1 - 10 - the Top 100 fantasy books of all time

There's no salvation for a fantasy fan who hasn't read the gospel of the genre. The influence of The Lord of the Rings is so universal that everybody from George Lucas to Led Zeppelin has appropriated it for one purpose or another. Not just revolutionary because it was groundbreaking, The Lord of the Rings is timeless because it's the product of a truly top-shelf mind. Tolkien was a distinguished linguist and Oxford scholar of dead languages with strong ideas about the importance of myth and story and a deep appreciation of nature. His epic, 10 years in the making, recounts the Great War of the Ring and the closing of Middle-Earth's Third Age, a time when magic begins to fade from the world and men rise to dominance. Tolkien carefully details this transition with tremendous skill and love, creating in The Lord of the Rings a universal and all-embracing tale, a justly celebrated classic.

Stephen Erikson has no peer when it comes to action and imagination. The series entitled A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen has established itself as the most significant work of epic fantasy since Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. Erikson is the master of lost and forgotten epochs, a weaver of ancient epics – this is true myth in the making, a drawing upon fantasy to recreate histories and legends as rich as any found within our culture.

A Tale of the Malazan Book of the Fallen reviews:

• Gardens Of The Moon
• Deadhouse Gates
• Memories of Ice
• House Of Chains
• Midnight Tides
• The Bonehunters
• Reaper’s Gale
• Toll the Hounds
• Dust of Dreams

The Liveship Traders trilogy has it all – intricate plot, realistic characters and a sense of magic. Admiration of Hobb’s work is widespread; Steven Erikson describes her as a “subtle and clever writer”. George RR Martin believes that The Liveship Traders trilogy surpasses the Farseer Trilogy.

The Liveship Traders reviews:

• Ship of Magic
• The Mad Ship
• Ship of Destiny

Ursula Le Guin's creation, Earthsea - an ancient world of wizards, magic, darkness and light, and an ever-shifting balance of power - is an acknowledged masterpiece.

Earthsea Saga reviews:

• The Earthsea Quartet
• The Other Wind
• Tales From Earthsea

"Fantasy literature has never shied away from grandeur, but the sheer mind-boggling scope of this epic has sent other fantasy writers away shaking their heads... Its ambition: to construct the Twelve Caesars of fantasy fiction, with characters so venemous they could eat the Borgias" Guardian. Truly epic... a banquet for fantasy lovers.

A Song of Ice and Fire reviews:

• A Game Of Thrones
• A Clash Of Kings
• A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow
• A Storm of Swords 2: Blood and Gold
• A Feast for Crows

Guy Gavriel Kay's tale of a curse that wipes a country's name from memory. Only those born before the curse can remember Tigana as it was. The sorcerers of the two invading armies are integral to the plot and the themes of love and revenge run strong.

The year is 1806 and the country is England. The Napoleonic wars are raging in France and magic, an academic subject only, is no longer practised. A street peddler foretells of a prophesy of the return of magic to England, which has been dead since the disappearance of the Raven King some three hundred years ago.

Far from fading with time, Kenneth Grahame’s classic tale of fantasy has attracted a growing audience in each generation. Rat, Mole, Badger, and the preposterous Mr. Toad (with his ‘Poop-poop-poop’ road-hogging new motor-car), have brought delight to many through the years with their odd adventures on and by the river, and the imposing residence of Toad Hall.

In the middle of the night a family is murdered in their beds, but the job isn't complete, the youngest child, a small baby, escapes the fate of his family and toddles off in the direction of the local graveyard. After creeping through the gaps in the railings the young child is then adopted by the ghostly inhabitants of the graveyard, at the pleading request of his mother's spirit. The child is then raised by Mr and Mrs Owens, a ghostly couple, along side a not-quite-dead-not-quite-alive guardian by the name of Silas.

Very rarely does an author manage to leave you heartbroken while still allowing you to have enjoyed the book you’ve read. Steven Erikson managed it in ‘Deadhouse Gates’ and Paul Kearney manages it in his book ‘The Ten Thousand.’ I have just finished reading the book, and feel both dispirited and glad for having read it.