Poll: Best fantasy series

[darkflame448]

Still, I think I have to give my vote to the Belgariad/Malloreon books by David and Leigh Eddings. They're deliberately derivative, but fantastically written (and often quite funny), especially regarding dialogue and character interactions, and Belgarath, Polgara, and Silk are some of my favorite characters ever.

I agree with you those are marvelous books but my personal favourites would have to be all the works by Raymond E. Feist. Starting from the Riftwar and going all the way to the Twilight War that he is working on atm. Each series by itself is a great story but all together they create an epic.

 

[Zeriah]

My favorites series are tied between tWoT, A Song of Ice and Fire and The Abhorsen Trilogy (soon to be sequence?). I can't really pick a clear favorite here =/

 

[Darwins_Folly]

The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Just picked up book ten, can't wait to read it! The most epic series I've read in terms of history and scope. I have to say tied with A Song of Ice and Fire though.

I started Gardens of the Moon but couldn't really get into it. It's slow, and this is coming from someone who had no problem getting through the first part of A Game of Thrones.

You should really give it another shot. I had some trouble getting into the first book as well the first time I read it, but it is well worth it when you get into it.

 

[InnerRebellion]

I've always hated Elene - she was so fake and naive, and when I envision Kylar and Vi together, I squeal with girlish joy.

Dorian the Mad, it has a lovely ring to it. Speaking of Mad, I really want to know more about Ezra and what his plans are with the ka'kari and whatnot. I also can't wait to see what happens with Uly being super powerful and all, as well as the twins.

Movie you say? That could be the world's greatest creation or a film of such filled with such disgusting horribleness that it causes many people to die of blood loss through their eyes.

Perfect Shadow is pre-Trilogy, all about Durzo and his past - including Momma K.

Indeed, Elene's "Holier than thou" complex did get on my nerves quite a bit. Vi, meanwhile, was the perfect woman for Kylar; she's basically, more or less, undergone the same training as him, knows who he is due to the earrings and can probably learn to understand him better than he understands himself.

On Ezra, I completely agree. There has to be some complex plan the man has if he really wants all the ka'kari, Curoch and Iures.

So much potential, and I'm so glad I haven't seen his world ripped to shreds by horrible fan fiction.

 

[TheWonko]

No Discworld? Really? I am disappoint.

 

[Gaiseric]

You are obviously all wrong. If we're talking High Fantasy, which it sounds like, then the answer would have to be the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. If we're not limited to High Fantasy, then The Dresden Files by the same author is even better.

Codex is laced with Butcher's sharp humor and I think I read the entire series in 5 sittings. It has magic mixed with Roman themes and has so many Moments of Crowning Awesome it will make your head spin.

Exactly! An Escapist with good taste this one is.

I agree with you 100%.

 

[Ensiferum]

This was SUCH a hard decision mainly because LOTR, Narnia, Sword of Truth and Legend of Drizzt are ALL favorite fantasy series of mine, especially anything by Tolkien and Lewis. But when it comes to the series that is the most sprawling and epic, not to mention the series without which several others on this list would not exist (R.A. Salvatore quite being a lawyer so he could write fantasy just BECAUSE someone gave him a copy of LOTR in law school) I have to go with Lord of the Rings, but Narnia is a very close second.

Regarding George RR Martin; I don't enjoy his works nearly as much for the same reasons most people seem to love him. To be fair, I've only read the first book in the "Thrones" series, but to call an 850 page book a "fantasy novel" when maybe three pages out of all of them have anything close to actual fantasy going on robs the reader of his expectations. Of course more often than not I love having my expectations exceeded, but here the opposite was the case. To be honest it read more like historical medieval fiction, which is also fine, but it wasn't sold to me on that premise. When a book is called "fantasy" I expect a little more than just some unknown continent filled with douchey humans, a few dragon skulls and some large wolves. On top of that I found most (not all mind you, just most) of the characters to be thoroughly unlikeable. Yes flaws are very important in a character but at the same time said character should strive to and succeed in overcoming them; otherwise they're just boring assholes. With all of that being said I am still interested in checking out the series that premiers April 18th on HBO, mainly because I think the drawn-out elements of the novel will be better condensed and focused on screen. Also if someone wants to try to convince me that the series "does" get better in spite of my current issues with it I welcome your point of view. Then again I definitely prefer "high fantasy" in general so perhaps Game of Thrones simply isn't for me to begin with. Yet I generally love "Sword and Sorcery" (the opposite, right?) such as Conan The Barbarian as well. But if that's the fantasy sub-genre thrones falls under I think the problem I have with Thrones is that there's too much politicking, only a meager amount of swords, and almost no sorcery.

TLDR: I felt like Game of Thrones lied to me by calling itself "fantasy" and while I can understand it isn't "high fantasy," it barely even qualifies as "sword and sorcery" fantasy either, more like historical fiction. If you think it gets miles better after the first book please convince me.

 

[Mordekaien]

Witcher series... Go read it. Now.

Or

The series about Konias by Miroslav Zamboch (It's a Czech writer, and a damn good one).

 

[Xixikal]

Indeed, Elene's "Holier than thou" complex did get on my nerves quite a bit. Vi, meanwhile, was the perfect woman for Kylar; she's basically, more or less, undergone the same training as him, knows who he is due to the earrings and can probably learn to understand him better than he understands himself.

On Ezra, I completely agree. There has to be some complex plan the man has if he really wants all the ka'kari, Curoch and Iures.

So much potential, and I'm so glad I haven't seen his world ripped to shreds by horrible fan fiction.

Agreed, not only that, but Elene had been given the most privileged life as was possible for her - she had it easy. Vi, on the other hand, didn't. As Sister Ariel said, she was broken. Elene was only as good as she was due to circumstance - Vi had no chance until Kylar came along, and then she appreciated the chance she was given. Elene never realised how lucky she was (her scars don't count).

