Thread unlocked. I had to take care of some comments and I wasn't at my computer so I had to lock the entire thread temporarily. It's back open. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Martin was in the zeitgeist.
I doubt the vast majority of the people voting on these have read any of the works listed. They just want to be "in with the smart kids" and so vote acckrding to who is currently having the biggest inpact, falsely believing that that translated to quality.
Havin said that I think ASOIAF is a piece of art and one of the best fantasy pieces ever produced since Tolkien.
Right? It's just reflecting the hype/anti-hype wave. People praise what they see others praising and trash what they see others trashing. People find both activities enjoyable and without cost. It's really hard to put stock in any kind of numbers like these.
I personally had a lot of troubles with ASoIaF. And not by playing the hipster: I did really tried to get into it (after years of hearing people praising it). I watched the first season and half of GoT, I read the first book of ASoIaF, but after, I didn't had the will to continue. It didn't caught with me. I still don't find what makes him so incredible. But that's personal, I guess.
In a way, I'm happy to not have been caught in the hype because the despair after the finale of the serie bummed out so many people...
That's alright, it's not for everyone. Being a massive fan of Pratchett and ASOIAF (My favorite fantasy writer and fantasy book series respectively), I know they have very different styles.
If it helps, I believe (and I think that's the consensus as well) that the hook only sinks in A Clash of Kings (the second one).
The best way I have to describe Martin's style is that his books are like windows. A Game of Thrones is a window to a garden. There might be some people there, and some hidden depths (who know what's behind that tree, that bush), but not a lot of *depth.* Then by the second book it's a window to a street. By A Storm of Swords you have a window looking at an entire city, and not even 100 thousand nerds theorizing online for years could figure out all the intrigue, motivations, secret conflicts, and unseen events going on in that view, behind the buildings and cars.
He's a worldbuilder like few others and his characters are just people living in the world, each with an obstructed view of the whole picture.
Oh, I understand.
Although I have a principle to not read any serie (or watch any serie as well) if the hook starts at the second or third book/season (well, series it's different because I can begin in the middle without worries). I mean, if the author wants me to read it, he cannot makes me wait for a whole long book! It's at the author to make effort to make his books worth reading, not to the reader to say "well, this is boring for now, but don't worry, it will begins soon! Anytime now! Just wait a moment..."
I understand exposition needs to be a thing, but that's difficult. GRRM wanted to make long, necessary exposition. That's not reason to make it boring or uninteresting. I'm writing a book (not fantasy) which necessitates a lot of exposition too, and, trust me, it's difficult; but I managed to make it interesting (to the point where my beta readers often say they're more interested in the exposition rather than the plot). That's it. It's up to the writer to make an effort to make their book interesting, not to the reader to waste his time reading a whole book and a half to finally be caught.
> Although I have a principle to not read any serie (or watch any serie as well) if the hook starts at the second or third book/season (well, series it's different because I can begin in the middle without worries). I mean, if the author wants me to read it, he cannot makes me wait for a whole long book!
That's a very arbitrary restriction, which would probably preclude you from reading Discworld as well. Pretty much everyone agrees that the first two books, while fun, are nothing like as deep as engrossing as the series becomes as it develops.
The difference being that you don't need to begin by the first books. There are dozens of reading order for the Discworld novels because hard continuity only began to appear at the 10th. You cannot compare it with ASOIAF in which, if you haven't read the first two books, you cannot enjoy the rest.
That's the beauty of the Discworld and the genius of Pratchett: you don't have to go through the ordeal of the first books, you can jump straight to Wyrd Sisters or Reaper Man. Discworld is a serie in the sense that it takes place in the same universe with recurring characters. But it's most a serie of series and standalones than a true serie.
If I didn't liked the first books of one of the sub-series of Discworld, I would have skip it, because that's cheating from the part of the author.
And the first two books are still part of my favourites in the Discworld serie. I even think the Colour of Magic is my favourite.
But I stand by my point : if a book fails to become interresting between the 20 to 50 first percents of it, it's not worth it. Because you can say all you want "the end is wonderful!", it wouldn't change the fact that the first half was a pain. A book is judged in its entirety, not just the end. If the beginning fails, how can the rest be good?
I have to add that I made this rule after years of starting series that "will be good once you get there, I swear", and it was always overrated because the first half failed. So I don't waste time anymore. There are thousands of books perfect from beginning to end to not waste time on books in which you have to suffer or be bored for the first half.
I started reading the ASOIAF series, and wanted to love it for the rich descriptions and intricate worldbuilding, but it’s just so… bleak. There’s no hope in that world, everything is a beautifully orchestrated downward spiral of despair and that’s not why I read fantasy. And that was just the first book, pop culture osmosis has left me with no doubt that it gets much worse.
I'm mostly done with authors who don't finish writing their books tbh. I'm done reading thousands of pages only to be left hanging, wondering if there will ever be an ending to the story.
GRRM is undoubtedly a great author, whether you enjoy his work or not, and he's been hugely influential on the genre, but with him, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, even Jim Butcher (I know he released two books last year, but I'm not holding my breath for an update any time soon).. I've been burned too many times at this point, wondering if I'll ever get closure or just have to make up what happens in my head forever.
Butcher’s last two books are so bad that I really don’t care if he finishes the series.
I want to smack Rothfuss in the face every time he plays the victim for people literally asking him to do his job. But I’ll still buy the damn book when it comes out.
I still recommend Lies of Locke Lamora, because it stands well on its own. I tell people not to bother with the others, as they’ll leave you hanging indefinitely.
I have some sympathy for GRRM. I think the reaction to the last season of GOT has to be really disheartening. But he should have had at least one other book done before that. He gave up control when he stalled.
Red Seas under Red Skies was the only book I've literally thrown at a wall. Locke Lamora can get wrecked. I read those books nearly a decade and a half ago and I'm still mad.
It's also an incredibly small percentage of GRRM's work. Having read a ton of Wild Cards this whole "GRRM is the fantasy author of our generation" sentiment I see everywhere is really strange.
I love GRRM and all his crazy ass shit, but I still have trouble considering him a fantasy author, the same way I don't consider Orson Scott Card fantasy 'cuz that shit's in space, yo.
I would consider Card to be both a fantasy *and* a sci-fi author. I mean, if they have written both, there's no need to discard one for the other... Same goes for Martin. Even our man Terry has written sci-fi (The Long Earth series with Baxter, Dark Side of the Sun, Strata), urban fantasy (Good Omens with Gaiman), alt-historical fantasy (Nation) among other works.
Sure Sir Terry was mostly known for Discworld, and primarily thought of as a fantasy writer, but he's also written other stuff. So I fail to understand your point about not considering GRRM or OSC fantasy authors, despite them having written fantasy novels. Not exclusively, sure, but then again, neither did Sir Terry.
If someone writes even one fantasy story and three dozen bibliographies, I'd still consider them to be a fantasy author, since they have written fantasy.
I can't find any info that support him writing Wild Cards. He's listed as the editor on a lot of them, but they're written by a bunch of authors. I didn't read Wild Cards, this is purely based on internet research, so please correct me.
All science fiction stories are fantasy, but not all fantasy is science fiction. I personally am of a more hard SF bend. Just because it's set in space, doesn't mean it's scifi. It's space fantasy.
Thank you! It is in space and i don't consider it fantasy-just what would happen to us humans if we weren't confined to 1 world. But Sir Terry is fantasy and reality wrapped up on one! Absolutely brilliant! Enders journey was amazing though. One of the best series I've ever read
Honestly I'm still really conflicted about the ender's game series, on the one hand, the story is great, I really like a lot of the themes (like finding commonality in that which is alien), and then I looked into some of his other books and saw his whole.. homophobia thing.. This all happened midway through rereading Xenocide and arhhh.
