Top 10 Best Fantasy Series of All Time 

Awesome, I really think more people need to give him a shot.

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews i would but i don’t like that it has so many female protagonists

@@Archonsx which series of his are you referring to?

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews bloodsworn saga, from the book description on goodreads that’s what it seems like

Thanks Dino!

Awesome! I hope you love them as much as I do!

Thanks Landon!

Yeah I don't think that final book could have been written any better. Glad you feel the same!

Thanks. I have one more Rain Wild book to read and then I'm on to Fitz and the Fool. I can't wait!

Thanks so much!

You're in for a fun ride. Don't get put off by 'the slog'.

@@Hustwick Definitely won’t be. Although the rate I read them will probably slow.

Thanks for your input on all of these. I would say Powder Mage has a similar tone as "The First Law", just set in a different style universe. Yes, definitely check out Gwynne/Cradle/Elderlings/Stormlight. If I were to order them, I would go Stormlight/Gwynne/Elderlings/Cradle but they are all great. For Gardens of the Moon, I find using this guide is really helpful when reading: docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GLRmiaFcxe_cGc93ckE5UItRq5rYsfeU0BhvqcaNq9E/edit

Will do! Thanks for the suggestion.

I hope you enjoy!

Yeah I felt the same way about ASOIAF - but maybe you'll find more you like better after you read some more! :)

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I’ve returned and I’ve blown through storm light archive. Wow idk how Sanderson just keeps topping and topping. Maybe if ice and fire had a ending it would still be 1 but stormlight just took that spot without a doubt. Each book only gets better. I was sold by the end of 1, but WOR was phenomenal and then Dalinars backstory just wow it blew through my top 10. I’m so glad I watched this video and decided to pick it up. Thank you Matt! (Best name ever… totally not biased bc I’m also named Matt)

@@gypsy4049 Agree !!! Maybe you should try wheel of time aswel. Sanderson was very inspired by Jordan. 😁

I've never actually heard about Prince of Nothing before. I'll throw it on my TBR!

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews Yeah they're very similar, there's even a Steven Erikson quote recommending it on the 1st book cover of PON.

Hey Josh - if I were you I would start with Faithful and the Fallen, it has some similarities to the First Law and I bet you love it!

Cheers from a fellow Ontarian. How much of a YA romance is Strange the dreamer? I have heard good things about it but I am not a big romance fan.

@@cmmosher8035 Hello my fellow Ontarian! The romance was a larger element than I'm accustomed to in my fantasy reading, but I didn't mind it and it largely fit well with the rest of the story. I'm not somebody who reads YA because I'm in my mid-40s and that age level just doesn't speak to me, so I'm glad I didn't realize that this was a YA duology or I might have passed it over. The classification makes sense, though, given the ages of the main characters and the fact that the romance element is largely based around teens exploring physical love for the first time. One of these days I'll get around to filming a spoiler-free review of these books...

@@joshyaks in my forties as well. I have a similar worry its not for me either. Lol.

Thanks for the feedback. Your comment caused me to go learn how to do this, so I just edited the video to include those. Thanks!

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews that's awesome keep it up!

Thank you!

Thanks, I don't know why I kept imagining it as Viking but looking back you are totally right. I hope you enjoy the three series you wrote about!

Thanks Safina!

Starting The Faithful & The Fallen this month btw. Looking forward to it! 😀

@@MattonBooks Thanks so much - and I hope you love Faithful & the Fallen. It's an incredible series in my opinion. It starts off pretty slow, but picks up and by the end of the book things start steamrolling and it doesn't stop until the end of the series.

Thanks for the comment! Definitely do not skip rainwilds, there are huge tie-ins to the final series that you really need to know about. The 1st and 2nd books in rainwilds are rough (especially the 2nd one), but the 3rd/4th make it worth it.

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews Cool thanks for the info!

The first book is a bit of a slow burn, but REALLY picks up as the series goes along.

Thanks for the kind feedback! How did you like City of Dragons?

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews Like you I liked City of Dragons way more than Dragon Haven! I was so annoyed by all the angsty teen romance in the last one and was positively surprised by this one 😊 I really liked the addition of the other POVs and am very curious how this subseries will end. I'll probably read the last book either next month or maybe even later this month

Thank you!

Thanks so much!

Thanks for the kind words, and I appreciate hearing your thoughts on all of these. Yeah, I totally urge you to bite the bullet and try out Cradle and power through The Faithful and the Fallen! What's your top 10?

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I’m not usually a shameless self-promoter, but since you asked: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wMfig0nQZlw.html

Are you planning on reading it again? I would be interested to hear your thoughts if you do.

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews probably not. There’s too many other books out there to read.

I agree with First Law/Age of Madness, Lies of Locke Lamora and ASOIAF. Haven't read some of the others.

Yeah I definitely will re-read them at some point.

Read the 10, and if you love the universe go read the rest afterwards.

Awesome, the third book is even better than the 2nd!

Yeah I think RotE might even go up on my list based on how I like Fitz and the Fool!

Skip it and read a wiki synopsis.

Skip

I'll add them to my TBR!

