I don't know if I've made it clear. But I utterly adore fantasy novels. It has been my genre of choice since I read Mistborn: The Final Empire, by Brandon Sanderson (number 12 on this list) when I was 15. (In fact I could write an entire post about how profoundly Mistborn changed my life. But I won't. At least not now. I have 319 days to go and a 40 day hiatus to make up for. It could happen)
I am not perfect, due to the nature of length of these books, as well as an unintentional reading dry spell through college, I haven't read all or even most of the books on this list. However, per the lists order, these are the ones I have read:
#2 The Stormlight Archives, by Brandon Sanderson (2 books)
#3 A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin (5 books)
#4 The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkein (4 books)
#12 Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson (3 books, 1 novella)
#16 Harry Potter, by J. K. Rowling (7 books)
#18 The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis (well, I've read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
#25 The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan (14 books)
#34 Redwall, by Brian Jacques (well, PART of the first one)
#36 Inheritence Cycle, by Christopher Paolini (the first 2. I got about a chapter into the third and had to stop when they started talking about dragon jock itch)
#47 The Farseer Trilogy, by Robin Hobb (the first 1)
And while I'm happy to see that my favorite fantasy authors are getting some love (Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan), I have to rant for a minute about The Wheel of Time's placement.
It should be in the Top 5.
I can't base my opinions on the ones I haven't read. But, of the Top 5 series on this list, I have fully read 3 of them and the #1 pick, The Kingkiller Chronicles, has been sitting on my bookshelf for at least a couple of months now patiently awaiting me to finish my power reread of Wheel of Time.
And as a lover of all the other series, I would put The Wheel of Time above them all except for maybe The Lord of the Rings.
So, in reverse order, this is why I feel that Wheel is better than each of the books before it as well as a brief discussion on LOTR (I've decided to exclude Narnia too. I've only read the first one and its not fair to judge the series as a whole based on one book)
Harry Potter
Okay, let's get this straight. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. You don't accidentally memorize the first paragraph of Harry Potter and throw the most AWESOME themed party for the release of the final movie without being a huge fan of Harry Potter.
But, it's ultimately, a children's book series. It's lovely and magical and fantastical - but it lacks the scope of epic fantasy targeted at adult audiences. As such, WOT > Harry Potter. Don't hurt me.
Mistborn
As previously stated, Mistborn changed my life. And if this were a list of greatest STANDALONE fantasy novels, Mistborn:The Final Empire could trump many of them. But as a series, it's not my favorite. The loss of a pivotal character drastically changes the tone of Well of Ascension and Hero of Ages, which I feel that that the cool world building that was added didn't make up for the tone change enough. Plus, Elend went from interesting to dull in 10 seconds flat.
LOTR
Should be #1. This entire topic would be either non existent or very different without LOTR.
ASOIAF
Where do I even begin? I commend Martin for his prose and his ability to build a world that is rich with back story and legend. And, I remind you, I've read the whole fricken thing, which I can't say about all of the ones I've tried to read on this list. But ASOIAF, while brilliant in its own right, is riddled with issues that other people commend it for and because of the TV series I believe it's disproportionately more popular than it should be. All of my complaints with ASOIAF could fill a post that I will more than likely do at some point, but not now. But, I believe that WOT trumps ASOIAF any day. And not just because WOT uses plot devices other than death and rape to keep the story moving (though you could argue that WOT doesn't use death enough). Both series can be accused of being a bit slow moving, but even Winter's Heart is more entertaining and fast paced than A Feast for Crows. And you are a dirty, dirty liar if you disagree with me.
(ALSO: I may remind you that the first few covers of Game of Thrones featured a cover quote from the late Jordan - whose name was much better known at the time and carried a lot of weight. So, I'm not hating on ASOIAF - Jordan liked it too. Click picture for more info - there's a really cool letter from Jordan to his editor about Game of Thrones)
Stormlight Chronicles
Love me some Stormlight Chronicles. But we're only two books in. The Wheel of Time at two books in is very different from the series as whole. Stormlight very much has the possibility of trumping Wheel, but, as it stands, we just can't know that yet
Anyway.
There's my rant.
Take it as you will.
Did I mention I'm going to JordanCon next April?
Little Tornado
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