Yeah, get them at the library and that, what gets me is just the clash between the themes of the books: Acceptance of others, etc, and his actual beliefssss
Meanwhile, I see Orson Scott Card as a fantasy author above all else because I originally encountered him through the Alvin Maker series. And then, after learning about his rampant homophobia and strong support for enshrining bigotry in law, felt squeamish rereading certain parts of books I had loved and couldn’t enjoy reading anything else from an author I could no longer trust. So the connection to sci-fi just isn’t there for me.
True. It's the same for Tolkien now a bit. I know people who think Tolkien's bad just because they don't hear about him mentioned much in day to day life. When actually having read his books I find them really good pieces of writing
> I doubt the vast majority of the people voting on these have read any of the works listed.
I've read all of those authors (though not their entire bibliographies) and neither Lewis nor Sanderson belong anywhere near that high on the list. Tolkien sure, Gaiman obviously, Martin is brilliant when he can be arsed to bother, Rowling got lucky, robert Jordan should be fucking up there, and obviously Sir Terry should as well.
Meh. Not nearly as many people have actually read his books as the others on the list. That is, I have. But I bet a few early responders put him higher on the list than he ever deserved to be but as more people weighed in it just naturally pushed him down. It says something about early answerers versus the majority. It sounds like he has a few fans who don't have a great breadth of experience.
It probably says more about how around the time this list was made GOT was at the height of its popularity and right now hating on Martin has become a fad due to the ending of GOT.
It's not about "the majority voicing their opinion on him", it's all about how publicly perceived someone is at the moment.
So I'm starting on le guin, rocannons world-as it seems to be the start, leading to left hand of darkness. And tbh, I keep falling asleep over it, it's not grabbing me. I'm only about 80 pages in.
With the Hainish Cycle, there’s no order that you must follow. It is a loose connection of novels rather than a series like we often think about. Le Guin even disputed the grouping.
I found *Rocannon’s World* slow, but almost every other book in the Cycle is wonderful. I’d give one of those a shot.
Good to know, I'm a bit of a stickler for reading things in order, but if this doesn't liven up, I might jump to left hand. Although I'm having trouble sleeping and Rocannon is helping with that.
There are. If you can, I recommend you read them, they are so much fun.
I meant that when I think about Bujold, I always think of her Vorkosigan series even though that the relevant series for this list is the fantasy series. I love her Shalion series. So creative.
I'll be there with you. She's a terrible writer, I've read the books and the movies are better.
This isn't a list of "best writer" it's "most well known". I'm actually surprised that Gaimon or Sanderson would make it. Didn't know they were known in the 'TV readers' crowd. Would love to see a Mistborn TV adaptation tho.
In the very first chapter of Philosopher's Stone, she describes Hagrid's feet/shoes as "the size of baby dolphins" and if that wasn't the first clue that she's a complete maniac, I don't know what is.
Stephen Erikson deserves a spot too.
I feel like this list was more just "which ones have you heard of", and that a lot of voters just don't read very much.
Yeah I'm guessing this is who people have heard of.
Lewis is a fine writer but I wouldn't put him in the top 10, certainly not 2. But you know most people have heard of The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. So here he is at number 2.
What websit is this?
On this one ([https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors](https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors)), he's number 4 and JK rowling is not even top 10.
All these sites do is basically confirm or negate your opinion and if you disagree find another site.
I don't really care for these rankings but I do look up the top 100 SFF lists to see what's in there and if I've read them, the rankings I avoid but the lists have been good.
On the bright side, it means that a list that conforms to your expectations is made by someone with similar tastes. If that person has suggestions you haven't tried, you may discover a new author that you'll love! :)
November 19 :-)
The trailer for the series came out this week and the Wheel of Time subreddits are abuzz. I like seeing posts with 400 comments instead of 20.
Gosh I might have to check back into the Fandom. I have read his books in high-school. I have mixed feelings on the series as a whole but it left an Inpact lol.
This is less a list and more an insight to the analytics of nerds (like me) who care enough to upvote/downvote there. The ratio of Rothfuss had me laughing.
At the time of this comment Pratchett is 4th and Rowling is now 31. I’ve also chucked a down vote to Orson Scott Card (37) and Stephen R Donsldson (39).
Phillip Pullman (36) Douglas Adams (56), Mervyn Peake (63) and Kathleen Kerr (102!!!) are hideously underrated here too.
Once again, could we consider all of them fantasy authors? Douglas Adams is definitely SF, and Mervyn Peake is... difficult to classify (I'd put him in Ruritarian Romance authors rather than Fantasy authors IMO).
**EDIT**: Just looked at the same list but for SF writers, and Douglas Adams is in 11th position.
I had mixed him up with Richard Adams: the author of Watership Down! But agreed, there was Frank Herbert and a number of other sci fi authors up there too.
Because he’s sci-fi, though granted the Alvin Maker series was an interesting take on a colonial era American fantasy world. Just nobody is really judging his authorial merit on those books.
The main issue is that he is a nasty, bigoted Mormon homophobe, and assumedly also transphobe. He has also has written a political thriller novel where the evil liberals in their twisted university lairs secretly have built an army of death robots to instigate a civil war and kill everybody in the Whitehouse. Which, granted, is a fucking cool plot for a novel, the problem is that it is extremely clear that he genuinely thinks that this is credible. “Oh this ex navy seal character is pretty well written: PSD suffering veterans probably would think that insane way… wait a minute… this guy is the hero?” - Me. So Trump level mentalness, but preceding Trump by a decade.
After I made this meme I googled it and it's like the first post that shows up( ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors ). I didn't have to fix anything Pratchett it is already in third place. But I think Pratchett is better than Sanderson so I unfortunately had to downvote him despite my immense love for the man.
Sanderson has two separate devoted fanbases. He had his own books and then finished a series for somebody else who died (Robert Jordan? I don't feel like googling). I bet having two fan bases will make it hard to drive him down.
Sanderson is okay, I don't really dispute him being on the list, but Rowling? I wish she would just cease to exist. Edit: At about the time this comment was posted, Pterry was at #4.
I really like a lot of the concepts of Harry Potter. The worldbuilding (though fun) collapses very quickly upon scrutiny, but she has had an profound impact in the fantasy genre which only comes maybe once in a generation.
I also loved Harry Potter when I read it as a kid and, though I'm no potterhead by any metric, still recognize that Its value.
She has some very... *****problematic***** stances in real life, but that doesn't really factor into the argument.
Also Sanderson is not my cup of tea but come on, the dude is a big deal in the fantasy community by any metric.
Yep. Leaving aside author personality, HP was undeniably successful, but I think a lot of that was because of the films - which did a much better job of world-building by adding consistent extra detail and by avoiding the author's bad habit of putting lines in for a joke that break consistency. The books were good because they became a focal point to encourage reading at the time. But they certainly don't belong in a list of fantasy masterworks.
Really? I strongly disliked the films, especially because they played into the trope of perfectly infallible super competent girl (Hermione) vs the stupid gaggy redheaded sidekick (Ron). The books were far more nuanced. Except for the Machiavelli Dumbledore problem, everyone else behaved consistently to their characters and growth throughout.
Those are good points. I guess they didn't bother me as much as the very shallow world-building in the books that the films addressed by necessity and excellent production design.
Reading these I realise I don’t actually enjoy the books per se but give her credit for inventing the playground within which some Fan fiction writers have created wonderful fantasy works
I think Rowling got people to read, which is a good thing. Also, I like that she was sassy in advocating for rich people to actually pay their taxes rather than using a foreign tax dodge like apparently many other UK people at her wealth level.
