I have a problem with this presentation. First, please forgive me for my harsh critique as I'm not trying to be mean, just giving constructive criticism. When presenting each book, you're always leading for almost half a minute with descriptions and reviewing sentences before even mentioning the title. I know that you might think this creates some tension but it makes most of what is said before "the reveal" confusing because us, the audience, have no frame of reference. My father always does this and people constantly complain he is hard to understand. Some of my university teachers did that back in the day and their courses were the most skipped. It's much easier to say : "Next at number # we have "Book Title" by "Author", part of "Name of the Series", first published in "Year"." Then explain why you like, love or hate said book. Simpler, more effective, less annoying. Thanks and sorry for my whining...
@@galinor7 So what you're saying is that we should never try to improve something but be content with any problems that could easily be fixed. Ok... I won't even take the bait and bother to answer your question as its total arbitrary irrelevancy only functions to hide the intended cheap blow under the belt.
Hey! I do appreciate the feedback! Thank you so much for sharing it! I do get excited while sharing and I always think it’s going to be pretty straightforward as I have the books at my right (usually their spines can be seen) - but thank you for letting me know!
@@FunFantasyBooks Thanks for reading and replying to my comment. I make no assumptions of telling you how to run your channel and make your videos! I only make suggestions to youtubers I care about so I said everything with the best intentions because I really like your style and content. That said, maybe I'm wrong and what I said might not work better. Another suggestion is that you could also run community polls about things that could potentially be improved and see what most other people prefer. Thanks again for making great videos! xxx
I disagree with this comment but I understand why you said it. I personally found it entertaining the way she structured it naturally that way-but I’m just one person. Her voice is also super nice to hear. Her prefaces helped me gauge how she felt about the world in the book, and the journey itself.
Wow I’m so glad Malazan made it to the number 3 spot! Wheel of Time was my favorite series right up until I read Malazan. Erikson scratches an itch I just can’t find with other authors.
Great job making this video, which resulted in an intriguing list! One of the things I enjoy about lists like this is how they can give a sense of the rich array of timeless stories fantasy offers. Thank you for the video!
Truly! I was amazed when I got more than 1000 books, but then again the list overall is not super surprising which I guess talks about the long tail of “not as popular” books vs the currently most known! Thank you so much for watching!
I watched the video twice... The first time was for Thai.. she is simply adorable.. and the second was for the books. I really appreciate how much research went into this. Your love for the books and passion are so palpable and infectious.
I need to watch this again and take notes next time. I'm so happy you picked Tolkien as the #1 position! My favorite books of all time. I'm currently re-reading LOTR right now.
@@FunFantasyBooks I also have to say seeing the Spanish books in your video inspired me to re-listen to the SA audiobooks this time in Spanish. ¡Viaje antes que destino!
I am so shocked! Its probably because I only pay attention to book tube but I have barely heard of the Broken Earth and I am stunned that Stormlight, GOT and WOT are all outside the Top 5
@@di3s3l44 Broken Earth is fantastic! It's one of my top 5 series. NK Jemisin is an extremely creative and original author, and The Fifth Season blew me away and devastated me at multiple points. Idk if you like audiobooks but if you do, I highly recommend reading it that way. Cause the narrator is just fantastic in general, but also one of the POVs in told in 2nd person. "'Huh. Weird storytelling choice...' You think to yourself." So I find actually being told the story as opposed to reading it is helpful for that. She became the first person to ever win the Hugo award 2yrs in a row. Then she won the 3rd year too! Every book in the trilogy won the award and for good reason.
@@BooksReboundIt's weird, most books that I've read that have won the Hugo Award award I have actively disliked. There are a rare few that I have liked though
I think books like Stormlight are so popular people pull away from it a bit because it’s “too common” of a pick. That said, I don’t know if I totally understand how she ranked these. I’ve watched a different one of these that took in 30 different lists and they were in the top 5. 🤷♂️
I've only read four or five of these. Tolkien will always be my favorite. Someday, check out The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin that Tolkien's son completed (more or less) from his father's incomplete or partial works.
I've read every book in every one of those series. Feels like quite an accomplishment. I like most of these but my favourites are probably Stormlight, The Dark Tower, LOTR, First Law, Discworld, Gentleman Bastard, Realm of the Elderlings and ASOIAF. You should read Malazan but it's extremely dense and complicated. The first book made little sense to me till the story developed more. I found a guide for overall plot and characters was helpful especially at the beginning to make sense of everything.
I will need to check out that guide for sure! Some friends of my Patreon have also told me they needed to have lists and it feels scary but a good challenge!
As someone who read a lot of fantasy in my teens and twenties but not so much since my kids were born, this list is great - so many reminders of favourites of my era like Discworld, Earthsea, Wheel of Time and Locke Lamora, and some new names (probably in the top due to recency bias as much as anything, but who cares) that I can check out when I have a little reading time again over summer holidays....
I love fantasy (mostly, movies, games, Forgotten Realms. However, I am not that much of a roman or novel reader... I didn't want to go for the classics (Lotr, hobbit, GoT, HP, etc.), so I did some digging, and after going through a lot of data I found the following as books I have to read: Daniel T. Jackson - Illborn, Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself, Partick R. - Name of the Wind, Brandon Sanderson - The Way of Kings, Steve Erikson - Gardens of the Moon, Robin Hobb - Assassin’s Apprentice, Miles Cameron - The Red Knight. What is your thoughts about those, if you have read them?
I love your content!! i´m a fan of you channel , I wanted to know if you have any tips and tricks to start reading in English, I do have a good english level but for some reason reading fantasy for example in that language is a bit intimidating so do you have any tips?
Thanks! Umm I’d say that TJ Klune for example is very accesible! Also T Kingfisher in my opinion! I will try with standalones first and then go to longer series!
Love the list. As someone that was affected my WoT so much… Kids names are from there, read out loud to wife while dating, started with book one when there was only one book. Reread whole series each time next book was coming out… love to see it high on other peoples lists…
Videos like this are so helpful. I am 45 years old, and have been reading primarily fantasy books since I was 7, and i haven't heard of many of these series. I don't know how i missed Robin Hobb! Thank you for all the work you did in making this video! Subscribed.
