The Top 10 of Everything

Top 10 Fantasy Book Series

For any avid readers out there, who also like Fantasy. This list is more about my gut feeling than relying on spreadsheet scores. I also thought long and hard, but left A Song of Ice and Fire (possibly better known as Game of Thrones) out.. Even though I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed the five books released to date, as it's an incomplete series, I can't really justify ranking it anywhere. Fantasy fans will notice at least one other serious omission, but if that's the case then it's probably because I just haven't read it yet

Here we go:

10 Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling, 7 books, 1997-2007

Yeah, apart from some serious silliness, ad plot holing, they were admittedly, a very gripping series. They weren't books of my childhood, as I was already an adult when the series started, and even then, didn't read them until nearly a decade later when a friend twisted my arm about reading them. Honestly, the first two in the series are really quote bad, let's be honest. But said-friend encouraged me to push on, and by the third book, I did find myself hooked. They manage to be charming and engaging, even when everything is very silly, but I did find myself blubbering at certain pivotal moments in the series.

9. Farseer Trilogy, Robin Hobb, 3 books, 1995-1997

I have only the vaguest memory of this series, which I read first 7-8 years ago. I do remember enjoying them very much though If I could remember it better, it may very well appear higher on the list. It's about a young boy called Fitz, who is the bastard child of a prince of the realm who goes to live at the castle where he is neither quite family, nor quite servant, but is assigned the role of learning the trade of being an assassin for the king. It's a book series that's more about characters and setting than it is about a hugely page-turning plot. But it's excellently done with characters you'll genuinely love, or ferociously hate. It's a trilogy that's part of the wider "Realm of the Elderlings" series and even though I've not managed to yet, I do plan on continuing more by this author.

8 Earthsea Series, Ursula K. Le Guin, 4 books, 1968-1990

Well, there's also a fifth book, and various short stories, which I haven't read. But the first four books I have read, and thought they were great. They're set in a world made up mainly of sea, with hundreds, or thousands of islands in it. It follows a character called Ged from boyhood through to old age in the four books, as well as some other key characters he meets along the way. Each book is fairly self-contained, and they're fairly easy reads. The world is brilliantly imagined, and the characters are very real, with very human faults in them. It's refreshing to see a character's transition through a whole lifetime, instead of just a few years of their lives like in most series.

7. All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness, 3 books, 2011-2014

Perhaps better known as the title of the first book, A Discovery of Witches, this is a series that is a lot better than the plot makes it sound. Honestly. It's set in our world, but one where witches, vampires and daemons walk among us, and are quite benevolent for the most part, with the odd bad egg like you'd get among humans too. It mostly concerns a witch and a vampire who are fighting a certain element of these bad eggs, and falling in love along the way, breaking all the rules of inter-species-marriage. Yes, I guess, it's hard not to make the Twilight comparison. And as I haven't read Twilight (and have no intention of doing so), I can't say this does it better, but I can say that it does it really well, even to this old sceptic, and I fell in love with the characters as much as they did with each other.

6. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, 3 books, 1995-2000

This follows a girl named Lyra the city of Oxford in a parallel universe to ours. A universe where each human has a daemon animal that represents their soul that accompanies them throughout their life, and where polar bears and witches live. But as the series progresses, world literally start to collide and we meet characters from our own world. It's a young adult series, but deals with very grown up themes of religion, and original sin, and about what it is to transition from childhood to adulthood.

5. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S Lewis, 7 books, 1950-1956

It's somewhat appropriate that I put this side by side with His Dark Materials. Both deal with religious themes, but where the latter is decidedly anti-religion, Narnia promotes Christian ideals However, it isn't really as heavy-handed as all that, and you can enjoy them just on their own merits. They were a favourite series for me as a child, but I read them again as an adult (with trepidation) and actually still loved them. They are simply told, as befits a children's books, but never dumbed-down. They are included her in part for nostalgia reasons, but mainly because they're just excellent reads.

4. Broken Empire Trilogy, Mark Lawrence, 3 books, 2011-2013

This is a series, very much for grownups. Our hero is Jorg, who is a complete arsehole from the outset. He's a prince who has run away from home, joined a group of brigands, and they rape and pillage their way through the countryside. We learn his reasons for his decisions, and they are believable and we are sympathetic. But it doesn't make any nicer of a guy. This is grimdark fantasy, and probably not for everyone. I thought it was great. It's set in a very unique world - the typical fantasy medieval set world is turned on its head somewhat. Our hero is someone I can't help liking, even when he commits the worst of atrocities, I can't help but admire his bravado. A very enjoyable trilogy and I plan to read more by this author.

3. The First Law, Joe Abercrombie, 3 books, 2006-2008

Another grimdark series. You're following six main characters that includes a torturer, a narcissist, a warrior with a tendency to berserker rampages, a brigand scout, someone full of hate and vengeance, and a soldier. And you'll love them all. Each character is so well realised. It's set in a kingdom struggling to survive, with wildmen attacking their Northern borders, and a great Empire attacking them in the South. And through this our characters have to survive by their wiles, while a mage sets off on his own quest for mysterious reasons. There are also some standalones, a collection of short stories, and a second trilogy which will be completed later this year, all of which I intend to read.

2. The Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, 14 books + 1 prequel, 1990-2013

The books above, ranked 3-10 were in fairly arbitrary positions, and may well switch around. My top two, are definitely my top two, and are probably interchangeable between them. This is an amazing, epic series. It was conceived and started by Robert Jordan until he died prematurely with the series uncompleted, and finished by Brandon Sanderson. It is a series with the familiar trope of good vs evil, and a Chosen One required for good to triumph. But it is so-ooo much more than that. "Good" and "Evil" aren't necessarily so easy to define. Some of the good people have opposing views about how to battle evil and decide by doing battle with each other instead. Some good people are liable to go mad and do crazy things. Some bad people will act in their own interests instead of the interests of their side. It is a mammoth series, with well over 100 point of view characters, and nearly 3000 named characters. But it makes it a rich world, and the dozen or so key characters will become like your family - you may like them, you may not, but they'll likely be with you for the rest of your life.

1. Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien, 3 books, 1954-1955

The granddaddy of them all! I've had arguments with some who say it's not a series, but one book, published in three parts. Maybe, but the fact that it is published in three parts is enough for me to think it a series. And if we're being very technical, each of those published parts has two books in them, so it's a total of six books, which is definitely a series! Plus, add in The Hobbit (which I personally actually didn't like) and The Silmarrillion (difficult to get in to, but very much worth the effort), then you definitely have a series. Anyway, I probably don't need to say much about it as everyone is surely at least familiar with the story. Without this series there very likely wouldn't have been many of the series listed above.

TBH, this. Dalton's weren't that bad. And the first Craig, but the rest were mostly meh and some quite bad.