Top 10 Best Fantasy Novel Series of All Time

J.K. Rowling's seven-novel series (1997-2007) is the best-selling book series in history with over 600 million copies sold in 80+ languages. More than any other 20th-century fantasy, Harry Potter created readers — bringing a generation to books who had not previously been readers and sustaining their engagement through eight years of increasingly sophisticated storytelling about power, prejudice, death, and the courage to resist.

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-ongoing) radicalised epic fantasy by applying genuine historical complexity — political realism, moral ambiguity, author willingness to kill beloved characters — to the conventions of the genre. Its HBO adaptation Game of Thrones became a global cultural phenomenon. The still-unfinished series remains the most ambitious narrative in contemporary fantasy.

Terry Pratchett's 41-novel Discworld series is the greatest comic fantasy achievement in English literature — and considerably more than comedy. Pratchett used his flat world balanced on four elephants standing on a giant turtle as a laboratory for satirising every aspect of human society: politics, religion, journalism, economics, war, gender, and death. His wit and his genuine humanity make Discworld one of fiction's great achievements in any genre.

Robert Jordan's 14-novel Wheel of Time series (1990-2013, completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death) is the most ambitious world-building project in contemporary fantasy: a fully realised world with multiple civilisations, 2,782 named characters, 15,000 pages, and a complete mythology. Its Netflix adaptation in 2021 introduced a new generation to one of fantasy's most meticulously constructed universes.

Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle (beginning with The Name of the Wind, 2007) introduced a new standard of literary quality to epic fantasy: a protagonist who is simultaneously the most accomplished magician, musician, and fighter of his age, narrating his own legend with the self-awareness that he is mythologising himself even as he speaks. The prose quality and emotional depth set it apart from virtually all contemporary epic fantasy.

Philip Pullman's trilogy (1995-2000), beginning with Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the US), is the greatest fantasy written for readers of all ages — a profound, Milton-influenced critique of institutional religion and authoritarianism built on a multiverse of parallel worlds, armoured polar bears, and daemons (animal embodiments of the human soul). It remains one of the most banned book series in American school libraries.

Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy (2006-2008) and its sequels represent the mature peak of "grimdark" fantasy — a subgenre that strips away the moral certainties of Tolkien and confronts readers with the actual cost of heroism, the corruption of power, and the impossibility of redemption. Abercrombie writes action and dialogue at a level that rivals any thriller novelist and his character arcs are among fantasy's most devastating.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (2006-2008) and its sequels demonstrate his principle of "hard magic" — fantasy systems with internally consistent rules, limitations, and costs that can be understood and used by the reader to solve problems. The original trilogy's inversion (a world where the Dark Lord won 1,000 years ago) and its extraordinary final act make it one of the most inventive epic fantasies of the 21st century.

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea cycle (1968-2001) is the most quietly subversive fantasy series ever written — a world of islands populated by dark-skinned peoples where magic operates through the "true language" of things and power comes from accepting one's mortality. Its first novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, is one of the finest novels ever written for young readers and one of the finest fantasy novels ever written for anyone.

J.K. Rowling's seven-novel series (1997-2007) is the best-selling book series in history with over 600 million copies sold in 80+ languages. More than any other 20th-century fantasy, Harry Potter created readers — bringing a generation to books who had not previously been readers and sustaining their engagement through eight years of increasingly sophisticated storytelling about power, prejudice, death, and the courage to resist.

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-ongoing) radicalised epic fantasy by applying genuine historical complexity — political realism, moral ambiguity, author willingness to kill beloved characters — to the conventions of the genre. Its HBO adaptation Game of Thrones became a global cultural phenomenon. The still-unfinished series remains the most ambitious narrative in contemporary fantasy.

Terry Pratchett's 41-novel Discworld series is the greatest comic fantasy achievement in English literature — and considerably more than comedy. Pratchett used his flat world balanced on four elephants standing on a giant turtle as a laboratory for satirising every aspect of human society: politics, religion, journalism, economics, war, gender, and death. His wit and his genuine humanity make Discworld one of fiction's great achievements in any genre.

Robert Jordan's 14-novel Wheel of Time series (1990-2013, completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death) is the most ambitious world-building project in contemporary fantasy: a fully realised world with multiple civilisations, 2,782 named characters, 15,000 pages, and a complete mythology. Its Netflix adaptation in 2021 introduced a new generation to one of fantasy's most meticulously constructed universes.

Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle (beginning with The Name of the Wind, 2007) introduced a new standard of literary quality to epic fantasy: a protagonist who is simultaneously the most accomplished magician, musician, and fighter of his age, narrating his own legend with the self-awareness that he is mythologising himself even as he speaks. The prose quality and emotional depth set it apart from virtually all contemporary epic fantasy.

Philip Pullman's trilogy (1995-2000), beginning with Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the US), is the greatest fantasy written for readers of all ages — a profound, Milton-influenced critique of institutional religion and authoritarianism built on a multiverse of parallel worlds, armoured polar bears, and daemons (animal embodiments of the human soul). It remains one of the most banned book series in American school libraries.

Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy (2006-2008) and its sequels represent the mature peak of "grimdark" fantasy — a subgenre that strips away the moral certainties of Tolkien and confronts readers with the actual cost of heroism, the corruption of power, and the impossibility of redemption. Abercrombie writes action and dialogue at a level that rivals any thriller novelist and his character arcs are among fantasy's most devastating.

Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (2006-2008) and its sequels demonstrate his principle of "hard magic" — fantasy systems with internally consistent rules, limitations, and costs that can be understood and used by the reader to solve problems. The original trilogy's inversion (a world where the Dark Lord won 1,000 years ago) and its extraordinary final act make it one of the most inventive epic fantasies of the 21st century.

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea cycle (1968-2001) is the most quietly subversive fantasy series ever written — a world of islands populated by dark-skinned peoples where magic operates through the "true language" of things and power comes from accepting one's mortality. Its first novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, is one of the finest novels ever written for young readers and one of the finest fantasy novels ever written for anyone.