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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
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30
#31
#32
#33
#34
#35
#36
#37
#38
#39
#40
#41
#42
#43
#44
#45
#46
#47
#48
#49
#50
#51
#52
#53
#54
#55
#56
#57
#58
#59
#60
#61
#62
#63
#64
#65
#66
#67
#68
#69
#70
#71
#72
#73
#74
#75
#76
#77
#78
#79
#80
#81
#82
#83
#84
#85
#86
#87
#88
#89
#90
#91
#92
#93
#94
#95
#96
#97
#98
#99
#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 201-250 of 289 (289 new)
Rowling is not opposed to people being transgender but rather to an attitude that may be more prevalent in the UK than elsewhere that no one should reproduce via heterosexual intercourse.
Lulu wrote: "this must exclude children’s and YA, but why not say that if it does??"There's lots of children's and ya fantasy on this list.
Hello. I could't see Michael Moorcock and Elric of Melnibone. There must be a mistake, right???
ToniHiggsReviews wrote: "Lulu wrote: "this must exclude children’s and YA, but why not say that if it does??"There's lots of children's and ya fantasy on this list."
That might be my biggest complaint about this list...a vague separation between YA and "adult."
Hande wrote: "Hello. I could't see Michael Moorcock and Elric of Melnibone. There must be a mistake, right???"This list is based only on how many reviews a book/series has gotten.
Otherwise I might be inclined to agree with you.
Hande wrote: "Hello. I could't see Michael Moorcock and Elric of Melnibone. There must be a mistake, right???"I suspect Elric suffers due to the number of times the stories have been repackaged. Nothing has had a chance to get sufficient number of reviews. I daresay the ratings should be up there, but them I could be wrong.
I just checked and it is definitely the reviews. None of the Elric books have even a thousand reviews. Ratings are all over 3.5 however.
I need julius caesar's book. Is there available?
No Pullman, no Piers Anthony, no Julian May (maybe sci-fi/fantasy), No Donaldson, no Eddings and very little Pratchett. Doesn’t make sense.
I think harry potter should have been first and then hobbit. but that is my opinion.
The Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor should be on this list. I have the series on my bookshelf because I plan to reread. (I only reread those books with enough depth and creativity that every time I revisit I discover something new.) She creates a truly brilliant, subverted reality to our world.
I have read 30 of these, but like others, I wonder why "Harry Potter" and David Eddings are not included, when we seem to be overloaded with Neil Gaimen. Some of the best fantasy books at present are those for YA.
C. John wrote: "I just checked and it is definitely the reviews. None of the Elric books have even a thousand reviews. Ratings are all over 3.5 however."There's also the small matter that they're relatively under the radar at this point having never been exploited for a visual treatment.
I'm shocked that Janny Wurst is not on the list.As for the rest, read almost all.
I've read 13 of them, but several more are on my list. I agree w/ those asking: Where is Harry?
So many of these book I love. Makes me feel comfortable adding books to my Want To Read list. Best list I've seen so far. Thank you very much! 🤓
Dikshita wrote: "Where is Harry Potter?"Where is Alice in Wonderland?
I read 19, mostly the older books. (Like me?) Had The Sword in the Stone made the list, it would have been 20, a neat round number, but I guess it is too old for GR reviews.
I did read the first Harry Potter though . . . .
I am currently reading The Belgarian series by David Eddings. Why isn't it on the list?They should do a list of series.
I don't think a list of series is do-able. You can't simply add together the ratings as some series are longer than others. Same problem with adding number of reviews, as well since we are dealing with multiple reviews we have people with more than one review being included in the total. Maybe total each and divide by however many books in the series there are. Of course after all that we will still get arguments about rankings on the list and who isn't there.
Raymond wrote: "I read 19, mostly the older books. (Like me?) Had The Sword in the Stone made the list, it would have been 20, a neat round number, but I guess it is too old for GR reviews.
I did read the first ..."
Usually considered a fantasy.
Raymond wrote: "I read 19, mostly the older books. (Like me?) Had The Sword in the Stone made the list, it would have been 20, a neat round number, but I guess it is too old for GR reviews.
I did read the first ..."
914 reviews. That is not many compared to the the books on the list. The book also suffers in that most people these days are likely to read it as part of the omnibus volume The Once and Future King.
So surprised to not see Robin Hobbs or Michael Sullivan on this list! They are both absolutely wonderful authors! Wonderful characters and plots! Please check them out. If you love Brandon Sanderson, then you will love these authors.
