Top 10 Fantasy Series of All Time According to My Subscribers
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I asked you guys on social media what the top 10 fantasy series of all time are, and today I'm going over the results! Huge shout out to @PatrickRyanBookReviews for giving me the idea, creating the survey, and keeping all the data organized for me in a spreadsheet! Go check out his channel!
0:00 - Intro
1:10 - Rules
2:22 - Honorable Mentions
6:09 - Top 10
20:10 - Trovatrip Vacation Update
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#fantasybooks #top10 - บันเทิง
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Wow, I'm not only shocked to be anywhere near that list but incredibly appreciative that you actually gave the series an honourable mention ❤️
Which series did you write?
@@sanchorim8014 The Bound and the Broken
TB&B has quickly rose up to become probably my top 5 favourite fantasy series from the last ten years.
Hey guys I was wondering whether to start with of blood and fire or the fall?
@@danielburnett6784 Hey Daniel! You can start with either book - the series is written to make it that way. If you want a slower, traditional Epic Fantasy style introduction, I'd go with Of Blood and Fire. If you would prefer something high octane, that just throws you right into the chaos with no explanation, then The Fall is your starting point (The ebook is also free on my website, so you don't have to make any cash commitment to see if you might like the series).
Hopefully you enjoy, and if not, well there are plenty of other great books out there
🙌
Knocking The Lord of the Rings is like saying that you don’t like Shakespeare because it has so many cliches. THAT IS WHERE THOSE CLICHES STARTED! THE LOR IS WHERE THOSE TROPES STARTED!
I love the movies, I love the plot, the characters, the morals and themes. However, I am not super keen on the books. I still rate them fairly high because they’ve done so much for the genre and all the things that I do love about them. But every time I’ve read them I was bored to tears. JRRT is just too verbose for me and the pacing is on par with snails. I’ve read the series 3 times in my life hoping maybe I’d like it better as I age. Nope. Sorry.
You don’t have to like Shakespeare or The Lord of the Rings just because it’s the founder of those tropes, being the original dosent make it the best
I've tried reading LOTR twice and can't get thru it. I don't know if watching the movies first spoiled it for me, but I don't get the hype. Also, I am not big on songs/poems written in books and LOTR had quite a few...
@@samjohnson7869 no I feel the exact same way. I’ve read it through all the way once and have tried reading all the way through a second time and I don’t get the love
@@samjohnson7869 LOTR is like the Beatles to me. It was the foundation of a genre, but all that means is that it allowed better books to be built on that foundation. Tolkien revolutionized the genre, but that meant more development happened after him. Lotr is good, but I believe Tolkien would weep if he read the Stormlight Archives because he would know he had a true successor
so good to see how many young people are reading this stuff, I'm 61 and I feel a connection with you all awesome
Here are some honorable mentions: Robin Hobb :)
she got robbed LMAOOOO
She's my number 1.
Truth! As sad as I was that she wasn’t more prominent on the main list, I love that she dominated the honorable mentions. I think she’s just under read among modern readers.
HONOURABLE MENTION! WHAT!!!!! She is number 1, then Joe Abercrombie, then John Gwynne, then Brandon Sanderson, then Anthony Ryan!
She's overrated. Yes, I said it. I've read 90% of her work, and the majority is the character being agnsty and worrying over philosophical issues anyone should already know. Is this just my opinion, yes, so is yours.
Absolutely LOVE that Harry Potter has stood the test of time, and also makes this type of list. It truly is/was the entry point to science fiction and fantasy for some many of us. It may be a slight outlier in this list, but its definitely earned its spot
Only Harry Potter had people sleeping at the door of the book stores just to be able to get a copy of the new book as soon as possible. The queues were huge, even TV news covered how long they were. Never seen people going crazy over a physical book like that anymore.
Yes that’s why it frustrates me when people dismiss it altogether. It’s got its flaws like any other series. But the fact that it became so popular without the help of social media should tell you how good it is. And like you said, I haven’t seen people get that excited for any other series
sure, but now you can just preorder stuff online that's delivered to you the day it's released. you couldn't do that then.
@@carole5648 true, but the Beatles-like fandom in JK's book signings was also a thing. Nowadays people don't hype authors anymore, they all have twitter, Twitch and TH-cam channels and keep their fans updated there. Times changed indeed.