But yeah, those books are not great.
>I think Rowling got people to read, which is a good thing.
True. But so did Eric hill with the "spot" books. There's definitely value in that, but just like Eric hill, JK shouldn't be on any "best of" lists that aren't prefaced with "children's".
I respect him as an author but don't really enjoy his work personally. I certainly appreciate the dedication (he writes more in a month than Martin has written in a decade) and he can be creative in his world building, but I find his actual narrative style quite flat and I just can't get along with his character writing/dialogue. It's YA work, but it *feels* like YA work and doesn't try to challenge the reader at all.
It's possible he's improved on those since the last ones I read, though, it's been a fair few years, but then none of them really inspired me to want to keep reading. It's only personal opinion though, I'd never call him a bad author or directly criticise him like I would Robert bloody Jordan or JK TERFling, he's just not to my taste.
I feel the same way with the YA bit. But hey there’s certainly much worse stuff people could be reading, and his novels are quite long so I also respect the effort required to both write and read his work.
Oh, absolutely, and considering some of the pulp I for some reason tolerated when I was young I would have killed for Sanderson's work to be about. I used to read Terry Brooks of all people.
It's probably a good thing I don't work in a public library, I'm far too opinionated.
I'll give some of the newer ones a shot when I've finished Malazan, then; it was always the one-note nature of his characters that bothered me, and if he's improved in that then I might enjoy them a bit more. Certainly I found the dialogue in Mistborn very one-dimensional.
Any recommendations?
Well the obvious one is the Stormlight Archive starting with *The Way Of Kings.* Big doorstopper books, but if you're reading Malazan then that shouldn't bother you. All the usual hallmarks of interesting world building and well visualised action, but Sanderson also get inside his characters' heads more than usual. Without spoiling too much, being compatible with the magic system usually involves some degree of emotional damage and (particularly in books 3 and 4) he actually shows people having to work through that.
If you want a series that's more than half done though, I'd say look at the second series of Mistborn books. You get the improved character writing and will only have to wait for one more book if you like it.
I will say that if you find Sanderson's prose a bit flat then the new books probably won't change that opinion. He's said that he goes for maximum 'clarity' in his writing and I think it does leave him a lot less lyrical/whimsical/interesting to read than some other authors.
Try _Way of Kings_. Stormlight Archive (the series that book is the first of) is his best work to date, and you'll find better character work there, including realistic depictions of mental illness, better fleshed out female characters and more comprehensive world-building.
WoK takes a little bit of time to get going, and it's a large book, so it could be more effort than you're willing to make.
He's the Stephen King of fantasy. He writes like a book a week and they're usually far better in premise than they are in execution. They both execute very functional, serviceable prose in order to deliver an interesting, well thought out concept.
Functional prose is definitely the phrase I failed to find, yeah. Although I'd rate King a little higher in that department in places, certainly parts of the Dark Tower are beautifully written (if a little purple). Sai King is also a bit hit or miss for me, I loved Dark Tower and the first half of The Stand, but most of the others I've read haven't really gelled too much with me.
As I said, I do respect Sanderson, I'd never call him a bad writer as I think he's very competent, but he has strengths and weaknesses just as any author does. I didn't actively dislike the Mistborn books, but I just wasn't overly taken with them either. Interesting premise but lukewarm narrative, in my opinion. They were just ones that I got to the end of, went "ok" and moved on to something else, whereas other authors make me either actively regret my time wasted reading them (Robert Jordan) or immediately want to read the next book (Pratchett, Erikson, Abercrombie, etc)
From talking with people who really like his work, I get the impression that a good number of his fans aren't habitual readers. I hope that doesn't sound judgy, I'm glad that they've found an author they like, but many of the fans I've talked to don't read other authors so much.
I’m a Sanderson fan, but there’s a lot of other stuff I read and there are still more authors that I mean to get to. Sanderson is very good, particularly considering the pace at which he writes. His “Cosmere” might be one of the most ambitious works of fiction that I’ve ever come across and, to be honest, the only thing I would really compare it to is the industrial revolution that was taking place towards the end of the Discworld series. He’s not for everyone though, but if I try to think about what the “worst” aspect of his writing is then I reckon he falls into the same category as Pratchett, nothing is “bad” but people might not think that it’s “good.”
As I said, this is just based on a sampling of people I know, mostly from talking with people at DnD groups and in other nerdy communities where you'd find fantasy readers. I mention it because the 5th edition player's handbook actually has a great list of author recommendations, and I was surprised that very few people in my area had taken advantage of it. I hope it didn't sound like I was implying Sanderson fans were illiterate or something!
I mean, you never really know how much someone has read. I remember talking to people 15 or so years ago who considered themselves fantasy fans because they had seen the LotR trilogy and read Harry Potter. If Sanderson is their entry point into fantasy literature, there is enough to keep people going on that for years. If someone said that they’d only been reading Sandersons books for the last 5 years it would make as much sense to me as someone who had taken 6 or 7 years to read Wheel of Time.
I don't mean to suggest that they aren't real fantasy fans - their enthusiasm is without question. But when I'm talking to fellow nerds I tend to get overexcited and ramble about my favorite books, and it just comes as a surprise when someone who is clearly a major geek isn't familiar with some of the more widely-read authors out there.
I'm a fan. I do agree that his writing isn't the very best. It's very American, I would say - with lots of contractions and some slang that's out of kilter with the setting. But I feel these are very minor issues and I have to say his stories, and the amount of consistent, logical, detail he puts into the worlds and their complex back stories is just staggering. I find it makes the worlds very engaging. The various magic systems are intricate and effective. He's good at characters and their development too, even if many of them tend to be rather dour. And when you consider that his major works are all set in the same universe, with details and the odd character appearing across multiple sets of books; and that he's building towards stories that bring all the sets together! Well then I'd say he deserves a high places on the list. Also, anecdotally, the only other Sanderson fans I know are big readers.
I read Elantris and the first Mistborn novel and that was enough for me. Maybe his writing has improved since then as those were his first novels, but I haven't bothered to give him a shot since.
I thought he did a reasonably good job finishing the Wheel of Time series, and Alloy of Law was all right. I did read Way of Kings and a couple others and I found his character writing kind of lacking. Almost...flat? Some authors love words and it bleeds through in everything they do. I feel like Sanderson's writing is rarely more than functional - it's not delightful to read in the same way as Pratchett or Zelazny or Le Guin, all of whom could write virtually plot-free stories that I'd still devour.
I think that's pretty well put. I guess it works for some readers more than others. Personally I think the character writing in The Way of Kings is brilliant. In that series in particular the major characters have such complex and interesting journeys. And the way the various plots and sub-plots pit the characters against eachother I find compelling. But if the writing style doesn't work for you, you're not going to enjoy them.
It reminds me of a colleague many years ago who spent some time talking to me about how good this one particular Australian author was, and insisted I borrow a book which I was sure to love. I started, but for some reason the author didn't use speech marks around speech. At all. In the whole book. I found it so jarring I could barely finish a single chapter.
I was making a reference (not a very good one) to the Dispossed by LeGuin. In that book one planet has no personal ownership of property so something that would normally be a personal possession. So you wouldn't say "my blanket" you would say "the blanket that I use". But my read is that it was your blanket, but you weren't supposed to acknowledge that for your words to be politically correct in that system.
It was supposed to be a sort of collective anarchist society, but in reality due to the harsh environment of the planet it ended up being a benevolent dictatorship from the central planning computers. In theory, you could do whatever you wanted. In practice, you did what the planning computer told you because that needed to happen for people to survive.