I loooove to see that sooooo many Brandon Sanderson books made it on the list, I would have yo say that he is my number one favorite author.
Did I see "Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller? A classic!
I've read 26 of these 100. Currently reading my 27th.
Kitty wrote: "Did I see "Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller? A classic!"over on the Sci Fi list (someone over there was very critical of the term Sci Fi so I am going to use it from now on.)
To the many comments asking about the "Harry Potter" books, I suspect that one reason may be that Potter is more popular in movies. So many young people lack the intelligence for reading, and instead, prefer being entertained by visual special effects. Promote literacy !!! Buy books for the young minds in your life !!!
Where are the Outlander books! They are almost my favourite ever!! Author is Diana Gabaldon.
C. John wrote: "Raymond wrote: "I read 19, mostly the older books. (Like me?) Had The Sword in the Stone made the list, it would have been 20, a neat round number, but I guess it is too old for GR reviews.
I did..."
Unfortunately true, since The Once and Future King is good but not great . . . uneven? Whereas The Sword in the Stone is a gem. To make matters worse, most people encounter it only as the inferior Disney movie.
I'm presently surprised that Tad Williams made it to this list. I didn't think that anyone would have read his books because he's an older author but I guess someone has to put him on this list.
Alli wrote: "I'm presently surprised that Tad Williams made it to this list. I didn't think that anyone would have read his books because he's an older author but I guess someone has to put him on this list."The book of his has north of 1,000 replies, which seems low but maybe isn't. I wish someone from Goodreads would come on here and explain the seeming discrepancies, but I suspect that is not going to happen. Ah well.
Here's a thought, maybe the Goodreads computer was having a nervous breakdown the day it did this list.
Harry wrote: "To the many comments asking about the "Harry Potter" books, I suspect that one reason may be that Potter is more popular in movies. So many young people lack the intelligence for reading, and inste..."Here are the stats for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (to use the correct title, not the one used only in the US).
4.47 · 6,835,079 Ratings · 109,020 Reviews
I think those would have qualified it for this list if someone didn't have a bias against YA.
Barbara wrote: "Where are the Outlander books! They are almost my favourite ever!! Author is Diana Gabaldon."How indeed!! Loved them too.
I'd add The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles and Greenwillow by B. J. Chute. Both were written before J. K. Rowling was born. Of course, I'm not even sure that either of these are in print any longer. Too bad.
I've read so many of these but I'm happy to be able to add a heap of titles to my TBR list! My fave fantasy writer of all time is still Anne Rice but I also love Sherri S Tepper (although I've heard her genre called speculative fiction - even though she's a fantasy award winner). I agree that Harry Potter should be on the list. It crosses age categories and no matter JKR's recent extremely awful public statements it is still brilliant.
I've read 20 of the books on this particular list. I, too, was surprised to not see Harry Potter on here.
I've read 11 on this list and there are a few more I may get around to reading. N K Nemisin is one of the more recent authors I've got a lot of respect for.
Great list, can anyone tell a newb how to save this list somewhere in my goodreads account? It would be handy so I can finish all the books by the time I am 97.
No Patricia McKillip at all? The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy is one of the best series I've ever read. And I love how a reviewer references the "Dune" books, but none of those are on this list either. How about Michelle West's Sun Sword or House War books? There are far too many vampire bodiceripper type books on this list.
@ veronica 'this list is a joke'.. yeah it struck me as wonky too. Steven Erikson is so far down for example. But then he wrote nine others the same quality and a few in a follow on series. So are votes spread across his books, hence his seminal offering isnt higher?
I guess it's a book list and not an author list
Where is Steven Erickson his books are in a class of their own also r Scott Bakker. I have read very few of this list, have started them could not be bothered to read them
Lynee wrote: "No Patricia McKillip at all? The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy is one of the best series I've ever read. And I love how a reviewer references the "Dune" books, but none of those are on this list eith..."I wouldn't expect Dune to he here. It is on the Science-Fiction list however.
Andrew Gilchrist wrote: "I guess it's a book list and not an author list"You guessed right. Not sure how they could do an author list anyway as we don't rate authors on this site, just their individual works.
What list has Harry Potter? Where do you go to recommend lists that goodreads should do? I can think of a few top 100s that I'd like to see.
Because J.K Rowling is a transphobic mess