I started reading the Riftwar Saga when I was 15 and love it still 25 years later. Raymond E Feist is underated. The world was created by Feist and his college friends in the 70's as a backdrop for a pen and paper RPG. Edit: After looking up your number 1 pick Malazan I see that this world was created for the same purpose as an RPG backdrop. I'm definitely going to check these books out now. Thanks 👍
I guess that Rothfuss didn´t defraud you then, I put in money for my daughters sake(I never cared much for his work, not bad by any means but not for me) and he delivered- nothing, not even an "I´m sorry but I can do whatever I want and still be praised". A bit miffed tbh, the chutzpah is of the scale.
Nope … the first book was good- not amazing, but good. People get excited about it because it had such potential, the second book was considerably lower quality and some of the authors issues start to play out. Recommending this book is just setting people up for frustration and disappointment - I’m embarrassed that I’ve done it in the past. The author has dined out on keeping his fans hanging, he’s written TWO books in his first trilogy then spent years teasing fans and dancing in the spot light at conventions pretending to be some amazing author. He’s defrauded fans, he deserves contempt not praise.
LOVE THIS VIDEO! The Dark Tower was the first larger series I read, when I rediscovered I enjoyed reading! I loved the ride. Completing it gave me the courage to try other long series.
Just gotta come in to defend Earthsea. I wouldn't call it YA at all. The themes are too deep and the prose too beautiful to be YA. You owe it to yourself to read them sometime, Matt. Highly underrated.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews They are readable for YA audiences but not targeted for, I would say. Very universal reads with a lot of deep themes that YA audiences certainly couldn't pick out. Particularly the books after the first. Tehanu, the fourth book, is about a mother and an aging man, for example.
YA can have good themes and beautiful prose. YA isn’t a genre, it’s a target audience, and since many people were first introduced to Earthsea early in life it’s going to be considered YA.
@John ten Cate I yet to meet someone who likes the game that's read the books after that hated on them. I think the books are superior but the Witcher 3 is also my all time favorite game. After the first two episodic books the actual series starts with blood of elves.
@@wadejohnston4305 I just think some people play the games, expect the same style when reading, and think the books are bad because they do not deliver in this way.
Matt. At least once with tons of booktubers I have taken recommendations for things to read and totally didn't vibe with the recommendation after reading it. You have been the closest I have yet found to hitting my proverbial nail each every time for me. That was a weird way to put it. Going to be starting Malazon very shortly after a couple others I need to wrap up.
Regarding Harry Potter, I am 100 pages from completing the final book with my 9 year old. We went through them at nights at that age and it was great. My 6 year old doesn't quite have the attention. I think the books are great and totally worth the time, especially with a kid. It was so fun to watch her enjoy it.
I'm from Poland and for me Witcher is probably the most important saga. Some may not know that the first story about Geralt was written in 1986. The whole series was publicated in 90s. The most series of this ranking wasn't even planned then. In 90s fantasy wasn't as popular as now. If You want to read It You may choose between clasics as Tolkien, Le Guin or Eddings. Even Wheel of Time was still being written. Witcher was a fresh air in genre with full of action, brutal scenes, specific protagonist and humour. I read each book four times. There are mamy references to fairy tales (golden fish or beauty and beast), legends (King Arthur and Camelot), modern technic (e.g. jacuzzi in fantasy World) and many cultures (mainly Polish, Sapkowski make jokes on many polish proverbs and if translator do not know Polish culture foreign reader may lose much of It).
Joe Abercrombie is one of the _very_ few writers that I much prefer reading the books to listening to the books. His prose is so good and expertly crafted that I miss the specialness of it if I listen to the audiobook.
Love this video. I've been wanting to read more fantasy, but don't have the $$ to try everything & anything. I seem to have similar taste to you & your community, though, so a guide like this is really helpful!!
Interesting to see you make this kind of video, too, Matt. Even more so because I'm not on Reddit so I didn't ask there when I made my video. Nice to see more data!
Yeah I love these kinds of videos - in large part because of how different the data is for each channel! I'll have to watch yours again, but I suspect our data came up with incredibly different results.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews nahh Top 10 is more or less similar. I think with bigger sample the result will approximately still be the same. 😅 The rest is pretty different though.
Great video Matt!! Thanks for adjusting my TBR and for always being honest with your reviews. It makes it easy to trust your recommendations. You are the man!!
Hi Matt, Thanks for helping me rediscover my love for reading by leading me to tons of great stuff I hadn't known was out there. Just finished Wrath last night and excited to move on to the next entry in my now enormous back log!
I've started Valour yesterday and the series has skyrocketed so fast I can't believe it. I'm really having a blast with this and it's hard to believe what people say that it only goes up from here
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I like to alternate between two series at a time, so for example 1 faithful and the fallen then 1 green bone and then back and forth until both series completed. Following that routine I am supposed to read Heretics of Dune next but I'm finding myself a little less enthusiastic about it right now. I think really it's going to be a toss up of either Ship of Magic or Gardens of the moon next.
