Writersblock recently posted a poll for the best Harry Potter books, I just want to take it to the next step. The three biggest fantasy book series I can think of would be The Lord of the Rings, The Narnia Chronicles, and the Harry Potter series. I'm just wondering which of these three you believe is the best.

I don't care for any of those. My favorite fantasy series was Andre Norton's "Witch World" series.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover and Anne McCaffrey's dragons have to be on the top of my list.
André Norton was a legend for me as a young girl as she was one of the first women writing in that genre. When I found out that she was a woman, I was overjoyed!
You see, many of the sf novels for younger kids were small versions of what adults were reading therefore more rockets and space stuff rather than social things.

The Lord of the Rings is surely the best of these three for me (I'll remain silent about "Harry Potter", because my 9 years old sister said it was stupid). But of all of the Tolkien's works I like the most "The Silmarillion".
Anyway, do you think that the stories of the Land of Oz are fantasy? They're good too. And don't forget Terry Pratchet...

While agree that many of the above authors have written many good series, especially Anne McCaffery, I still don't see anyone who has argued what truly is the best.

Personllay I'll go for Tolkien. None since him has been so influential, and so original in the fantasy genre. The only person that comes close is Tad Williams with his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn Trilogy. Otherwise most authors have ridden on the mythology Tolkien has built. Don't get me wrong, I think many of these authors write great stories. Thye just haven't broken the threshold of Tolkien has already described. I'm waiting for someone to break Tolkien's mold, and re-write the genre of fantasy altogether. Only Tad Williams has come close to this so far.

Guess the problem for me is the "best" thing. As these things are generally a matter of taste and arbitrary depending on one's background and also, don't forget, the time in which the book is published has a lot to do with the acceptance of it.
You'll notice that Tolkien's initial popularity was major at first, then it wasn't as common for many years to read his work, then it's been revived and the film has brought it to the foreground once more.

I like Terry Pratchett the best. Maybe his books won't become 'classics', but they are a good cure for depression and bad mood.

My pick on this one has to be Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling has such a wonderful style of writing. And I personally dub her as brilliant to be able to come up with the idea. A wizard in training? Never would have happened for me!

I personally do not like Tolkien. I'm not sure why, I guess that it has something to do with the fact that I don't like fantasy very well. Harry Potter doesn't seem so fantasy like to me. Other than the fact that he's a wizard, it seems like a normal book. Tolkien's are just so far fetched. Besides, (another strike against the poor man,) I don't like medieval books. They just don't work for me.

Just putting in my two cents.

Chronicles of Narnia. I never really liked Lord of the Rings, even though I loved The Hobbit.

I would vote Lord of The Rings as the best, although it took me a long time to actually read them I was so glad I made the effort. I am almost ashamed to admit that I haven't yet read Harry Potter and that i only ever read the Lion the witch and the Wardrobe from the Narnia books.

I would however like to put in a vote for The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson, I have heard a lot of criticisism of his books but I loved them.

Well in my opinion there were Four GREAT series, Carson of Venus series, The "At the Earth's Core" series, the John Carter of Mars series, and the Tarzan series, all by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I've read them all 4 or 5 times, and as a toddler, was even read a chapter a night for "Bedtime" before I even started school. If you've never read them, I urge You to give them a try (especially The mars series) and I might add that the "True Tarzan" is nothing at all like any of the movies, which do Him and Burroughs a great injustice.
Blair

Out of the three offered, I'd choose Harry Potter. I'm also a big fan of the series that Buffy1 mentioned: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson....wonderful books! Also, Piers Anthony writes the most awesome series....too many to list, but my favorite is the "Xanth" series.
My very first series I ever read was The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margeret Weis and Tracey Hickman and remains my favorite to this day

I'm not sure it counts as fantasy proper, but the absolute-best series of all time is Brian Jacques' "Redwall" series. It's about a society of various animals, so I think it counts as fantasy. Another good series is the "Nightpool" trilogy by Shirley Rousseau Murphy. These series might tend to be found in the children's section, but they are very enjoyable novels that are more for teenagers and adults (Jacques's novels are reportedly found in the adult fantasy section in Great Britain). Tolkien's books are also very good.

