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The 100 Most Popular Fantasy Books on Goodreads
Dragons, demons, kings, queens, and the occasional farm boy (with a special destiny, of course): Fantasy literature has it all! To celebrate our favorite fictional worlds and characters, we went on a quest for the 100 most popular fantasies of all time on Goodreads, as determined by your fellow members.
Of course, as fantasy readers know, the journey itself matters just as much as the destination. To create our list, we first sought out the most reviewed books on our site. Additionally, each title needed at least a 3.5-star rating to join our fellowship of titles. And, since fantasy is known for its epic sagas, in the case of multiple titles from the same series we chose the one with the most reviews.
Here are the top fantasy books on Goodreads, listed from 1 to 100.
How many have you read? Tell us in the comments below, and don’t forget to add titles that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf!
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
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#13
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#30
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#33
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#100
How many of these books have you read? What’s your favorite fantasy novel of all time? Let’s talk books in the comments!
Comments Showing 101-150 of 289 (289 new)
Sunshine by Robin Mckinley is one of my favourites and how could the Trilogy of The RiddlemasterHed by Patricia McKillip be left out!!!
Dikshita wrote: "Where is Harry Potter?"Lol.
Where is Ursula Le Guin: The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness? Extraordinary omissions.
What about Mercedes Lackey, hers are wonderful stories, especially the Valdemar books. And if its an adult list what about more vampires and shape shifters. Anne Bishop is a superb writer- the Jewels series, the novels about the Others. The Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold. Christine Feehan has written a number of shape shifter stories, very adult.And I didn't see Diana Gabaldon for any of her Outlander books.
Is alternate history considered fantasy? If it is then Eric Flint's 1632 books are quite good. And so on...
My best Fantasy book series was The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Huh? I’ve only read two from the list -CS Lewis and George RR Martin’s books. Thought I love fantasy.added to my TBR:
The Hobbit
The Fellowship of the Ring
Circe
Wicked
Good Omens
why Harry Potter and throne of glass is not in the list?
Keep saying these lists are a waste of time other than to give people some ideas to read. As far as being the best books, can't be the point as everyone's list is different. Near the top of my list would be Donaldson and Eddings, no mention of either here, and Chalker's Dancing Gods series never gets a mention.
i have read a few of these books but not most of them. For me the Goblin Emperor is one of the best fantasy novels ever and of course Harry Potter series is up there, read it a few times, Also Graceling and Seraphina are right up there for me.
I can't believe I've only read 19 of these! Going to make my way down list! 😄
I LOVE Naomi Novik's novels, so happy to see them all on this list!! 😍!!
Where is Harry Potter? If I had written this list, Harry Potter would be #1. But in all 100 titles, it just isn't here! Sure, The Hobbit and the Chronicles of Narnia are good, and deserve great spots on this list, but they're nowhere NEAR as good as Harry Potter (in my opinion). I also noticed that on the Sci-Fi list, there's no Hunger Games. I thought maybe you'd put it on Fantasy instead, but it isn't on either in all 200 books! Honestly, why aren't these in the 100 most popular?!?!
I am sad that the King’s Watch series by Mark Hayden isn’t on the list. Also notably missing is the Crow Investigations by S. Painter.
I’m surprised Harry Potter, A Court of Thorna and Roses, and Throne of Glass are not on here. To name a few... hmm.
Relax - this is just what's popular on GoodReads. A lot of these are titles from authors that are better at "gaming" readers on GoodReads. Novik, Jemisen, Weeks, Sanderson, Gaiman all have multiple titles on the list. They or their people are better at reaching us through GoodReads.
Pern books are SF not fantasy. The dragons are genetically created and not a fantasy creature. But then in the SF list they have a Star Wars novel which is fantasy.
I have to agree with most comments here. The title of the list doesn't represent what's in there, how could Harry Potter, some of Rick Riordan and Sarah J. Maas books be omitted from here?
Dire list composed by non-fantasy readers it would appear. Where's The Sparrow for starters?
Agree with not understanding why there's no Harry Potter, Percy Jackson... But I would love to see Strange the Dreamer on here. It's such a well written book with an amazing story.
Dikshita wrote: "Where is Harry Potter?"I am actually glad Harry Potter isn't on the list. That series is on every Top ...-list , mostly next to The Lord of the Rings. Don't get me wrong, I love the latter, but I want to try out something new.
I don't really understand people complaining that Harry Potter isn't on the list. Is it a good series? Yes. Does it have high ratings? Yes. But everyone has already read it. There's no reason to put it on lists like this. There seems to be two reasons for clicking on the list in the first place: 1) Being able to feel smug that you have read a ton of them (I've been there and done that too, not throwing stones) or 2) trying to find books you haven't read that you might want to pick up. Harry Potter doesn't really do it for either. Maybe part of number 1. But since everyone has already read it, it isn't really a distinction.
my favorite fantasy are the Dying Earth books and the Lyonesse Trilogy by Jack Vance; the Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg; and the Prince Corum books by Michael Moorcock.