I am new into fantasy. I have been reading since half a year and already read mistborn, stormlight archive upto WOR, green bone saga and the first law and loved them all. I stumbled on your channel and liked your enthusiasm on fantasy, found Malazan as your top 1 and started reading Malazan: Gardens of the moon yesterday and already 200 pages in and god damn a lot is happening. But i love connecting dots in story so i am keeping notes on each chapter about the dates, places, events and people i am encountering hoping some of them will have their own story in later books. I am really excited and hope it pays out well. And finally, thanks for the recommendations. Keep up the good work! 😍😍
Awesome video! I'm glad you got such a big response from your survey. When I filled mine out I was only thinking multi-book series, so I filled in 9 and was trying to sift through my other favorites for a 10th when I reread the prompt and saw the standalone/single-book part, and it made me think of Warbeaker. So it literally squeaked onto the list as a whole, haha. I'm curious which series that didn't get 20 votes would if you do this in a year (not that you should, but it's interesting to think about which books are gaining in popularity from the fringe), and which books would have been on the list a few years ago that are waning in popularity back into the fringe.
I don't think lord of the rings is as dated in comparison as Mario is to games to day. While the story seems tropey at times (as it created the tropes) the depth of the world building and the prose is timeless (yes , the poems and songs aren't for everyone, but compared to poems in modern books they are just really well done). Some characters fall in comparison to modern ones and seem one dimensional (e.g. aragorn, legolas) but others like Gollum and Sam are often imititated but never quite reached. For me the world building (not just in the lord of the rings, but the hobbit, silmarillion etc.) alone puts it in my top 5.
I agree with both of you! I love the story, the world, the movies, etc. but didn’t really enjoy my reading experience of the books (though I did enjoy The Hobbit). My opinion: I think it’s a bit dated, but it’s a classic for a reason. I think they’re great books, just not my cup of tea, and I probably won’t re-read them.
Please, if youre struggling to love LOTR and love graphic audios, I commend you to listen to the Phil Dragash audiobooks, which are free. They changed my opinion on Tolkiens style
Matt, I love your reviews! I respect your opinion so highly I bought two titles almost solely on your recommendation. Malice (Faithful and the Fallen) and The Wandering Inn. Both audiobooks. Malice, I heard all over RU-vid and good reads. Not so much The Wandering Inn. I listened to the first chapter of Malice and thought uh oh, this is going to be a deep book. Possibly with a lot of POV switch ups that will take time to get used to. So I thought I'll try the other series first it's probably easier... I'm now on the fifth book of The Wandering Inn. I'm DROWNING in POV switch ups and loving it. But I haven't got a chance to get back to John Gwynne! (I'll get there though darn it! haha!) But I love your content, Please keep it up!
Great video, Matt! I forgot to vote for this one, but The Magicians by Lev Grossman is a great series that isn’t mentioned too often. Also, for anyone who enjoyed The Ember Blade, Chris Wooding’s Tales of the Ketty Jay series is one of my favorites.
What a group of series. Awesome to see The Bloodsworn AND The Faithful and the Fallen on there 🤩. Powder Mage is brilliant. As is The First Law, ASOIAF, LotR and so many others!
Wow what an awesome video you put together! I fear that the First Binding is going to color my experience of Kingkiller, so I’m gonna wait until the stink of that experience mostly wears off before diving in (I hope that happens at some point!). It’s fun to see where your audience diverges from the Reddit list, especially with Durfee and Gwynne. I need to get on those Durfee books!
Thanks! Yeah give it a little time but I suspect you will love Kingkiller, it's extremely well done! And I agree it's fun to see what my audience thinks. It's also fun to know that every booktube channel will be different as they have slowly brought in different fans based on the books they review.
Dune is more Sci Fi to me, this why I didn't include it in my vote. If I had it would have been my number 2. Maybe this is why it is lower ranked in this poll.
Love kingkiller. You said it was top 3 in prose. Curious what your other top prose novels were? I’m searching for another well written series. Have read Malazan and love.
I've really felt a growing connection the last few years between books and games, and more so than books and movies. Reading Malazan and knowing it all was born out of gaming sessions, and seeing games like baldurs gate 3 that let you live your own fantasy story, or witcher 3 that does a similar thing with a pre-existing character, and NOW the revolution of AI and the possibilities for it's future in video games.. all of this really makes me think of the future of story telling and writing, and how long it is before someone can play a videogame and get complex, unique, and interesting enough stories that they can write a book about them. For the last few years I've experimented with using games to tell stories, making graphic novels with photomode and mods, or taking notes on my Mount & Blade campaign story and giving them to chatGPT to write them in a historical fiction style. It's all interesting
I have a feeling your daughter would like the Septimus Heap book series. It’s a great read aloud and one of the two main characters is a princess. It came out around the same time as Harry Potter and didn’t get much hype.
