SFFWorld's unofficial Top 20 Fantasy Series List

[Ryan Mueller]

I must be out of touch with this community because very few of the top twenty made my top ten. There were a few more that made my honorable mentions, but I was honestly underwhelmed by a lot of the series listed in the top twenty.

 

[Luke_B]

Ryan -- not much correlation between my top ten and the top ranked in voting, but that's why I love engaging with this community -- there wouldn't be much point in having a conversation with somebody with exactly the same opinion as me. Might as well go chat to a mirror

 

[NickeeCoco]

The way you put it all together, Chris, looks great. Thanks for doing this.

Only three of my selections made it to the top twenty, but they are the three that do not surprise me.

 

[Bmet]

Was I the only person to have The Sword of Truth on my list? Lol!

 

[Ochos]

Was I the only person to have The Sword of Truth on my list? Lol!

I had it as well. Like the author or not, its still an excellent series in my opinion

 

[chris777]

I must be out of touch with this community because very few of the top twenty made my top ten. There were a few more that made my honorable mentions, but I was honestly underwhelmed by a lot of the series listed in the top twenty.

The list is odd for me. My favorites are on there, but so are books that I didn't like at all. Earthsea, Bas-Lag, Farseer, Memory-Sorrow-Thorn, and the last half of the Amber books. Didn't care for them.

 

[Heather Myst]

it was odd for me too. There were two books in the top twenty I was not even familiar with and one in the top four that I think may be my least favorite series I have ever read. The strong showing by the older books surprised me too.

 

[Contrarius]

The list is odd for me. My favorites are on there, but so are books that I didn't like at all. Earthsea, Bas-Lag, Farseer, Memory-Sorrow-Thorn, and the last half of the Amber books. Didn't care for them.

I haven't read Bas-Lag or Memory, Sorrow, Thorn, but IMHO Earthsea and Farseer both have very strong styles and voices that will lend themselves to particular audiences and not others. Farseer, for instance, really requires a fan of angst for full appreciation.

 

[bard`s song]

From nowaday`s point of view (I still have to read series like Farseer etc.):

1. GRRM - ASoIaF
2. Tolkien - Lord of the rings
3. Daniel Abraham - The Dagger and the Coin
4. R. Scott Bakker - Prince of Nothing
5. David Anthony Durham - Acacia
6. Col Buchanan - Heart of the World
7. Miles Cameron - Traitor Son Cyclce
8. Mark T. Barnes - Echoes of Empire
9. Elspeth Cooper - Wild Hunt
10. Joe Abercrombie - The first Law


I have bad feelings for leaving out great authors like Patrick Rothfuss, Stephen Deas, Ken Scholes etc. etc.
Maybe Daniel Abraham would have got a second place with TLPQ but I did not want to leave another author out of my list.

 

[ezchaos]

I'm going to need to clean the cobwebs out for this one. I'm sure I'm probably forgetting some older series.

1. Lord of the Rings- JRR Tolkien
2. Malazan Book of the Fallen-Steven Erikson
3. Earthsea-Ursula LeGuin
4. Book of the New Sun-Gene Wolfe
4. First Law series-Joe Abercrombie
5. Broken Empire-Mark Lawrence
6. Dresden Files-Jim Butcher
7. Bas Lag-China Mieville
8. Discworld-Terry Pratchett
9. Chronicles of Thomas Covenant-Stephen Donaldson
10. A Song of Ice and Fire-George RR Margin

 

[Andor]

1.Rothfuss - Kingkiller
2.Hobb - Farseer
3.Sanderson - Stormlight
4.Anthony Ryan - Ravens Shadow (First book was the best I have ever read)
5.Abercrombie - First Law
6.Harry Potter
7.Stephen Donaldson - Mordants Need
8.J V Jones - Sword of Shadows
9.Pullman - His dark materials
10.Dave Duncan - A man of his word

Guess I surprise myself when im totally honest that Malazan/WoT/GRRM don't make it, but they don't.. Also I realize that my favorites are mostly unfinished but they are what I consider my favorite book series. Undisputed top 5, the rest could be in any order really.

