own this would probably be #7 on my list.(I've debated changing it) The problem is that this ties so closely with Malazan Book of the Fallen that it's hard for me to separate the two, so I usually just credit that series and author. Sorry ICE.

And as a disclaimer, there are several books I have not read yet that I think have good chance of breaking my top 10:

• Raven’s Shadow
• Aspect Emperor
• Sword of Shadows
• Kharkanas Trilogy
• Lightbringer
• Gentlemen Bastard Sequence
• The Stormlight Archive

 

[Heather Myst]

1. A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin
2. The Second Sons by Jennifer Fallon
3. Best Served Cold/First Law by Joe Abercrombie
4. Riyria Revelations by Michael Sullivan
5. Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
6. Night Angel by Brent Weeks
7. Riyria Chronicles by michael Sullivan
8. Tyrants and Kings by John Marco
9. The Quickening by Fiona McIntosh
10. The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

 

[farseer2]

Only series? That mostly takes us to epic fantasy...

I think the point system is not very fair... there's not that much difference in quality between the entries...

1- Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
2- A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
3- Farseer Trilogy (or the whole The Realm of the Elderlings, if that's allowable), Robin Hobb
4- Prince of Nothing, R. Scott Bakker
5- First Law, Joe Abercrombie
6- Earthsea Cycle, Ursula K LeGuin
7- The KingKiller Chronicle, Patrick Rothfuss
8- Acts of Caine, Mathew Stover
9- Discworld, Terry Pratchett
10- The Long Price Quartet, Daniel Abraham

 

[Ryan Mueller]

What's the rule on unfinished series? How many books need to be out?

 

[chris777]

What's the rule on unfinished series? How many books need to be out?

No rule. If it's good enough to be on your top 10 put it there. I would personally prefer more than 1 be out. But Name of the Wind might have been good enough, imo, to make the list alone.

 

[chris777]

Only series? That mostly takes us to epic fantasy...

I think the point system is not very fair... there's not that much difference in quality between the entries...

1- Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
2- A Song of Ice and Fire, George RR Martin
3- Farseer Trilogy (or the whole The Realm of the Elderlings, if that's allowable), Robin Hobb
4- Prince of Nothing, R. Scott Bakker
5- First Law, Joe Abercrombie
6- Earthsea Cycle, Ursula K LeGuin
7- The KingKiller Chronicle, Patrick Rothfuss
8- Acts of Caine, Mathew Stover
9- Discworld, Terry Pratchett
10- The Long Price Quartet, Daniel Abraham

I think we should have another thread soon with just single novel fantasy series.

Not sure what would be fair. So instead of inventing my own or just going 10-1, I found Formula one's system. Eh why not. But personally I think in general it is fair. Maybe for your personal rankings it isn't, but when combining the whole it is. End of the day this is just for fun and not some official list.

 

[mars]

1. First Law - Abercrombie
2. A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin
3. Lyonesse - Vance
4. Bas-Lag - Mieville
5. Malazan - Erikson
6. Riftwar - Feist
7. Dresden - Butcher
8. Broken Empire - Lawrence
9. Prince of Nothing - Bakker
10. Stormlight Archive - Sanderson

 

[Bmet]

1. The Malazan Book of the Fallen - Erikson
2. The Dark Tower - King
3. A Song of Ice and Fire - Martin
4. Memory, Sorry, and Thorn - Williams
5. Lord of the Rings - Tolkein
6. The Wheel of Time - Jordan
7. The Sword of Truth - Goodkind
8. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Donaldson
9. The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone - Keyes
10. Original Shannara Trilogy - Brooks




I imagine over time, the bottom few will change quite a bit, but as of right now, I can't think of anything else I've read. I have a lot of stuff listed by you guys in my home library and will get to it eventually... but with mixing in tons of horror and sci-fi and historical stuff with my fantasy reading, I've really only conquered the above, along with a few others that I would have liked to include (from Williams... Otherland and Shadowmarch I'd place higher than the bottom three on my list) but only wanted to choose one series per author.

 

[N. E. White]

Fun! I'll post my top 10 later today...or tomorrow...must think on it...this is important!