I missed the survey, alas, but I love these list videos!! Song of Ice and Fire is probably my favorite series currently, but Malazan is threatening to knock it off the podium. :-)
No way, LOL, I’m not THAT fast. Still very early in the series - doesn’t help that I’m reading three other books, two of which are massive - but I am loving it!!
I'm about to embark on my journey with Robin Hobb and after hearing so much praise of the series I'm even more excited to get started 🥺 it really sounds like something I'll love
I’m only 150 pages into Deadhouse gates (book 2 of Malazan) and I’m addicted. I’ve never read a book where every page was so engaging. Questions are constantly being raised that. I want to keep reading and get answers to. While I don’t feel as intimate with the characters (yet) as I might have with something like the Stormlight Archive, the characters are super cool and with memorable personalities. I’m not well read enough to say it’s the best but so far gah damn it’s good.
I'm reading the sixth book of Malazan and it's amazing. All the characters, all the world is really awesome and deep. SO DEEP! but i love it. I love how Erikson write the atmosphere! I don't know it's just amazing!
so many of these are all tied for number one for me. RED RISING was nuts and amazing. Gwynne is an untouchable legend. Send love to that guy, he's going through some personal things right now and it will be postponing his 3rd book in the Shadow of The Gods. Abercrombie is untouchable legend. This video reminded me of all the great authors out there and that we are lucky to exist right now to enjoy them. You got me hyped up!
Yeah I kind of thought it would be a few places higher, but I think this series is gaining momentum in the fantasy community, not losing it. I'll be interested to see where it lands next year!
My top two are Raven’s Shadow and Winnowing Flames. Not surprised Raven’s Shadow isn’t on there, it seems mixed after Blood Song. Was kind of surprised Winnowing Flames didn’t make the list at all.
Rather than LOTR being nostalgia, it was more like heroin for me. I had that first hit and been chasing the dragon ever since, and I'll never get that same high again.
Hey! Úrsula K le Guin is one of those books people say “is YA” and then read eat and say “it wasn’t YA” 😅 I read the first one and I was like “who said this was YA?!” 😂
Thanks Matt, that was a fun rundown. I have now added even more to my TBR list including Brian Lee Durfee, Fonda Lee (are they related) more Abercrombie and Brent Weeks, need I go on? sheesh. I won't live that long.
Your comments about people’s feeling towards Lord of the Rings is similar to my feelings with Harry Potter. I still consider it my favorite fantasy series of all time but I suspect that’s at least partially because of the time it came in to my life and the memories associated with it. I know it’s not objectively the most well written series but I have this deep, unexplainable love for the characters and the world. Cradle comes in as a close second for me which is kind of shocking for me because I wasn’t not interested in the summary at all. It’s only because of the teaser chapters on Will’s Kickstarter (and his parody video of Brandon Sanderson’s kickstarter announcement) that I even gave it a shot.
I’m reading The Blade Itself, and this is the first fantasy book for me. I’m normally a sci fi or action adventure reader. I’m really enjoying the story so far. 300+ pages in. Only thing is it’s taking me a while to finish because I can only read on my commute. Do they have fantasy books that doesn’t have such a high page count?
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews James Rollins Sigma Force Series, Matthew Reily Jack West Jr series, Easy Rawlins series by Walter Mosley. I’ve read Recursion and Dark Matter which were great. Tried getting into Leviathan Wakes , got more than half way through and put it down. I’ve read Red Rising and Golden son, which I love.
For good reason, honestly sanderson is my all time favorite author, but not all his books are the best I've ever read. He's going to go down as the greatest of all time in the future, assuming that he finishes the cosmere and it's done well
@@Wally_stad disagree. Mistborn Era 1 is 15+ years old. It's been 3 years since the last stormlight archive book, whereas first law has been released more recently
CRAP!!!! I missed the vote! Lol. Damnit! I hadn't even realized you used the Community tab. So many RU-vidrs don't bother with it that I never checked. Crap! Lol. Here is my top 5 anyway: 1. Wheel of Time 2. Stormlight Archive 3. Drenai Saga 4. Malazan 5. First Law
LOTR was not my first fantasy series but it is my favorite. I dont see it as dated at all. I find it as timeless as a series can be. WOT is more dated imo already, and I love that series too. I just figured I would let you know that there are people who love it. People who love it, not because it was their first series.
After Sword of Truth, the Wheel of Time is the most flawed series I ever read. It always blows my mind when its rated so high. But then again, I read it as an adult having read plenty more series prior to it. Same goes for LotR. Read as an adult and it doesnt hold up at all to me.