 

[Rulkez]

Well this isn't easy but I guess I'll give it a go

1. Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
2. Malazan (including the ICE books) - Erikson/ICE
3. The Macht trilogy - Paul Kearney
4. ASoIaF - GRRM
5. Dagger and the Coin - Daniel Abraham
6. Tales of the Ketty Jay - Chris Wooding
7. First Law - Joe Abercrombie (Though I would prefer to consider all his books set in the same world as one body of work)
8. Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
9. Word & Void - Terry Brooks
10. Milkweed Triptych - Ian Tregillis

Honourable mentions

Ravens Shadow - Anthony Ryan

One of the best début novels I think I have ever read but having not read Tower Lord yet I didn't want to ass this to the list.

Travellers Gate - Will Wight

A hugely undermentioned series that would be enjoyed by anyone who liked the likes of Brent Weeks / Peter V Brett / Sanderson

Black Company - Glen Cook

I loved Malazan in no small part due to the whole grizzled veteran dynamic with the Bridgeburners / Bonehunters etc and this is one of the series that Erikson took influence from. It's also a fantastic series on it's own merits and well worth a read.

Like most I also really enjoyed Gentlemen Bastards , Night Angel and the Demon Cycle , just not enough to add them to my top 10

 

[chris777]

So we've had 8 new rankings since the list was published. Hoping to get a couple more, as I may not recalculate again for awhile. I will give it this week and see how many more we can get.

KatG? Mr Lawrence? Mr Sullivan? Rob? Wert? Amethyst? Hobbit? Loerwyn? EA?

Need to do the /u/EvilAgent to ping someone.

 

[Spears&Buckler]

A difficult list to make which really ate into my work day. Chris777, you should be ashamed of yourself and my boss will be speaking to you shortly.

1. The Thomas Covenant Saga (including all 3 chronicles) by Stephen R. Donaldson
2. The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker
3. The Acts of Caine by Matthew Woodring Stover
4. The Low Town trilogy by Daniel Polansky
5. The Lord of the Rings by JRRT
6. The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
7. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
8. A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM
9. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
10. The First Law by Joe Abercrombie

 

[Bodhi]

A difficult list to make which really ate into my work day. Chris777, you should be ashamed of yourself and my boss will be speaking to you shortly.

1. The Thomas Covenant Saga (including all 3 chronicles) by Stephen R. Donaldson
2. The Prince of Nothing by R. Scott Bakker
3. The Acts of Caine by Matthew Woodring Stover
4. The Low Town trilogy by Daniel Polansky
5. The Lord of the Rings by JRRT
6. The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence
7. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
8. A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM
9. The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
10. The First Law by Joe Abercrombie

I like how two of the names don't even need their last names spelled out. They are above being named, needing only their initials. Certainly a position to aspire to, especially since the honor is given against company like that.

 

[Snook]

1. GRRM for the first three ASoIaF books
2. Joe Abercrombie for the First Law trilogy
3. Chris Wooding for the Braided Path
4. David Gemmell for Troy
5. Jacqueline Carey for Kushiel's Legacy
6. Garth Nix for the Abhorsen trilogy
7. Jennifer Fallon for the Second Sons trilogy
8. Robert Redick for the Chartrand Voyage
9. Scott Bakker for The Prince of Nothing trilogy
10. Brian Staveley’s Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne

 

[farseer2]

I like how two of the names don't even need their last names spelled out. They are above being named, needing only their initials. Certainly a position to aspire to, especially since the honor is given against company like that.

Well, that's not so difficult to achieve. When people say "F2" everyone knows they are referring to me. They even have a key in my honor in the keyboard.

 

[phil_geo]

Well in the top 10, the only series I haven't read is The Dark Tower, which I never considered reading until now. If people rate it that highly, maybe I will give it a try. Is that the one that is a Western? I like Western movies, but I was never very enthused about Louis Lamour books.

 

[chris777]

Well in the top 10, the only series I haven't read is The Dark Tower, which I never considered reading until now. If people rate it that highly, maybe I will give it a try. Is that the one that is a Western? I like Western movies, but I was never very enthused about Louis Lamour books.

Dark Tower is a Western/SciFi book in a fantasy world with horror elements.

 

[Ryan Mueller]

Dark Tower is a Western/SciFi book in a fantasy world with horror elements.

And a lot of walking. There's some really great stuff in there, but do they have to spend page after page walking?