I'm 52, and although I've read almost all of the books mentioned in the video, very few would make my personal top 20. It's love to see books by Anne McCaffery, Andrew Norton, David Eddings, Barbara Hambly, and Raymond E Feist appear on one of these lists. I know it's a generational thing, and I do love quite a few of the newer fantasy series, I just think some of the older ones were great as well.
Thanks Kindly for the List Enjoyed your feedback n results ! Great job ! Yes I have many 90% of the books n then some more I hope to read them all before this life ends I have many many years worth of reading and taking my time but I need to push myself to complete! 🎉
Thanks for the list! I'm sure this took a lot of time to compile all the data! It was interesting hearing how the written articles were often different than what was seen on BookTube.
Undoubtedly one of the best lists I've seen on the internet or at least one that fits my tastes. I was surprised to see some works so high on the list but as the ranking progressed I saw that it was to make room for other works that for me should at least make an appearance and that often do not appear as “The dark tower” or “His dark materials” and of course the tetralogy of “the dynasty of the dandelion” the best I've read in recent years. There are some saga of those mentioned that I have not read that I had in my sights and others that I have not but that I will try to read since I liked the list very much. ¡Gran trabajo con el vídeo!
While reading game of thrones , i felt for some reason , that there are no other good fantasy book series , till i started researching . Now i hqve bought the first books of Dune / Shogun / Malazan series / Storm light archive .
This is a pretty good list. Good mix of old and new. Personally I would put Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire higher, but no list will perfectly fit my preferences. Lord of the Rings is very different from modern fantasy and a bit of a difficult read in 2024 but still very worth reading. I think the utter exhaustion of Sam and Frodo toward the end of Return of the King, and their difficulties reintegrating into normal life, are part of what really sets it apart, and clearly draw on Tolkien's own experience of fighting in World War I.
Very good video with a lot of research done! However one point of feedback would be to start with the book title and author and AFTER that proceed with further description on the book.
Wow. Great video! I took notes. I finished 4 of these series, 6 if including the series that aren't finished yet, partially read 9 of these (but I might DNF The Gunslinger), 4 are on my physical TBR, and only one is on my TBR but I don't have a copy yet (The Dandelion Dynasty).
Best tip for Malazan is to recognize you’re witnessing a story, not being told one. In other words, you’re seeing events but nobody takes the time to explain anything. If you can be comfortable with confusion, and take it scene by scene, it’s amazing.
@ that said, it’s not for everyone. I’m a massive Malazan fan, and often others will get all snobby if peeps don’t like it. It’s difficult. It’s not written with the reader in mind, per se. If you decide to dive in, I’d love to chat about it. And if you don’t like it, don’t let me tell you you’re stupid ☺️
I like to say it’s like uncovering one piece of a mosaic. Each book reveals more of a grand mosaic, until what you’re looking at is the Sistine Chapel of stories.
I live for how Thai is like COME ON ISA, LOVE ME 😂😂 And wow, I've actually read or started a grand total of 3 on this list, which is admittedly 2 more than I was expecting!
Wonderful video!! One critique- please consider putting the titles on the screen as you mention them. Your accent is beautiful but I personally had some trouble understanding the title & author names. 🙏🏽💙
Oh my word you have to read LOTR. After you have stopped crying you should then pick up Malazan , it is really not as confusing as a lot of people say. Heard a lot of good things about ken Liu so thats on my list to read along with John Gwynne.
Not sure how I should feel about having read everything on this list, and the entire series at that 😂 #9 surprised me, I didn't expect it to be that high, or here at all :/ #1 is such a shocker, amirite
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I like Discworld, but I just can't get myself to commit to so many odd books. I loved Guards Guards and Mort, but haven't been back. They were a break to get me through the Wheel Of Time slog, but since then I've been committed to all books Cosmere. I'm trying to find something to read while I wait for book 5 of Stormlight, because I'd feel dumb buying a 4 book boxed set if a 5 book were to come out next month.
I feel LOTR not being number 1 would be a crime, or just someone trying to be hipster about it! And you're right, Andy Serkis reading the audio book is crazy good
Finally got the the best of all. The last I watched of your best fantasy books didn't even mention it. If you are to create such a list, you really need to have read the best
The Malazan Book of The Fallen series is pretty good.... you have to do two things though: A) Just ignore much of the magic, and much of the secret schemes.... do not ignore it, but do not fight to wrap your head around it... just make something up that fits... and this will NOT change the story AT ALL. B) Remember it was in part at least written from an RPG session, and lot of times there's some leftovers of that, in things like certain hooks and mechanics feeling like that would be something the reader would need to know if they were the player and this was an RPG, but otherwise, kind of seem a bit superfluous. The First Law Trilogy is GREAT, read the next two books... but you also do not NEED to for something like THIS, because it carries that tone right through. Think of where you think the stories and characters arcs will go after the first book.... and loosely speaking, the story goes there.... because the first book makes it clear how dastardly so many of the main players are, that you cannot help but think more along certain lines, if you imagine what they get up to later... than to think it will go some other, easier to swallow, Diet Cola, Apple Pie, I love baby Jesus kind of Heroic direction. Still, the fact that there is NO David Gemmell and NO Guy Gavriel Kay, here on this list at all.... makes it clear the people mentioning the mentions you consulted to make this like, have no business mentioning anything to do with fantasy at all. Simple facts, no more.
Did you read all of your books in Spanish? That’s my first language but I have been reading all of my fantasy books in English. Will give them a try in Spanish… Thank you for this very well put together list. I’ll use it as a guide for those I have not read yet.
Thank you so much!!! I mainly read in English now as it’s cheaper xD and being fair there are a fair amount of books that are still not translated! But the books I read years back, I did in Spanish!