I was an adult when I read HP. I might have started it at 24 and finished it when I was 27 or so. I can't remember. So I didn't grow up with it and holds very little nostalgia for me. For what it is, great series, engaging and fun. But it didn't survive a second read. Azkaban and Goblet were still awesome but the rest I skipped a lot of stuff and Deathly Hallows I didn't even bother with. Having said that, it takes nothing away from what it was way back then.
Those midnight release events were so much fun! We will probably never see something like that again.
In hindsight, harry potter is indeed cozy fantasy by today's definition
These kind of videos are perfect for people getting into reading fantasy, some top ten lists made by people who’ve read thousands of books look very different to what the average reader would like so the scoring system works really well
"Sometimes you just want to stop and tug on your braid." I love your delivery of references. 😂😂😂
Absolutely criminal lack of Pratchett on this list
Pratchett is literally in his own world though. Pratchett is like the reads you read in these reads. Like I literally knock out a discworld book in between an SA book. They are just refreshing af.
Your in-depth summaries for SA are amazing!
I'm very happy you'll make new ones!
Halfway through Words of Radiance and I started Stormlight because of this channel, it hasn’t disappointed. Can’t wait for your summaries 🙏🏻
Awesome, I'm happy to hear you're enjoying it! 😁
Is words of radiance a stand alone or do I need to read any books before?
@@saradagakasepu7868first book is the way of kings
One of the best series ever written
It is connected to a larger world so if you want to start the start of the "World" he wrote is elantris( A standalone book)
@@saradagakasepu7868Is part of the storm light archives series. So you need to read the way of kings(book one ) first. There are 4 books to this day and the last is coming end of the year
@@saradagakasepu7868is part of the series The stormlight archive, The way of kings comes before 👍🏼
Skulduggery Pleasant only being mentioned 3 times but accumulating 23 points is proof of how there are many underrated series, especially across different continents
I was just happy that I have read all of the top 10. Only ended up buying one audiobook from the honorable mentions portion. This is my one hesitation with watching your videos: they have a negative impact on ny wallet. :)
Nice work as always.
Same here
Just finished SOAIF and Kingkiller Chronicles. Now I‘ve startet my First Sanderson Book, Way of Kings. I absolutely adore it.
Your editing and pics are soooo good man!!! great video!!!
Thanks!! Glad you enjoyed! :D
Any plans to share the spreadsheet? I'd be very curious to see how people voted - this list was both surprising and not at the same time for some of the choices.
I'm only just getting back into reading after a long absense, but I re-started with Mistborn and it's honestly incredible. One of the best pieces of media i've ever experienced.
One series I have read before is Lord of the Rings, and I think the thing that gets a lot of people out of that is that it kind of needs to be your first fantasy series otherwise it feels incredibly tropey, because it came out before everything else. It influences so much of fantasy over the last 70 years that so much of it feels like other series. The language is also incredibly eloquent. With mistborn and i'm guessing a lot of other of Brandon Sanderson's work, his simple prose is incredibly accessible and anyone should be able to pick it up and feel like they can read it. I definitely remember having to google words in LOTR, although the last time I read it, I was 12 so I could be remembering wrong.
I also feel like Lord of the Rings is so hyped and large as an entity, that people are either scared to read it out of worry they wont like it, or they build an unrealistic expectation in their head that no book could match.
I fondly remember forgetting to sleep when I read Lord of the Rings and my mother not being too happy about that, and I look forward to reading it some day again.
Thank you for creating lists like this because if The Stormlight Archive is better than Mistborn Era 1, then I may go back to that 12-year-old who forgets to sleep.
Can’t wait for you to read ASOIAF! The later books will blow your socks off
This is really usefull for content creation since it gives you stats about your most active subscribers and what they may want to see 👀
Darn i could of bump up the Malazan score a bit if i participated.
Crazy how much people love Mistborn and Stormlight archive, I mean I like them too but more than A Song of Fire and Ice, wheel of time? No way lmao
I absolutely agree (minus WoT, do not like). I think there are a ton of reasons Martin is underperforming.
1. Age of work:
aSoIaF is old. The first book came out in the 90s. Sanderson is much more contemporary.
