Jack Burton says:

I did not know until this very moment that Norton was a woman. Thanks!

It was the best kept semi-secret in publishing in the 50s/60s. Didn’t want all of us adolescent boys knowing that our favorite author was really a giiiirl.

Huh? Norton’s stories were so obviously written with a feminine touch that it never even occurred to me that Andre might be a man’s name. Now, it took several C.J. Cherryh books before I began to suspect that there was an exceptionally bloody-minded woman behind the initials…

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone / Deathly Hallows
The Eye of the World
Thud!
The Kestrel

And yes, I’m an adult and I still read the Narnia books. Just reread them in the last 6 months (in spurts, and out of order). I liked the Voyage of the Dawn Treader best when I was a kid, but TLTWATW is best. That Hideous Strength is the best of all of Lewis’ novels, but I wouldn’t call it fantasy…though it is perhaps the closest of the Space Trilogy.

LOTR is better than The Hobbit. The Hobbit is very good.

I can’t decide if the first or the last Harry Potter is the best, or one of the others.

I think The Eye of the World is stunningly awesome, I’ve reread it many times. IMO the series goes downhill (slowly) from there; I haven’t read all of them.

The Discworld series certainly merits a spot; Thud! is best. I think Sam Vimes is perhaps the best fictional character I’ve ever read.

Is The Kestrel fantasy? I think so. And it is brilliant.

Others…
Just read The Princess and the Goblin and, while a good book, isn’t in a class with the best. I’ve reread Terry Brooks’ books since I’ve grown up and they have NOT held up. The writing is awful. And I thought they were so great when I was a kid…

I just reread Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland a week ago and, great as it is, it doesn’t really seem like fantasy to me. The Belgeriad series also could be mentioned. Also, Wizard’s First Rule was very good, though I haven’t read the rest of those and it isn’t as good as the others listed above.

yankee: But why shouldn’t they be included? Are they insufficiently fantastical? This is supposed to be a list of the best fantasy novels “of all time,” not “since Tolkien.”

On a more mundane level, I would exclude them because I am tired of Twlight and Twilight knock offs taking up shelf space in the Fantasy/SciFi section of my local book store.

That is great news. Julian Fellowes is very good and certainly knows the British mindset that drives that novel.

Rich Rostrom: 1) Many posters can’t tell the difference between fantasy and science fiction.

I like Orson Scott Card’s explantion of the differnce “fantasy has trees, and science fiction has rivets”

The general difference is that scifi tries to explain why fantastic things happen and how they work and tries to stay within the bounds of science, even if it uses some far out speculation or improbable science. Frankenstein was animated by science not magic.

Rich Rostrom: Ghost stories, monster stories, and fairy stories are generally outside the range of fantasy. Otherwise, one would have to include Dracula and Frankenstein.

But why shouldn’t they be included? Are they insufficiently fantastical? This is supposed to be a list of the best fantasy novels “of all time,” not “since Tolkien.”

2) Ghost stories, monster stories, and fairy stories are generally outside the range of fantasy. Otherwise, one would have to include Dracula and Frankenstein.

3) What, no one mentions James Branch Cabell?

4) Nor Alan Gardner!

My short list

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
Ursula LeGuin, A Wizard of Earthsea
James Branch Cabell, Jurgen
Alan Gardner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
Robert Heinlein, Magic, Inc.
Avram Davidson, The Phoenix and the Mirror

Howard, Norton, Leiber, and Dunsany are all major writers, but none produced an individually great novel.

The same thing was going on with “J.K.” Rowling. The publisher thought calling the author “Joanne” would reduce sales, and I see no reason to doubt their judgment on this point.

On a similar point, the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea is black, but the covers of the various editions go to great lengths to avoid showing this. They portray the protagonist wearing some kind of enormous robe, or not at all, or actually make him white. I’ve found only one edition (the 1968 hardcover) that clearly portrays a black man.

yankee: the idea that a good story needs to be in the form of a multivolume “series” at least as long as War and Peace.

Yes, the Hitchiker’s Guide Triology faded somewhere after the fourth book.

My favorite from the last few years is the Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. I think it showed how you can do an “epic” story that is focused on people or a person and their relationships (something that, you have to admit, Tolkien did not care too much about), which keeps it compelling, rather than, as someone said, a travelogue.

My main problem with that one is that while the main character is done pretty well (and since he’s the narrator, you get a strong “unreliable narrator” impression), the supporting characters are rather flat and weakly developed.

I’ll second A Wizard of Earthsea (how did I forget that one?). Pern and Dune are more sci-fi-ish (although both have elements that are more or less magical).

Cornellian: I think Jonathan Strange was a very good novel that would have been even better had a good editor cut out about a quarter of it.The Italian trip at the end was totally superfluous and I can’t help but wonder whether it was a subtle nod to a similar pointless excursion in Vanity Fair (the Thackeray novel, not the magazine).

I enjoyed Jonathan Strange, and I thought the conceit of footnotes was brilliant. I agree that the book was out of control editorially, however. I’m actually looking forward to the film (announced for 2010 with Julian Fellowes as screenwriter), because the cuts to make the screenplay manageable will be substantial. I can’t imagine that the director will lose the Italian trip, though.

Also agree with the comments above that The Hobbit was far superior as a novel to LOTR.

McKillip is still a joy to read. I’m surprised DeLint did not get any comments, glad to see deCamp got some.

Martin drove me crazy with his lack of a good handle on scale. I’d have loved the books if I had not been sensitive to that. Moon on the other hand, is very sensitive to it. She plans to write fantasy again when her adopted autisitic son is able to live away from home, she finds herself unable to handle the harder demands of fantasy (over sf) while helping him.