Hablás español? Veo que hay libros que estan en español! Jaja que interesante! Me sorprendió la colección del Señor de los Anillos de la editorial minitauro que tiene los cintillos dorados en los margenes. Me encanta esa colección, yo tambien la tengo así ❤
I don't believe you have to read book 3 and 4 of The Dandelion Dynasty back to back. I took a month break between The Veiled throne and Speaking bones and did not feel lost or confused coming back to it at all.
Well, after seeing what books made your list, I'm curious if you've ever read 'The Chronicles of Amber' by Roger Zelazny? For me, that's #1, but I've read way less books than you have, but if you've never read it, it's a 10-book series, but it's really two 5-book series, and the first 5 are the best. I recommend you try reading the first book 'Nine Princes in Amber'. None of these books are long either. Hope you check it out, as I'd love to hear what you think of it, assuming you haven't read it, of course : )
I know you have done a lot of research but those lists are sadly quite old if we add new stories like LOTM into the list the scene changes quite a bit but since LOTM is a chinese book its not really added into western fantasy novels mostly. But you should give it a try the world building and power system is out of this world.
A lot of the books towards the top are very much dude fantasy (with the exception of the fifth season). I prefer more modern fantasy for the female characters, plus I don’t believe anyone who puts LOtR as their favourite, it’s great don’t get me wrong, but it’s the most basic answer you can give, I sometimes feel a lot of the classics are still put on the top of peoples lists out of fear of not including them instead of truly thinking they are their favourites
The Wheel of Time not being in the top 5 is wild. It's my #1, so I assume I may be biased. I recognize that it's definitely... uh... dated? It has tropes and diction definitely more aligned with the 90's and early 2000's when it was written, but man... those books are incredible.
@wesleylang172 I completely get that. Books 8 and 9 were such a slog. It felt like some characters were doing so much, some were basically doing nothing, and some weren't even there lol. But I still say that it's overall an incredible tale.
I'm going to cry with happiness, women who recommend really good fantasy books, and not the average booktoker who recommends poorly written romantasy books.
@@FunFantasyBooks Hi. Glad I made you laugh. I actually have written two fantasy novels, called Forestera's Fate. They're basically D&D in story-form. I assume you know what D&D is : ) I also narrated them on my channel, along with two 'Short D&D Stories', if you'd like to check them out. Both Books are in their own Playlist. I'd love to chat with you sometime, both about my books, and Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. I tried narrating some of that book too, just to try it.
While I think you did a fantastic job, I think you picked too many booktubers from the same style and that shows in/skews the results a bit. But still, great video 🙂
It never ceases to amaze me how absent The Witcher saga is in fantasy rankings. It has become kind of a frustrating hobby for me to search for a top list that at least mentions it. I read somewhere that the English translation was bad, unlike the Spanish translation, which is amazingly good.
Do you speak Spanish too? Noticed you have a coupe of book sin Spanish. Me sorpredio ver el nombre del viento pero cuando vi la biblia que es el archivo me causo genuina curiosidad.
@FunFantasyBooks Un gustazo! Me he visto un montón de tus vídeos desde éste. Que increíble canal y contenido. Un abrazo muy fuerte, tienes un seguidor más 🥂.
I just thrifted a book haul of 293 books for 55 dollars for my book giveway at work. I have given away over 2000 books for babies kids teens and adults in 9 months. I just dropped 6 videos showing the haul . Let's get this generation reading. But my videos get almost no views
I'm going to try to be succinct here. There seems to be this trend on "top" whatever lists of books that the reviewer hasn't actually read. Why does a reviewer who hasn't read a book or series feel qualified to put that book or series on any kind of list...?
I have read partially or completely(depending on how much i liked them) nearly everything on this list and yet my order could not be more different. Stormlight at 14 is a blasphemy to say the least.
@@FunFantasyBooks It's soo soo incredible. Theres really nothing else like it. I personally think its level of complexity is overblown online from over eager fans hedging their bets when recommending it. Cause I read it when I was 18 and reading stuff like Shadow and Bone, Prince of Thorns, & Mistborn, and I had no problem with Malazan. But I guess my one piece of advice is dont DNF it. I never wanted to personally, but I've heard many people say they struggled in the beginning but loved it by the end. Alternatively, you could also just start with book 2 or more likely book 5 if you really wanna screw the rules. Book 5 is extremely well written, very self contained, and it's actually chronologically first in the series, so you could easily read it as a standalone and decide whether you want to continue Malazan after that. The series jumps around to various continents and casts, and book 5 jumps to a new continent ENTIRELY disconnected from the rest of the story, and it tells the backstory of a single character you meet in book 4. So Midnight Tides is a great entry point and a lot more forgiving in my opinion since it deals with an escalating war between the Tiste Edur and Letherii, as opposed to book 1 which deals with the last year of a 20yr war to conquer a continent on behalf of a 120yo empire with complex politics and 300 000yr old enemies, while also dealing with the plots of immortal gods. For me, I loved book 1, but it wasn't til the end of book 2 that I realized I'd found such a special series that was unlike anything else I'd read before. Now I have a Coltaine tattoo cause it was so impactful for me. Hope you pick up the series soon and I'd love to see reading vlogs as well as reviews. It's awesome getting to see people experience the book as they go instead of just hearing their thoughts after finishing.
Oh man! Thanks for the detailed comment! I really appreciate it! Yes! I’ve heard that Midnight Tides is a good starting point so I might do that! Thanks again! 🫶
@@FunFantasyBookswhy would you start in the middle of a series? Why not start at book 1, in a series that is obviously well received that way if it's in the top 5 of all time
I don't understand how you created this list? It seems so chaotic and unreal. Most of the books in top 10 are not as popular as some of the books that didn't make it too 10 like Stormlight Archive, jade legacy etc
Hey! I linked the complete spreadsheet in the description if you feel like having a look! I selected different sources (lists, articles, videos) and then went through all of them analyzing which book was mention and assigning the rank to it. If it was unranked, then an average score depending on how many results were included. I normalized the results so that I could have a score to compare and then sorted by the best score (and filtered so that only books with +5mentions were added to get rid of thr long tail of books that were only mentioned once)
Wow, lot’s of excellent books here but a few highly questionable positions. Most notably Stormlight (which I think should be in the top 5 or possibly top 3) but also Broken Earth (of which I’m surprised made the list). I agree with what you said about recency bias, however, but I also see a lot of “let’s hate the popular guy” mentality going on around Brandon Sanderson. I’ve can’t tell you how many scathing hate rants (which were supposed to be reviews) I’ve seen regarding The Stormlight Archive. It’s pretty shocking, to say the least, to hear so many people call him “a terrible writer” and refer to his books as “unreadably bad.” What makes it sadder is that you can clearly tell, while reading these reviews, that many of these people haven’t even read the books. I absolutely believe that hate bias massively skewed this series’ positioning on this list.
