,

Best Fantasy Series: Hidden Gems

Fantasy series that you have loved but are not as well known.

Please only list the first book in the series. The first book must have under 40,000 Goodreads ratings to qualify.

There are other lists for
- 25,000 to 49,999
- 50,000 to 99,999
- above 100,000

Some Subgenres:
Best Epic Fantasy
Best Urban Fantasy

Fantasy by Time Period:
Pre-Tolkien Fantasy (Fantasy up through 1937)
Classic Fantasy (Fantasy written before 1980)

Fantasy by Decade:
1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s
1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s

Locus Recommended Fantasy:
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015,
2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

Fantasy By Ratings:
More than 100000, 50000 to 99999, 25000 to 49999, 10000 to 24999
1000 to 9999, 100 to 999, Less than 100

Other Fantasy Lists of Note:
Best Fantasy Books of the 21st Century
Best Fantasy of the 20th Century
Best Forgotten Fantasy of the 20th Century
Popular Highly Rated Fantasy
1

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4.09 avg rating — 20,628 ratings
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2

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3.96 avg rating — 33,040 ratings
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3

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4.16 avg rating — 37,373 ratings
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3.84 avg rating — 26,689 ratings
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5

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3.80 avg rating — 37,487 ratings
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6

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 12,287 ratings
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7

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3.97 avg rating — 23,510 ratings
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8

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4.08 avg rating — 36,605 ratings
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9

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4.31 avg rating — 396 ratings
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10

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3.87 avg rating — 8,996 ratings
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11

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4.06 avg rating — 20,757 ratings
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12

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3.83 avg rating — 627 ratings
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13

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3.90 avg rating — 36,574 ratings
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14

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,359 ratings
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15

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3.68 avg rating — 32,569 ratings
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15

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4.02 avg rating — 19,726 ratings
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17

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4.46 avg rating — 63 ratings
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18

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3.77 avg rating — 36,602 ratings
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19

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4.12 avg rating — 11,280 ratings
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20

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3.97 avg rating — 19,519 ratings
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21

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3.90 avg rating — 26,151 ratings
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22

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4.06 avg rating — 30,933 ratings
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23

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4.13 avg rating — 12,554 ratings
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24

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4.13 avg rating — 36,927 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 3,369 ratings
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26

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3.95 avg rating — 7,322 ratings
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27

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4.16 avg rating — 74 ratings
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27

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3.91 avg rating — 173 ratings
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29

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3.75 avg rating — 11,942 ratings
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30

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3.91 avg rating — 5,414 ratings
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31

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3.80 avg rating — 17,033 ratings
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32

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3.87 avg rating — 21,318 ratings
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33

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3.83 avg rating — 11,604 ratings
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34

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3.90 avg rating — 15,380 ratings
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35

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3.80 avg rating — 9,099 ratings
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36

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4.06 avg rating — 40,082 ratings
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37

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3.97 avg rating — 11,745 ratings
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38

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3.74 avg rating — 14,792 ratings
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39

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3.91 avg rating — 9,270 ratings
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40

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3.81 avg rating — 7,822 ratings
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41

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3.75 avg rating — 10,421 ratings
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42

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3.49 avg rating — 22,391 ratings
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43

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3.49 avg rating — 16,159 ratings
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44

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3.75 avg rating — 20,216 ratings
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45

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3.95 avg rating — 32,407 ratings
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45

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4.22 avg rating — 5,686 ratings
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47

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3.86 avg rating — 17,099 ratings
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48

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3.96 avg rating — 6,869 ratings
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49

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4.02 avg rating — 3,126 ratings
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50

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3.46 avg rating — 13,657 ratings
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51

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3.97 avg rating — 10,581 ratings
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52

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4.25 avg rating — 57 ratings
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53

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3.74 avg rating — 8,425 ratings
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54

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3.87 avg rating — 5,293 ratings
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55

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4.12 avg rating — 16,203 ratings
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56

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3.85 avg rating — 5,520 ratings
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57

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4.09 avg rating — 3,800 ratings
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57

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4.02 avg rating — 25,805 ratings
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59

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3.61 avg rating — 13,893 ratings
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60

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4.25 avg rating — 27,977 ratings
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61

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4.14 avg rating — 38,719 ratings
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62

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4.03 avg rating — 6,099 ratings
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63

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3.96 avg rating — 24,915 ratings
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64

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4.02 avg rating — 9,499 ratings
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65

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4.53 avg rating — 17 ratings
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65

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4.02 avg rating — 124 ratings
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65

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4.21 avg rating — 7,645 ratings
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68

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4.08 avg rating — 14,526 ratings
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68

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4.60 avg rating — 2,994 ratings
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70

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4.08 avg rating — 15,073 ratings
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70

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4.05 avg rating — 21,298 ratings
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70

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3.99 avg rating — 7,113 ratings
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73

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3.93 avg rating — 15,501 ratings
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73

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3.74 avg rating — 21,537 ratings
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75

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3.64 avg rating — 1,103 ratings
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76

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3.84 avg rating — 16,043 ratings
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77

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3.91 avg rating — 27,526 ratings
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77

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4.11 avg rating — 20,591 ratings
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77

