Comments on: Don't Bother Me

By: Best Fantasy Books Ever, Round #137 - Techland - TIME.com

Best Fantasy Books Ever, Round #137 - Techland - TIME.com — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:38:59 +0000

[...] next morning I chaired a Best Fantasy Books Ever panel. This is a subject we've visited before on this very blog. I made everybody list their top [...]

By: The Six Greatest Fantasy Novels of All Time - Techland - Time.com

The Six Greatest Fantasy Novels of All Time - Techland - Time.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:50:19 +0000

[...] while back I mentioned that — for an unnamed publication, and for an unnamed sum — I’d agreed to name [...]

By: tiedyefor

tiedyefor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:49:47 +0000

Lev, I think that political, social, and religious satire, allegory and morality tales are the heart of most good fantasy novels, and that includes epic poetry, ancient fairy tales, and all of it. So I think the Gulliver's Travels and Alice in Wonderland category is not just valid; it is essential to this list.

By: wheat3

wheat3 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:40:29 +0000

All time?

The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer, (ca. 700 BC)
The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (1321)
Le Morte d'Arthur, Thomas Malory (1485)
Utopia by Sir Thomas More (1516)
A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare (1596)
Paradise Lost, John Milton (1667)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (1889)

Nothing written in the 20th or 21st centuries can touch the lasting legacy and influence of books like these.

By: mrleeward

mrleeward — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:24:52 +0000

Slightly surpised there's been no love for Clive Barker's Weaveworld or Imagica. Those were the books that started my particular fantastic voyage.

By: aleriya

aleriya — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:37:17 +0000

I'm surprised this one hasn't been mentioned yet: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

I also second the votes for The Neverending Story (international classic, first written in German), The Belgariad/Mallorean, and the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett

By: pittsburghpoet

pittsburghpoet — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:54:34 +0000

In no particular order:

T.H. White, _Mistress Masham's Repose_,
C. S. Lewis, _Till We Have Faces_ . . .
And, yeah, Alice.

By: paschendale1917

paschendale1917 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:46:43 +0000

Concurring with several others - my top 6 include
1. LOTR
2. Dune (the first 4)
3. Belgariad/Mallorean series (although Elenium was pretty good too)
4. The Dark Is Rising series
5. The Hythrun Chronicles
6. Shadow Moon/Dawn/Star - by Claremont & Lucas.

By: nerdyengineer

nerdyengineer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:26:30 +0000

LOTR, obviously. Too bad A Song of Fire and Ice is still in-progress. It ranks for me. Memory, Sorrow & Thorn is also an amazing series. As a kid I was enthralled by the Shanarra & Dragonlance books, but they haven't stood the test of time for me. Wheel of Time I completely fell out of love with.

By: Kemper

Kemper — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:48:41 +0000

Forget false modesty and put The Magicians at #1.