Hello, I really like your fantasy books but I wanted to ask you to say the name of the book right away instead of giving a personal rant that sometimes goes on for 1min and only then revealing the book. If you could talk about the book after you say the book you’re talking about it would make for a less frustrating viewing experience especially when I want to rewatch and see the titles you mention. I have noticed this for a long time and it is getting worse in terms of speaking for a long time before even mentioning the book to the point you do it for every single book.
If I see the lord of the rings or Harry Potter in peoples top lists again I don’t think I will ever read them. They belong in a classics “obviously good” list and we are sick of seeing/hearing about them! We want to hear about other books please. Unless people live under a rock I think we know the lord of the rings is good. Let’s move on please.
@@peterhughes1440 i have seen the movies dozens of times. i will read them one day. im just sick of seeing them. been around forever. i guess i just want modern lists. i do want to read them though. just not right now.
wow the amount of research that went into this video must've been insane!
I have a problem with this presentation. First, please forgive me for my harsh critique as I'm not trying to be mean, just giving constructive criticism. When presenting each book, you're always leading for almost half a minute with descriptions and reviewing sentences before even mentioning the title. I know that you might think this creates some tension but it makes most of what is said before "the reveal" confusing because us, the audience, have no frame of reference. My father always does this and people constantly complain he is hard to understand. Some of my university teachers did that back in the day and their courses were the most skipped. It's much easier to say : "Next at number # we have "Book Title" by "Author", part of "Name of the Series", first published in "Year"." Then explain why you like, love or hate said book. Simpler, more effective, less annoying. Thanks and sorry for my whining...
If you need to be spoon fed information in a simple way, why did you go to university?
@@galinor7 So what you're saying is that we should never try to improve something but be content with any problems that could easily be fixed. Ok... I won't even take the bait and bother to answer your question as its total arbitrary irrelevancy only functions to hide the intended cheap blow under the belt.
Hey! I do appreciate the feedback! Thank you so much for sharing it! I do get excited while sharing and I always think it’s going to be pretty straightforward as I have the books at my right (usually their spines can be seen) - but thank you for letting me know!
@@FunFantasyBooks Thanks for reading and replying to my comment. I make no assumptions of telling you how to run your channel and make your videos! I only make suggestions to youtubers I care about so I said everything with the best intentions because I really like your style and content. That said, maybe I'm wrong and what I said might not work better. Another suggestion is that you could also run community polls about things that could potentially be improved and see what most other people prefer. Thanks again for making great videos! xxx
I disagree with this comment but I understand why you said it. I personally found it entertaining the way she structured it naturally that way-but I’m just one person. Her voice is also super nice to hear.
Her prefaces helped me gauge how she felt about the world in the book, and the journey itself.
Wow I’m so glad Malazan made it to the number 3 spot! Wheel of Time was my favorite series right up until I read Malazan. Erikson scratches an itch I just can’t find with other authors.
Great job making this video, which resulted in an intriguing list! One of the things I enjoy about lists like this is how they can give a sense of the rich array of timeless stories fantasy offers. Thank you for the video!
Truly! I was amazed when I got more than 1000 books, but then again the list overall is not super surprising which I guess talks about the long tail of “not as popular” books vs the currently most known! Thank you so much for watching!
I watched the video twice... The first time was for Thai.. she is simply adorable.. and the second was for the books. I really appreciate how much research went into this. Your love for the books and passion are so palpable and infectious.
Awww thank you! It really means a lot! You made my day!
I need to watch this again and take notes next time. I'm so happy you picked Tolkien as the #1 position! My favorite books of all time. I'm currently re-reading LOTR right now.
Thank you so much! 🥹!! I finally read The Hobbit this year and man was it awesome! Can’t wait to read LOTR!
Love the data analysis approach to this, and that you stuck with it even when you disagreed!
Hahaha I hated and loved that the list had a life of its own 🥲🥂
@@FunFantasyBooks I also have to say seeing the Spanish books in your video inspired me to re-listen to the SA audiobooks this time in Spanish. ¡Viaje antes que destino!
Great video! Personally Malazan is my favourit Fantasy-Series of all time, happy to see it gets some recognition!
Need to read it still! 😭
@@FunFantasyBooks loses steam around book 8. Dont burn any bridges between yourself and the series though *wink wink*
Nice video! But I really expected Artemis Fowl here. Then again, it's not only Fantasy but also Science Fiction. Maybe that's why. 🤔
I am so shocked! Its probably because I only pay attention to book tube but I have barely heard of the Broken Earth and I am stunned that Stormlight, GOT and WOT are all outside the Top 5
I know!!! I am also shocked about GoT and Stormlight 😭😭!!
@@di3s3l44 Broken Earth is fantastic! It's one of my top 5 series. NK Jemisin is an extremely creative and original author, and The Fifth Season blew me away and devastated me at multiple points.
Idk if you like audiobooks but if you do, I highly recommend reading it that way. Cause the narrator is just fantastic in general, but also one of the POVs in told in 2nd person. "'Huh. Weird storytelling choice...' You think to yourself."
So I find actually being told the story as opposed to reading it is helpful for that.
She became the first person to ever win the Hugo award 2yrs in a row. Then she won the 3rd year too! Every book in the trilogy won the award and for good reason.