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3.93 avg rating — 37,286 ratings
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80

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3.98 avg rating — 5,290 ratings
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81

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3.70 avg rating — 2,103 ratings
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82

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3.93 avg rating — 3,081 ratings
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83

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3.90 avg rating — 17,068 ratings
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83

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3.91 avg rating — 25,687 ratings
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83

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3.72 avg rating — 9,028 ratings
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86

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 29 ratings
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87

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3.99 avg rating — 8,826 ratings
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88

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3.76 avg rating — 5,197 ratings
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89

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4.02 avg rating — 6,901 ratings
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90

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3.78 avg rating — 9,723 ratings
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91

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3.73 avg rating — 2,976 ratings
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92

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3.96 avg rating — 5,532 ratings
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93

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3.77 avg rating — 24,368 ratings
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94

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4.33 avg rating — 9 ratings
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95

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3.59 avg rating — 1,764 ratings
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95

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4.62 avg rating — 13 ratings
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95

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4.20 avg rating — 55 ratings
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98

by
4.83 avg rating — 12 ratings
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99

by
3.84 avg rating — 27,291 ratings
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99

by
4.06 avg rating — 12,929 ratings
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577 books · 678 voters · list created May 27th, 2010 by Kylee (votes) .
135 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Kylee 142 books
2 friends
Cathrine 454 books
147 friends
Jamie 160 books
2 friends
Ayla 440 books
2 friends
Jenna 234 books
685 friends
Patrik 710 books
0 friends
Angelica 1171 books
375 friends
Jenn 661 books
0 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-23 of 23 (23 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads No one's heard of A Wrinkle in Time? OK, that's funny.


message 2: by Kylee (new)

Kylee i bet people have, i am just figuaritvely saying that.
if i reccomend a book series, people will say something like " Oh, i've never herad of it.


message 3: by Jenn (new)

Jenn DO NOT put Harry Potter,Twilight, Percy Jackson, Eragon, or any other common books.

Someone clearly needs to edit this list then, seeing as the first book on the list is Eragon.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads Kylee - is there anything you want a librarian to remove?


message 5: by Harle (new)

Harle La, I thought it was weird that Eragon was on there. Nobody doesn't know what it is, especially since they came out with that movie.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads No one's heard of A Wrinkle in Time? Are you kidding me?


message 7: by Brittani (new)

Brittani hmm well why does it have a list of books not to put on the list? I thought this was our opinions? The title even states "Best Fantasy series that no one SEEMS to have heard of" lol. well no one seems to have heard of eragon the book; Only the movie. As for percy jackson? I would have never heard of it if it wasn't for my curiosity at a friend's house which goes for eragon to. Harry Potter in my opinion seems to be common (ONLY because of the movies)but maybe someone else may disagree. I'm still voting for the books I want to vote for regardless.


message 8: by Kirsten (new)

Kirsten Sabriel has more than 50,000 ratings, but just barely, so I will leave it here. I find it really sad that DragonLance is not well known anymore. It was one of the pioneers of the high fantasy genre.


Interdimensionalbeing Wow! I am so glad that Keys to the Kingdom is on here second. I was getting worried that not enough people knew it to get it high up on any list.


message 11: by Kirsten (new)

Kirsten Wow, I'm incredibly surprised that The Borrowers ever had so few readers to begin with! It's a classic!


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads That may partially be an artifact of the average age of the GR member?


message 13: by Sarah (new)

Sarah There's so many good books on here. It's astonishing that they aren't as well known.


message 14: by Lori (new)

Lori Please have someone remove these books. I accidentally added them (too many reviews).
The Phantom Tollbooth
The Borrowers

BTW interesting list. About half older books and half new ones. Also nice is that it is short enough to actually look at the books.
I'll keep an eye on it.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads If you're the only one who voted for them, if you remove your votes they should (eventually, due to cacheing) disappear from the list.


message 16: by Lori (new)

Lori Thanks


message 17: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell I'd like to take this list from a maximum of 50,000 to a maximum of 24,999. There is another list All fantasy with between 25,000 and 49,999 ratings. And this list should have ALL of the fantasy books on goodreads with those number of ratings. Removing those few books from this list would only make hidden gems more obvious.


message 18: by Jeana (new)

Jeana Budnick Is anyone still editing this list? I see there are a few books with more than 40,000 ratings on here


message 19: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Jeana wrote: "Is anyone still editing this list? I see there are a few books with more than 40,000 ratings on here"

I maintain this list a little. It's just too wide open as compared to other similar lists

Best Fantasy with between 1000 and 9999 ratings
Best Fantasy with less than 10,000 ratings
Best Fantasy with between 100 and 999 ratings
Best Fantasy on Goodreads with less than 100 ratings


message 20: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Actually I take it back. This list isn't bad.

I would like to see the rule that said, if the series isn't obviously a series on goodreads, then don't include it here. So if it doesn't have a series link with a #1.

And 40,000 ratings is too high.


message 21: by Sophie (new)

Sophie Deleted a bunch of books that were over 40,000 ratings, not part of a series, not the first book in the series, and in one case not even a fiction book.


message 22: by Zaeris (new)

Zaeris Brookmoors Academy definitely deserves a spot here


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