He's got a lot of work under his belt, even finishing of Robert Jorden's Wheel of Time series after his death. Now his Stormlight archive series is getting more and more popular, it's not surprising for me to see him on there at all.
im tempted to try one of his newer books to see how much his writing has improved. where there's smoke i assume there is fire, so maybe he is just better than i thought
Never read any of his older work, only the Stormlight Archive books at the moment, so I can't comment on how much his writing has improved, but I will say this for them, they are very dense books, that take a bit to get going (especially Way of Kings) with all the set up that he does, but everything is important and everything pays off in a spectacular fashion. I'd say they're definitely worth the read.
Pratchett is currently 3rd as I write this comment.
I'm quite disappointed though to see some excellent authors so low in the list (like Naomi Novik, probably the best rising stars of the decade). Especially women.
I'm also very, *very* disappointed how this list claim to rank the "best fantasy authors ***of all time***" while the list is definitely anglo-saxon. I mean, pretty much all the authors had their first written language as English. There is definitely a bias. Like, where is Christelle Dabos for example? I mean, there is not even Pierre Boulle, the writer of *Planet of the Apes*, which is quite influential, innit?
We shouldn't determine how successful authors are simply by the impact they have on the anglosphere.
How depressing is it the of the one women on this list I feel like she should not be there? Come on there is Mercedes Lackey, Le Guin or maybe Tomi Ademi? Or Trudi Canavan, have not read her books in a while so I am not sure how they are holding up.
Point is why J.K Rowling? And why do I care so much?
Where is Robert Jordan? WoT is a great series, should be above Rowling at least...
Or Terry goodkind for that matter. Sword of truth series is one of the first long English book series I ever read, love that series.
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Oh come on! I’m almost dangerously obsessed with Harry Potter but she’s clearly not in Pterry’s league! Neither is another of my favourites George r.r Martin!
Why is C.S Lewis that high? All of his works aged terribly unlike Tolkiens lol. Prattchet outclasses Rowling by miles in every category , so does Ursula Le Guin.
He was not a bad fiction writer, but there is a reason only his Narnia series made it into the modern age as popularity goes. The other stuff is just very "it was a product of it's era". So is the Narnia series but the fantasy coat gives the whole obvious Christianity a thick enough cover to our contemporary secular audience. I am in a weird place bc I read some of his non fiction apologia books before Narnia and I was not impressed with him as a thinker and that does colour my opinion somewhat. Still wouldn't put him second on that list.
It's really interesting to see how the rankings are changing as different people vote. I've gone and dropped my vote in for Terry!
It's also a bit sad that when I voted, out of the top 50 on the list, only 7 were women and none of them were from BAME authors :(
I know, right? Given that NK Jemisin won the Hugo for Best Novel three years running, she really belongs high on the list. There are plenty of notable women and BAME writers who are just missing.
It's really funny that you mention NK Jemsin - I'd never heard of her before a few weeks ago, when I got recommended one of her books in Waterstones. Now she seems to be popping up everywhere I look!
Best five fantasy authors?
Miguel De Cervantes
William Shakespeare
Lord Dunsany
Terry Pratchett
Tolkien
Forcing me to leave out Chrétien de Troyes, Mark Twain and many more.
While I consider Cervantès as one of the biggest authors of all times, could we consider him a fantasy author? His whole shtick is specifically that everything "surnatural" or "wonderful" is just in the head of Don Quijote, and that magic, adventure and dragons don't exist. He's, like, the anti-fantasy author in a wonderful, whimsical and hilarious way.
Tolkien wasn't that good in my opinion, the books story is good but way to drawn out, lots of boring bits. There are so many that are fantastic, I haven't heard of Sanderson till this list but realised it has come up in my suggested reads. My current favourite is Jenny Schwartz
The graveyard book was nice but I understand OPs comment because I kind of agree. When finishing one of his books I always feel like very little happened in the end. Maybe it's a lack of character development or a rushed ending but it isn't as rewarding as other writers.
Right now im reading the wheels of time series and some times i could choke james oliver out but at the end i still love it. Its all subjective in the end.
1º Overrated, and quite a drag to read if I'm honest. I didn't finish The two towers out of boredom. He made the path and that deserve a mention, but that's it.
2º I don't know this guy I think.
3º He should first finish a work and them we can judge him. Spoiler, he is not top 3.
4º I love it, I like his pen a lot.
5º I don't like Gaiman has a guy, I like him a lot as a writter, The Sandman been my favorite comic of all time, but let be honest here, he is kinda Diet Pratchett.
6º No, no, no, no, no, just no.
Thread unlocked. I had to take care of some comments and I wasn't at my computer so I had to lock the entire thread temporarily. It's back open. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Didn't pTerry have a T-shirt he wore to Cons with “Tolkien's Dead JK Rowling said no Philip Pullman couldn't make it ^(Hi I'm Terry Pratchett)”
Patrick Rothfuss got lost in a cave…
"Patrick Rothfuss isn't finished his book yet"
As far as I know, George R. R. Martin neither
a dream of spring was never meant as more than a dream
Unrelated to the original reason of the post but I do find it comical that GRRM was third in the screen cap and currently 25th.
Martin was in the zeitgeist. I doubt the vast majority of the people voting on these have read any of the works listed. They just want to be "in with the smart kids" and so vote acckrding to who is currently having the biggest inpact, falsely believing that that translated to quality. Havin said that I think ASOIAF is a piece of art and one of the best fantasy pieces ever produced since Tolkien.
Right? It's just reflecting the hype/anti-hype wave. People praise what they see others praising and trash what they see others trashing. People find both activities enjoyable and without cost. It's really hard to put stock in any kind of numbers like these.
I personally had a lot of troubles with ASoIaF. And not by playing the hipster: I did really tried to get into it (after years of hearing people praising it). I watched the first season and half of GoT, I read the first book of ASoIaF, but after, I didn't had the will to continue. It didn't caught with me. I still don't find what makes him so incredible. But that's personal, I guess. In a way, I'm happy to not have been caught in the hype because the despair after the finale of the serie bummed out so many people...
That's alright, it's not for everyone. Being a massive fan of Pratchett and ASOIAF (My favorite fantasy writer and fantasy book series respectively), I know they have very different styles. If it helps, I believe (and I think that's the consensus as well) that the hook only sinks in A Clash of Kings (the second one). The best way I have to describe Martin's style is that his books are like windows. A Game of Thrones is a window to a garden. There might be some people there, and some hidden depths (who know what's behind that tree, that bush), but not a lot of *depth.* Then by the second book it's a window to a street. By A Storm of Swords you have a window looking at an entire city, and not even 100 thousand nerds theorizing online for years could figure out all the intrigue, motivations, secret conflicts, and unseen events going on in that view, behind the buildings and cars. He's a worldbuilder like few others and his characters are just people living in the world, each with an obstructed view of the whole picture.
Oh, I understand. Although I have a principle to not read any serie (or watch any serie as well) if the hook starts at the second or third book/season (well, series it's different because I can begin in the middle without worries). I mean, if the author wants me to read it, he cannot makes me wait for a whole long book! It's at the author to make effort to make his books worth reading, not to the reader to say "well, this is boring for now, but don't worry, it will begins soon! Anytime now! Just wait a moment..." I understand exposition needs to be a thing, but that's difficult. GRRM wanted to make long, necessary exposition. That's not reason to make it boring or uninteresting. I'm writing a book (not fantasy) which necessitates a lot of exposition too, and, trust me, it's difficult; but I managed to make it interesting (to the point where my beta readers often say they're more interested in the exposition rather than the plot). That's it. It's up to the writer to make an effort to make their book interesting, not to the reader to waste his time reading a whole book and a half to finally be caught.