I love everything mentioned here already
as you can see...I'm quite the Sci-Fi/Fantasy reader

But you forgot Michael Stackpole and his great fantasy work
anything my David Eddings, fantasy with humor!
Melanie Rawn, Marion Bradley Zimmer, this list goes on and on...
Tanya Huff, Kristen Britain,
I can't remember anymore

The Chronicles of Narnia is by far my favorite. Never have read Harry Potter and don't have any interest. I did like the Hobbit but didn't get much from the series- didn't even like the recent movie of LOTR that much. I'm not an emotional person but I actually cried during certain parts of Narnia. C.S. Lewis absolutely blows me away.

I have two difficulties with your question; the particular and the general.

Starting with the particular.

The Narnia books were none to subtle Christian propaganda aimed at children. What makes them even more objectionable is that they were written by an accademic, someone who must have known what he was doing when he sought to inculcate his view on the inexperienced. One can reasonably compare Pullmans humanist "His dark materials" trilogy with Lewis' series and the former completely blows the latter away, and yet, this is still not much of a contender for "best" fantasy series.

The "Lord of the Rings" is a riveting (sp. two vs?) story and for its time it was ground breaking. I enjoyed reading it. Unfortunately at its heart are some really quite odious ideas. For example and most importantly "evil is evil because it is evil" how facile! some Conan books have a better plot! It also has quite a lot of very unhealthy things to say about nobility and social position. I should also mention that it is not really a series rather a big book in parts. To be fair to Tolkein however I have to say "The Hobbit" is wonderful. It has many of the same failings as the "The Lord of the Rings" but they are less obvious and obtrusive and more forgivable in a children's book.

Harry Potter, I like Harry Potter but .... sheeesh! Its a kid's series and it shows. It has marvelous scope, the series is clearly going somewhere. There are two big problems with it. First its so derrivative, and for want of a better word twee, "The Worst Witch" by way of Greyfriars and Grangehill with large dollops of "Seventeen" magazine and "Roy of the Rovers". Secondly, Harry Potter succeeds because he is who he is, no other reason. If he was a real kid he would long ago have been taken round the back of the bike sheds for a good kicking.

My general difficulties is why do you limit your question to fantasy series? I think that most series take an idea (often pretty thin) which may have made one excellent book and stretch it until its credibility breaks. You just know the writer is being paid by the word. I don't know what the best fantasy series is or even the best fantasy book but four books which should be well up there are; "The once and future king" (ok I know there is a sequel), "The Hobbit" which I've already mentioned, the idyll "Little, Big" by John Crowley and Beowulf (Rosemary Sutcliffe's kids version is nice).

If I had to choose fantasy series which I though were better than most then I would suggest Munn's "Merlin's Ring/Godson" and DeLarrabeiti's Borribles but the outrageous idea in that was wearing thin after three books. Neither of these series being a patch on the one off books above.

Tielhard

I know I this thread is about the best fantasy series, but I have to reply to Tielhard about his LOTR comments first.

I can't agree with your take on 'evil is because it's evil' idea of Tolkien's work. The evil in LOTR is that way because it is what happens when the world get corrupted with power. This power was symbolized with the One Ring. However, many other things are corrupt in LOTR: Gollum by the ring, Saruman with his lust for power, even the Shire is corrupted at the end of the novel until the four hobbits come home.

Now that I've got that off my chest . . .

If you have any other ideas besides the ones I've mentioned please say so. I don't dare to say that the three books series I listed are the cream-of-the-crop. I just feel that public opinion has stated so. What I want to know is: Is there better? Better yet, when will someone do something completely new with the fantasy genre?

