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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!
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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 251-289 of 289 (289 new)
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Jul 22, 2020 12:57AM
And Joe Abercrombie? 😱😱😱
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david wrote: "How did the worst discworld book (his first one before he got into the swing of things) get on here but none of the hughly popular other books?"If you read the description, it states that if a series makes the top 100, they will only list the first book in the series. Otherwise, this would have to be a top 1000 list
a spell for chameleon is amazing and certainly a fantasy classicthis goodreads list is based on popularity not awards or criticism or even reviews, so it has as much relevance as something like imdb which considers 'walking dead' to be the greatest tv show ever
essentially, pleb list (not that there's anything wrong with that; you can find literary lists elsewhere)
Pen&Quill wrote: "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."None as far as I know. Not sure how to contact them about lists you think they should do. Try the about us button at the bottom of the page. Might lead to a way to contact them.
I tend to devour authors so not as many on the list as I expected--only 7. But at least a dozen were already on my TBR list. Totally Agree with those surprised by no Harry Potter. Also surprised Michael Sullivan's Riyria series' are missing!
Lulu wrote: "this must exclude children’s and YA, but why not say that if it does??"Narnia is a children's book and it's on the list. 🤷♀️ I really don't understand this list. It seems very random. Presonal preference of the listmaker, maybe?
Dikshita wrote: "Where is Harry Potter?"Well, at least according to me, these books are supposed to be more adult-oriented. I'm not completely sure about this though, as I have only read a fraction of the books on this list.
Sanne wrote: "Lulu wrote: "this must exclude children’s and YA, but why not say that if it does??"Narnia is a children's book and it's on the list. 🤷♀️ I really don't understand this list. It seems very rando..."
I suspect Narnia gets a pass because of the author. C.S. Lewis wrote both more adult fiction and of course there are his religious writings which are definitely adult.
The whole Lord of the Rings trilogy should be on it. Also I would add the rest of Ann McCafferys dragon books. The ones written by her alone
Molly wrote: "The whole Lord of the Rings trilogy should be on it. Also I would add the rest of Ann McCafferys dragon books. The ones written by her alone"However the rules in the opening clearly state only one book from a series is allowed. This is to, theoretically, give some diversity to the list.
THE MISTS OF AVALON #34 READ MANY years ago and still sticks as female side of Camelot.Great read.
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."
Same!
Kristin wrote: "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 TB..."
Or maybe you prefer your fantasy outside the box and thus it just doesn't make these lists.
Okey okey slow down. It said most popular not best. So just because it doesn't have Harry Potter doesn't mean its bad but the only book on that entire list i would honestly read would be Game of Thrones
There are a few on this list that I would read, but not many. For the most part they also tend to be older, though that may or may not be the case in all of them. I haven't bothered to check when some of them were first published, mainly because if a book sounds good then age doesn't matter one whit.
C. John wrote: "Adrianna wrote: "roku.com/link"Can someone explain to me what the purpose of that post is."
Spam
Right! Usually the spam is a lot longer and deals with something like one's love life or penis size and as soon as I see it I report it.
I've read 41 of these but I agree with many others that they omit some of the best fantasy.... Oh, sorry the list is the 'most popular' not 'the best'. Presumably it's gleaned from sales ratings but there again it includes the Simarillion which was never that popular when I read it in the seventies; maybe times have changed. There aren't many of the ones that I haven't read that scream out 'read me' to my own tastes but perhaps it's because most of the snippets seemed to be aimed at YA....
John wrote: "I've read 41 of these but I agree with many others that they omit some of the best fantasy.... Oh, sorry the list is the 'most popular' not 'the best'. Presumably it's gleaned from sales ratings bu..."3.92 average rating and 7,000+ reviews doesn't seem too bad to me.
I've read 25 books of this list and added 22 to my 'to read' list.There are quite a number of fantasy novels I've read and liked that are missing in this list, but I suppose it's based on ratings.
