The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien. Obviously this one has to be in here. Regardless of what you may think of these books, Tolkien is credited with creating the genre (unfairly imo, it goes back a lot further than him!).
1. The Fellowship of the Ring: being the first part of The Lord of the Rings (1954)
2. The Two Towers: being the second part of The Lord of the Rings (1954)
3. The Return of the King: being the third part of The Lord of the Rings (1954)
The Shannara books by Terry Brooks (starting with the Sword of Shannara). Similar to Tolkein's work (some say a little too similar), but arguably responsible for popularizing tradition fantasy.
1. The Sword of Shannara (1977)
2. The Elfstones of Shannara (1982)
3. The Wishsong of Shannara (1985)
4. The Scions of Shannara (1990)
5. The Druid of Shannara (1991)
6. The Elf Queen of Shannara (1992)
7. The Talismans of Shannara (1993)
8. First King of Shannara (1996)
David Gemmel's Drenai series; the epitome of heroic fantasy
1. Legend (1984) (Originally published in the USA as Against the Horde, re-released as Legend)
2. The King Beyond the Gate (1985)
3. Waylander (1986)
4. Quest for Lost Heroes (1990)
5. Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf (1992)
6. The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend (1993)
7. The Legend of Deathwalker (1996)
8. Winter Warriors (1996)
9. Hero in the Shadows (2000)
The collaboration of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman produced two series that are classics of the genre (The Dragonlance Chronicles are generally accepted as something of a classic. imo the Death Gate Cycle is better)
The Dragonlance Chronicles
1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984)
2. Dragons of Winter Night (1985)
3. Dragons of Spring Dawning (1985)
The Death Gate Cycle
1. Dragon Wing (1990)
2. Elven Star (1991)
3. Fire Sea (1992)
4. Serpent Mage (1993)
5. The Hand of Chaos (1993)
6. Into the Labyrinth (1994)
7. The Seventh Gate (1995)
A Song of Ice and Fire by G RR Martin is excellent epic fantasy with a "real" feel to it. Can get quite bleak, but the characterisation has real depth. Now being adapted as a tv series, with A Game of Thrones (season 1) having already aired.
1. A Game of Thrones (1996)
2. A Clash of Kings (1998)
3. A Storm of Swords (2000)
Part 1 Steel and Snow (UK edition only; US edition published as a single volume)
Part 2 Blood and Gold (UK edition only; US edition published as a single volume)
4. A Feast for Crows (2005)
5. A Dance with Dragons (2011)
6. The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
7. A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)
Brent Weeks's Night Angel trilogy - the first book is one of the best books I've ever read (though the other 2 don't quite live up to its promise)
1. The Way of Shadows (2008)
2. Shadow's Edge (2008)
3. Beyond the Shadows (2008)
Peter V Brett's Demon War books – the series is really just getting started, but has tremendous promise with a world built around an original and interesting idea.
1. The Painted Man (2008) (US title The Warded Man; 2009)
2. The Desert Spear (2010)
3. The Daylight War (coming in 2012)
The Earthsea series by Ursula K LeGuin, can be a little dull for today’s tastes, but definitely a classic of the genre
1. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
2. The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
3. The Farthest Shore (1972)
4. Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea (1990)
5. The Other Wind (2001)
Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth, a 12 book truly epic series. (adapted to tv as "Legend of the Seeker"; differences abound though!)
1. Wizard's First Rule (1994)
2. Stone of Tears (1995)
3. Blood of the Fold (1996)
4. Temple of the Winds (1997)
5. Soul of the Fire (1999)
6. Faith of the Fallen (2000)
7. The Pillars of Creation (2002)
8. Naked Empire (2003)
9. Chainfire (2005)
10. Phantom (2006)
11. Confessor (2007)
12. Debt of Bones (1998, prequel novella, originally published in Legends anthology)
The Elric books by Michael Moorcock - Elric is Moorcock's antihero; there are a whole suite of books involving this character, so if you like him you'll have a few to keep you entertained. I have listed the Del Ray reprint of the original saga from 2008-2010 (Chronicles of the Last Emperor of Melniboné ) to make them easier to find.
1. Elric: The Stealer of Souls
2. Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn
3. Elric: The Sleeping Sorceress
4. Duke Elric
5. Elric in the Dream Realm
6. Elric: Swords and Roses
Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy – there are a number of Hobb books, but this is the trilogy to read.
1. Assassin's Apprentice (1995)
2. Royal Assassin (1996)
3. Assassin's Quest (1997)
Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy - can be a bit bloody for some tastes, but he writes characters with real dimensions
1. The Blade Itself (2006)
2. Before They Are Hanged (2007)
3. Last Argument of Kings (2008)
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, the original trilogy (and yes, I am completely ignoring the sf classification argument!)
1. Dragonflight (1968)
2. Dragonquest (1970)
3. The White Dragon (1978)
Raymond E Feist’s Riftwar Saga (you could read the entire “Riftwar Cycle” – my views on this could fill a whole other post, so I have simply bypassed the explanations behind that reasoning and put down the original trilogy)
1. Magician (1982)
o Republished in two parts in the United States:
o Magician: Apprentice (1986)
o Magician: Master (1986)
2. Silverthorn (1985)
3. A Darkness at Sethanon (1986)
R A Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden is one of the most popular characters created in the genre. His novels can sometimes have a bit of an RPG feel and seem a little contrived, but still worthy of this list due to the character explorations
The Icewind Dale Trilogy
(chronologically subsequent to The Dark Elf trilogy)
1. The Crystal Shard (1988)
2. Streams of Silver (1989)
3. The Halfling's Gem (1990)
The Dark Elf Trilogy
(chronologically precedes the Icewind Dale trilogy)
1. Homeland (1990)
2. Exile (1990)
3. Sojourn (1991)
You will no doubt have noticed that Harry Potter and certain books about vampires don’t feature on this list. There are two reasons for this; 1) This is a subjective list containing my view of the best of the genre (read the sub-text!) 2) This is a list of fantasy books that fit pretty snugly into the classification of fantasy; there is a lot of overlap with the genres and I’ve tried to avoid too much inclusion of the sub-genres (I may at some point do other lists on the sub-genres). Oh, and if you’re wondering why Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series isn’t included (being one of the big selling series), see point one.
Well, that’s my list. Happy reading!
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