I stopped reading it in the middle of book seven, it got so boring. The first three books were fairly enjoyable but it was downhill from there until I just couldn't do it anymore.
Just commenting to rep the two Terrys. Mancour and Goodkind. I know Goodkind especially gets a lot of flak but his series, while mature and a times downright disturbing is worthy of a mention. Spellmonger is a huge undertaking and imo very fun, especially to audiobooks. Is it written with the incredible world building and magic systems of Stormlight or the attention to detail of Kingkiller? No. But it’s an enjoyable read and I never miss a new book when one comes out.
There are a lot of older series (pre-2000) that are being tagged as YA these days, but they are definitely not what I'd call YA - thinking about modern YA that refuse to read and hate when I accidentally do. You should give Riftwar a try (then move on to Empire). I haven't read beyond Wizard of Earthsea, so can't comment on that but I would recommend you don't group that with YA either.
I agree with red rising and Dresden files - it’s so hyped too so I always feel lost ahah. Also agree with Stephen king. I’ve tried so hard but I can’t get into his books. And mistborn I agree - amazing but there’s some better ones out there!
I didn't catch the call for votes, and since I've been reading fantasy for more than 50 years, I suspect my votes would have been largely on the long tail. But a few comments anyway: I would not characterize Riftwar as YA. It is fairly straightforward epic fantasy with excellent plotting and characterization. It begins as a bildungsroman, but that's largely over by the end of "Magician". "Dune" is the best book in its series, and it's not really close. The major inflection point is "God Emperor of Dune", which is actively tedious. (I'm not sure how that works, btw.) Since you mentioned fantasy mafia stories, you might want to check out Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series (beginning with "Jhereg"). They're heist fantasy with a protagonist that is a member of House Jhereg, which runs organized crime in a fantasy world. The next book is supposed to come out later this year and I can't wait. Brust also wrote a prequel series with a very affected writing style (intentionally reminiscent of Dumas), which works much better than it should. The writing ends up being a brilliant addition to the feel of the story. That series starts with "The Phoenix Guards", and I'm going through it again right now.
@@RoseyMarie Oh yeah I still love Harry Potter probably read that series more times than any other series because I constantly reread it as a kid and in my teens. For me nowadays though I would probably put it in A tier instead of S tier of fantasy books. Honestly it's kind of funny that MattsFantasyBookReviews hasn't read Harry Potter when he's read so many obscure and lesser known fantasy books it's like finding a Science Fiction Movie nerd that hasn't watched Star Wars or a superhero comic book nerd that has never watched an Avengers Movie
Update- Matt was right!- Brian Lee Durfee's 5 Warrior Angels now appears on the Reddit 2023 list at rank 147 (for anyone who watches BLD's You tube you will see the significance that he joint ranks at 147 with Redwall 😆)
The wandering inn is great book. I'm still in the 3rd book and it get better and better. Maybe it't low because it is long and many not start reading it😢
Highly recommend the first trilogy of Riftwar Saga because it is epic and FUN! Read it so you can read the spinoff Empire Trilogy (Ramond E Feist & Janny Wurts) which is set in world of the “enemy” nation from the first trilogy. It is an immersive Asian-inspired culture and is character-driven, political and emotional.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I respect it, as reading is subjective, and so personal. I do think if it came out today, it would do extrememly well, and be extremely popular and respected
Is it just me that considers knowing a 'major twist' is coming at the end to categorically be a spoiler? Usually if you know it's coming it's much much easier to predict, so takes a lot of the sting out.
I think most fantasy books/series try to have some kind of twist in their stories, it's something integral to the genre. Some of it works more than others, but almost all of it tries it. I think going into fantasy books you have to assume that they will exist in virtually every book.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews yeah there will always be 'twists' but I think if its pointed out something 'major' will happen at the end, that's slightly different as it signals something more specific that's a bit easier to predict imo. For example I don't think stormlight had a 'major' twist, but Reaper did, for example. Also LotR is pretty vanilla in terms of twists
I agree with the Lord of the Rings take. I didn't read until recently but have been a long time fan of the movies and i went in expecting to really like it. Well i though they were just fine, personally wouldn't be in my top 5 series but I understand the love
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews read the empire trilogy first, the rift war trilogy is on the se timeline but on a different planet, a few similar character and different points of view of big story lines, you won't be disappointed. In fact if you don't like it I'll send you £50 in the post
I don't really remember the Feist books being YA, from what I remember I really liked those books and I don't care for YA much at all. That said, I read this series when I was first diving into reading a lot of fantasy. Feel like you may like it.
With Dark Tower you will probably not like book 1 at all. It is extremely short and is more of a prologue. Don't let that deter you from book 2. If after book 3 you aren't digging it, drop it.