@@BooksReboundIt's weird, most books that I've read that have won the Hugo Award award I have actively disliked. There are a rare few that I have liked though
I think books like Stormlight are so popular people pull away from it a bit because it’s “too common” of a pick. That said, I don’t know if I totally understand how she ranked these. I’ve watched a different one of these that took in 30 different lists and they were in the top 5. 🤷♂️
I think Stormlight is too new…give it 5 or 10 years and it will shoot up there.
You should do a top twenty single-volume fantasy list.
Yeah! I might do that in the future!! Thank you for the idea!
I enjoyed this a pace a lot! You have done a ton of research for this, thank you!
Thank you so much Kiala! It drove me nuts haha but really enjoyed the process!
I've only read four or five of these. Tolkien will always be my favorite. Someday, check out The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin that Tolkien's son completed (more or less) from his father's incomplete or partial works.
I will! I am just starting with Tolkien but for sure will continue!
Great list. I have read 12 of these (even I must admit not all books in all series), and now I am inspired to read the rest ;-)
I'm new to the channel and immediately suscribed haha, great video.
The moment of revealing Book #1 with the uprising music is just amazing ❤😂
Awww thank you so much! 🥹
Great list, I was on Amazon adding to my list during your video, thanks.
I've read every book in every one of those series. Feels like quite an accomplishment. I like most of these but my favourites are probably Stormlight, The Dark Tower, LOTR, First Law, Discworld, Gentleman Bastard, Realm of the Elderlings and ASOIAF. You should read Malazan but it's extremely dense and complicated. The first book made little sense to me till the story developed more. I found a guide for overall plot and characters was helpful especially at the beginning to make sense of everything.
I will need to check out that guide for sure! Some friends of my Patreon have also told me they needed to have lists and it feels scary but a good challenge!
As someone who read a lot of fantasy in my teens and twenties but not so much since my kids were born, this list is great - so many reminders of favourites of my era like Discworld, Earthsea, Wheel of Time and Locke Lamora, and some new names (probably in the top due to recency bias as much as anything, but who cares) that I can check out when I have a little reading time again over summer holidays....
I love fantasy (mostly, movies, games, Forgotten Realms. However, I am not that much of a roman or novel reader... I didn't want to go for the classics (Lotr, hobbit, GoT, HP, etc.), so I did some digging, and after going through a lot of data I found the following as books I have to read:
Daniel T. Jackson - Illborn,
Joe Abercrombie - The Blade Itself,
Partick R. - Name of the Wind,
Brandon Sanderson - The Way of Kings,
Steve Erikson - Gardens of the Moon,
Robin Hobb - Assassin’s Apprentice,
Miles Cameron - The Red Knight.
What is your thoughts about those, if you have read them?
I love your content!! i´m a fan of you channel , I wanted to know if you have any tips and tricks to start reading in English, I do have a good english level but for some reason reading fantasy for example in that language is a bit intimidating so do you have any tips?
Thanks! Umm I’d say that TJ Klune for example is very accesible! Also T Kingfisher in my opinion! I will try with standalones first and then go to longer series!
@@FunFantasyBooks THANKS A TON !
Love the list. As someone that was affected my WoT so much… Kids names are from there, read out loud to wife while dating, started with book one when there was only one book. Reread whole series each time next book was coming out… love to see it high on other peoples lists…
Ahhh I love it so much that books influenced your life! Thank you for sharing!
Wow the order was a big surprise for these books! Great and well researched video!
Thank you so much! I was also shocked!! 🫶
Honestly I loved this video , I felt I am reading a cozy fantasy.
Oh yay! Thank you so much! I am so happy you loved it and felt cozy 🥹🤗✨
I like cats best when they don't make me sneeze so yours is perfect.
Hahahah perfection then
your putting insane amount of efforts ❤
Videos like this are so helpful. I am 45 years old, and have been reading primarily fantasy books since I was 7, and i haven't heard of many of these series. I don't know how i missed Robin Hobb! Thank you for all the work you did in making this video! Subscribed.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate reading that you enjoyed it! 🤗 welcome to this cozy family!
I'm 52, and although I've read almost all of the books mentioned in the video, very few would make my personal top 20. It's love to see books by Anne McCaffery, Andrew Norton, David Eddings, Barbara Hambly, and Raymond E Feist appear on one of these lists. I know it's a generational thing, and I do love quite a few of the newer fantasy series, I just think some of the older ones were great as well.
Thank you for making this video. It was very well done, and it was interesting to see the opinions of many people not just the author.
Thank you! It really make me happy you enjoyed it! I spent so much time doing it that it feels so rewarding seeing it being useful!
Thanks Kindly for the List
Enjoyed your feedback n results ! Great job ! Yes I have many 90% of the books n then some more I hope to read them all before this life ends I have many many years worth of reading and taking my time but I need to push myself to complete! 🎉
Exactly!!! Please read them! I also have my fair share to read 🌝👏!!
Thanks for the recommendations. Best wishes and happy reading.
Thank you so much! Best wishes and happy reading for you as well! 🥹🫶
Love that you published your google doc. Great resource!
Yay!! I hope it’s useful!!
Thanks for the list! I'm sure this took a lot of time to compile all the data! It was interesting hearing how the written articles were often different than what was seen on BookTube.
It took aaaaaaages!!! But I am so happy with how it turned out! 🥹
@@FunFantasyBooks I enjoyed it!
Any fantasy book list who has Tolkien in it, let alone as No. 1, is the best list EVER! 😃🥰
Haha i am so happy you think so!
Undoubtedly one of the best lists I've seen on the internet or at least one that fits my tastes.
I was surprised to see some works so high on the list but as the ranking progressed I saw that it was to make room for other works that for me should at least make an appearance and that often do not appear as “The dark tower” or “His dark materials” and of course the tetralogy of “the dynasty of the dandelion” the best I've read in recent years.
There are some saga of those mentioned that I have not read that I had in my sights and others that I have not but that I will try to read since I liked the list very much.
¡Gran trabajo con el vídeo!
