10 Favorite Fantasy Books/Series + 10 Others

[Mercurius]

This is inspired by the TIME 100 best fantasy novels thread. I'd like to see what we can come up with for our own list.

The idea is to do two lists:

List One: Your ten all-time favorite fantasy books or series. Not the ones you think have the greatest influence or are "objectively" the best written, but your personal favorites, guilty pleasure or no. Desert island books, if you will.

List Two: Ten other books that you would like to mention, for whatever reason: books you think are great, even if they're not among your favorites; noteworthy or influential books that you wouldn't want to see ignored; honorable mentions, or simply books you think should be mentioned in any such discussion. The key is that this second list is not meant to be an extension of List One, but books that you recognize as all-time greats but aren't on your first list, for whatever reason.

Oh, yeah: count series as a single entry (e.g. Wheel of Time), but separate books that aren't part of one story (e.g. the Hobbit, LotR, and the Silmarillion should be three separate entries).

Maybe if we get enough responses, I'll compile them and create an "EN World Top X Fantasy books."

I've got to run some errands, but will write my lists later. Have at it.

 

[Zaukrie]

These are books I'm willing to re-read......so they must be good.

Every book by Guy Gavriel Kay (we'll count this as one......very little fantasy in here, though.......)
The Deed of Paksanarion by Elizabeth Moon
The Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust
The Hobbit
The Black Company trilogy
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (you really should read this, really, trust me)
Dune (sue me.....the powers Paul gets are fantastic)
A Storm of Swords (there are issues with the books, but this one is great)
The Coldfire Trilogy by CS Friedman

I feel like the first Magicians book should be here, but the sequels and tv show make me doubt it some....
Redwall might be the best decision we ever made for reading out loud to our sons back in the day


Sci Fi list:
Dune (if you won't let me have it above)
Foundation
Red Rising trilogy (great stuff-----should be an HBO series)
The Dispossessed
Farenheit 451
I Robot
1984
Ender's Game

 

[aco175]

The Time's list was ok- several I have never read. This needs to be on my list though.

 

[Zardnaar]

Elenium David Eddings
Mallorean Eddings
Riftwar Saga Feist
Serpent war Saga Feist
Legacy of Shannara Terry Brooks
Empire Trilogy Feist

 

[doctorbadwolf]

• Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay deserves it's own mention. The tragedy of it is...well I wept openly the first time I ready it, and every single time I've read it since. Maybe 6 times?
• The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. Same as above, and I'll include Ysabel with this rather than on it's own, since it involves characters from the Tapestry. IMO the best "characters from the real world go to a fantasy world" work out there. I still have strong emotional moods as a result of thinking about a given scene or character or story element. Kim, at the sacred lake, or Diarmuid, or Kevin...oh, Kevin...I might cry again just thinking about Kevin...and of the echo of his story at the end of Ysabel...
• Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. Especially as read by Tim Curry on audible. Just perfection.
• The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher. If you like audiobooks at all, listen to James Marsters read the series on Audible. You can read the whole series for no more than the cost of your subscription, if you return each book in turn to get the next. If you're like me, you'll burn through them faster than Harry burns through minor enemies.
• The Lord of The Rings. There is poetry in nearly every line of this work.
• The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Yes, it's fantasy. Don't @ me.
• Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin. Some of the best wizardy fantasy out there.
• Dragonlance, especially the Chronicles and Legends
• Shannara series by Terry Brooks, including the Running With The Demon books
• Anything by Neil Gaiman, but especially Neverwhere and his short stories

Additional works that I just love or think deserve mention:

• Terry Pratchet's Discworld books
• Brent Weeks Shadow books
• Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
• Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab
• Various works by Mercedes Lackey
• The Belgariad and Elenium by David Eddings
• Ghostwalker by Erick Scott De Bie.
• Erevis Cale stories by Paul S. Kemp

I'm sure i could think of others, and I'll regret not putting something on the list, but for now that's it.

 

[Alzrius]

In no particular order:

• King of the Dead, by Gene DeWeese
• Knight of the Black Rose, by James Lowder
• The Spellmonger series, by Terry Mancour
• The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
• Overlord, by Kugane Maruyama
• "Queen of the Black Coast," by Robert E. Howard
• "The Colour Out of Space," by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Last Ringbearer, by Kirill Eskov
• Whispers in the Dark, by Laurel Hightower
• Ready Player One, by Ernest Kline

List of honorable mentions (not limited to fantasy):

• "The Things," by Peter Watts
• Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith
• Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond
• The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Waterson
• The Law of Superheroes, by James Daily and Ryan Davidson
• Superheroes and Philosophy, edited by Tom Morris and Matt Morris
• A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin
• Kobold Guide to Magic, edited by Ray Vallese
• Playing at the World, by Jon Peterson
• "The Curfew Tolls," Stephen Vincent Benét

 

[Mercurius]

OK, mine. I'm breaking my own protocol and offering two lists, one for fantasy and one for science fiction.

Ten Fantasy Favorites
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien
Earthsea books by Ursula K Le Guin
Ea Cycle by David Zindell
Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson
Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
Riddlemaster Trilogy by Patricia McKillip
Belgariad by David Eddings
Morgaine Saga by CJ Cherryh
Echoes of the Great Song by David Gemmell

Ten Science Fiction Favorites
Dune by Frank Herbert
Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Alien Embassy by Ian Watson
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
Neverness/Requiem for Homo Sapiens by David Zindell
Radix by AA Attanasio
New Sun books by Gene Wolfe

 

[Dioltach]

My all-time favourites:
The Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovich
Gentleman Bastards, by Scott Lynch
The First Law and related works, by Joe Abercrombie
The Dark Is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper
Earthsea (at least the first three), by Ursula Le Guin
Realm of the Alfar series, by Elizabeth Boyer
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn, by Tad Williams
Conan, by Robert E. Howard
Engraved on the Eye, by Saladin Ahmed
Artemis Fowl series, by Eoin Colfer

 

[Deset Gled]

My 10:
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
Amberville (and the rest of the quartet/series) - Tim Davys. Highly underrated series that deserves more attention.
The Hobbit - JRRT
Gulliver's Travels - Swift. NOT a kids book.
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski. I think it's fantasy. It's got a maze an a Minotaur, right?
Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher (and/or the Magic Shop series) - Bruce Coville. One of my favorite YA authors as a kid, and my fav of his works.
Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren. I think this qualifies as low fantasy.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM - Robert C. O'brien
The Metamorphosis - Kafka
The Outsider - H.P. Lovecraft. Love his work in general. This is one of the better ones that would qualify as fantasy.

The others:
A Wrinkle in Time - It's sci-fi, not fantasy
Dune - See above
The Giving Tree
Charlotte's Web

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

List The First
Tolkien - Lord of the Rings (+Silmarillion, Hobbit)
LeGuin - Earthsea Cycle
Vance - The Dying Earth
Jemisin - The Inheritance Trilogy
Dunsany - King of Elfland's Daughter
Pratchett - Discworld (+Tiffany Aching)
Moorcock - Elric Saga
Robert Asprin - Myth series
Donaldson - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
Winter - The Rage of Dragons (and the sequel comes out next month!!)

List The Second
Here I'm going to put non-fantasy and borderline fantasy works:
Barker - Imajia
Ballard - Crash
Muir - Gideon the Ninth
Lukyanenko - Night Watch series
Stoker - Dracula
Martin - Lost Souls (It's cheesy ubergoth lit, but I will always love it)
Burroughs - Naked Lunch
Ellis - American Psycho
Gibson - Neuromancer
Bradbury - The Halloween Tree