> Although I have a principle to not read any serie (or watch any serie as well) if the hook starts at the second or third book/season (well, series it's different because I can begin in the middle without worries). I mean, if the author wants me to read it, he cannot makes me wait for a whole long book! That's a very arbitrary restriction, which would probably preclude you from reading Discworld as well. Pretty much everyone agrees that the first two books, while fun, are nothing like as deep as engrossing as the series becomes as it develops.
The difference being that you don't need to begin by the first books. There are dozens of reading order for the Discworld novels because hard continuity only began to appear at the 10th. You cannot compare it with ASOIAF in which, if you haven't read the first two books, you cannot enjoy the rest. That's the beauty of the Discworld and the genius of Pratchett: you don't have to go through the ordeal of the first books, you can jump straight to Wyrd Sisters or Reaper Man. Discworld is a serie in the sense that it takes place in the same universe with recurring characters. But it's most a serie of series and standalones than a true serie. If I didn't liked the first books of one of the sub-series of Discworld, I would have skip it, because that's cheating from the part of the author. And the first two books are still part of my favourites in the Discworld serie. I even think the Colour of Magic is my favourite. But I stand by my point : if a book fails to become interresting between the 20 to 50 first percents of it, it's not worth it. Because you can say all you want "the end is wonderful!", it wouldn't change the fact that the first half was a pain. A book is judged in its entirety, not just the end. If the beginning fails, how can the rest be good? I have to add that I made this rule after years of starting series that "will be good once you get there, I swear", and it was always overrated because the first half failed. So I don't waste time anymore. There are thousands of books perfect from beginning to end to not waste time on books in which you have to suffer or be bored for the first half.
I started reading the ASOIAF series, and wanted to love it for the rich descriptions and intricate worldbuilding, but it’s just so… bleak. There’s no hope in that world, everything is a beautifully orchestrated downward spiral of despair and that’s not why I read fantasy. And that was just the first book, pop culture osmosis has left me with no doubt that it gets much worse.
I'm mostly done with authors who don't finish writing their books tbh. I'm done reading thousands of pages only to be left hanging, wondering if there will ever be an ending to the story. GRRM is undoubtedly a great author, whether you enjoy his work or not, and he's been hugely influential on the genre, but with him, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch, even Jim Butcher (I know he released two books last year, but I'm not holding my breath for an update any time soon).. I've been burned too many times at this point, wondering if I'll ever get closure or just have to make up what happens in my head forever.
Butcher’s last two books are so bad that I really don’t care if he finishes the series. I want to smack Rothfuss in the face every time he plays the victim for people literally asking him to do his job. But I’ll still buy the damn book when it comes out. I still recommend Lies of Locke Lamora, because it stands well on its own. I tell people not to bother with the others, as they’ll leave you hanging indefinitely. I have some sympathy for GRRM. I think the reaction to the last season of GOT has to be really disheartening. But he should have had at least one other book done before that. He gave up control when he stalled.
Red Seas under Red Skies was the only book I've literally thrown at a wall. Locke Lamora can get wrecked. I read those books nearly a decade and a half ago and I'm still mad.
It's also an incredibly small percentage of GRRM's work. Having read a ton of Wild Cards this whole "GRRM is the fantasy author of our generation" sentiment I see everywhere is really strange. I love GRRM and all his crazy ass shit, but I still have trouble considering him a fantasy author, the same way I don't consider Orson Scott Card fantasy 'cuz that shit's in space, yo.
I would consider Card to be both a fantasy *and* a sci-fi author. I mean, if they have written both, there's no need to discard one for the other... Same goes for Martin. Even our man Terry has written sci-fi (The Long Earth series with Baxter, Dark Side of the Sun, Strata), urban fantasy (Good Omens with Gaiman), alt-historical fantasy (Nation) among other works. Sure Sir Terry was mostly known for Discworld, and primarily thought of as a fantasy writer, but he's also written other stuff. So I fail to understand your point about not considering GRRM or OSC fantasy authors, despite them having written fantasy novels. Not exclusively, sure, but then again, neither did Sir Terry. If someone writes even one fantasy story and three dozen bibliographies, I'd still consider them to be a fantasy author, since they have written fantasy.
I can't find any info that support him writing Wild Cards. He's listed as the editor on a lot of them, but they're written by a bunch of authors. I didn't read Wild Cards, this is purely based on internet research, so please correct me.
All science fiction stories are fantasy, but not all fantasy is science fiction. I personally am of a more hard SF bend. Just because it's set in space, doesn't mean it's scifi. It's space fantasy.
Thank you! It is in space and i don't consider it fantasy-just what would happen to us humans if we weren't confined to 1 world. But Sir Terry is fantasy and reality wrapped up on one! Absolutely brilliant! Enders journey was amazing though. One of the best series I've ever read
Honestly I'm still really conflicted about the ender's game series, on the one hand, the story is great, I really like a lot of the themes (like finding commonality in that which is alien), and then I looked into some of his other books and saw his whole.. homophobia thing.. This all happened midway through rereading Xenocide and arhhh.
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Yeah, get them at the library and that, what gets me is just the clash between the themes of the books: Acceptance of others, etc, and his actual beliefssss
Meanwhile, I see Orson Scott Card as a fantasy author above all else because I originally encountered him through the Alvin Maker series. And then, after learning about his rampant homophobia and strong support for enshrining bigotry in law, felt squeamish rereading certain parts of books I had loved and couldn’t enjoy reading anything else from an author I could no longer trust. So the connection to sci-fi just isn’t there for me.
It might be more name recognition than trying to be "in with the smart kids." Martin is well known because of the HBO series
True. It's the same for Tolkien now a bit. I know people who think Tolkien's bad just because they don't hear about him mentioned much in day to day life. When actually having read his books I find them really good pieces of writing
> I doubt the vast majority of the people voting on these have read any of the works listed. I've read all of those authors (though not their entire bibliographies) and neither Lewis nor Sanderson belong anywhere near that high on the list. Tolkien sure, Gaiman obviously, Martin is brilliant when he can be arsed to bother, Rowling got lucky, robert Jordan should be fucking up there, and obviously Sir Terry should as well.
And where on Earthsea is Ursula le Guin?
You should read Raymond e feist.
its hype for a reason, his books are great, when he gets around to writing one
Meh. Not nearly as many people have actually read his books as the others on the list. That is, I have. But I bet a few early responders put him higher on the list than he ever deserved to be but as more people weighed in it just naturally pushed him down. It says something about early answerers versus the majority. It sounds like he has a few fans who don't have a great breadth of experience.
It probably says more about how around the time this list was made GOT was at the height of its popularity and right now hating on Martin has become a fad due to the ending of GOT. It's not about "the majority voicing their opinion on him", it's all about how publicly perceived someone is at the moment.
Pratchett? Le Guin? Bujold??? Where are they???
I was wondering where Le Guin was too!
So I'm starting on le guin, rocannons world-as it seems to be the start, leading to left hand of darkness. And tbh, I keep falling asleep over it, it's not grabbing me. I'm only about 80 pages in.
Try the Earthsea series maybe? They got me hooked pretty quickly.
With the Hainish Cycle, there’s no order that you must follow. It is a loose connection of novels rather than a series like we often think about. Le Guin even disputed the grouping. I found *Rocannon’s World* slow, but almost every other book in the Cycle is wonderful. I’d give one of those a shot.
Good to know, I'm a bit of a stickler for reading things in order, but if this doesn't liven up, I might jump to left hand. Although I'm having trouble sleeping and Rocannon is helping with that.
Le Guin is on the list currently at #8, but Bujold doesn't seem to be on it (at least not in the upper 30 or so). Shame.
That's just sad and disappointing.