Thanks for the note - and great question with some good background. I have three things that may work: 1. "The Faithful and the Fallen" - but it does take more than 200 pages to really get going. Beware that it does "look" like good-vs-evil but it's more complicated the further you read. 2. "The Five Warrior Angels" - the writing isn't nearly as poetic as Rothfull but it is very high stakes with believable characters and a lower magic to it. And the grey characters are what it is all about. 3. "Malazan" - it's 100% grey characters, extremely poetic writing, major characters get killed off left and right, but beware that it is extremely complicated and is known for being the most complicated fantasy work. You just have to embrace that you won't super know what's happening but trust that it will all tie together eventually, which it absolutely does.

Thanks a lot

I ordered the forgetting moon. Let’s see ;-) thx

I mean without spoiling anything else who may read this, you are told very early on in the series that at least one of the main characters has the prophecy wrong. You just aren't sure who.

Yes they definitely are beefier books than the first 6, totally agreed.

Yeah give the first book a shot. If you don't like it, you won't like the rest of the series.

Yeah I find that not a ton of people loved the final book as much as me.

They are the average score for the series. So if I gave a series with 4 books in it scores of: 5, 5, 4, 3 - the overall score would be 4.25.

Yes but you will lose out a bit on learning the backstories to some characters.

Yeah the marionette thing you mention is odd - but Malazan is filled with odd things like that. I can say that it doesn't make a MAJOR appearance in future books, but also that lots of weird things happen so the series may not be for you.

No, never heard of it. Tell me about it if you don't mind :)

No - it's a manga right?

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews it is but it was included into the top 100 in Reddit Fantasy Books/Series at 53 and it’s one of the things that inspired Kian to make Eleventh Cycle

Discworld is a tough one for me. I've read nearly all the books and many of those books are TOP TIER books for me. But many of the books I have also given lower scores (like most of the Witches books, and some of the Ricewind books) so the overall score for me brings it down. If I was to break it up into sub-series, I would say that the Watch books are a top 5 series.

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews What I like about them is that they dig so much deeper than your average fantasy book, which is easily overlooked because of the humor in them. They really delve into the question of what it means to be human. "Small Gods", which is really a stand-alone novel in the series, is one of the best books about religion that I have ever read, in any genre. They started out as a fantasy satire, but became so much more over the years. So much of fantasy is pure escapism, with little or no reference to the "real" world. Nothing wrong with that per se, of course, but writing meaningfully about the real world in the setting of world that floats in space on the back of four elephants who stand on a giant turtle requires real genius, I think. And Terry Pratchett is of course a much better writer than most fantasy authors. There is a memorable paragraph or sentence on just about every other page - one that makes you laugh, or think, and often both at the same time.

@@MartijnHover Yeah I completely agree with you, and Small Gods remains my favorite Discworld novel and one of y favorite novels of all time.

Yeahhhhh take the plunge!

Yeah cradle is extremely good - it's like crack in literary form. The first book isn't great though, and each book gets better than the last. Haven't read any of the books you suggested. Out of the four you mentioned, which would you recommend the most?

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I like them all for various reasons. Based on what I have seen of your videos, I think you would like "A Sword of Shadow" the most. It's the most like A Song of Ice and Fire or First Law in tone. It takes place in a largely tribal northern barbarian type setting. The other's have different magic systems I liked, with Demon Cycle being the darkest in tone. Don't really consider any of these spoilers as you grasp the basics pretty early in the novels: The Demon Cycle uses wards that are meant to gain power the more magic is leached from Demons which overrun the world because offensive wards have been lost to time. Darkest of the remaining series. Some people don't like the latter book or two. The Forelands/Southlands has a system where a particular people have a category of magic that can do a specific thing, augury, shatter, etc. Then there are really special ones (the Mistborns of the bunch) that can do them all. The are hunted because they caused the last great war between the races. Much of it is a fugitive/espionage type series. Southlands introduces blood sorcerers. Codex Alera is probably what I consider the lightest of the bunch, by Jim Butcher (Dresden Files). It is a Romanesque world where every person except one, is bound to one or more elemental (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Wood, Metal). Each elemental type conferring different abilities. We follow the one person that is unable to bind a single elemental. General consensus is that the books get better as you go.

Yeah it's on my TBR!

Hell yeah. Malazan is SOOOO good.

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I read your goodreads review of the Crippled God and it's spot on.

@@raswartz Thank you! I'm super passionate about how amazing that book is!

Yeah I mean I like LotR, but I like a lot more and it's not even close to my top 10.

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews ASOIAF got me into reading fantasy so LOTR was about my 4th series I read therefor the nostalgia wasn’t there for me. I thought it was a beautiful world and a decent story. But it doesn’t compete with modern fantasy. It paved the way and deserves respect of course.

I got mixed up with Bloodsworn

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews no worries, and thanks for the reply. Great top 10 BTW. And of the series I've read I agree with your comments. Maybe Wheel of Time a bit higher though I completely agree with the Iver describing and the "slog"

The first two I agree - but I rather liked the 3rd/4th ones.

What exactly do you mean when you say "Super sized McEpics by McWriters for McReaders?"

@@MattsFantasyBookReviews Really? In your own way, you've demonstrated my point.

@@linjicakonikon7666 I fear you are just too smart for me.