Doesn't bother me, I like lists like these because I can fatten up my to read list :-)
Like many people who took the time to comment, I am surprised with how of these books I didn't even have an idea they existed. I haven't read a lot of them, though I wasn't surprised to find A Game of Thrones, or The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Same for the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These have all become classics and I'd have been even more surprised if they hadn't been in the list. It's astonishing I haven't see any books by Paolini or Robin Hobb though, and I wish I'd seen at least a book from the Mistborn trilogy. I have seen 2 books by Sanderson but I haven't read them (so I added them to my goodreads list, cause I've been intending to read them for a while).
Thanks for the list!
Thanks for the list!
Metius wrote: "I fail to see why Harry Potter or Throne of Glass aren't on the list. Both are very popular, fantasy and have above 3.5 avg rating.
Are there any other requirements the book has to meet that you fo..."
I agree with you regarding Throne of Glass, yet I don't believe HP belongs in this list. It's fantastic, not fantasy. I mean, I'm sure this is controversial but if you strictly follow the definitions, HP doesn't belong here. Have a nice evening / day ;)
Are there any other requirements the book has to meet that you fo..."
I agree with you regarding Throne of Glass, yet I don't believe HP belongs in this list. It's fantastic, not fantasy. I mean, I'm sure this is controversial but if you strictly follow the definitions, HP doesn't belong here. Have a nice evening / day ;)
I definitely have to do some serious changes in my reading habits. Or else I won't be able to catch up with all of these
Metius wrote: "I fail to see why Harry Potter or Throne of Glass aren't on the list. Both are very popular, fantasy and have above 3.5 avg rating.Are there any other requirements the book has to meet that you fo..."
TRUE
Dikshita wrote: "Where is Harry Potter?"Probably on a YA list where it belongs.
John wrote: "I've read 41 of these but I agree with many others that they omit some of the best fantasy.... Oh, sorry the list is the 'most popular' not 'the best'. Presumably it's gleaned from sales ratings bu..."My understanding is that from whatever arbitrary classification GR is starting with it's a combination of ratings AND reviews.
I think the arbitrary classification is what genre the book is listed under. Not sure how a book's genre is decided upon. I know some books are decided upon by the person who submits it (I have had to add the odd published in Canada book, like one of poetry published between the wars). I am going to presume that for new mainstream books someone does it using the publisher's listings, in which case they probably go by whatever the publisher says it is, which I can accept given how many gooks get published in a given month. Be interesting to see a response from Goodreads on this question.
Well my favourite is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, can't seem to find it on this list though. How come Narnia is and not Harry Potter?
Cristiana wrote: "Well my favourite is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, can't seem to find it on this list though. How come Narnia is and not Harry Potter?"The only reason anyone has come up with since Goodreads isn't talking is that Harry is considered YA and the Narnia books aren't, even though the latter were originally written for children.
Metius wrote: "I fail to see why Harry Potter or Throne of Glass aren't on the list. Both are very popular, fantasy and have above 3.5 avg rating.Are there any other requirements the book has to meet that you fo..."
Neither of them are staples of the fantasy genre outside of YA.
Paul wrote: "Metius wrote: "I fail to see why Harry Potter or Throne of Glass aren't on the list. Both are very popular, fantasy and have above 3.5 avg rating.Are there any other requirements the book has to m..."
In Harry Potter's case Rowling's told the story she set out to tell and them moved on to other things. Much preferable to someone who keeps churning out stuff in a popular series and it suffers. And as far as this sixty plus reader goes Harry Potter is fantasy and if others disagree too bad for them.
I like these lists because they introduce me to books I have not read. And of the 100, there are 75 that I have not. Look forward to the 2021 list.
I can’t believe I've only read 6 books from this list. I'm surprised that Half Upon a Time and Story Thieves aren't on the list.
A glaring omission is any of the Drizzt books by R.A. Salvatore.
Kubra wrote: "I can’t believe I've only read 6 books from this list. I'm surprised that Half Upon a Time and Story Thieves aren't on the list."Both of those sound like YA fantasy so that may be why they aren't here. They also sound like books my daughters might enjoy so thank you for mentioning them.