 

[Essord]

1. J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord Of The Rings
2. Roger Zelazny - Amber novels
3. Steven Erikson - Malazan novels
4. Stephen King - The Dark Tower novels
5. Tanith Lee - Tales From The Flat Earth
6. George R.R. Martin - A Song Of Ice And Fire
7. Jack Vance - Lyonesse Trilogy
8. Glen Cook - The Black Company series
9. Ursula LeGuin - EarthSea
10. Tad Williams - Memory Sorrow & Thorn

 

[NickeeCoco]

1. Damar - Robin McKinley
2. Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson
3. Ealdwood - C.J. Cherryh
4. Riddle-Master - Patricia A. McKillip
5. Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
6. The Deed of Paksenarrion - Elizabeth Moon
7. The Fortress series - C.J. Cherryh
8. The Rai-Kirah - Carol Berg
9. Annals of the Western Shore - Ursula K. Le Guin
10. The First Law - Joe Abercrombie

 

[Ntschotschi]

1. Lord of the Rings Tolkien
2. Terry Pratchett Discworld
3. Julian May Many-Colored Land
4. Robin Hobb Liveship Traders
5. George Martin Song of Ice and Fire
6. Steven Erikson Malazaan
6. Michell West Sunsword
7. Kate Elliott Crown of Stars
8. Daniel Abraham Dagger and Coin
9. Joe Abercrombie First Law
10. Juliet Marillier Sevenwaters

I find it really difficult to chose so I opted for a broad range

 

[william.shumate]

1. Low Town - Daniel Polansky
2. The Gentlemen Bastards Sequence - Scott Lynch
3. The Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
4. The Legend of Drizzt - R.A. Salvatore
5. The Broken Empire - Mark Lawrence
6. A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
7. First Law - Joe Abercrombie
8. Tales of the Kin - Douglas Hulick
9. King Killer Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss
10. Night Angel Trilogy - Brent weeks

 

[chris777]

Need more voters! 9 posts in 3days isn't going to get much of a list. I see 170 views of this thread!

 

[slindeman]

1. James P. Blaylock - Balumnia
2. J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
3. Brandon Sanderson - Stormlight Archive
4. Terry Pratchett - Discworld
5. Robert Howard - Conan
6. Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow, Thorn
7. Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn
8. Roger Zelazny - Amber
9. David Gemmell - Rigante
10. Fritz Leiber - Lankhmar

 

[phil_geo]

Very interesting so far. No votes for Discworld, Thomas Covenant or Book of the New Sun and only one for Gentlemen Bastards. Only two for Mistborn. And that is in the top ten! I thought Gentlemen Bastards would be near the top for many people. I'll have my list soon, I need to go look at my shelves.

 

[farseer2]

I thought Gentlemen Bastards would be near the top for many people.

I found the first one very enjoyable, but the second one was a bit of a disappointment. I stopped reading there, and will probably read the whole series when it is finished.

 

[phil_geo]

I found Lies somewhat enjoyable, but I had a lot of problems with it as well. Having Locke spend about 100 pages finding clothing so he could actually move the plot forward was one major annoyance. I know that part was supposed to be fascinating and impress you with the complex subterfuge, but I found it very tedious. Another was that the mark he chooses at the beginning is a good person - why do I want them to succeed in ruining him? I had no one to root for through most of the book. I thought I was in the minority, but judging from people's lists, I guess not.

Actually, none of the series I listed would be in my top ten, but based on posts I've read over the years, I would have predicted they would be on many people's lists. And who knows, they still may show up!

 

[Ochos]

1. Lord of the rings - Tolkien
2. Malazan book of the fallen - Erikson
3. The Belgariad - Eddings
4. The Mallorean - Eddings
5. Chronicles of Amber - Zelazny
6. Kingkiller - Rothfuss
7. Rangers Aprentice - Flanagan
8. First Law - Abercrombie
9. John Carter of Mars - Burroughs
10. The Sword of Truth - Goodkind

this is only because I didnt think to much, if I had, I would be here all year!!!