2. Bad press
Martin hasn’t put out an installment of aSoIaF in over a decade and he’s getting fried for it. The show, GoT, ended horrifically. On the other hand, Sanderson is coming off 2 record breaking kickstarters and the very successful Year of Sanderson. He’s very genuine and polite in his communications with his fans.
3. Approachability
Sanderson’s prose is pretty simple and he has so many books/series there’s something for everyone. He also tends to stay fairly PG13. Martin’s work is a bit more complex, verbose, and deep. He’s also really only known for aSoIaF which is known to be more rated R to NC17.
All that said, aSoIaF is amazing and I find it much better than anything Sanderson has written.
@@Rhendali yeah I mean, I like Sanderson and I like storm archive, but it’s pretty childish compared to a lot of other fantasy series that do similar things but much better. Including the wheel of time which is just light archive, but better written.
@@goodluckiz2669 oof, that’s gunna be a hard disagree on WoT. Love the world and the story and the magic, hated the characters and the writing (found it too direct and simplistic though it was occasionally evocative)
@@Rhendaliwack opinion but okay
@@goodluckiz2669childish is strong word but i get ur point.
about asoiaf,as other person mentioned,books not being completed along with that horrible show fiasco makes it hard. also this people must've read only mistborn/sla ig
I think you've covered it in a video a few years back, but dude...that wrist watch is very nice! I love it!
The bound and the broken is amazing. You put it at the very top of the tbr list
Seconded!
The first one is a 4/5 but the second and third are definitely 5/5!
@@jakearmstrong3920 yes. And all the short novellas are 5/5
Man, I’ve been working on Of Blood & Fire for 9 months now and am only like 75% through. It sounded like it would be right up my alley but I just can’t get into it. There are so many underdeveloped characters, the pacing is all over the place, it’s painfully derivative, it tends to be info-dump-y, the action scenes fall flat, lots of telling not enough showing, and that’s just off the top of my head. I do like Valerys. 🤷🏻♀️
@@Rhendali its only a couple of hundres Pages. You could read it in a day and start with book 2 that is much better
Love the vid! And all ur vids in general ❤️. But I was very surprised you haven’t read asoiaf books. It is so much better than the show, it will surprise you. Even though it is unfinished it is still by far one of the best series I have ever read. Would be very cool to see your thoughts on it!
Really need to read Brandon Sanderson! 😅😂
Definitely get to TBATB. Its a great ongoing series and just keeps building book by book into something absolutely epic!
please do read all the asoiaf books, the farther you go the better it becomes relatively to the show
This was great loved to see Harry Potter on here and Stormlight deserves top spot for sure but I would put LOTR as higher than Mistborn!
I'm on book two of the The Sun Eater Chronicle, and I'm really loving it!
Hey, question: if you added the “Cosmere” entries to both mistborn and stirmlight instead of just stormlight would the #1 and #2 results be the same or would they have switched? Would the score be close and if so how close?
Also I really enjoy your content, especially regarding anything cosmere related!!
You really do have to start in on the rest of the Realm of the Elderlings, by far my favorite series. The Tawny Man Trilogy and the Liveship Traders Trilogy within them are my top two.
You should do a video going over more of the runners up! Im curious to know the lesser known favorite books of your audience
The results of this project are telling. I've really felt lately like a lot of BookTube has become sort of an echo chamber centered around the same specific series, with a lot of BookTubers sorta liking the same ones, including an incredible focus on Sanderson. (Sanderson is good, don't get me wrong, but he's good for a specific type of reader--not all of us. For example, I didn't put his stuff even in my top five.) I wouldn't say this (the so-called echo chamber) is a bad thing, it's just...a thing. It has ebbs and flows, occasionally a new series is talked about and then half of BookTube talks about that new series for a while before settling back into Sanderson content. If you posed the same survey to a different crowd, say...readers who spend more time in libraries than on TH-cam or watching film adaptations, you would probably get entirely different results. Suddenly series like Earthsea, or Narnia, or DiscWorld, etc., would get more attention. (You might even encounter a bunch of readers who like Goodkind--his books still populate B&N shelves, so there's gotta be a lot of readers out there if we're being honest.) There are so many fantasy series, and only a handful of the more prominent authors ever get the lion's share of attention on TH-cam.