Cherryh’s list is an excellent one, deserves more than just the one comment. (Her original name was Cherry, the “h” was added by an editor/agent).

bruce: I didn’t read Narnia as a kid, and when I tried to read it as an adult I couldn’t stomach it — it wasn’t the religious allegory, but the tone — especially the little aside comments to the reader (“Now children, you know that when someone does or says x…”).

I only read the first 2 narnia books as a kid and did not like them that much, but I decided to read the series against a couple of years ago and liked it more this time and appreciated the asides and the humor more than anything else in the books. The fantasy world of Narnia itself is not that interesting or creative.

The audiobooks of Narnia with various British actors like Patrick Stewart and Kenneth Branagh as the readers are well done and I listened to a few of the later books instead of reading them.

My top five fantasy novels would have to include something by Neil Gaiman on it, the question is what. Based on popular acclaim, American Gods is the obvious choice, but I don’t like it quite as well as some of his other work. Stardust and Neverwhere are my favorite books of his, though The Graveyard Book certainly gives them a run for their money. Of course, if we can venture away from novels a bit, Sandman is certainly his magnum opus.

I’m not a huge Gaiman fan, but I would say his best work by far is actually his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors, followed by Good Omens (with Pratchett).

I did not know until this very moment that Norton was a woman. Thanks!

It was the best kept semi-secret in publishing in the 50s/60s. Didn’t want all of us adolescent boys knowing that our favorite author was really a giiiirl.

Stamper: I’ve made it through the first two books and am still trying to understand how the magical system works. Sometimes I think the world is just too complex in the series.

Heh – I am seven books in and I still don’t understand the magical system. The world is very complex – probably a side effect of Erikson being an archaeologistby training. I think I also read a comment by him in an interview that he deliberately wrote the books so that you would always feel like you were coming in in the middle of the story without the benefit of background and exposition and needing to figure things out for yourself.

OperationCounterstrike: And speaking of goblins, where is THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN???

And speaking of goblins, although I don’t think it counts as a “great” fantasy work, it’s certainly fun, Goblin Quest (and not a lot of people have heard of it).

Piers Anthony probably deserves a mention, On a Pale Horse was great, even if the series declined significantly after that. If nothing else, it was an interesting concept.

I don’t see how H.P. Lovecraft makes it in under any definition of “great,” unless that definition includes “overhyped emo crap.” The Music of Erich Zann is the only story of Lovecraft’s that is even remotely scary. The rest suffers from overwriting and is far too descriptive to be “horror,” and should really be classified as bad SciFi/Fantasy.

Turns out there’s a lot I’d gladly swap for Clarke’s book, which I, too, found interminable and uninteresting.

I also love Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, which must be the best urban fantasy written to date.

Can we have a ‘most overrrated’ thread? I’d like to start with Jordan and Goodkind and Brooks and Donaldson. Apparently, it’s a really, really bad idea to pay fantasy writers by the word.

Ilec: Wow — 123 comments into this thread and no one has mentioned Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series? I have thoroughly enjoyed every book in that series even if the plot is intricate enough that seven books in I am still trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

I’ve made it through the first two books and am still trying to understand how the magical system works. Sometimes I think the world is just too complex in the series.

Quote taken from here – http://books.google.com/books?id=bf1UWZqhH_8C&pg=PT7&dq=er+eddison#v=onepage&q=er%20eddison&f=false

At this point, I cannot afford the toner to print the darn thing out, but I will find a used copy soon….

libertariansoldier:
I think counting a series as a work is appropriate, as LOTR is one.

Not really; LOTR is one book that was split into multiple volumes by the publisher for sales/marketing purposes. One of LOTR‘s most lamentable influences on fantasy is a direct result of this decision: the idea that a good story needs to be in the form of a multivolume “series” at least as long as War and Peace.

1. For my money, A Song for Arbonne is the best of Guy Gavriel Kay’s.

2. Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy, particularly the first book, Sabriel. The early scene in which a Mordicant hunts Sabriel is, by itself worth the price of the book. Very intense.

3. Jack Vance’s Lyonesse trilogy. Has some of the same flavor as the Dying Earth novels, but is medieval rather than far future.

FWIW, various followups: I thoroughly enjoyed Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, my favorite earthsea book has always been The Tombs of Atuan, and I just started reading The Stress of Her Regard. Oh, and best Narnia book = The Horse and his Boy

JHA

The Dark Tower by Stephen King. Not sure if it can truly be pegged as fantasy when it also contains elements of horror and the western. However, I think it is King’s best work and stayed fairly consistent throughout. Also has a pretty good ending that made sense within the context of the novel and wasn’t a normal fantasy ending.

If by “consistent throughout” you mean the decline in quality was consistent from the intriguing first book to the absolutely miserable, hackneyed final book, then it was. I threw the last book out the window when I finished it.

The amazing thing (one of many) about Wolfe’s Book of the Long Sun series is that the plot involves a society living inside a giant interstellar spacecraft. They’ve been there for generations and have largely forgotten the technology that controls it. That sounds like a total cliche in and in the hands of a hack writer the protagonist would discover his world is really a space ship, the gods are actually computer programs and, having described this startling revelation, the book would end. But Wolfe is brilliant and in his hands there’s nothing cliched about the plot. You soon discover the people on the ship are perfectly well aware that they’re board a space ship, they know the gods are actually computer programs, and those are simply two facts about their society. The plot is something entirely different.