Muchas gracias!!! It makes me so happy that you enjoyed the list! If I’m honest, I was also surprised on how the list turned out haha 😂
While reading game of thrones , i felt for some reason , that there are no other good fantasy book series , till i started researching . Now i hqve bought the first books of Dune / Shogun / Malazan series / Storm light archive .
Ohhhhh I can only praise Stormlight!! (As it’s the only one I’ve read! ) but hope you love it!
This is a pretty good list. Good mix of old and new. Personally I would put Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire higher, but no list will perfectly fit my preferences.
Lord of the Rings is very different from modern fantasy and a bit of a difficult read in 2024 but still very worth reading. I think the utter exhaustion of Sam and Frodo toward the end of Return of the King, and their difficulties reintegrating into normal life, are part of what really sets it apart, and clearly draw on Tolkien's own experience of fighting in World War I.
Very good video with a lot of research done! However one point of feedback would be to start with the book title and author and AFTER that proceed with further description on the book.
Thank you so much!!
Wow. Great video! I took notes. I finished 4 of these series, 6 if including the series that aren't finished yet, partially read 9 of these (but I might DNF The Gunslinger), 4 are on my physical TBR, and only one is on my TBR but I don't have a copy yet (The Dandelion Dynasty).
Oh I loved how you also shared data! Yes!!! Hahaha it makes me happy to see data & books together!
Woo Dandelion Dynasty! My fav series of all time, it's a masterpiece imo
Best tip for Malazan is to recognize you’re witnessing a story, not being told one. In other words, you’re seeing events but nobody takes the time to explain anything. If you can be comfortable with confusion, and take it scene by scene, it’s amazing.
Hahaha I’ll take it into consideration! Thank you so much!
@ that said, it’s not for everyone. I’m a massive Malazan fan, and often others will get all snobby if peeps don’t like it. It’s difficult. It’s not written with the reader in mind, per se. If you decide to dive in, I’d love to chat about it. And if you don’t like it, don’t let me tell you you’re stupid ☺️
I like to say it’s like uncovering one piece of a mosaic. Each book reveals more of a grand mosaic, until what you’re looking at is the Sistine Chapel of stories.
@ for Malazan? Absolutely. Good way to think about the story
One day, I hope to see my new book on your list. The Dragon Codex was just published; a tale about dragons, magic, and graphic design.
Oh best of luck with it!
I live for how Thai is like COME ON ISA, LOVE ME 😂😂
And wow, I've actually read or started a grand total of 3 on this list, which is admittedly 2 more than I was expecting!
Bahahaha I always love your comments Eli! Thai is the star of the show 🐈!!
Wonderful video!! One critique- please consider putting the titles on the screen as you mention them. Your accent is beautiful but I personally had some trouble understanding the title & author names. 🙏🏽💙
Ahhh fair enough! Thank you for the feedback! 🥹
Thank you! Love your special guest. Meow ❤
Thai 🥹
Oh my word you have to read LOTR. After you have stopped crying you should then pick up Malazan , it is really not as confusing as a lot of people say.
Heard a lot of good things about ken Liu so thats on my list to read along with John Gwynne.
I am happy to report I am currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring 🥹- our friends are at Tom Bombadil’s house!
Not sure how I should feel about having read everything on this list, and the entire series at that 😂
#9 surprised me, I didn't expect it to be that high, or here at all :/
#1 is such a shocker, amirite
Hahaha I guess that means you know your fantasy!
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I like Discworld, but I just can't get myself to commit to so many odd books. I loved Guards Guards and Mort, but haven't been back. They were a break to get me through the Wheel Of Time slog, but since then I've been committed to all books Cosmere. I'm trying to find something to read while I wait for book 5 of Stormlight, because I'd feel dumb buying a 4 book boxed set if a 5 book were to come out next month.
AMAZING VIDEO!
Thank you so so much! 🥹🎉
I feel LOTR not being number 1 would be a crime, or just someone trying to be hipster about it! And you're right, Andy Serkis reading the audio book is crazy good
Finally got the the best of all. The last I watched of your best fantasy books didn't even mention it.
If you are to create such a list, you really need to have read the best
Amazing job!
Ahh! Thank you so so much! ✨
+1 for the brief glimpse of the daniel greene
The Malazan Book of The Fallen series is pretty good.... you have to do two things though:
A) Just ignore much of the magic, and much of the secret schemes.... do not ignore it, but do not fight to wrap your head around it... just make something up that fits... and this will NOT change the story AT ALL.
B) Remember it was in part at least written from an RPG session, and lot of times there's some leftovers of that, in things like certain hooks and mechanics feeling like that would be something the reader would need to know if they were the player and this was an RPG, but otherwise, kind of seem a bit superfluous.
The First Law Trilogy is GREAT, read the next two books... but you also do not NEED to for something like THIS, because it carries that tone right through. Think of where you think the stories and characters arcs will go after the first book.... and loosely speaking, the story goes there.... because the first book makes it clear how dastardly so many of the main players are, that you cannot help but think more along certain lines, if you imagine what they get up to later... than to think it will go some other, easier to swallow, Diet Cola, Apple Pie, I love baby Jesus kind of Heroic direction.
Still, the fact that there is NO David Gemmell and NO Guy Gavriel Kay, here on this list at all.... makes it clear the people mentioning the mentions you consulted to make this like, have no business mentioning anything to do with fantasy at all.
Simple facts, no more.
Thanks for the recommendations for Malazan!! Gemmel & Guy Kay were mentioned and are in the detailed excel but didn’t make it at the top!
Did you read all of your books in Spanish? That’s my first language but I have been reading all of my fantasy books in English. Will give them a try in Spanish… Thank you for this very well put together list. I’ll use it as a guide for those I have not read yet.
Thank you so much!!! I mainly read in English now as it’s cheaper xD and being fair there are a fair amount of books that are still not translated! But the books I read years back, I did in Spanish!
I'm surprised Tad Williams doesn't make the list. The Dragonbone Chair is one of my favourites.
It was definitely mentioned multiple times!! I still need to read it - I’ve heard wonders!
That brings me back! I always liked his Otherland series more, although I suppose it doesn't get classed as fantasy.