I am really glad this survey was done and I love the results. All of the winners deserved their places, at the least. Ultimately, what makes one series great or one series not quite so great is personal taste in the readers. And I just am left wondering, if you could somehow pose this survey to all fantasy readers everywhere, what other series would come out of the woodwork--series many BookTube viewers don't even know exist... :)
I've noticed this as well. It resulted in me just unplugging from the "booktube" world for a while.
Yeah the booktubers I like the most are the ones who read the most frequently like Matt fantasy books or fantasy for the ages since they read a decent amount of stuff that not many talk about.
@@danielgwynne7266 Yeah, BRIAN LEE DURFEE Reviews is another guy who gets into all the other books and options. Dude's in the hospital right now, but looking forward to his return soon.
so validating and refreshing to see this take online. as a specific example: sanderson is dope but the way the internet echo chamber talks about him makes me feel like I must be crazy sometimes. I would never have thought to put him in the same league as kingkiller or first law until the internet told me they were comparable
Mistborn doesn't even get close to top 10 on my list. I feel it's mostly a fad. The SA is much more legitimate going against other contenders imho. I would have put Malazan or several other series above it. Even Gentelman Bastards.
I really love all of the book artwork you show in your videos. It’s one of my favorite things about your channel. Where do you find it?
Thank you! I find most the art on ArtStation or DeviantArt
Sanderson is really a titan in today's fantasy world......i hope after some years or so SA becomes legendary like lord of rings or wheel of time...... although i personally think it already is.❤
I know LOTR would be third with Mistborn and Stormlight in one of the top 2 spots, not because of its quality, but simply because of its accessibility. Tolkein's writing is very heavy descriptive prose, whereas Sanderson is very accessible prose-wise. It makes sense these books would have more votes as its more accessible, unlike LOTR which are amazing books but the prose isn't as accessible as Sanderson
The Bound and the Broken really is an amazing series. I ranked it at no. 8 on my list. It would be cool to have a similar video for characters!
The Bound and the Broken NEEDS to be in your TBR as high as possible. They get better and better with each book. Absolutely amazing story and brilliant writing by Ryan Cahill.
Definitely adding it high on my TBR! I'm hoping to start it either next month or the month after, depends on if I can finish up some current series I'm reading. I'm looking forward to it though! :)
How did you get over one of the main POV characters (I presume Calen is one of those) being an exact copy of Corban from Malice? That just instantly discouraged me from reading on and I just couldn’t get past page 50 or so of Cahills first book
Bound and the Broken would be a great choice of a series to buddy read for the Ireland trip since the author is Irish!
Good to see The Sun Eater series catching up to the greats. If you are a fan of Dune, Hyperion and other Sci-fi masterworks, and some great character work, you'll most likely enjoy it. Also, Rouccio is a master of prose - beautiful, beautiful writing. Probably on par with Rothfuss.
Interesting list, by the way. While I really enjoy The Stormlight Archive, I believe LOTR is truly deserving of the throne - a complete literature package.
1 Lies of Locke Lamora, 2 The Dresden Files, 3 The First Law, 4 The Hobbit, 5 King of The Wyld. Just cause I missed the survey.
Ive started Wheel of Time I think 3 different times and it just does not grab me. I respect it, I can absolutely appreciate what its done for the genre, but from what Ive read and what Ive heard about the series, I just cant see myself getting invested enough or being able to look past enough of the things I personally dont like to get through all 14 books
I hate read that entire series. The characters, particularly the women, are absolutely horrid and as that’s how you interact with the world, it made the series really bad to me. Additionally, the plot is very slow and meandering. The writing is simplistic but strangely evocative. The world is large and well built with multiple races and cultures and a long history. The magic system is fascinating, if a bit softer than I prefer. It has a lot of good but the bad is so bad that I absolutely understand not liking it.
If the books do not grab you, just watch the tv series...
@@Nynaevedelat But the show is straight up garbage. The book has redeeming qualities that make it worth while. The show is a waste of time.
@@Rhendali agree to disagree on that one...