Thank you for your response Vanyar.

Corruption plays quite a large part in TLOR as you say. I seem to remember reading that JRRT was unhappy with what was happening to the English country side and rural way of life, he saw this as corruption and wove it in to his story. It does not alter the inbuilt dicotomy of good/evil on which the book relies. Orcs are evil, why? because they are Orcs.

Can I conclude you agree with me about Lewis and HP?

Regards,

Tielhard

I'll have to disagree with you about Harry Potter being a 'kid's series.' Sure, it's written in a language kids can understand but as the series moves on the plot gets deeper and reaches out to people in their teens and adulthood. It's surprising the amount of 'grown-ups' who read the books, most of my friends' parents and my grandfather enjoy the series!

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shishkakat,

Um about these 'grown-ups' who read HP, I think being over forty I'm probably one of them. From this advanced age 'kids' is a bit of a movable feast, it means as Alice says "whatever I want it to mean". Sorry about that. When I used it in the post above I was thinking about people from about 8/9 to about 15. Yes you are right that the series reaches out to people in thier teens as it goes on. The target audience seems to have changed from 10/12 to 12/14. This does not change the point I was trying to make which is that HP is highly derrivative and for 8 to 15 year olds (precision), it should not be regarded as a great fantasy series. It does not stop it being a good read, but it has no real depth.

I think I need to go on a bit here because the next thing to happen will be that someone will say "what Tielhard thinks children's books can't be great literature?" Yes, of course they can but most of those which are have some depth.

To finish off isn't someone going to challenge 'The Borribles' as greatest fantasy series ever? I only put it in as a joke. Again its a nice kid's (move the feast, 8 to 12) book a bit like HP in that it has no real depth. Didn't stop me enjoying it.

Regards,

Tielhard

Ah Tielhard,

The Orcs weren't evil just to be evil. They also were corrupt. If you carefully read the description of Orcs you'll discover they are tortured and abused elves that, as Saruman put it in the moive version, "have reached perfection."

I definitely agree about Lewis, his books are highly Christian in content (but still good). While the HP series may be childish in nature, all ages do seem to enjoy the books. I haven't read some of the books you suggested, so it looks likes I'll be taking a trip to a book store or library soon.

Anyways, can SOMEONE tell me of one good fantasy book/series that truly breaks the mould of Tolkien's fantasy rules. I love fantasy, but I dont't belive it should always be about elves, orcs, and the quest revolving around some powerful artifact. I want something fresh!

Vanyar,

You didn't think I could let it go there did you? Return of the King Unwin 1974 edition (3rd Imp. 1975) pp 380 Appendix E, 3rd Para. "The Orcs were first bred by the dark power of the North in the Eldar Days."

Just a thought have you considered reading the Gormenghast trilogy by Peake, its not quite my cup of tea but it is quite good and it isn't S&S or a quest book either. Aunty BBC made a series based on it a few years ago. Incidently at 538 pages Little, Big one of my reccomendations would be a trilogy if it were split-up.

Regards,

Tielhard

Well, the ones that I have really enjoyed are LOTR, all the Xanth books by Piers Anthony, and the Narnia books by CS Lewis. Of these, I've say LOTR.

Tielhard,

It even states in your quote that the Orcs were "bred." Hence they were not born, but were instead manufactured through the altering of another species. Anyways, onto the actual thread . . .

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, they've all been great. I'm glad I'm not the only fantasy freak out there.

Tielhard, thanks for all your responses. Don't stop sending them, but I think if we wish to continue the LOTR discussion we may want to start a new thread!

The Gormenghast Trilogy was quite interesting in its time, I remember it well. I wouldn't have minded seeing the BBC version, I only had to read the book as I played in a band named Opus Fluke derived from the book.
I guess it didn't capture the imaginations of people as much as Tolkien.

I think I just misspelled that Gormengast ghast...doesn't look quite right, sorry.