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I've read and own 28 of these, a good guide for when inspiration fails me!

5 read, 7 to be read and 1 not finished.
Of a few of the ones to be read I am waiting for the series to conclude, as the times inbetween book publications are more than a few years. I own the current copies already, but I don’t like having to wait for several years for the next installment when I’m fully involved in the story...
Th one not finished �� a movie version of it came inbetween, and as I did not really like the film version or rather the ending of it, I put the book aside... but maybe I should give the book another chance...
And, I saw a few more interesting books here... 😊

From what I've read (15) , my favorites are Narnia, The name of the wind, uprooted, Games of thrones, The princess bride, Watership down.

I'm very much surprised that Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber is not there.
(And of course - Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the hunger games... Elementary?)

Seeing the first volume of Bleach here lmao

8 read, 10 on my TBR pile

Only 4, but then I tend to get caught up in specific writers. Surprised by Harry Potter omission, not my cup of tea but to maintain credibility it would have to be on the list.

Some individual books from series you can get away with such as Magician by Fiest, can be read alone, however, to put Eddings Pawn of Prophecy in a stand-alone book list is a mystery to me as it is only the beginning of the tale.

Other Authors of note:

Dave Duncan
Jack Chalker (River of Dreams)
Janny Wurts (Empire Trilogy as a tie-in with Feist)

8, same as sci-fi. LOL

Read 10 titles, 9 on my TBR. Wow, I need to catch up on my reading.

4

17, but some are on my TBR list, and some I might add there...

If they allow manga on this list then why Bleach? Naruto is a better fantasy manga than bleach especially for beginners in the world.
*writes with angry sakura-chan face*

Robert wrote: "God awful list. How much is Gaiman paying you"

Totally agree. Incomprehensible list

A very strange list overall with children's books and manga included. Read 15 but surprised to find no Malazan or Magician by Raymond Feist.

Read 14

Change that. Read 11 want to read 2 currently reading The Name of the Wind.

25, and a lot of these have been on my to read list for a while

Elizabeth wrote: "A very strange list overall with children's books and manga included. Read 15 but surprised to find no Malazan or Magician by Raymond Feist."

Magician is there, it's just down as Magician: Apprentice. I wasc confused so looked it up and apparently it was released as two parts that one and Magician: Master.

Read 30!

Best one I've read so far, The Name of the Wind, happens to have the 2nd highest average in this top 50 with a score of 4.55, after The Way of Kings (4.65). Excellent. Can't wait to read book 2 and 3 (still to be published).

11

16 and one that I need to reread.

Another reminder that I have to read more fantasy. I have 15 on my to read list but have only read 1. But my movie and television fantasy viewing is alright.

25 out of 50! Guess I'm only halfway there.

10. My problem with a lot of fantasy is that it's too romance/sex (soft porn) for my taste.

I just realized something. How can there be a list about top fantasy books without Marion Zimmer Bradley? For older readers, it seems that she almost invented the genre.

Read 9, To Read 10, and now kinda want to add all the others to my To Read shelve hehe.

Nothing compares to Lord of the Rings. It's the best. Fite me.

Don't know if it missed the criteria for the list but Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series deserves the recognition like many others in this comments have mentioned. Highly recommend you check out Gardens of the Moon.

Seven.

19 or 20. It shows me as not having read "The Stand" but that's because I read the original edition, not the dramatically expanded version, although I do plan to read that at some point.

Why is Eddings' "Pawn of Prophecy" on this list AND on the Hidden Gems list? Granted, I didn't read it until fairly recently and it's not my favorite book ever, but it's pretty well known and read in the fantasy canon.

10. But I would have put Stephen Donadson's Thomas Covenant series and Ursula La Guin's books here before Stephen King??

I've read 23. Of the remaining, I want to read about half.

8. DRESDEEEENNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those with an interest in learning about the foundational works of fantasy, I recommend Lin Carter's Imaginary Worlds (1973). It's a good introduction, a very readable history of fantasy; 278 pp so not overly long. It covers about the last 3000 years, although its main focus is on more modern works of the last two centuries. I devoured it when it came out and it provided my reading list for the next 5 years or so.

9. I wish Patrick Rothfuss would release the third book in The Name of the Wind Trilogy.

26, but most of those were before I joined ŷ������ so aren't included in my books.

My comment went missing.....

Dtyler99 wrote: "McCaffrey always averred her Pern series was SF, not fantasy. Where the hell is Malazan Book of the Fallen?"
Pern is SF, but it reads and feels like fantasy to me.

Read 28 and some more in the waiting.
As usual, I miss some heavyweights of the genre in the list.

The night circus is more of Magical Realism than Fantasy...

Only 5, prefer SF

Hayley wrote: "10. But I would have put Stephen Donadson's Thomas Covenant series and Ursula La Guin's books here before Stephen King??"

The second chronicles are even better than the first!

22 out of 50, with 1 that I've started yet not finished and 2 that I started and never finished.

Only 4 ☹️

7 and I'm surprised that Witcher isn't on the list as it's the quintessential Eastern European fantasy reading - if you've read the Witcher, you've read the foundational book of the genre.

i find goodreads members a bit over the top excited about sword-and-sorcery books... strange...
mostly this list makes me think categorizing books in genres is a waste of time, as some of these books i would classify as horror, others as YA, and some as Science Fiction... hmmm...

Have to say this list betrays the inconsistencies with what's marketed as fantasy versus science fiction, all related to gender. I read the SF list before and saw all the typical "classic" writers one expects with a sprinkling of more pop writers. Then I came to fantasy and saw a lot of romance books by Briggs and Ilona Andrews. (I enjoy Briggs books despite how problematic there are.)

Colour me confused. If all the paranormal romance writers got to be tagged in the fantasy list what happened to all the "futuristic" romance writers? Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb's "In Death" series is popular and must have more ratings than a host of the SF titles I saw (Sagan? Arthur C Clarke? Come on) with the first book for *sure* getting an average 4/5 writing. How were her titles, at least, not in the top 50 list? Nalini Singh's? I went to check the genres on GR and, of course, their titles weren't tagged as science fiction.

This is a big part of what reinforces my natural inclination to fantasy. Whatever issues the genre has it's always magnified in SF a thousand fold.

I've only read 15 and I consider myself a Fantasy Reader. Apparently I have some reading to do!

17 of 50 with several in my queue with Kindle and Audible

I read 20 from this list.
I'd say that 'The Stand' is a dystopian, so wouldn't that fit in better with the Sci-Fi category?
Also kinda surprised that none of the Harry Potter books made the list, considering how insanely popular the books are and well loved by most.
Very happy to see Robin Hobb and Terry Pratchett on the list.