I loved the bound the broken, the first book is just good, and the other ones are absolutely amazing, Ryan is improving his writing with every book, especially multiPOV storytelling
I can't wait to read it soon! It's very high up on my list to get to
This was a fun video. The Realm of the Elderlings is really one continuous story, it isn't just scattered series within the same world. I wonder where it would have landed if you counted it as one, considering almost all of it landed in honorable mentions and in the top 10, and I also wonder which other great series would have shown up as a result.
That's an excellent point, which i didn't really consider since I haven't read past Farseer. Hmmm i deifnitely think it would have been much higher if we counted it as one. I'm happy Robin Hobb got so many submissions, because I feel like her work is often not talked about as much but is some of the best out there
@@CapturedInWords agreed. I audibly wept reading some of the later books. It is very rare that an author can make you care this much for their characters.
Exactly ! The Realm of the Elderlings shouldn't have been splited at all, and would have easily made the top 10 if it hadn't
Currently on the 3rd book of the Red Rising series. I think it super good and a little underrated
SO glad Robin Hobb got so many of her subseries mentioned in their lists! 🥹
im almost done with twoa im so excited to read thoa 🙏
Really surprised Eragon didn't make an appearance. Even though it's a very basic story regarding fantasy tropes and is definitely written for kids, it's a book I'll never forget! It's always what I think of when anyone says fantasy book:)
Ireland is so beautiful. The Irish people are so nice. You’re going to have such a great time.
Be careful of the 'new Irish'
@@Hero_Of_Old if you mean the immigrants, yeah, they’re destroying Irish culture.
I'm really excited! Always wanted to go to Ireland :)
if you like the idea of a grim dark take on the eragon series then yes you should absolutely put it higher on your TBR
The Bound and The Broken is amazing! You should pick up as your next read! :)
Read the Bound and the Broken like yesterday! It’s soo good.
Pretty late here, but the results (ASOIAF being so low, and Mistborn and SA so high) just reflects on your personal preferences. The audience normally has the same views as the youtuber, so I wouldn't be surprised at the standings.
Great video. Can we have a link to that spreadsheet?
i have a huge problem with stormlight archive... I started reading the way of kings at the end of february and figured it would last me until december when the 5th book will be published... Welp i am now almost half through words of radiance. its just too damn goood :(
Pretty good problem to have. My husband is in the same boat with his reread. He’s also started in February and just finished book 3 (along with Warbreaker and Elantris). >.
Always so glad to see some Kingkiller love here! Your deep dives and lore videos made it go from a series I liked to now one that I cannot get enough of! Thanks for all you do, quality content!
Which Malazan book are you on currently, Jay? Any plans on finishing it soon?
Do you have the raw data in a google sheet or something you could share? Without your point system applied to it? I'd like to see what the ranking is like using other methods like ranked choice voting.
Love F&F, Lies of LL, Dragon Riders of Pern, Discworld and my favorites: The Elder Empire, and Dragons of Terra.
The Bound & the Broken is amazing. Put it higher on your TBR! It's worth it!
Harry Potter made me start fantasy.
Great popularity poll
My top 3 is Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the inheritance cycle and I haven’t watched much of the video yet so hopefully these are on the list
Im glad stormlight got the spot it deserved! Also i wanna read sun eater now, like, i need it
I think after you read books 7-12 of Dresden, you'll see why it's higher than Red Rising.
Yes. 🎉❤🙌🏼
Harry Potter and Lotm for me, the best of the best
Great video. You HAVE to read ASOIAF. So much better than the shows. I also am looking forward to reading The Bound and the Broken...I've heard nothing but good things about it.
I really enjoyed the Powdermage series!
A goddam Greek tragedy John Gwynne didn't make the list.
Speaking of the Dresden Files, I was wondering if the books could be read as standalones or the order is quite strict
Great video. I need to che k out some of these like Ryan Cahill and Dresden😁
I'd love to see this data reorganised to show it based on average position, which I feel could be a good metric for 'if you do like this series this is how much you're likely to like it'
Can we do like this but for self published stuff! I just love hearing about lesser known works we need to get stuck into
Top 10 first/last books in a series would be a fun top-10 idea that's a bit different
Places 5, 2, and 1 were easy to guess for me :)
When are you gonna do the next parts of Wise Mans Fear in depth summary? Been waiting for those for a long time!