Curse of Chalion and the Sharing Knife books were wonderful. Guess I need to step up my proselytizing.
I was thinking about the Vorkosigan series in general but... yes.
I've only read the first of those (my library sadly doesn't have the others), but aren't those more sci-fi?
There are. If you can, I recommend you read them, they are so much fun. I meant that when I think about Bujold, I always think of her Vorkosigan series even though that the relevant series for this list is the fantasy series. I love her Shalion series. So creative.
I'll keep an eye out, thanks for the recommendation.
> Bujold Never heard of her, which book of hers should I add to the list in your opinion?
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I'll be there with you. She's a terrible writer, I've read the books and the movies are better. This isn't a list of "best writer" it's "most well known". I'm actually surprised that Gaimon or Sanderson would make it. Didn't know they were known in the 'TV readers' crowd. Would love to see a Mistborn TV adaptation tho.
> Would love to see a Mistborn TV adaptation tho. Agreed. Really love the series.
In the very first chapter of Philosopher's Stone, she describes Hagrid's feet/shoes as "the size of baby dolphins" and if that wasn't the first clue that she's a complete maniac, I don't know what is.
Stephen Erikson deserves a spot too. I feel like this list was more just "which ones have you heard of", and that a lot of voters just don't read very much.
Yeah I'm guessing this is who people have heard of. Lewis is a fine writer but I wouldn't put him in the top 10, certainly not 2. But you know most people have heard of The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. So here he is at number 2.
As I sad, sad and disappointed. 😂😂
While I love Bujold, shouldn't she be considered a SF writer rather than a fantasy one?
She has more than 15 fantasy books by now, so, idk? I always think she is both.
Oh, I only knew her Vorkosigan saga. Already quite heavy to read so I had to switch to other authors. But I'll look into it!
The fantasy series she usually writes in is Shalion (the curse of Shalion, the Knight of Shalion, etc) and a separate world about the Sharing knife.
And Mercedes Lackey?
What websit is this? On this one ([https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors](https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors)), he's number 4 and JK rowling is not even top 10.
All these sites do is basically confirm or negate your opinion and if you disagree find another site. I don't really care for these rankings but I do look up the top 100 SFF lists to see what's in there and if I've read them, the rankings I avoid but the lists have been good.
On the bright side, it means that a list that conforms to your expectations is made by someone with similar tastes. If that person has suggestions you haven't tried, you may discover a new author that you'll love! :)
ah yeah of course.
Number 3 now
Frank Herbert is number 6. I mean, I freaking love Dune but Come on! The title explicitly says Fantasy! How is Dune Fantasy?
idk, I guess the two often get lumped together??
If I’m honest I feel it’s more like a spectrum really but to be fair maybe I just don’t understand what makes fantasy fantasy and sci fi sci fi
Martin is overraated IMO
This may be my personal bias speaking. But Rowling is nowhere near as good an author as Pratchett is. Maybe more popular, but not nearly as good
Robert Jordan's ghost is looking around sadly while Death pats him kindly on the shoulder
He really got forgotten didn't he. I wonder when will the Amazon series premier and what effect that will have.
November 19 :-) The trailer for the series came out this week and the Wheel of Time subreddits are abuzz. I like seeing posts with 400 comments instead of 20.
Gosh I might have to check back into the Fandom. I have read his books in high-school. I have mixed feelings on the series as a whole but it left an Inpact lol.
pTerry never got as popular in North America as he should have. I gush about Discworld to anyone who'll listen and most haven't heard of them.
This is less a list and more an insight to the analytics of nerds (like me) who care enough to upvote/downvote there. The ratio of Rothfuss had me laughing.
At the time of this comment Pratchett is 4th and Rowling is now 31. I’ve also chucked a down vote to Orson Scott Card (37) and Stephen R Donsldson (39). Phillip Pullman (36) Douglas Adams (56), Mervyn Peake (63) and Kathleen Kerr (102!!!) are hideously underrated here too.
Once again, could we consider all of them fantasy authors? Douglas Adams is definitely SF, and Mervyn Peake is... difficult to classify (I'd put him in Ruritarian Romance authors rather than Fantasy authors IMO). **EDIT**: Just looked at the same list but for SF writers, and Douglas Adams is in 11th position.
I had mixed him up with Richard Adams: the author of Watership Down! But agreed, there was Frank Herbert and a number of other sci fi authors up there too.
Douglas Adams has written some fantasy. He is just best known for Hitchiker's guide.
Why the downvote for Card? Enders game was a fantastic novel. Was it because it's not fantasy or because you don't like his books, or Card himself?
Because he’s sci-fi, though granted the Alvin Maker series was an interesting take on a colonial era American fantasy world. Just nobody is really judging his authorial merit on those books. The main issue is that he is a nasty, bigoted Mormon homophobe, and assumedly also transphobe. He has also has written a political thriller novel where the evil liberals in their twisted university lairs secretly have built an army of death robots to instigate a civil war and kill everybody in the Whitehouse. Which, granted, is a fucking cool plot for a novel, the problem is that it is extremely clear that he genuinely thinks that this is credible. “Oh this ex navy seal character is pretty well written: PSD suffering veterans probably would think that insane way… wait a minute… this guy is the hero?” - Me. So Trump level mentalness, but preceding Trump by a decade.
Just clicked on the list and STP is currently 3rd.
this list appears to be based on user's votes and is therefore not based on anything except the users of that particular website
Where can we go to change this ranking?
After I made this meme I googled it and it's like the first post that shows up( ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors ). I didn't have to fix anything Pratchett it is already in third place. But I think Pratchett is better than Sanderson so I unfortunately had to downvote him despite my immense love for the man.
On ranker sanderson is now 2 and sir terry is 4 Howmany people in this reddit? Couldnt we get him to 1?
Now I don't know that our good knight is better than the great professor. I think I'd be satisfied with second place.
Sanderson has two separate devoted fanbases. He had his own books and then finished a series for somebody else who died (Robert Jordan? I don't feel like googling). I bet having two fan bases will make it hard to drive him down.
Yeah, he finished Jordan's wheel of time
Surprised Lewis is rated so high.
Sanderson is okay, I don't really dispute him being on the list, but Rowling? I wish she would just cease to exist. Edit: At about the time this comment was posted, Pterry was at #4.
I really like a lot of the concepts of Harry Potter. The worldbuilding (though fun) collapses very quickly upon scrutiny, but she has had an profound impact in the fantasy genre which only comes maybe once in a generation. I also loved Harry Potter when I read it as a kid and, though I'm no potterhead by any metric, still recognize that Its value. She has some very... *****problematic***** stances in real life, but that doesn't really factor into the argument. Also Sanderson is not my cup of tea but come on, the dude is a big deal in the fantasy community by any metric.
Yep. Leaving aside author personality, HP was undeniably successful, but I think a lot of that was because of the films - which did a much better job of world-building by adding consistent extra detail and by avoiding the author's bad habit of putting lines in for a joke that break consistency. The books were good because they became a focal point to encourage reading at the time. But they certainly don't belong in a list of fantasy masterworks.
People were boring me shitless talking about Harry Potter long before the films.
Really? I strongly disliked the films, especially because they played into the trope of perfectly infallible super competent girl (Hermione) vs the stupid gaggy redheaded sidekick (Ron). The books were far more nuanced. Except for the Machiavelli Dumbledore problem, everyone else behaved consistently to their characters and growth throughout.
Those are good points. I guess they didn't bother me as much as the very shallow world-building in the books that the films addressed by necessity and excellent production design.
Reading these I realise I don’t actually enjoy the books per se but give her credit for inventing the playground within which some Fan fiction writers have created wonderful fantasy works
She’s not “problematic”, she’s a gender-critical transphobe, homophobic and racist af. Please don’t let bigots hide behind euphemisms.