Hablás español? Veo que hay libros que estan en español! Jaja que interesante!
Me sorprendió la colección del Señor de los Anillos de la editorial minitauro que tiene los cintillos dorados en los margenes. Me encanta esa colección, yo tambien la tengo así ❤
Siiii! Soy de Madrid, España! Jajaja buenísima edición!
@@FunFantasyBooks Que lindo! Yo soy de Argentina jaja
Hablas ingles de forma excelente!
Me encantan tus videos!
Name of the Wind is absolutely my favorite read!!
Hahah so happy to read that!
I don't believe you have to read book 3 and 4 of The Dandelion Dynasty back to back. I took a month break between The Veiled throne and Speaking bones and did not feel lost or confused coming back to it at all.
Oh great! This is a good thing haha I was scared!
Long Price Quartet, Covenant Series. Also very good reads.
Ohhh! I have had the Long Price Quartet on my TBR for ages! I’ll take this as my cue to finally read it!
Thank you, great video! 🍓💖🌸🐈❤️
Yay! Happy you enjoyed it!!
Wow no mention of David Eddings or Stephen Donaldson?
Dandelion Dynasty was great but there was so much mechanical explanation of how this or that works (especially in the last 2 books)😵💫
Ohhh I still need to read the latest 2 books! Will take that into consideration!
Yey! A new video!
Hahaha yay! Thanks for being here!
Well, after seeing what books made your list, I'm curious if you've ever read 'The Chronicles of Amber' by Roger Zelazny? For me, that's #1, but I've read way less books than you have, but if you've never read it, it's a 10-book series, but it's really two 5-book series, and the first 5 are the best. I recommend you try reading the first book 'Nine Princes in Amber'. None of these books are long either. Hope you check it out, as I'd love to hear what you think of it, assuming you haven't read it, of course : )
Thanks for recommending! I haven’t read them! 🫶
@@FunFantasyBooks Oh, ok. Well, I hope you check them out. Zelazny narrated them too. So glad he did : )
I know you have done a lot of research but those lists are sadly quite old if we add new stories like LOTM into the list the scene changes quite a bit but since LOTM is a chinese book its not really added into western fantasy novels mostly. But you should give it a try the world building and power system is out of this world.
A lot of the books towards the top are very much dude fantasy (with the exception of the fifth season). I prefer more modern fantasy for the female characters, plus I don’t believe anyone who puts LOtR as their favourite, it’s great don’t get me wrong, but it’s the most basic answer you can give, I sometimes feel a lot of the classics are still put on the top of peoples lists out of fear of not including them instead of truly thinking they are their favourites
The Wheel of Time not being in the top 5 is wild. It's my #1, so I assume I may be biased. I recognize that it's definitely... uh... dated? It has tropes and diction definitely more aligned with the 90's and early 2000's when it was written, but man... those books are incredible.
First 7 or so books are good and for the time amazing. But man it's a chore after that.
@wesleylang172 I completely get that. Books 8 and 9 were such a slog. It felt like some characters were doing so much, some were basically doing nothing, and some weren't even there lol. But I still say that it's overall an incredible tale.
I'm going to cry with happiness, women who recommend really good fantasy books, and not the average booktoker who recommends poorly written romantasy books.
Yay! So happy you enjoyed it (although i immediate after had a romantasy video planned haha but never do them xD)
Stormlight Archives in 14 is wild.
Crazy, broke my heart 💔
Starlight Archives really renewed my love of epic fantasy. I read it before Mistborn. I already preordered the fifth book coming out in December.
Loved the video and the research that went into it. Also love Rings of Power!
Wait a second. My books aren't in your list? Darn it! (just having some fun with ya) 😏
Hahaha
@@FunFantasyBooks Hi. Glad I made you laugh. I actually have written two fantasy novels, called Forestera's Fate. They're basically D&D in story-form. I assume you know what D&D is : )
I also narrated them on my channel, along with two 'Short D&D Stories', if you'd like to check them out. Both Books are in their own Playlist. I'd love to chat with you sometime, both about my books, and Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. I tried narrating some of that book too, just to try it.
While I think you did a fantastic job, I think you picked too many booktubers from the same style and that shows in/skews the results a bit. But still, great video 🙂
Yeah! Fair enough! I tried to research and open the spectrum but found our fantasy is pretty niched
It never ceases to amaze me how absent The Witcher saga is in fantasy rankings. It has become kind of a frustrating hobby for me to search for a top list that at least mentions it. I read somewhere that the English translation was bad, unlike the Spanish translation, which is amazingly good.
The English translation is pretty bad
I didn’t know the Spanish translation was good! The Witcher was mentioned but sadly not enough! I for one still need to read it!
Very cool, thanks
Thank you! 🫶
Lies of Locke Lamora is one of the best reads of all time.
Hard agree!
Do you speak Spanish too? Noticed you have a coupe of book sin Spanish. Me sorpredio ver el nombre del viento pero cuando vi la biblia que es el archivo me causo genuina curiosidad.
Si!! Soy de Madrid; España!! 🥂
@FunFantasyBooks Un gustazo! Me he visto un montón de tus vídeos desde éste. Que increíble canal y contenido. Un abrazo muy fuerte, tienes un seguidor más 🥂.
I just thrifted a book haul of 293 books for 55 dollars for my book giveway at work. I have given away over 2000 books for babies kids teens and adults in 9 months. I just dropped 6 videos showing the haul . Let's get this generation reading. But my videos get almost no views
Sorry to hear that! Hopefully the views will come!
sad terry goodkind is not in the list 😊
Not in the final one! But was definitely mentioned! (Can find it in the excel)
I'm going to try to be succinct here. There seems to be this trend on "top" whatever lists of books that the reviewer hasn't actually read. Why does a reviewer who hasn't read a book or series feel qualified to put that book or series on any kind of list...?
Stop what you are reading right now and read Malazan!
Hahahaha right?
I have read partially or completely(depending on how much i liked them) nearly everything on this list and yet my order could not be more different.
Stormlight at 14 is a blasphemy to say the least.