Words of Radiance is definitely my favorite of Stormlight
Would love to see the entire list
I agree words of radiance is by far the best stormlight book out there and that’s saying something
talking about tawny man, can I read that right after farseer?
Have you heard of the Tide Child Trilogy I just recently finished it and really enjoyed it!
Id be interested in seeing the entire list/results of the survey
I listen to books now and my favorites are Discworld and Redwall..
i just started reading fantasy in October so I haven't read much yet. First series I read was the kingkiller chronicle and i feel very spoiled to have read that first. Here's my short list:
1. Kingkiller Chronicle
2. Mistborn
3. LOTR
Planning on reading Red Rising and more of the Cosmere next!
Pretty much got the best first. I recommend ASOIAF.
Same as kingskiller it's not finished yet.
And besides kingskiller I don't think I ever read smth that engaging and awestriking. Just masterpiece
I kind of get to read The Name of the Wind again for the first time. I first read it in 2012, and while I remember really enjoying it, I have no memory of the plot. 😂 (I was introduced to The Name of the Wind when one of my friends gifted everyone in our friend group a copy because he loved it so much.)
I'd love votes on the best book in certain series
I submitted Lord of the Rings as my number 1 and am also surprised to see it only at number 3 (though Stormlight was my number 3 so I guess the data balances out). What I was surprised to not really see at all was Berserk, which I suppose is probably due to it being Manga rather than a traditional novel. Still, very interesting data.
Feel like a Mandate Schoolman over here with The Second Apocalypse being forgotten on this list
You should make this but with FIGHT SCENES between series or CHARACTERS
Greetings from Paraguay 🇵🇾
The Bound and the Broken is spectacular. It has all the trappings of a top tier fantast series: plot, character development, emotional wrenching, not to mention - Dragons... Please read this series soon.
I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully will be starting it in a month or two
I don't know if there's something wrong with me, but I started Jade City and just couldn't get into it at all. I made it 49% in a gave up. On the flip side A Song of Ice and Fire is not over hyped. I read it before the show, so maybe it hit different for me, but up to the fifth book, where I stopped reading, it's a wild ride. I'm currently in book one of the Powder Mage trilogy and it's getting pretty good. I think it was you who put it on my radar, but if not, maybe it's worth checking out too.
Well i guess count me in there too. Ive actually read the full book twice just to make sure i didnt miss anything and i just dont understand the hype. The only thing i thought was interesting at all was the setting and magic system. The plot, characters and writing i thought were all a little below average.
Yeah bound and the broken is a must read
one thing you can do when including a thing like this, is after the data is in, ask everyone to vote yes/no to the series that they've read, heard about, intend to read but haven't yet, or never even heard of---- apply to entire collected input... this will give "perspective" on what gained points simply because EVERYONE has read it, vs... which received a higher PORTION of points per reader.
Because whilst one point of bias, as you pointed out yourself was due to your audience having EXPOSURE to specific series because of how much you've talked about it...
Another point of bias will simply be: what books have they read?? if they haven't read harry potter, but really want to, or have only read the first two books...that WILL influence how they rate things.
I hadn't read mistborn until late 2023 and it QUICKLY became one of my favorites, but had i never heard how favorite'd it was amongst other fantasy readers, i NEVER would have even picked it up...
Also a good indicator, which i'm glad you considered/included was : what portion of people ranked a particular series in their top position or top 5 positions. If only 15 people have read a fantasy series, but a third of them put it in their top 5 amongst other similar books you also like.....maybe their TOP book is something you'd want to consider reading. This particular metric is one i like to use to find new material. Find someone who ranks some of my favorite books EQUALLY well....but has a book they like MORE than what i've read and suggest it.....I've never been disappointed.
Read Bound and the Broken series. It’s really good
And here I am, having recently watched The Lord of the Rings movies but have never read the books. I've been wanting to read them but I couldn't quite gather the inspiration to sit down and really dive into that world. However, as I understand, is it better to start the series with first reading The Hobbit? As an introduction to the world.
Y'all are sleeping on The Cycle of Arawn and The Cycle of Galand by Edward W Robertson. I never see them on any lists, but they're both fantastic
Unpopular opinion, my favorite series of all time is The Inheritance Cycle, also known as the Eragon series.