Also, the concept of krul and Nightlords I want to see more detail, and more about magic and gods and stuff - and the other ka'kari.
You're right, the only benefit to not having a mega fanbase is that the fanfiction is minimal.

 

[demonflowers]

I'm suprised you didn't include the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. I know it's not high fantasy (which this list seems to focus on), but they are SO GOOD. I've read all of those books more than once, some of them over than 15 times.

Another author I just have to mention is Tamora Pierce. She writes young adult books with female leads, which I usually despise (the very existence of the Twilight books makes me ashamed to be female), but her books are just so amazing! I recommend them to everyone of any age or gender. They are well written and imaginative.

God the Wheel of Time series... Amazing, but I had to stop reading them because everytime I finished one of those books the wait for the next one was simply painful. I should really start again...

 

[Sarynroth]

Hmmmm I am kind of torn between David Eddings Belgariad/Mallorean and David Gemmel's Drenai tales. I think the belagariad/Mallorean is better for character developement and dialogue between characters but The drenai tales are definately more epic.

DRUSS THE LEGEND FTW

 

[demonflowers]

Oh, and I loathe the Narnia books. HATE. It's just preachy and hateful idiocy. The last book pissed me off so much.

 

[GrimTuesday]

This was SUCH a hard decision mainly because LOTR, Narnia, Sword of Truth and Legend of Drizzt are ALL favorite fantasy series of mine, especially anything by Tolkien and Lewis. But when it comes to the series that is the most sprawling and epic, not to mention the series without which several others on this list would not exist (R.A. Salvatore quite being a lawyer so he could write fantasy just BECAUSE someone gave him a copy of LOTR in law school) I have to go with Lord of the Rings, but Narnia is a very close second.

Regarding George RR Martin; I don't enjoy his works nearly as much for the same reasons most people seem to love him. To be fair, I've only read the first book in the "Thrones" series, but to call an 850 page book a "fantasy novel" when maybe three pages out of all of them have anything close to actual fantasy going on robs the reader of his expectations. Of course more often than not I love having my expectations exceeded, but here the opposite was the case. To be honest it read more like historical medieval fiction, which is also fine, but it wasn't sold to me on that premise. When a book is called "fantasy" I expect a little more than just some unknown continent filled with douchey humans, a few dragon skulls and some large wolves. On top of that I found most (not all mind you, just most) of the characters to be thoroughly unlikeable. Yes flaws are very important in a character but at the same time said character should strive to and succeed in overcoming them; otherwise they're just boring assholes. With all of that being said I am still interested in checking out the series that premiers April 18th on HBO, mainly because I think the drawn-out elements of the novel will be better condensed and focused on screen. Also if someone wants to try to convince me that the series "does" get better in spite of my current issues with it I welcome your point of view. Then again I definitely prefer "high fantasy" in general so perhaps Game of Thrones simply isn't for me to begin with. Yet I generally love "Sword and Sorcery" (the opposite, right?) such as Conan The Barbarian as well. But if that's the fantasy sub-genre thrones falls under I think the problem I have with Thrones is that there's too much politicking, only a meager amount of swords, and almost no sorcery.

TLDR: I felt like Game of Thrones lied to me by calling itself "fantasy" and while I can understand it isn't "high fantasy," it barely even qualifies as "sword and sorcery" fantasy either, more like historical fiction. If you think it gets miles better after the first book please convince me.

Did you even finish?

Spoiler

at the end of the first book Dany's dragon eggs hatch, the wights (zombies risen by magic), The others/White walkers in the prologue, the children of the forest who aren't seen but are mentioned a lot. In the next few books you get wargs who control animals, giants, A chick give birth the a shadow assassin, there's a guys who has come back to life about 15 times

And that's just the stuff I remember off the top of my head as far as the fantasy elements go, you get more of the sword in later books with the war of the five kings and a few other things. Also why do all the characters have to be likeable? Sure, they aren't all nice people who are nice to every one but that isn't the point, just because someone isn't likable doesn't mean they are not a compelling character. So I would definitely say give it another shot because it only gets better.

 

[mythlover20]

Your poll lacks the Kingkiller Chronicles. Son, I am disappoint.

As am I. It totally rocks and I completely blew my budget this week picking up the second book.

 

[Shuswah_Noir]

Terry Pratchett's books.

 

[Efrate]

Wheel of time, barring the last two books I've read it probably 2 dozen times, no joke. Books 1-7 I used to re-read almost weekly in high school.

Ice and fire is good, Practchet is hilarious, and Tolkien though he didn't start it all I respect but then set aside. Eddings is phenominal, but a generally lighter read, especially the Belgariad. I do like how he's honest about how much he ripped off though.

Salvatore's forgotten realms (aka Drittz) stuff was great but the ending was horrible, though the journey was a blast.

Narnia is too much religious propaganda for me, though I did enjoy the first book in elementary. Riftwar is quite good, though it seems to take space over too much time to stay really griping, I just want Pug doing, well, everything.

Surprised no one mentioned the Memory, Sorrow, Thorn series by Tad Williams, the first book starts slow but its written extremely well and has some of the best characterization I've seen, barring Sam Vimes or Death.

 

[T0xiCity8]

Harry Potter books
Lord of the Rings films

 

[BoredDragon]

I know all of 2 of those titles

 

[Xaio30]

Poor Robert Jordan. If your books only did not drag on for AGES they would've been ranked higher. An epic story in its true meaning though.

 

[Zaltias]

Definitely Feist's Riftwar Saga for me. It was my first fantasy series and I find it more interesting than LOTR.