As someone who enjoys reading fantasy novels, I am always eager to find new fantasy books to read. But that is not always easy. That is why we have created a list of the 50 must read fantasy books of all time. Keep reading to find out which books made the list!
The fantasy genre is filled with tons of great novels. There is something for everyone. It is no wonder that many readers gravitate towards fantasy books. This list will try to capture some of that magic.
But even 50 books doesn’t feel like enough. But you can be sure that this list will take years to get through. Some of the books on this list have tons of books in their respective series. Trying to read The Wheel of Time series alone can take up to a year or more. You can see the full list below!
The 50 Must Read Fantasy Books of All time
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
- A Song of Ice and Fire Series by George R.R. Martin
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
- Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
- The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Night Angel by Brent Weeks
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie
- The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- Discworld by Terry Pratchett
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
- The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
- Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
- The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1 by Patrick Rothfuss
- Temeraire by Naomi Novik
- The Gentlemen Bastards by Scott Lynch
- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
- The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen Trilogy by Steven Erikson
- Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
- The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
- The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett
- The Once and Future King by T.H. White
- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
- The Jade City by Fonda Lee
- Magician by Raymond E. Feist
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman
- The Divine Cities Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett
- The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
- The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
- The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
- The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist
- Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
- Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
- The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
The 50 Best Fantasy Books
I If you love fantasy novels, then you have to read The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only is it an amazing series but it is the formula that many fantasy authors have used to write their novels. If you have read a bunch of fantasy novels, then you have most likely come across troupes that were popularized by Tolkien.
One of my favorite series on the list is The First Law by Joe Abercrombie. It is a gritty and bloody series that feels like it belongs on HBO. The characters are interesting and the protagonist has his moments. The world building is what makes this novel special and one of a kind.
My favorite fantasy writer has to be Brandon Sanderson without a question. He has many great fantasy series and all of them have made me a fan. His characters are likable and his world-building is great. The Stormlight Archive and the Mistborn series have made him a star in the fantasy world.
Not every fantasy novel has to be as popular as The Lord of the Rings or A Song of ice and Fire. Novels such as The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco and Temeraire by Naomi Novik. You should try various new fantasy novels and see which ones end up being your favorite!
Conclusion
That ends this list of the 50 must read fantasy books of all time. How many of these fantasy books have you read? What books should have made the list? Let us know in the comments below!
Dune is not a Fantasy. It is Science Fiction.
Science Fiction and Fantasy are grouped together all the time in lists like this. Think movie streaming apps like Netflix have made it even more popular to group them as a way to get a wider range of people watching movies. As I’ve noticed they will list a Sci-Fi movie with absolutely no comedy in it under comedy and same movie also listed under fantasy. They are great at mislabeling genres. My favorite misleading recommendation by them was searching for Stephen King movies and Disney’s Frozen was recommended lol
In the end Dune is considered as a hybrid Science Fantasy by some, but yeah it’s definitely Sci-Fi.
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Yeah, lack of this makes the whole list very suspect.
Malazan is not a trilogy. It’s about the most intense 10 book high fantasy series you can imagine. Between that and calling Dune fantasy, this list is hard to put stock into.
I’m pretty sure the hunger games is not fantasy either, it’s dystopian
American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, and The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb are all on the list twice. I didn’t notice any others, but there may be some.
Good Omens is credited to Terry Pratchett alone, instead of him and Neil Gaiman
Narnia is on there twice as well
I noticed this too, very lazy list making.
AI.
Chronicles of Narnia was on there twice
King is on three times
Yup, wanted to say the same. This article reads like it’s written by AI.
never have I seen the sword of truth listed in any fantasy grouping why is that I wonder
Because it’s actually a horrible series. Terry Goodkind stole a lot from other fantasy books published at the same time, while making it’s protagonist a Gary Stu.
Don’t know it’s one of my personal favorite book series
Farseer trilogy not at number 1, heresy
But I’ll let you off as you included it twice 🤣
Aside from having 5 or 6 series listed twice, you neglected to mention David Eddings, The Belgariad.
Love that series!
He is honestly one of my favorites. And I do live the Belgariad though the Malorean is better imo.
Shameful not to include Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni series a forerunner to many of these others.
Esther Friesner, Mercedes Lackey
Should have included multiple Roger Zelazny books.
Amber series
This Immortal
Lord of Light
Also would’ve included Jim Butcher’s
Codex Alera series
Regards,
Alex Hartman
Codex Alera is better than Dresden Files in my opinion, though to be fair I haven’t read far enough for Dresden to “get good” from what people tell me. For what it’s worth, Codex Alera was good from the first book.