I've only read 11 of these, but those that I have read have been a part of a series and I tend to read everything in a series. Especially like katherine Kurtz and lois Bujold. My husband thinks that I read nothing but fantasy and mystery.
Some books I would have liked to see on the list;The Cruel Prince - Holly Black
The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
They may not meet the criteria but are great.
Where is Sabaa Tahir? She should be in the top 10...
I've read 17 of these, plus many of the rest of the series that were on the list. I'm glad Name of the Wind is so high up, as well as Wizard's First Rule. Both are highly deserved. Many are asking why HP, ACOTAR, or Throne of Glass, etc. aren't on this list.. I would venture to say that YA Fantasy has become so popular that it is in a genre of its own, while YA SciFi being less popular has remained in the larger SciFi grouping. This list is made up of primarily adult High Fantasy. And frankly, ACOTAR, while an excellent read, is not even in the same league as stories by Tolkien, Gaiman, Feist, or Rothfuss. I totally agree with this list.
My favorite is Night Circus. I've read about 15 of theBooks listed with about 20 already in my library.
I suppose it's not surprising, but it's a little disheartening that these skew so modern. Maybe we can get a cultivated 100 best that doesn't think that the world of fantasy began with a Kindle.
Anna wrote: "I'm surprised by how many of these I haven't read, compared to the sci-fi list! I usually say I prefer fantasy, but apparently, the numbers say otherwise? :)I marked a bunch for my TBR, though."
I had the same thought! I’m in a SFF book club, and it is well known I prefer fantasy to sci-fi, but I’ve read twice as many of the top 100 in sci-fi compared to fantasy! I’ve got at least 8 of these on my TBR list though, looks like I have some catching up to do!
Boradicus wrote: "I'm surprised that one of Sabaa Tahir's isn't on this list."Me too!
I’ve read 30, but - hurrah! Lots more ideas for books I want to read.
Watership Down, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen make it, but Alice through the Looking Glass does not?
I have read 26 of them, and tried a couple of others. Some just don't appeal to me. I see some that I have not heard of that I would like to read.
Read 34 but there are 100s that don't appear on the list. All of Anne McCaffrey. I'm not sure why only Fellowship of the Ring appears. Weird algorithm.
Obviously it's to do with reviews but I can't stand the Weis & Hickman books. Just my opinion. Read one and didn't finish it.
I'll read ANYTHING by Jim Butcher. The Harry Dresden files is some of the best stuff I've ever read. I was surprised that Stephen R. Donaldson didn't make the list.
Doctor Turtle wrote: "John Crowley's Little, Big and Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan are the two worst omissions on this list."Titus Groan only has a little over 1300 reviews. The number 100 book has over 6,000. That might have something to do with it.
Lists are hard. They are somewhat arbitrary. You have to ask yourself who is rating these titles? I’d imagine a lot of older folk (I’m 45 so I’m in the middle?) don’t rate which means some titles either move way down the list or don’t make it all. Same goes for younger readers. Maybe they don’t rate so some YA novels aren’t represented. I will say that though there are a few Sanderson books on here The Way of Kong’s is totally overlooked. That whole Stormlight Archives series is fantastic with a new book dropping in Oct/Nov. Just an opinion!
diana jeuda wrote: "Where is Ursula Le Guin: The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness? Extraordinary omissions."Left Hand of Darkness is on the Sci Fi list. Not sure about The Dispossessed. Le Guin is not on my list of favourite authors so I didn't take a lot of note of what of hers was on that list.
I've definitely read 9 of them (I've perhaps read more than that, but its hard to tell when it's pre- being a member of GoodReads and could have been some time ago. A lot of my favourites aren't on here. I'm a big fan of Traci Harding, Katharine Kerr and Sara Douglass's book series. There are also some series that I can't remember the author nor titles of that I loved from earlier in my life.I'm currently reading 'Uprooted' by Naomi Novik and enjoying it :D
C. John wrote: "diana jeuda wrote: "Where is Ursula Le Guin: The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness? Extraordinary omissions."Left Hand of Darkness is on the Sci Fi list. Not sure about The Dispossessed...."
I recall seeing The Dispossessed on the SF list.
I’ve read 39. I’m in the minority in that I’m more pleased with what’s on the list than dismayed at what’s left out. Sure, I enjoyed Harry Potter, but it gets ample attention everywhere. If this list points readers toward great books of which they might not otherwise have heard, like Daughter of the Forest and The Golem and the Jinni, I’ll be happy.
I have only read 5 out of these books, and as an author, a lot of these titles I haven't come across. I'm surprised that Edith Nesbit's books are not included in this list with the kid's books....5 Children and It, The Psammead, The Story of the Amulet and the Book of Dragons (which my local library in country NSW has on hand). I didn't like A Wrinkle in Time.
Because if there are multiple books in a series they take the one with the most reviews, as they say in the little intro above, which nobody seems to have read.