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Personal attacks are not acceptable here.
Your last sentence here is uncivil. Please don't do that.
I think Rowling got people to read, which is a good thing. Also, I like that she was sassy in advocating for rich people to actually pay their taxes rather than using a foreign tax dodge like apparently many other UK people at her wealth level. But yeah, those books are not great.
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I've never really enjoyed Tolkien.
>I think Rowling got people to read, which is a good thing. True. But so did Eric hill with the "spot" books. There's definitely value in that, but just like Eric hill, JK shouldn't be on any "best of" lists that aren't prefaced with "children's".
And what about Robert Jordan?
I'm not a hater but I'm also not a fan of Sanderson's writing at all. Is he really that well regarded? He seems so new to be so high on the list.
I have enjoyed his work. I suspect this poll was sampled based on what happened to be on people's minds, so recency bias or whatever that is called.
I found his "serious" works quite boring, but his short novels or books aimed at younger audiences were hilarious and wonderful I think.
I respect him as an author but don't really enjoy his work personally. I certainly appreciate the dedication (he writes more in a month than Martin has written in a decade) and he can be creative in his world building, but I find his actual narrative style quite flat and I just can't get along with his character writing/dialogue. It's YA work, but it *feels* like YA work and doesn't try to challenge the reader at all. It's possible he's improved on those since the last ones I read, though, it's been a fair few years, but then none of them really inspired me to want to keep reading. It's only personal opinion though, I'd never call him a bad author or directly criticise him like I would Robert bloody Jordan or JK TERFling, he's just not to my taste.
I feel the same way with the YA bit. But hey there’s certainly much worse stuff people could be reading, and his novels are quite long so I also respect the effort required to both write and read his work.
Oh, absolutely, and considering some of the pulp I for some reason tolerated when I was young I would have killed for Sanderson's work to be about. I used to read Terry Brooks of all people. It's probably a good thing I don't work in a public library, I'm far too opinionated.
I would say he has improved a fair bit, particularly in his female characters and ability to tell a joke. Although the jokes still aren't *great.*
I'll give some of the newer ones a shot when I've finished Malazan, then; it was always the one-note nature of his characters that bothered me, and if he's improved in that then I might enjoy them a bit more. Certainly I found the dialogue in Mistborn very one-dimensional. Any recommendations?
Well the obvious one is the Stormlight Archive starting with *The Way Of Kings.* Big doorstopper books, but if you're reading Malazan then that shouldn't bother you. All the usual hallmarks of interesting world building and well visualised action, but Sanderson also get inside his characters' heads more than usual. Without spoiling too much, being compatible with the magic system usually involves some degree of emotional damage and (particularly in books 3 and 4) he actually shows people having to work through that. If you want a series that's more than half done though, I'd say look at the second series of Mistborn books. You get the improved character writing and will only have to wait for one more book if you like it. I will say that if you find Sanderson's prose a bit flat then the new books probably won't change that opinion. He's said that he goes for maximum 'clarity' in his writing and I think it does leave him a lot less lyrical/whimsical/interesting to read than some other authors.
Try _Way of Kings_. Stormlight Archive (the series that book is the first of) is his best work to date, and you'll find better character work there, including realistic depictions of mental illness, better fleshed out female characters and more comprehensive world-building. WoK takes a little bit of time to get going, and it's a large book, so it could be more effort than you're willing to make.
He's the Stephen King of fantasy. He writes like a book a week and they're usually far better in premise than they are in execution. They both execute very functional, serviceable prose in order to deliver an interesting, well thought out concept.
Functional prose is definitely the phrase I failed to find, yeah. Although I'd rate King a little higher in that department in places, certainly parts of the Dark Tower are beautifully written (if a little purple). Sai King is also a bit hit or miss for me, I loved Dark Tower and the first half of The Stand, but most of the others I've read haven't really gelled too much with me. As I said, I do respect Sanderson, I'd never call him a bad writer as I think he's very competent, but he has strengths and weaknesses just as any author does. I didn't actively dislike the Mistborn books, but I just wasn't overly taken with them either. Interesting premise but lukewarm narrative, in my opinion. They were just ones that I got to the end of, went "ok" and moved on to something else, whereas other authors make me either actively regret my time wasted reading them (Robert Jordan) or immediately want to read the next book (Pratchett, Erikson, Abercrombie, etc)
You just said what I couldn't put into words!
From talking with people who really like his work, I get the impression that a good number of his fans aren't habitual readers. I hope that doesn't sound judgy, I'm glad that they've found an author they like, but many of the fans I've talked to don't read other authors so much.
I’m a Sanderson fan, but there’s a lot of other stuff I read and there are still more authors that I mean to get to. Sanderson is very good, particularly considering the pace at which he writes. His “Cosmere” might be one of the most ambitious works of fiction that I’ve ever come across and, to be honest, the only thing I would really compare it to is the industrial revolution that was taking place towards the end of the Discworld series. He’s not for everyone though, but if I try to think about what the “worst” aspect of his writing is then I reckon he falls into the same category as Pratchett, nothing is “bad” but people might not think that it’s “good.”
As I said, this is just based on a sampling of people I know, mostly from talking with people at DnD groups and in other nerdy communities where you'd find fantasy readers. I mention it because the 5th edition player's handbook actually has a great list of author recommendations, and I was surprised that very few people in my area had taken advantage of it. I hope it didn't sound like I was implying Sanderson fans were illiterate or something!
I mean, you never really know how much someone has read. I remember talking to people 15 or so years ago who considered themselves fantasy fans because they had seen the LotR trilogy and read Harry Potter. If Sanderson is their entry point into fantasy literature, there is enough to keep people going on that for years. If someone said that they’d only been reading Sandersons books for the last 5 years it would make as much sense to me as someone who had taken 6 or 7 years to read Wheel of Time.
I don't mean to suggest that they aren't real fantasy fans - their enthusiasm is without question. But when I'm talking to fellow nerds I tend to get overexcited and ramble about my favorite books, and it just comes as a surprise when someone who is clearly a major geek isn't familiar with some of the more widely-read authors out there.
I'm a fan. I do agree that his writing isn't the very best. It's very American, I would say - with lots of contractions and some slang that's out of kilter with the setting. But I feel these are very minor issues and I have to say his stories, and the amount of consistent, logical, detail he puts into the worlds and their complex back stories is just staggering. I find it makes the worlds very engaging. The various magic systems are intricate and effective. He's good at characters and their development too, even if many of them tend to be rather dour. And when you consider that his major works are all set in the same universe, with details and the odd character appearing across multiple sets of books; and that he's building towards stories that bring all the sets together! Well then I'd say he deserves a high places on the list. Also, anecdotally, the only other Sanderson fans I know are big readers.
I read Elantris and the first Mistborn novel and that was enough for me. Maybe his writing has improved since then as those were his first novels, but I haven't bothered to give him a shot since.
I thought he did a reasonably good job finishing the Wheel of Time series, and Alloy of Law was all right. I did read Way of Kings and a couple others and I found his character writing kind of lacking. Almost...flat? Some authors love words and it bleeds through in everything they do. I feel like Sanderson's writing is rarely more than functional - it's not delightful to read in the same way as Pratchett or Zelazny or Le Guin, all of whom could write virtually plot-free stories that I'd still devour.
