TIME's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

[Ralif Redhammer]

Sir Terry appears with The Wee Free Men. A good choice, though I would've also included a main Discworld volume. Granted, picking out one in particular wouldn't have been an easy choice. Were I stuck with the luckless job of picking just one, I might go with Men At Arms, if nothing else for the Vimes' Boots theory. But I do think Wee Free Men's inclusion is entirely warranted.

Surprised David Eddings wasn’t on the list and didn’t see any Pratchett!!!!!

 

[Deset Gled]

Surprised David Eddings wasn’t on the list and didn’t see any Pratchett!!!!!

Good Omens is there. Honestly not my cup of tea, but I think it deserves its spot.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Thoughts on the list and comments in thread:

• The distinction between Fantasy & Science Fiction has always been a little wibbly-wobbly. L'Engle's stuff is definitely far more fantastical than sci-fi, honestly.
• Outlander is traaaaaaash
• I get that everyone loves Rothfuss but I wonder if history will be way less kind to The Name of the Wind which was tedious as all get out.
• Philosopher's Stone is iconic Harry Potter but also kind of bland in retrospect. Prisoner of Azkaban is a much better book, especially after book 2 suuuuccckkked. Also JK Rowling can take a short walk off a long pier
• Kind of shocked Mistborn is Sanderson's only entry on the list. It's the one to pick but I would have expected The Way of Kings also.
• Speaking of shocked, but pleasantly so, nice to see Six of Crows on this list. Might've expected Shadow and Bone but 6oC is definitely way better. Also, I would've expected to see the Lies of Locke Lamora repping the fantasy heist genre on here instead as well; I thought tons of people of loved that one.

Name of the Wind is awesome. Now if you said A Wise Man’s Fear, which was good, was also tedious at points I would totally agree.

 

[Mercurius]

That, that paints a bleak picture indeed. I love Name of the Wind, but I think the gorgeous language covers for some of the first-time author narrative flaws.



One thing that I think is important to keep in mind with these lists is that there is a difference between a book that is a legitimate great in the genre, and a book a person likes. While there will always be a subjective aspect to these lists, I like to think that they at least attempt to get at the heart of a universal greatness. Robert Asprin's "Myth" series has been a favorite of mine for long years, but there is categorically a difference between the adventures of Skeeve and, say, The King of Elfland's Daughter or The Fifth Season.

I'm reminded of a many time years ago when a coworker wondered why Arnold Schwarzenegger had never gotten an Academy Award. He was not joking.

Yes, very true. The TIME list has actually gotten me interested in creating a list of the 100 greatest fantasy books, but with an attempt to completely weed out my own preferences. Meaning, "greatest" within the tradition itself through influence and to what degree it expanded and added to the tradition. A lot of my favorites wouldn't be on that list. If I get it to a point that I feel happy with I'll post it in this forum.

 

[Mercurius]

Thoughts on the list and comments in thread:

• Kind of shocked Mistborn is Sanderson's only entry on the list. It's the one to pick but I would have expected The Way of Kings also.

Sanderson is an interesting case, because he's certainly prolific, and his books are of solid quality, with a ton of great ideas. But none of them feel like "great" books to me. So while I agree that he should be considered, it would be hard for me to justify him holding more than one place, and it seems that Mistborn is his most highly regarded work, even if I personally preferred the world-building of Stormlight.

 

[GreyLord]

This list is just problematic...

The list itself has books I have never even heard of, much less read. I'm a pretty broad reader of fantasy these days and have my own library of thousands of books (one of the largest library collections of fantasy books in the area from what I can tell). That doesn't really qualify me, as it is more of a local thing, but many of these books were not even considered to be in my library. They were not considered to be important enough to be in the public libraries around here (so good luck at even borrowing it in the local library system, they'd have to go out and request it from outside the local network)...

This list shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone I think.

It isn't THAT hard to make a list of the 100 most influential fantasy books today and have most of the books as something most would recognize, or one that those in the hobby would recognize almost every book as being an important facet in the hobby.

Here's one that seems a LOT MORE relevant and actually knows more about what it's talking about.

Top 100 Fantasy Books

Still not that great or perfect by any shot, but more on spot than Time's I think. Still many problems, but at least the top looks like what I'd think a list of this sort would start looking like.

 

[Gradine]

Sir Terry appears with The Wee Free Men. A good choice, though I would've also included a main Discworld volume. Granted, picking out one in particular wouldn't have been an easy choice. Were I stuck with the luckless job of picking just one, I might go with Men At Arms, if nothing else for the Vimes' Boots theory. But I do think Wee Free Men's inclusion is entirely warranted.

Vimes' Boots Theory should be taught in basically high school economics class. Genius, but then, it's to be expected.

Eddings again is not someone I would ever expect on a list like this. He's kind of a hack, but that's also sort of his shtick, and it's when he really leans into it that he's at his most fun. Basically anything set in the Belgariad universe, for a start.

 

[Mercurius]

This list is just problematic...

The list itself has books I have never even heard of, much less read. I'm a pretty broad reader of fantasy these days and have my own library of thousands of books (one of the largest library collections of fantasy books in the area from what I can tell). That doesn't really qualify me, as it is more of a local thing, but many of these books were not even considered to be in my library. They were not considered to be important enough to be in the public libraries around here (so good luck at even borrowing it in the local library system, they'd have to go out and request it from outside the local network)...

This list shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone I think.

It isn't THAT hard to make a list of the 100 most influential fantasy books today and have most of the books as something most would recognize, or one that those in the hobby would recognize almost every book as being an important facet in the hobby.

Here's one that seems a LOT MORE relevant and actually knows more about what it's talking about.

Top 100 Fantasy Books

Still not that great or perfect by any shot, but more on spot than Time's I think. Still many problems, but at least the top looks like what I'd think a list of this sort would start looking like.

Hardly better and just as random. Eragon at #10? Must be a popularity context.

 

[MNblockhead]

Did you see this?

'Kingkiller Chronicle' Editor Believes Author Hasn't Written in Years

The editor of the "Kingkiller Chronicle" series recently shared her belief that author Patrick Rothfuss hasn't made much progress on Book 3, "The Doors of Stone," in recent years.

www.newsweek.com

No. I don't usually follow news about authors or participate in fan discussion groups.

I think Rothfuss may have too many distractions, growing family, the TV adaption of his show, and other books he's published in the mean time. We may have a situation like Game of Thrones, where the TV show overtakes the books.

As a fan, I don't care. I would rather not have a third book than a disappointing third book. If he is stuck in writers block, I would rather him wait until he has inspiration to write a great book.

I know it is different for the publishers. If it were me and if I had other sources of income, I would avoid entering a contract for the book before it was done. It would also avoid a situation like this, where he may be stuck with an editor who is disparaging him publicly. I found Wollheim's actions here very unprofessional and I would not want to continue working with someone who acted like this. Perhaps she is so good that he feels the need to keep working with her, maybe contractually he has to, but if it were me, I would want to find someone else.

 

[MNblockhead]

<snip>

I think Name of the Wind would be well worth reading from an inspirational persepctive, even if one never read the second one, or the third never comes out. (And I really liked the Slow Regard of Silent Things which ties in).

I think I may need to give Slow Regard of Silent Things another chance. I just couldn't get into it.

But I agree that Name of the Wind is well worth reading even if you never read another book in the series. The second book was entertaining but was not nearly as good as Name of the Wind.