Dune is hard sci fi, but as much as I like it, it does not belong on a fantasy list. Other books that do are Brooks Shannara series, Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant books, and I forgot who’s Duncton Wood
Good heavens! Have you not read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams??
Thank you! Especially considering that authors such as Martin have said that they were inspired by Tad Williams and Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn in particular… Also Williams’s Tailchaiser’s Song is a good one as well.
Uhmmm…somebody forgot anything from Anne McCaffrey (The Mists of Avalon, and The Dragonriders of Pern), Michael Moorcook (The Elric series in particular), more Ursula K. Le Guin, anything from Andre Norton(Witchworld), Barbara Hambly (Dragonsbane), Guy Gavariel Kay(Everything. The Lion’s of Al-Rassan and Tigana deserve mention). I can go on and on with books and series the author of this piece has chosen to ignore or has obviously never read.
It’s obvious there are not a lot of pre 1980s works represented from the greats of fantasy Anne McCaffrey, Terry brooks, Andre Norton…
The Avalon series was written by Marion Zimmer Bradley not Anne McCaffrey. If one is to list Ms. Bradley it should be for her Darkover series. It is more obscure and was not technically finished before she died but it is being continued by Deborah J. Ross.
YES! Dragonriders of Pern is one of those series to go back to again and again. All of them lol.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
It’s easy to create a list of 50 when you repeat several. What a terrible article. Was this AI written click bait?
Sooo…. apparently there was nearly no fantasy books before the 80s?
“The Hunger Games” is just teen action drama. And missing some obvious classics like “The Wizard of Oz” is just ignorance.
damn where’s 6 of crows and crooked kingdom?? Those r the best fantasy books ever!!!
Also missing any work by Kathrine Kerr, so lost any creditability here.
Terry goodkind, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, I could name a few others but you have blinders on if you didn’t even think to mention them they’re far better than half the books on your list
Science fiction and fantasy are not the same they’re not the same at all they don’t belong on the same list if there is no magic in that universe it is not fantasy PERIOD
That’s a lot of Sanderson books! Not that they are bad, but t I would of added something from Weis&Hickman like the Dragonlance chronicle or the deathgate cycle, also missing for me is the spectacular Red rising saga by pierce brown with his excellent style of putting you into the protagonist viewpoint and staying there, leaving you guessing at the machinations of others.
I would include at least two LE Modesitt series.
Missed in the list is the book : The Prophet, by the author Gibran Khalil Gibran. It is the most read book worldwide and translated into 22 languages.
Stockholm – Sweden.
Book 1 of The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini was the worst fantasy book I have ever read. I’ve read most of this list and would have no problem if you’d added more or had different books on it… but book 1 was so awful I had no interest in reading the rest.
Is this list from chatgpt???
No Deeds of Paksenarrion???
Not a real listing at all…
Should’ve included Black Jewels by Anne Bishop
Sad David Eddings isn’t in the list.
How can you list the greatest fantasy books and not include Conan the barbarian?
Three of them were listed twice. Chronicles of Narnia, The First Law and one other.
Dissappointing that Paolini is mentioned for his work which clearly has elements that were stolen from Weiss, Hickman, Salvatore and Herbert.
Yeah not seeing anything I recognize from Dragonlance and forgotten realms makes the list incomplete to me
How could you leave out David Eddings works?????
Where is Elric of Melnibone by Moorcock? The list is a joke. The 2 most influential fantasy writers are Michael Moorcock and the best that is not on your list Robert E Howard the king of fantasy.
This is the first time I’ve seen anyone put the Farseer books on a list of must reads, bravo! I don’t care what all the other whiner comments about this article are. This is an impeccable list of truly great works.
Really expected to see The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind on here, but alas, there are many to fit on this list
Riddlemaster Trilogy by Patricia McKillip should be on there.
The Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer. Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars.
You left out C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy.
Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelzany should be in every list of fantasy. Martin and Gaiman have said more than once how much he inspired their work.
There are many repeats so not 50 books. There are also science fiction books listed as fantasy and some fantasy missing.
A definite bias toward high fantasy, along with being a fanboy of Sanderson also showing prejudice reduces what little impact this list might have had for me.
Why is not Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga included? Ah, the high fantasy prejudice.
So many of these I’ve read, and several are over-rated, in my opinion.
The Witcher sould be one of the top ones
This list ignores Tad Williams and his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, wich was a major influence on Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire.
Ummm I see nothing I recognize from Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms. Hard to take the list seriously with 2 of the biggest players missing
These lists are always weighted towards things that they want to sell currently – modern books or books that are being filmed for movies and TV. I’d add Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber and David Eddings to the list. Also, Lloyd Alexander.
Terry Brooks and Terry Goodkind are really good fantasy authors
I think unfinished series should be removed from the list as they are ultimately disappointments so not really must reads.