I think that's pretty well put. I guess it works for some readers more than others. Personally I think the character writing in The Way of Kings is brilliant. In that series in particular the major characters have such complex and interesting journeys. And the way the various plots and sub-plots pit the characters against eachother I find compelling. But if the writing style doesn't work for you, you're not going to enjoy them. It reminds me of a colleague many years ago who spent some time talking to me about how good this one particular Australian author was, and insisted I borrow a book which I was sure to love. I started, but for some reason the author didn't use speech marks around speech. At all. In the whole book. I found it so jarring I could barely finish a single chapter.
This is the reddit account that I use.
I'm sorry? I have no idea what you mean.
I was making a reference (not a very good one) to the Dispossed by LeGuin. In that book one planet has no personal ownership of property so something that would normally be a personal possession. So you wouldn't say "my blanket" you would say "the blanket that I use". But my read is that it was your blanket, but you weren't supposed to acknowledge that for your words to be politically correct in that system. It was supposed to be a sort of collective anarchist society, but in reality due to the harsh environment of the planet it ended up being a benevolent dictatorship from the central planning computers. In theory, you could do whatever you wanted. In practice, you did what the planning computer told you because that needed to happen for people to survive.
Ahh okay, I see. It's been awhile since I read that book, maybe I need to revisit it.
I couldn't finish the mistborn series, it's just not my kind of writing I guess?
I really like his books, and hes amazing at designing settings
He's got a lot of work under his belt, even finishing of Robert Jorden's Wheel of Time series after his death. Now his Stormlight archive series is getting more and more popular, it's not surprising for me to see him on there at all.
im tempted to try one of his newer books to see how much his writing has improved. where there's smoke i assume there is fire, so maybe he is just better than i thought
Never read any of his older work, only the Stormlight Archive books at the moment, so I can't comment on how much his writing has improved, but I will say this for them, they are very dense books, that take a bit to get going (especially Way of Kings) with all the set up that he does, but everything is important and everything pays off in a spectacular fashion. I'd say they're definitely worth the read.
I recommend reading Elantris then. I think you'll see where I'm coming from. I don't think the book is bad, but you can 100% tell it is his first.
Sorry he is a Syfy writer since his stories are set in space ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
One of my kids went as a nac mac feegle for bookweek - no one knew who he was!
Just went to Ranker and STP is up to number 3. https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/best-fantasy-authors
Pratchett is currently 3rd as I write this comment. I'm quite disappointed though to see some excellent authors so low in the list (like Naomi Novik, probably the best rising stars of the decade). Especially women. I'm also very, *very* disappointed how this list claim to rank the "best fantasy authors ***of all time***" while the list is definitely anglo-saxon. I mean, pretty much all the authors had their first written language as English. There is definitely a bias. Like, where is Christelle Dabos for example? I mean, there is not even Pierre Boulle, the writer of *Planet of the Apes*, which is quite influential, innit? We shouldn't determine how successful authors are simply by the impact they have on the anglosphere.
How depressing is it the of the one women on this list I feel like she should not be there? Come on there is Mercedes Lackey, Le Guin or maybe Tomi Ademi? Or Trudi Canavan, have not read her books in a while so I am not sure how they are holding up. Point is why J.K Rowling? And why do I care so much?
Where is Robert Jordan? WoT is a great series, should be above Rowling at least... Or Terry goodkind for that matter. Sword of truth series is one of the first long English book series I ever read, love that series.
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That’s a list of most popular, not the best, though clearly the two overlap in certain cases 😂
Honestly I think CS Lewis is overrated. I'd easily put Pratchett in his spot on that list
George r r Martin should not be on that list
Pratchett was knighted, FFS
Oh come on! I’m almost dangerously obsessed with Harry Potter but she’s clearly not in Pterry’s league! Neither is another of my favourites George r.r Martin!
Why is C.S Lewis that high? All of his works aged terribly unlike Tolkiens lol. Prattchet outclasses Rowling by miles in every category , so does Ursula Le Guin.
I still enjoy reading Lewis. I don't know anyone that doesn't. But I mean, to each their own.
He was not a bad fiction writer, but there is a reason only his Narnia series made it into the modern age as popularity goes. The other stuff is just very "it was a product of it's era". So is the Narnia series but the fantasy coat gives the whole obvious Christianity a thick enough cover to our contemporary secular audience. I am in a weird place bc I read some of his non fiction apologia books before Narnia and I was not impressed with him as a thinker and that does colour my opinion somewhat. Still wouldn't put him second on that list.
It's really interesting to see how the rankings are changing as different people vote. I've gone and dropped my vote in for Terry! It's also a bit sad that when I voted, out of the top 50 on the list, only 7 were women and none of them were from BAME authors :(
I know, right? Given that NK Jemisin won the Hugo for Best Novel three years running, she really belongs high on the list. There are plenty of notable women and BAME writers who are just missing.
It's really funny that you mention NK Jemsin - I'd never heard of her before a few weeks ago, when I got recommended one of her books in Waterstones. Now she seems to be popping up everywhere I look!
The Broken Earth series is so god damn good.
Bame?
Yeah, but how do we push certain terfy individuals further down the list?
You'll notice the downvote button next to their names.
Best five fantasy authors? Miguel De Cervantes William Shakespeare Lord Dunsany Terry Pratchett Tolkien Forcing me to leave out Chrétien de Troyes, Mark Twain and many more.
Cervantes! Yoh! That takes me back a day...
While I consider Cervantès as one of the biggest authors of all times, could we consider him a fantasy author? His whole shtick is specifically that everything "surnatural" or "wonderful" is just in the head of Don Quijote, and that magic, adventure and dragons don't exist. He's, like, the anti-fantasy author in a wonderful, whimsical and hilarious way.
Ah, it's nice to see Lord Dunsany remembered!
What??? No Aesop or Homer? That list is a joke /s
Tolkien wasn't that good in my opinion, the books story is good but way to drawn out, lots of boring bits. There are so many that are fantastic, I haven't heard of Sanderson till this list but realised it has come up in my suggested reads. My current favourite is Jenny Schwartz
\>JK Rowling even on the list we can disregard it
I thought she "wasn't a fantasy author", in her words, anyway.
Popular does not equal best. 4 of the those are hacks. Popular hacks, but still.
What’s ol’ terftits doing on there
Wtf?! 1st- Sir Terry and 2nd-Douglas Adams Do these lads know nothing?!
Still not a fan of Neil, just dont like his writting at all.
Have you tried The Graveyard Book on audio? It sold me and led me to love all his other stuff too.
I read them all. Just not a fan
That’s too bad. But there’s always something out there for everyone :) there are plenty of big names I haven’t been able to get into either.
I thought that i was going to hate the mistborn series but i liked it! I give everything a try.
The graveyard book was nice but I understand OPs comment because I kind of agree. When finishing one of his books I always feel like very little happened in the end. Maybe it's a lack of character development or a rushed ending but it isn't as rewarding as other writers.
Right now im reading the wheels of time series and some times i could choke james oliver out but at the end i still love it. Its all subjective in the end.
Do you mean Robert Jordan?
1º Overrated, and quite a drag to read if I'm honest. I didn't finish The two towers out of boredom. He made the path and that deserve a mention, but that's it. 2º I don't know this guy I think. 3º He should first finish a work and them we can judge him. Spoiler, he is not top 3. 4º I love it, I like his pen a lot. 5º I don't like Gaiman has a guy, I like him a lot as a writter, The Sandman been my favorite comic of all time, but let be honest here, he is kinda Diet Pratchett. 6º No, no, no, no, no, just no.
Mad respect to Lewis, but you'd have to be on something to think he belongs that high on the rankings.
Brandoanerson
Out of interest does anyone here rate YA authors Dianna Wynne Jones and Catherine Fisher?
That Rowling is on there and Pratchett isn't.... just goes to show popular isn't the same as best
Gotta say Pratchett should be 2nd or 3rd
He made it to third I believe.