Hard agree! It breaks my heart!
Supe que eras hispanohablante nada más oírte hablar y cuando vi el nombre del viento en español lo tuve claro😂
Jajajaja tal cual!
Fun!
Haha yay! Thanks for watching Mike! It is always mind blowing to see a comment of yours!
Are you from Spain, if I may ask?
I am! From Madrid!
@@FunFantasyBooksthat's so cool!
Thanks!
Aww thank you so so much! 🥹👏
Using the words normalize and long-tail seems to indicate you have mathematical background. Music to my ears. Thank you for the video.
If Malazan isnt in this list I'll cry. It should be #1 lol
Ahhh I’ll take this as my signal to read it then
@@FunFantasyBooks It's soo soo incredible. Theres really nothing else like it. I personally think its level of complexity is overblown online from over eager fans hedging their bets when recommending it. Cause I read it when I was 18 and reading stuff like Shadow and Bone, Prince of Thorns, & Mistborn, and I had no problem with Malazan.
But I guess my one piece of advice is dont DNF it. I never wanted to personally, but I've heard many people say they struggled in the beginning but loved it by the end.
Alternatively, you could also just start with book 2 or more likely book 5 if you really wanna screw the rules. Book 5 is extremely well written, very self contained, and it's actually chronologically first in the series, so you could easily read it as a standalone and decide whether you want to continue Malazan after that.
The series jumps around to various continents and casts, and book 5 jumps to a new continent ENTIRELY disconnected from the rest of the story, and it tells the backstory of a single character you meet in book 4. So Midnight Tides is a great entry point and a lot more forgiving in my opinion since it deals with an escalating war between the Tiste Edur and Letherii, as opposed to book 1 which deals with the last year of a 20yr war to conquer a continent on behalf of a 120yo empire with complex politics and 300 000yr old enemies, while also dealing with the plots of immortal gods.
For me, I loved book 1, but it wasn't til the end of book 2 that I realized I'd found such a special series that was unlike anything else I'd read before. Now I have a Coltaine tattoo cause it was so impactful for me.
Hope you pick up the series soon and I'd love to see reading vlogs as well as reviews. It's awesome getting to see people experience the book as they go instead of just hearing their thoughts after finishing.
Oh man! Thanks for the detailed comment! I really appreciate it! Yes! I’ve heard that Midnight Tides is a good starting point so I might do that! Thanks again! 🫶
@@BooksReboundTHE WICKANS! THE WICKANS! THE WICKANS!
@@FunFantasyBookswhy would you start in the middle of a series? Why not start at book 1, in a series that is obviously well received that way if it's in the top 5 of all time
Tai doesn't seem to agree with the rating lol!
Hahaha she does not 🤣
I don't understand how you created this list? It seems so chaotic and unreal. Most of the books in top 10 are not as popular as some of the books that didn't make it too 10 like Stormlight Archive, jade legacy etc
Hey! I linked the complete spreadsheet in the description if you feel like having a look! I selected different sources (lists, articles, videos) and then went through all of them analyzing which book was mention and assigning the rank to it. If it was unranked, then an average score depending on how many results were included. I normalized the results so that I could have a score to compare and then sorted by the best score (and filtered so that only books with +5mentions were added to get rid of thr long tail of books that were only mentioned once)
your channel deserves 200k subs not 20k
Aww thank you so much! Hopefully with time 🤞✨
Stormlight should have been last.
I hope you mean last as in first 💔
Wow, lot’s of excellent books here but a few highly questionable positions. Most notably Stormlight (which I think should be in the top 5 or possibly top 3) but also Broken Earth (of which I’m surprised made the list).
I agree with what you said about recency bias, however, but I also see a lot of “let’s hate the popular guy” mentality going on around Brandon Sanderson. I’ve can’t tell you how many scathing hate rants (which were supposed to be reviews) I’ve seen regarding The Stormlight Archive. It’s pretty shocking, to say the least, to hear so many people call him “a terrible writer” and refer to his books as “unreadably bad.” What makes it sadder is that you can clearly tell, while reading these reviews, that many of these people haven’t even read the books.
I absolutely believe that hate bias massively skewed this series’ positioning on this list.
I was also really surprised! It broke my heart to see that 😭
Stromlight 14? Ehhhhh. Nooo.
I know 💔
the stormlight archives are easily the best in the whole of fantasy
Hahaha agreed!
Great list, but for the love of all that is good, get your microphone off of your desk or stop bumping into it! 😫
Hello, I really like your fantasy books but I wanted to ask you to say the name of the book right away instead of giving a personal rant that sometimes goes on for 1min and only then revealing the book. If you could talk about the book after you say the book you’re talking about it would make for a less frustrating viewing experience especially when I want to rewatch and see the titles you mention. I have noticed this for a long time and it is getting worse in terms of speaking for a long time before even mentioning the book to the point you do it for every single book.
Hey! Thank you so much for the feedback! I do her exciting about the books I’m introducing! Will keep it in mind! 🫶
@@FunFantasyBooks Thank you!
I only disagree American Gods. I think so much worse than Sandman comics and is so much filler and is so bizarre.
Haven’t read any! (Read rest of Gaiman’s!) so can’t really add my 2 cents here! But thanks for sharing your opinion!
Stormlight isnt finished, shouldnt be rated at all
Also rating WoT without finishing it is also a mistake
If I see the lord of the rings or Harry Potter in peoples top lists again I don’t think I will ever read them. They belong in a classics “obviously good” list and we are sick of seeing/hearing about them! We want to hear about other books please. Unless people live under a rock I think we know the lord of the rings is good. Let’s move on please.
Fair enough! I also enjoy hidden gems or underrated fantasy books!
Well they are both amazing. And its a list of really good fantasy books. So I think it makes sense
Fully accept your opinion, but I think you will be sorry if you don’t read LotR someday …… It is iconic.
@@peterhughes1440 i have seen the movies dozens of times. i will read them one day. im just sick of seeing them. been around forever. i guess i just want modern lists. i do want to read them though. just not right now.